Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Alcyoneus (Gigantes).
The gallery
Heracles and Alcyoneus (kylix)
Unknown (Attic), c. 6th–5th century BC
Attic kylix: Heracles confronts the Giant Alcyoneus — the earthborn who could not be killed on his native soil until the hero dragged him from Pallene.
Heracles Slays Alcyoneus (Paestum metope)
Unknown (Archaic Greek), c. 510 BC
Metope from the Heraion at the mouth of the Sele (Paestum Museum): Heracles kills the Giant Alcyoneus — archaic stone of the Gigantomachy's hardest duel.
Athena against Alcyoneus (Pergamon Altar)
Unknown (Pergamon Altar workshop), c. 180–160 BC
East frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamon: Athena and Nike overwhelm Alcyoneus as Ge rises from the earth — the Giant whose mother-earth bond the goddess must break.
Heracles and Alcyoneus (black-figure amphora)
Leagros Group, c. late 6th century BC
Cabinet des Médailles amphora: Heracles grapples Alcyoneus — vase-painting's stock image of the Giant Apollodorus ranks with Porphyrion among the greatest of the earthborn.
Heracles and Alcyoneus (red-figure amphora)
Unknown (Attic red-figure), c. 5th century BC
Red-figure amphora of the same combat: Alcyoneus as the sleeping or fallen Giant Heracles must finish — not the Pleiad Alcyone, but the Gigantomachy's immortal-on-his-soil foe.
In play
Pergamon Altar
The Great Altar's Gigantomachy frieze gives Alcyoneus his most famous public face — Athena's struggle with the Giant now in Berlin.
Alcyoneus
One of the greatest Giants — immortal on his native soil of Pallene until Heracles (and Athena) drag him from the earth that protects him.