A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

GIGANTES. GILDO. 267
the name of Caracalla with infamy, but, on the Phaeacians, Cyclopes, and Laestrygones, as a race
contrary, he took delight in the liberal arts and in the of Autochthones, whom, with the exception of the
society of learned men, and was generally accounted Phaeacians, the gods destroyed for their overbearupright and honourable. ing insolence, but neither he nor Hesiod knows
* After the murder of his brother, Caracalla or- any thing about the contest of the gods with the
dered all his statues to be broken, all inscriptions Gigantes. Hesiod (Theog. 185), however, considers
in his honour to be erased, and all coins bearing them as divine beings, who sprang from the blood
his effigy or designation to be melted down. Not- that fell from Uranus upon the earth, so that Ge was
withstanding these measures, many of Geta's their mother. Later poets and mythographers fremedals have come down to us, and the obliteration quently confound them with the Titans (Serv.
of a portion of the legend upon some great public ad Aen. viii. 698, Georg. i. 166, 278; Hor.
monuments, such as the arch of Severus, has served, Carmn. iii. 4. 42), and Hyginus (PraefJ Fab. p. 1)
by attracting attention and inquiry, to keep alive calls them the sons of Ge (Terra) and Tartarus.
his memory. Their battle with Zeus and the Olympian gods
As in the case of Commodus, we find a variation seems to be only an imitation of the revolt of the
in the praenomen. The earlier coins exhibit Lucius Titans against Uranus. Ge, it is said (Apoldod.
and Publius indifferently, but the former disappears i. 6. ~ 1, &c.), indignant at the fate of her former
from all the productions of the Roman mint after children, the Titans, gave birth to the Gigantes,
his first consulship, while both are found together that is, monstrous and unconquerable giants, with
on some of the pieces struck in Greece and Asia. fearful countenances and the tails of dragons.
The cause of these changes is quite unknown. (Comp. Ov. Trist. iv. 7, 17.) They were born,
according to some, in Phlegrae (i. e. burning fields),
in Sicily, Campania, or Arcadia, and, according to
others, in the Thracian Pallene. (Apollod., Paus.
~'~3jb~~~ ~ q;II. cc.; Pind. Ner. i. 67; Strab. pp. 245, 281,,t>O o 0330; Schol. ad Hon. I1. vlii. 479) It is worthy
(~EtQr W } of remark that Homer, as well as later writers,
Bc/'s ~~)~~_ S > /e9/ Aid Lbplaces the Gigantes in volcanic districts, and most'-~ authorities in the western parts of Europe. In
their native land they made an attack upon heaven,
being armed with huge rocks and the trunks of
COIN of CARACALLA. (See remarks at the end trees. (Ov. Met. i. 151, &c.) Porphyrion and
of CARACALLA.) Alcyoneus distinguished themselves above their
brethren. The latter of them, who had carried off
the oxen of Helios from Erytheia, was immortal so
long as he fought in his native land; and the gods
were informed that they should not be able to kill
mumF~ W _ > W e one giant unless they were assisted by some mortal
It X 94 = 4X2in their fight against the monsters. (Comp. Schol., ~ " ", ", v ad Pind. Nero. i. 100; Eratosth. Calast. 11.) Ge,
on hearing of this, discovered a herb which would
save the giants from being killed by mortal hands;
COIN OF GETA, exhibiting on the reverse both but Zeus forbade Helios and Eos to shine, took
emperors and the goddess Liberalitas. himself the herb, and invited Heracles to give his
(Dion Cass. lxxvi. 2, 7, 11, lxxvii. 1-3, 12; assistance against the giants. Heracles, indeed,
Spartian. Sever. 8, 10, 14, 16, 21, Caracall.; killed Alcyoneus, but as the giant fell on the
leta; Herodian. iii. 33, 46, iv. 4-10; Vict. Caes. ground, he came to life again. On the advice of
20, Epit. 20, 21; Eutrop. viii. 10.) [W. R.] Athena, Heracles dragged him away from his
GETA, P. SEPTI'MIUS, a brother of Septi- native land, and thus slew him effectually. Pormius Severus, after having held the offices of phyrion attacked Heracles and Hera, but was
quaestor, praetor of Crete, and of Cyrene, was ele- killed by the combined efforts of Zeus and Hevated to the consulship in A.D. 203, along with racles, the one using a flash of lightning and the
Plautianus [PLAUTIANUS], and appears at one other his arrows. (Comp. Pind. Pyth. viii. 19 with
time to have entertained hopes of being preferred the Schol.) The other giants, whose number, acto his nephews. He is said to have revealed to cording to Hyginus, amounted to twenty-four,
the emperor with his dying breath the ambitious were then killed one after another by the gods
schemes of Plautianus, whom he hated, but no and Heracles, and some of them were buried by
longer feared; and it is certain that from this their conquerors under (volcanic) islands. (Eurip.
period the influence of the favourite began to wane. Cycl. 7; Diod. iv. 21; Strab. p. 489; Serv. ad
(Dion Cass. lxxvi. 2; Spartian. Sept. Sev. 8, 10, Aen. iii. 578.) The fight of the giants with the
14; Gruter, Corpus Inscripp. mxcix. 7.) [W. R.] gods was represented by Phidias. on the inside of
GIGANTES (re'vrTes). In the story about the shield of his statue of Athena. (Plin. H. N.
the Gigantes or giants, we must distinguish the xxxvi. 5. 4.) The origin of the story of the Giearly legends from the later ones. According to gantes must probably be sought for in similar phyHomer, they were a gigantic and savage race of sical phenomena in nature, especially volcanic
men, governed by Eurymedon, and dwelling in the ones, from which arose the stories about the
distant west, in the island of Thrinacia; but they Cyclopes. [L. S.]
were extirpated by Eurymedon on account of their GILDO, or GILDON (the first is the usual
insolence towards the gods. (Horn. Od. vii. 59, form in Latin writers, but Claudian, for metrical
206, x. 120; comp. Paus. viii. 29. ~ 2.) Homer reasons, sometimes uses the second), a Moorish
accordingly looked upon the Gigantes, like -the chieftain in the latter period of the Western Em