Giant
In worldwide
folklore, a large often malicious humanoid creature of great size
and strength.
The
legendary giants come in all
types and shapes, often deformed, some with numerous heads, others with uncountable limbs, hundreds of
eyes (or a single one), serpentine tails for feet, hairy or not, and
sometimes men eating cannibals.
In Greek mythology
the giants were serpent-footed human-like monsters of enormous strength and
stature that had
a thousand hands.
They were born from the flowing blood which fell upon the earth after
the castration of Uranus, performed by Cronos.
Other accounts say
that Gaia, the earth goddess, was their mother. Upset with the slaying of
her other sons the Titans by the
Olympians
(Zeus and his cronies),
Gaia persuaded the giants to war against them, confident that they would
succeed as long as they battled only deities. However, with
the help of Heracles
who was mortal at the time the Olympians brought upon the giants their mighty wrath. In the end, Heracles finished them off with his
poisoned arrows.
Are giants just the stuff of legends, or is there some
evidence that indeed at some time in our past they walked the Earth? Stories
of a giant race of humans that lived before the flood are countless, and the
Bible also mentions them:
Genesis (6:4): "There were giants in the earth in
those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the
daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty
men, which were of old, men of renown."
Deuteronomy (1: 28): The people is greater and taller
than we . . . and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim [giants]
there. theya few familieslived in Hebron (Numbers 13: 22).
They are mentioned again in The Book of Enoch and in The
Second Book of Adam and Eve. The Hebrew scriptures as preserved in the Old
Testament and in the Talmud and Midrashim, also narrate that among the races
of the world in a previous age were races of giants, men of great size and
tremendous strength and ferocity, who were destroying other races, but also
were turning upon each other and destroying themselves. But did they ever
existed?
Gigantopithecus and
Meganthropus were giant hominids
that lived over a million years ago. These were real creatures that stood
well over 12 feet tall and weighted more than 500 pounds. Couldn't these
creatures been the ancestors of a race of giants that really existed, but
got lost in the record of our mysterious past? It is possible, and some
clues if not conclusive, certainly intriguing have been found.
These include giant men skeletons and bones, gigantic tools, and huge fossilized human
footprints that until today cannot be explained by traditional scientific
view.
Related
videos
and
books.
Further
info:
Cornwall Folklore and Legend.
Giants - Ancient Super Race of Man.
Jack the Giant-Killer Project.
Orkneyjar - Giant Lore in Orkney.
The Giant Compedium.
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