(), a son of Uranus by Gaea. Aegaeon and his
brothers Gyges and Cottus are known under the name of the Uranids (Hes.
Th. 502, &c.), and are described as huge monsters with a hundred arms (ἑκατόγχειρες) and fifty heads. (Apollod. 1.1.1; Hes. Th. 149, &c.) Most writers
mention the third Uranid under the name of Briareus instead of Aegaeon, which is explained in
a passage of Homer (Hom. Il. 1.403, §c.), who says that
men called him Aegaeon, but the gods Briareus. On one occasion when the Olympian gods were
about to put Zeus in chains, Thetis called in the assistance of Aegaeon, who compelled the
gods to desist from their intention. (Hom. Il. 1.398, &c.)
According to Hesiod (Hes. Th. 154, &c. 617, &c.),
Aegaeon and his brothers were hated by Uranus from the time of their birth, in consequence of
which they were concealed in the depth of the earth, where they remained until the Titans
began their war against Zeus. On the advice of Gaea Zeus delivered the Uranids from their
prison, that they might assist him. The hundred-armed giants conquered the Titans by hurling
at them three hundred rocks at once, and secured the victory to Zeus, who thrust the Titans
into Tartarus and placed the Hecatoncheires at its gates, or, according to others, in the
depth of the ocean to guard them. (Hes. Th. 617, &c. 815,
&c.) According to a legend in Pansanias (2.1.6, 2.4.7), Briareus was chosen as arbitrator
in the dispute between Poseidon and Helios, and adjudged the Isthmus to the former and the
Acrocorinthus to the latter. The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (1.1165) represents Aegaeon
as a son of Gaea and Pontus and as living as a marine god in the Aegean sea. Ovid (Ov. Met. 2.10) and Philostratus (Vit. Apollon.
4.6) like-wise regard him as a marine god, while Virgil (Aen. 10.565)
reckons him among the giants who stormed Olympus, and Callimachus (Call. Del. 141, &c.), regarding him in the same light, places him under mount
Aetna. The Scholiast on Theocritus (Idyll. 1.65) calls Briareus one of
the Cyclops. The opinion which regards Aegaeon and his brothers as only personifications of
the extraordinary powers of nature, such as are manifested in the violent commotions of the
earth, as earth-quakes, volcanic eruptions and the like, seems to explain best the various
accounts about them.