Concerning Giants [pp. 633-635]

1872.]
~O~CBR~I~~ ~i:AKT&
633
CONCERNING GIANTS.
HE fourth verse of the sixth chapter of
Genesis, beginning, as we read in the
authorized version, "There were giants in
the earth in those days," has given rise to a
deal of controversy among the learned. The
Hebrew word nepkiiiin, in this passage, which
the Septuagint renders ~ienta (~l~a~r~s), has
received a variety of interpretations, Biblical
commentators not agreeing on its derivation.
Among the more plausible meanings ascribed
to it are: 1. Giants in the common acceptation of the word, men of huge proportions of
body; 2. Men surpassing in physical or mental strength; 3. Fallen men, apostates from
the worship of the true God. Among the
early Christ.~n writers who favor the first of
these opinions are Ambrose, Cassianus, and
Theodoret. On the contrary, Chrysostom
says: "I think that those in Scripture called
giants are not any unusual kind of men for
shape or feature, but such as were heroical,
and strong and warlike." Cyril also writes:
"It is the custom of Holy Writ to call wild,
fierce, and robust men giants."
But it is not our object to discuss a philological question. Even if we are not to understand nephitzm in this instance to mean
giants in our sense of the word, there are
other passages in the Old Testament which
seem to point conclusively to the existence of
men of huge dimensions in the early days of
the world. The Rephaim, and their allied
tribes, the Anakim, the Emim, and the Zuzim,
are always described as giants. The sons of
Anak, in particular, are said to ii ave been
"men of great stature," before whom the
children of Israel were "as grasshoppers."
Of the height of Og, King of Bash an, one of
the last representatives of the giant race of
the Rephaim, we are able to form some conjecture. His iron bedstead, which was preserved in Rabbath in the time of the author
of Deuteronomy, was nine cubits in length
and four in breadth. Calling the cubit eighteen inches, the bedstead was thirteen and a
half feet long, and King Og must have been,
if in proportion, more than twice the height
of an average man of the present day
The Eastern nations have many extravagant traditions concerning this giant. According to some of the Arabian historians,
King Og excelled by far all other monsters
that ever existed. He was so tall that he
could reach the heavens. He had an unaccountable hatred of Noah, whom he continually sought to kill. But Noah proved too
shrewd for him; for, whenever the giant
pressed him closely, he withdrew into the
caves of the mountains, where Og could not
follow him. One day, in his rage at his numerous discomfitures, the giant plucked out
his beard and threw it at his nimble enemy.
t'ach hair at once besame a cedar-tree, forming an immense forest that covered the whole
plain, and from which Noah eventually cut
the timber for the ark. Og survived the
deluge by wading, the waters reaching no
higher than his knees. The only inconvenience he experienced duriiig the flood was
that he was reduced to a fish-diet, his sole
food during its continuance consisting of
whales, which he roasted on the disk of the
sun.
This is no more ridiculous than the stories
told by the rabbins of Adam, whom, they say,
God first created of a height so prodigious
that his head reached the heavens. But the
angels were so terrified at the sight, that God
reduced him to a thousand feet high, or, according to others, a hundred. The latter estimate, however, is undoubtedly much too
small; for, the father of the human race,
when driven out of Paradise, waded through
the ocean which separated this world from
Eden.
Goliath, the Philistine of Gath, is supposed
to have been another representative of the
Rephaim, a remnant of that race having taken
refuge with the Philistines after their overthrow. There appear to have been four
brothers of this family, who were "born to
the giant in Gath," all of whom were men of
great stature. The names of but three are
preserved, Goliath, Saph, and Lahmi. The
fourth is said to have had twenty-four fingers and toes. The height of Goliath only
is given. He was six cubits and a span, or
about nine and a half feet high.
Passing over the fables of the giants and
the Titans in classical mythology, which had
their origin doubtless in terrestrial natural
phenomena, many of them before our Aryan
progenitors had left their Asian home, let us
examine the numerous accounts of giants
given by the Greek and Roman writers.
Herodotus says that, during the war between the Lacediemonians and the Tegeans,
the oracle at Delphi told the former that they
would prevail over their enemies when they
brought back to Sparta the bones of Orestes,
the son of Agamemnon. Lichas went to
Tegea and succeeded in securing them. They
were found in a coffin seven cub its long, the
body being of proportionate length. The father of history also records that Artaceas, a
captain in the host of Xerxes, wanted but
four fingers' breadth of five cubits, he being,
with the exception of the king himself, the
tallest man in the army. Xerxes then must
have been at least seven and a quarter feet in
height.
Arrian describes the 1821;1056;1840]Asians of Alexander's time as commonly of five cubits in
stature, and avers that King Porus was of
that height; but Suidas excels him by making Gauges, a giant slain by Alexander, ten
cubits. Pausanias relates that, when the body
of Ajax was exposed by the washing of the
sea, the whiribones (patellai) of his knees
were found to be as large as the quolts used
by athletes. The same author says that the
dead body of Asterius, King of Crete, was ten
cubits long. Pliny tells of a giant named
Gabbara, brought from Arabia in the reign
of Claudius, who was over nine feet high; and
of two others, Pusis and Secondilla by name,
whose skeletons nine and a half feet in
length, were preserved in the Sallustian
Gardens. According to Julius Capitolinus,
the Emperor Maximinus exceeded eight feet.
He used his wife's bracelets as rings, and
could break the teeth of a horse with~a blow
of his fist. The Emperor Andronicus Comnenus, if we can put faith in Nicetas, was ten
feet high. Nicephorus relates that, in the
time of Theodosius, there was, in Syria, a
man of five cubits and a hand's breadth.
Florus says th~t King Theutobochus was of
an extraordinary stature, higher even than
the trophies; and Zonaras tells of a woman,
in the time of Justin, who was two feet taller
than women generally are.
But the ancient writers are not all so
modest in their stories. Plato and Pliny are
responsible for the account of the body of a
giant, supposed to be Orion, found in a mountain in Crete, which measured forty-six cubits,
or sixty-nine feet, in length; but, as Orion is
generally said to have been buried in Delos,
we are inclined to think that these two worthies
were imposed upon. Plutarch, in his Life of
Sertorius, tells a still larger story. Speaking
of the city of Tingis, the modern Tangiers,
in Mauritania, he says: "The Africaiis tell
that Antreus was buried in this city, and Sertorius had the grave opened, doubting the
story on account of the prodigious size; and,
finding there his body, in effect, it is said,
full sixty cubits long, he was infinitely astonished, offered sacrifice, heaped up the
tomb again, gave his confirmation to the
story, and added new honors tc the memory
of Autnus." The body of a man ninety feet
in height may well have excited his astonishment! Strabo, in giving a similar account
which he credits to Gabinius, slyly observes:
"Gabinius, the Roman historian, indulges in
relating marvellous stories of Mauritania."
In the time of the Emperor Hadrian, the
body of the giant Ida, which measured twenty
feet, is said to have been found. Eumachus
records that the Carthaginians dug up two
bodies, one of twenty-three and one of twenty-four cubits in length. Philostratus saw a
body thirty cubits long, another of twentytwo, and a third of twelve. Trallianus, who
lived in the sixth century, informs us that
the Athenians dug up the body of Macrosyris,
and found it one hundred cubits in length.
One would think this last story wonderful
enough for the most imaginative mind; but
it was reserved for the fourteenth century,
and for the great Boccaccio, to hand down to
posterity an account of the discovery of the
remains of a giant that exceeded in dim ensbus all others that the world had seen. The
following is a free translation of this rem arkable production, which is well worth giving
in full:
"It is by 110 means a fiction that giants
have existed-that is, men exceeding others
beyond measure in form or in stature. On
the contrary, its truth is well established, and
an accidental occurrence, in our day, at the
town of Drepanum, in Sicily, has clearly demonstrated it. While some rustics were digging foundations for the construction of a
sheep-house, at the foot of the mountains
which overhang Drepanum, not far from the
town, they came upon the mouth of a cavern,
which, anxious to see what was within, they
entered with blazing fagots. They found a
cave of great height and size; and, walking
to the end opposite the entrance, they saw,
sitting down, a man of humense proportions,
upon which, terrified, they took to flight, and
ran out of the cave, nor did they stop until
they reached the town, announcing to all they
met what they had seen.