• OVERVIEW
    The name "Gigantes" is usually taken to imply "earth-born", and Hesiod's Theogony makes this explicit by having the Giants be the offspring of Gaia (Earth). According to Hesiod, Gaia, mating with Uranus, bore many children: the first generation of Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-Handers.

    However, Uranus hated his children and, as soon as they were born, he imprisoned them inside of Gaia, causing her much distress. Therefore, Gaia made a sickle of adamant which she gave to Cronus, the youngest of her Titan sons, and hid him (presumably still inside Gaia's body) to wait in ambush. When Uranus came to lie with Gaia, Cronus castrated his father, and "the bloody drops that gushed forth [Gaia] received, and as the seasons moved round she bore ... the great Giants."

    From these same drops of blood also came the Erinyes (Furies) and the Meliai (ash tree nymphs), while the severed genitals of Uranus falling into the sea resulted in a white foam from which Aphrodite grew. The mythographer Apollodorus also has the Giants being the offspring of Gaia and Uranus, though he makes no connection with Uranus' castration, saying simply that Gaia "vexed on account of the Titans, brought forth the Giants".

    ETYMOLOGY
    The name "Gigantes" is usually taken to imply "earth-born", and Hesiod's Theogony makes this explicit by having the Giants be the offspring of Gaia (Earth). According to Hesiod, Gaia, mating with Uranus, bore many children: the first generation of Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-Handers.

    ALCYONEUS
    ​Alyconeus was one of the Gigantes of Greek mythology, the powerful race of giants of Thrace.

    ​There were said to have been 100 Gigantes, born to Gaia when the blood of the castrated Ouranos fell upon the earth. This blood was said to have fallen on the earth at Phlegra (also known as the Pallene), and so, Alcyoneus, and the other Gigantes were said to reside there. 

    The Gigantes, though, referred to as giants, were not necessarily gigantic in stature, but were giants in terms of their immense strength. That being said, Pindar did say that Alyconeus stood at nine cubits high, or 12.5 feet tall. Alcyoneus was said to have had one special characteristic, for he was said to be immortal whilst he remained within the boundaries of Phlegra. 

    Alcyoneus was regarded, along with Porphyrion, as the strongest of the Gigantes, and it was perhaps for this reason, that both Gigantes were sometimes referred to as the King of the Giants. 

    Alyconeus, and the other Gigantes, are primarily famous in Greek mythology for the Gigantomachy, the war when the Giants went to war with the gods of Mount Olympus. 

    Some tell of how Alcyoneus was the cause of the war, for he was blamed for stealing away cattle that belonged to Helios, the Greek god of the Sun. 

    More commonly though, it was said that Gaia roused her children to war; not something that was difficult, because the Gigantes were known to be quarrelsome with no respect for the gods. Gaia’ reason for war, being the treatment of some of her other children, especially the Titans, by Zeus in particular. 

    ​Zeus was told that he could not win without the help of Heracles, and so Heracles joined the gods in fighting the Gigantes. 
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    When Heracles faced Alcyoneus, the Greek hero, shot the Gigante with one of his poisoned arrows. Alyconeus fell to the earth, but rather than dying, the Gigante appeared to be revived. This was when that Heracles was told about Alcyoneus’ immortality whilst he remained in his homeland, thus upon the advice of Athena, Heracles dragged the giant beyond the boundaries of Phlegra, and there, the King of the Gigantes was killed. 

    It was said by some that Alcyoneus was subsequently buried beneath Mount Vesuvius; for it was said that earthquakes and volcanoes in the Ancient world were caused by buried giants and monsters. 

    ​Alcyoneus was said to have had a number of daughters collectively known as the Alcyonides. Commonly said to number seven, these daughters of Alcyoneues were Alcippa, Anthe, Asterie, Drimo, Methone, Pallene and Phosthonia.
     
    When the Alcyonides learned of their father’s death, they sought to throw themselves in to the sea, but observed by Amphitrite, the goddess transformed them into birds, Alcyones (Halcyons), which are also known as kingfishers.