Briareo

Tetis invokes Briareo: sweet size of 1793, work of Tommaso Piroli from a drawing by John Flaxman, employed in an edition of the Iliad 1795.

In Greek mythology, Briareo or Briáreo (in Greek Βριαρεύς or Βριάρεως Briareôs, Βριάρηος Briarêos u Ὀβριάρεως Obriareôs, 'strong'; in Latin Briareus) was a Hecatonchire, a giant with a hundred arms and fifty heads, son of Uranus and Gaia, and brother of Coto and Gyges. In Homer's Iliad men call him Aegeon ('goat'), although this is also the name of a sea god, who according to some sources would be his father. In still others, he would be the son of Thalassa, the primordial goddess of the sea, or of Ether and Gaia.

Along with his brothers, he was relegated to Tartarus first by Ouranos and then by Cronus, whom they had helped defeat Uranus, until they were freed by Zeus and fought alongside him in the Titanomachy. A staunch ally of Zeus, he was called upon by Thetis to aid the god when he had been shackled by Hera, Athena, and Poseidon in an attempt to overthrow him. As a reward for his services, Briareo married Cymopolea, a daughter of Poseidon, and became settled with her in a palace on the Ocean River. With her he was the father of two nymphs called Eólice and Etna.

Aristotle affirms that the Pillars of Hercules were previously called «Pillars of Briareo», but after Heracles (Greek name for Hercules) purified the earth and the sea thus becoming a benefactor of men, they honored him by abandoning the mention of Briareo for his.

In Don Quixote by Cervantes reference is made to Briareo in chapter VIII of the First Part, Of the good success that the valiant Don Quixote had in the frightening and never imagined adventure of the windmills, with other events worthy of happy remembrance:

A little wind rose up in this, and the great asps began to move, which was seen by Don Quixote, he said:
"Well, even if you move more arms than those of the giant Briareo, you will pay me.

In The Divine Comedy, Dante puts Briareo as a famous example of arrogance in Canto XII of the "Second Canticle, Purgatory":

I saw the Briareo with mortal wound,

by the fulminated skylight,

and its great form of ice converted;

and Palas and Timbren, and Mars armed,

see with Jove the palpitating members

of titans, in bloody field.