ALOEIDS (ALOADAE)
Aloadae (children of the threshing floor) In Greek mythology, sons of Poseidon by Iphimedia, the wife of Aloeus. Aloeus was the son of Canace and Poseidon. The Aloadae’s names were Ephialtes and Otus, and they grew every year an ell in breadth and a fathom in length. In nine years time they were 36 feet high. Their strength was such that they chained up the god Ares and kept him in a brazen cask for 13 months, until their stepmother, Erioboea, told Hermes, who came and freed his brother. The Aloadae threatened to storm heaven by piling Mount Ossa on Olympus and Mount Pelion on Ossa. Homer’s Odyssey (book 11) says they would have accomplished this feat if Apollo had not slain them with his arrows before their beards had grown, symbols of their strength. A later myth tells of Ephialtes’ love for Hera, the wife of Zeus, and Otus’s love for Artemis. Still another variation says they were slain by Artemis on the island of Naxos when she appeared as a hind, which they attempted to kill. Instead their spears killed one another by mistake. According to another myth they were bound with snakes to a pillar, back to back, while tormented by the screeching of an owl in the underworld. The two were worshipped as heroes on Naxos and in the Boeotian Ascra, where they were regarded as founders of the city. Both Homer’s Iliad (book 5) and Odyssey (book 11) and Vergil’s Aeneid (book 6) allude to them.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante
