Hecatonchires
the Hundred-Handed Ones
The Hecatonchires were three giants of immense strength born of Ouranos and Gaia, mightier even than the Titans they helped to overthrow. One of their number, Aegaeon, was transformed by the Furies into a vast living prison for those who broke a blood oath with the gods.
The Hecatonchires, the Hundred-Handed Ones, were three giants of incredible strength and ferocity born of Ouranos and Gaia. Mightier even than the Titans, they aided the gods in overthrowing them and were afterward set to guard the gates of Tartarus, where the defeated Titans were chained. One of their number, Aegaeon, would meet a far stranger fate. (Theogony; God of War: Ascension)
Origin#
The Hecatonchires were among the very first children born of the union of Ouranos and Gaia, brought into being alongside the Cyclopes and the twelve Titans. They were three creatures of monstrous form, each bearing a hundred arms and fifty heads. Their names were Briareus, also called Aegaeon, Cottus, and Gyges. Seeing his offspring as hideous monsters, Ouranos cast them down into the depths of Tartarus soon after their birth, where they remained imprisoned. (Theogony; Bibliotheca)
The Great War#
When the gods rose against the Titans, the Hecatonchires were freed to serve as allies, for their strength surpassed that of any Titan. During the Great War the three of them hurled great rocks three hundred at a time, overwhelming the Titans and helping to secure the victory of the gods. With the Titans defeated and banished to Tartarus, the Hecatonchires were set as guardians over its gates. (Theogony; Bibliotheca)
Aegaeon the prison#
After the Great War, Aegaeon swore a blood oath to Zeus, only to betray it. Such a crime did not escape the notice of the Furies, the ancient guardians of honour and the keepers of blood oaths, who held that mere death would be too merciful a punishment. They transformed Aegaeon into a vast living prison, a Titan-sized creature built within and around his own body, where he would be both an example to all and a cage for those who followed him in breaking their oaths to the gods. Even so transformed, Aegaeon remained alive within his torment. (God of War: Ascension)
The breaking of the prison#
When Kratos broke the blood oath that bound him to Ares, having been tricked into slaying his own wife and child, he too was sentenced by the Furies to a life of madness within the prison of the damned built from Aegaeon. As he sought a way out, the Fury Megaera loosed her parasites into one of the creature's arms, and the fingers mutated and split until a tusked monster burst from the palm. Kratos pressed deeper through the countless grasping arms as the body of Aegaeon slowly transformed around him, until at the creature's head he faced Megaera as she warped the giant's skull and tried to make it devour him. Tricking the head into biting one of its own mutated arms, Kratos seized the opening and killed the Fury. Her death brought about the death of Aegaeon as well, ending the centuries of torment the Hecatonchires had endured. (God of War: Ascension)
Frequently asked questions
- What were the Hecatonchires in God of War?
- The Hecatonchires were three giants of incredible strength and ferocity born of Ouranos and Gaia, each possessing many arms and heads. They surpassed even the Titans in might and helped the gods overthrow them, after which they were set to guard the gates of Tartarus where the Titans were imprisoned.
- Who was Aegaeon the Hecatonchires?
- Aegaeon, also called Briareus, was one of the three Hecatonchires. After the Great War he swore a blood oath to Zeus and then betrayed it. As punishment the Furies transformed him into a colossal living prison, the Hecatonchires, in which those who broke their own oaths to the gods were tormented without end.
- How did Kratos free Aegaeon?
- Imprisoned within the body of Aegaeon for breaking his oath to Ares, Kratos fought his way through its countless mutating arms while pursued by the Fury Megaera. When he finally killed Megaera at the creature's head, Aegaeon died with her, ending the Hecatonchires' centuries of torment.
Sources
- GameGod of War: Ascension, Santa Monica Studio, 2013
- BookTheogony, Hesiod, c. 700 BC
- BookBibliotheca, Pseudo-Apollodorus, 1st or 2nd century AD
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Aegaeon: the Hecatonchires made a prison
Aegaeon was one of the three Hecatonchires, a giant of many hands who broke a blood oath with Zeus and was punished by the Furies. His vast body was transformed into the living dungeon called the Prison of the Damned, in which Kratos was once chained.
Cyclopes: the one-eyed giants of Greece
The Cyclopes were a race of burly, one-eyed giants of the Greek world. Once peaceful shepherds, they were dragged into the first War of the Titans and used thereafter as beasts of war in the armies of the gods.
Megaera
Megaera was one of the three Furies, the Physical Fury who tormented her victims with brute force and parasitic monsters. After Kratos severed her arm in an earlier clash, she tortured him in the Prison of the Damned, until his escape led to her death and the recovery of the Amulet of Uroborus.
The Furies
The Furies were an ancient trio of sisters born of primordial rage who hunted those who broke their blood oaths to the gods. Once fair judges, they were corrupted by Ares and set upon Kratos after he renounced his bond, until the Spartan saw through their illusions and destroyed all three.
Ares: the god who made Kratos a killer
Ares tricked Kratos into slaughtering his own wife and daughter to bind him as a weapon. Kratos killed him at Athens and took his place as God of War.
Gaia: Mother Earth, betrayed by Kratos
Gaia bore the Titans, hid the infant Zeus from Cronos, and allied with Kratos against Olympus. He ran the Blade of Olympus through her heart.
Mentioned in13 entries
Aegaeon: the Hecatonchires made a prison
Aegaeon was one of the three Hecatonchires, a giant of many hands who broke a blood oath with Zeus and was punished by the Furies. His vast body was transformed into the living dungeon called the Prison of the Damned, in which Kratos was once chained.
Alecto
Alecto was the Queen of the Furies and the Goddess of Anger, the sister who ruled the trio that hunted Kratos. She mated with Ares to bear the disowned Orkos, ensnared her victims in illusion and black goo, and transformed into a monstrous sea creature before falling to the Spartan's blades.
Cyclopes: the one-eyed giants of Greece
The Cyclopes were a race of burly, one-eyed giants of the Greek world. Once peaceful shepherds, they were dragged into the first War of the Titans and used thereafter as beasts of war in the armies of the gods.
Gaia: Mother Earth, betrayed by Kratos
Gaia bore the Titans, hid the infant Zeus from Cronos, and allied with Kratos against Olympus. He ran the Blade of Olympus through her heart.
God of War Timeline: every major event from the Primordials to Valhalla
The full in-universe chronology of God of War, from the war of the Primordials and the fall of the Titans to Kratos's life in Sparta, his war on Olympus, and the end of the Aesir at Ragnarök. The games give almost no calendar years, so events are ordered by story sequence and grouped into eras, with notes wherever the games' own placement is vague.
Ixion: the kin-slayer bound to the wheel
Ixion was the king of the Lapiths of Thessaly and the first mortal ever to slay his own kin. Pardoned by Zeus and welcomed to Olympus, he repaid the gods by lusting after Hera, and for that treachery he was bound to a winged wheel of fire. In the age of Kratos his ruined body hung chained in the prison of the damned.
Megaera
Megaera was one of the three Furies, the Physical Fury who tormented her victims with brute force and parasitic monsters. After Kratos severed her arm in an earlier clash, she tortured him in the Prison of the Damned, until his escape led to her death and the recovery of the Amulet of Uroborus.
Megaera's Parasites: scarab brood of the Fury
Megaera's Parasites were scarab like arthropods that crawled from a diseased rash on the chest of the Fury Megaera. They swarmed Kratos in the Prison of the Damned, infested prisoners and hounds into mindless thralls, and mutated the very limbs of the Hecatonchires Aegaeon before dying with their mistress.
Ouranos: the sky god Cronos castrated
The first ruler of creation fathered the Titans on Gaia and banished his monstrous children. His son Cronos castrated him and took the throne.
Tartarus: the abyss that caged the Titans
Tartarus was the deepest pit of the Underworld, and in Greek myth one of the first beings. Zeus bound the Titans there, and Kratos killed Cronos in its depths.
The Furies
The Furies were an ancient trio of sisters born of primordial rage who hunted those who broke their blood oaths to the gods. Once fair judges, they were corrupted by Ares and set upon Kratos after he renounced his bond, until the Spartan saw through their illusions and destroyed all three.
Titanomachy
The Titanomachy, also called the Great War, was the long war between the Titans led by Cronos and the Olympians led by Zeus for mastery of Greece and all mortals. It ended in victory for the gods and the imprisonment of the Titans.
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