Ephialtes

deity earth Greek corroborated · 8

Ephialtes is one of the Aloadae, twin sons of Poseidon and Iphimedeia. He and his brother Otos grew enormously at a young age and were aggressive and skilled hunters. They boasted that they would kidnap Artemis and Hera and take them as wives.

↻ synthesized from 8 sources

When

First attested
800 BCE
Attested period
-800 – 2020
Historical notes
Attested in Greek mythology from the Iron Age.

Relationships

sibling of
Otos, Otus, Pancratis
allied with
Otus, Otos

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“The twin sons of Poseidon and Iphimedeia, Otos and Ephialtes, known as the Aloadae, grew enormously at a young age. They were aggressive and skilled hunters who could not be killed except by each other. They never stopped growing and boasted that as soon as they could reach heaven, they would kidnap Artemis and Hera and take them as wives.”

#18616 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Iphimedea had by Poseidon the twins Otus and Ephialtes who were called the Aloadae after their stepfather. One account called these men's natural father as Aloeus, husband and paternal uncle of Iphimede.”

#20069 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Ephialtes (lit. "he who jumps upon") is also the Greek word for "nightmare", and Ephialtes was sometimes considered the daimon of nightmares. In the Inferno of Dante's Divine Comedy Ephialtes is one of six giants placed in the great pit that separates the eighth and ninth circles of Hell, Fraud and Cocytus, respectively.”

#42286 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Other Giants and their fates are mentioned by Apollodorus. Ephialtes was blinded by an arrow from Apollo in his left eye, and another arrow from Heracles in his right.”

#42597 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“The twin sons of Poseidon and Iphimedeia, Otos and Ephialtes, known as the Aloadae, grew enormously at a young age. They were aggressive and skilled hunters who could not be killed except by each other.”

#43063 · extracted by deepseek/deepseek-chat