What are Hekatonkheires?

The Hecatoncheires, or Hekatonkhires, were figures in an archaic stage of Greek mythology, three giants of incredible strength and ferocity that surpassed that of all Titans whom they helped overthrow. Their name derives from the Greek, “each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads” (Bibliotheca). Hesiod’s Theogony (624, 639, 714, 734–35) reports that the three Hekatonkheires became the guards of the gates of Tartarus.