Vis ́varu ̄ pa–Azˇi Daha ̄ka and his Greek analogue Geryoneus, the many-headed
Hydra, and the hundred-headed Typhoeus. The giant-like Hundred-Handers
hadfifty heads apiece. The Fomoire of Irish legend, who preceded the Tuatha
Dé Danann, were sometimes conceived as three-headed.^71 Slavonic paganism
gave a prominent place to Triglav ‘Three-head’ and other polycephalic
figures.^72
Such over-endowment is not limited to heads but sometimes extended to
arms and trunks. Multiple arms in particular make for a more formidable
antagonist, as he can wield a corresponding plethora of weapons. The
Hundred-Handers’ value in the Titanomachy is that the three of them can
hurl three hundred rocks at once (Hes. Th. 715). The six-armed, rock-
throwing Cyzican giants have been mentioned above. The Molione, the
Siamese twins of Greek myth, are spoken of as two men, but they fought as
one and were fearsome because of their double equipment (‘Hes.’ frs. 17a–18).
Geryoneus is called ‘three-headed’ by Hesiod, but later poets and vase-
painters gave him a triple body with six arms and legs. Saxo relates that the
Danish king Fridlef berated a giant who had assumed human shape and
abducted a boy, beginning ‘As you are a giant, three-bodied and most
invincible, and you almost reach the sky with the top of your head,.. .’.
Shortly afterwards the same author recounts that the hero Starcatherus
(Starkaðr), born of giant stock, had six arms until Thor tore off the super-
numerary ones to make him more normal.^73 The eight-legged horse Sleipnir
was sired by a stallion from Giantland (Gylf. 42).
By their works shall ye know themThe size and strength of giants is not deployed solely for aggressive purposes.
They sometimes appear in the role of builders of mighty structures. This is
the mythical explanation of striking geological features, such as the Giants’
Causeway in Ireland, or of massive ancient ruins. In classical Greece the
mighty walls of Mycenae and Tiryns were attributed to the Cyclopes (Pind.
fr. 169a. 7, Bacchyl. 11. 77, Soph. fr. 227, Eur. HF 15, etc.). In Old English
poems we read of enta geweorc, enta ærgeweorc, or eald enta geweorc, ‘the
(^71) Togail bruidne Da Derga 902–9 Knott.
(^72) C. H. Meyer (1931), 26. 24, 33. 15, 35. 35, 41. 9, 45. 36, 49. 17, 56. 2, 62. 1; Unbegaun (1948),
411, 416, 423; Gimbutas (1971), 153 f., 160; Vánˇa (1992), 93 f.
(^73) Saxo 6. 4. 6 p. 148 cum sis gigas tricorpor invictissimus, | tuoque caelum paene exaeques
vertice; 6. 5. 2 p. 151; cf. Davidson (1979–80), ii. 99. Saxo’sgigas tricorpor recalls Naevius’
bicorpores Gigantes (fr. 8 Büchner), but Naevius probably meant ‘half human, half serpent’,
cf. Accius, Trag. 307 Pallas bicorpor anguium spiras trahit.
300 7. Nymphs and Gnomes