Who Were the Titans In Greek Mythology and Which One of the Twelve Titans Attacked Uranus?

The Titans were twelve children born to Gaea and Uranus.

Six were male and six were female, the women were called Titanesses. They were powerful creatures that stood as tall as mountains.

When Gaea asked the Titans for help against Uranus, only one was bold enough, Cronus.

Wielding a sickle shaped sword, Cronus attacked his father and drove the sword into his body. Seriously wounded, Uranus fled from his son and never challenged him again.

Cronus now ruled the universe with his sister, Rhea. Together, they also had several children. But Cronus feared that one of his children would dethrone him in the future. To prevent this, he swallowed each child as it was born.

Cronus’s immortal children continued to live trapped within his body. Bitter and angry at the loss of her children, Rhea resolved to keep one from Cronus. When she gave birth to her sixth child, a boy, she hid him in Crete, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.

She wrapped a stone in baby clothes and gave it to Cronus, who thought the stone was the newborn child and quickly swallowed it.

Unknown to Cronus, his son, called Zeus, grew strong on Crete and plotted to overthrow his father.

When he was old enough, Zeus took a Titaness called Metis for his wife. To aid her new husband, Metis tricked Cronus into eating an herb by telling him that the herb would make him invincible. It didn’t.

Instead, it made him violently sick. Cronus vomited up his five children and the giant stone.

Zeus and his brothers and sisters now attacked Cronus and drove him from power.

The other Titans challenged Zeus’s rule, and war broke out between the two groups.

To help his cause, Zeus liberated the monsters that Uranus had imprisoned within the earth. Grateful for their freedom, they fashioned a mighty thunderbolt for Zeus to use in battle.

Armed with such a weapon, Zeus led his brothers and sisters to victory over the Titans.