Briareus (also Briareos or Obriareos, Greek Βριάρεως) is one of the three Hecatoncheires, the hundred-handed giants of Greek mythology, each with fifty heads and one hundred arms of extraordinary strength. He is the offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth) and the brother of Cottus and Gyges. The most prominent of the three Hundred-Handers, he was a decisive force in the Olympians' victory over the Titans. Homer also calls him by the name Aegaeon, used by mortals, and associates him with the sea.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Hecatoncheires" (Briareus) · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Briareus was a son of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). His brothers were Cottus, "the furious," and Gyges, "the long-limbed," and together the three formed the Hecatoncheires, or Hundred-Handers. Each of them possessed fifty heads and one hundred arms of immense strength.
Ancient accounts disagree on their place in the cosmic generations: in Hesiod's Theogony they were the last of the children of Uranus to be born, while Apollodorus considered them the first. Hesiod also reports that Briareus, because he was good, was given Cymopolea, a daughter of Poseidon, as his wife, making him the sea god's son-in-law.
II.The Titanomachy
Imprisoned by their father Uranus, the Hundred-Handers remained beneath the earth, suffering greatly for a long time. Zeus eventually released them, recognizing that with their help the Olympians would prevail against the Titans.
In the war that followed, the Hecatoncheires fought decisively for the Olympians, hurling three hundred boulders at once from their many hands. Briareus stood out as the most prominent of the three and received special favor from Poseidon.
III.The Binding of Zeus and Aegaeon
In Homer's Iliad, when the other Olympians plotted to chain Zeus, the sea goddess Thetis summoned Briareus to his defense. Homer describes him as the hundred-handed one whom the gods call Briareus but all men call Aegaeon, mightier than his own father, who sat beside Zeus exulting in his glory.
Under the name Aegaeon, the figure appears in alternative traditions with the opposite allegiance. The lost epic Titanomachy portrayed Aegaeon as the son of Earth and Sea who lived in the sea and fought on the side of the Titans rather than the Olympians.
IV.Cult
According to the third-century grammarian Solinus, Briareus was worshipped at Carystus on the Greek island of Euboea. Local tradition connected him with the island itself, identifying him as the father of Euboea, after whom the island was said to take its name.