[2]
But in the battle Porphyrion attacked Hercules and Hera.
Nevertheless Zeus inspired him with lust for Hera, and when he tore her robes and would
have forced her, she called for help, and Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt, and Hercules
shot him dead with an arrow.1 As for
the other giants, Ephialtes was shot by Apollo with an arrow in his left eye and by
Hercules in his right; Eurytus was killed by Dionysus with a thyrsus, and Clytius by
Hecate with torches, and Mimas by Hephaestus with missiles of red-hot metal.2 Enceladus fled, but Athena threw on him in his flight the island of
Sicily3; and she
flayed Pallas and used his skin to shield her own body in the fight.4 Polybotes was chased through the sea by Poseidon and came to
Cos; and Poseidon, breaking off that piece of the island which is called Nisyrum, threw it
on him.5 And Hermes, wearing the helmet of Hades,6 slew Hippolytus in the fight, and Artemis slew Gration. And the
Fates, fighting with brazer clubs, killed Agrius and Thoas. The other giants Zeus smote
and destroyed with thunderbolts and all of them Hercules shot with arrows as they were
dying.
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1 Compare Pind. P. 8.12(15)ff., who says that the king of the giants (Porphyrion) was shot by Apollo, not Herakles. Tzetzes agrees with Apollodorus (Scholiast on Lycophron 63).
2 According to Eur. Ion 215ff., Mimas was killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt; according to Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.122ff. and Claudian, Gigant. 87ff., he was slain by Ares.
3 Compare Verg. A. 3.578ff. The combat of Athena with Enceladus was sculptured on the temple of Apollo at Delphi. See Eur. Ion 209ff.
4 According to one account the Pallas whom Athena flayed, and whose skin she used as a covering, was her own father, who had attempted her chastity. See Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii.28, p. 24, ed. Potter; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 355; Cicero, De natura deorum iii.23.59.
5 Compare Strab. 10.5.16.
6 The helmet of Hades was thought to render the wearer invisible. Compare Hom. Il. 5.844ff.; Hes. Sh. 226ff.
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