Giants (Greek mythology)
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In Greek and Roman mythology, the Giants, also called Gigantes, were a race of great strength and aggression, though not necessarily of great size. They were known for the Gigantomachy, their battle with the Olympian gods. According to Hesiod, the Giants were the offspring of Gaia (Earth), born from the blood that fell when Uranus (Sky) was castrated by his Titan son Cronus.
Poseidon (left) holding a trident, with the island Nisyros on his shoulder, battling a Giant (probably Polybotes), red-figure cup c. 500–450 BC (Cabinet des Médailles 573)
Athena (left) fighting the Giant Enceladus (inscribed retrograde) on an Attic red-figure dish, c. 550–500 BC (Louvre CA3662).
Dionysus (left) with ivy crown, and thyrsus attacking a Giant, Attic red-figure pelike, c. 475–425 BC (Louvre G434).
A depiction of the Gigantomachy showing a typical central group of Zeus, Heracles and Athena. black-figure amphora in the style of the Lysippides Painter, c. 530-520 BC (British Museum B208).
Gaia
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In Greek mythology, Gaia, also spelled Gaea, is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (Sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Giants; as well as of Pontus (Sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.
Gaia pleads Athena to spare her son, Gigantomachy frieze, Pergamon Altar, Pergamon museum, Berlin.
Gaea by Anselm Feuerbach, 1875 ceiling painting, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Gaia hands her newborn, Erichthonius, to Athena as Hephaestus watches – an Attic red-figure stamnos, 470–460 BC
Gaia entrusts Erichthonios to Athena. From left to right: Hephaestus, Athena, Erichthonios, Gaia, Aphrodite. Said to come from the temple of Hephaestus in Athens. Pentelic marble. 100-150 AD. Louvre