In
Greek mythology, Porphyrion (
Greek: Πορφυρίων) was one of the Gigantes (
Giants), who according to
Hesiod, were the offspring of
Gaia, born from the blood that fell when
Uranus (Sky) was castrated by their son
Cronus. In some other versions of the myth, the Gigantes were born of Gaia and
Tartarus.[1]
Sources
According to the mythographer
Apollodorus, Porphyrion was (along with
Alcyoneus), the greatest of the Giants, and during the Gigantomachy, the battle between the Giants and the
Olympian gods, Porphyrion attacked Heracles and
Hera, but Zeus caused Porphyrion to become enamoured of Hera, whom Porphyrion then tried to rape, but Zeus struck Porphyrion with his thunderbolt and Heracles killed him with an arrow.[2] According to Pindar, who calls him "king of the Giants", he was slain by an arrow from the bow of
Apollo.[3]Aristophanes' comedy The Birds, contains two brief mentions of Porphyrion.[4] Porphyrion is also mentioned, in the company of other Giants, by the Latin poet
Horace.[5]
The late fourth-century AD Latin poet
Claudian in his Gigantomachia has Gaia, imagining the Giants victorious, propose that "Porphyrion, wreathe thou thy head with Delphi's laurel and take Cirrah for thy sanctuary",[6] and has Porphyrion attempt "to uproot trembling
Delos, wishing to hurl it at the sky".[7] The late fourth or early fifth-century AD Greek poet
Nonnus, in his Dionysiaca, has Gaia set the Giants against
Dionysus, promising Porphyrion
Hebe as his wife should the Giants succeed in subduing the god.[8]
In art
Porphyrion is named on a sixth-century BC black-figure
pyxis (Getty 82.AE.26), where he and the Giant
Enceladus oppose Zeus,
Heracles and
Athena.[9] He is also named on a late fifth-century BC red-figure cup from
Vulci (Berlin F2531), and a fifth-century BC red-figure
krater (Paris, Petit Palais 868), in both engaged in single combat with
Zeus,[10] and a late sixth-century/early fifth-century fragmentary BC red-figure cup (British Museum E 47), where his opponent is lost.[11]
Porphyrion was probably named on the
Gigantomachy depicted on the north frieze of the
Siphnian Treasury at
Delphi (c. 525 BC),[12] and he was one of the many Giants depicted on the second-century BC
Pergamon Altar Gigantomachy frieze, where he is shown fighting Zeus.[13]
Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Arafat, K. W., Classical Zeus: A Study in Art and Literature, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1990.
ISBN0-19-814912-3.
Cook, Arthur Bernard, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Volume III: Zeus God of the Dark Sky (Earthquakes, Clouds, Wind, Dew, Rain, Meteorites), Part I: Text and Notes, Cambridge University Press 1940.
Internet Archive
Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo, Hellenistic Sculpture II: The Styles of ca. 200-100 B.C., University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
ISBN978-0299167103.
Sparks, Brian A., "Aspects of Onesimos" in Greek Art: Archaic Into Classical : a Symposium Held at the University of Cincinnati April 2–3, 1982, BRILL, 1985.
ISBN9789004070790.* Stewart, Andrew F., Greek Sculpture: An Exploration, Yale University Press, 1990.