Hecatoncheires

Meanings

1. Three monstrous giants of enormous size and strength, each with fifty heads and one hundred arms, who were offspring of Uranus by Gaia, whom Zeus freed from captivity and who in return aided the Olympians in the Titanomachy.

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἑκᾰτόν (hekătón, “hundred”) + χείρ (kheír, “hand”), compare the adjective ἑκατόγχειρος (hekatónkheiros, “hundred-handed”). The putative *Ἑκατόγχειρες (*Hekatónkheires) is unattested in Hesiod's Theogony, which instead describes the giants with the phrase ἑκατὸν μὲν χεῖρες (hekatòn mèn kheîres).