KottosCottos

Kottos and his brothers, Briareos and Gyes are the sons of Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (the Heavens); all three have fifty heads and fifty arms sprouting from their massive shoulders.

The brothers were trapped in Gaia’s womb by Ouranos until the Titan, Kronos (Cronos), wounded his father, Ouranos, and they were allowed to be free, but their freedom was not to last; Kronos had helped his mother, Gaia, free the monstrous brothers but he feared their strength and beauty and so he too imprisoned them under the earth where they remained until the war between the Titans and the Olympians began.

Zeus brought the three brothers back into the light and gave them nektar (nectar) and ambrosia to renew their vitality; with their newly acquired freedom and strength, Briareos, Kottos and Gyes joined the Olympians in the war against the Titans; after ten years of war, Zeus let loose all his fury and the earth and heavens trembled under his thunderbolts; at that moment, Briareos, Kottos and Gyes bombarded the Titans with three-hundred boulders that buried the Titans and ended the war.

His name may also be rendered as Kottus or Cottus.

• Theogony, lines 149, 615, 712 and 817