Titans of Myth (comics)

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species=Titans of Myth
publisher=DC Comics
debut=(Historical): "New Teen Titans" #7 (Vol. 2)
(Modern): "New Teen Titans" #50 (Vol.2)
creators=Marv Wolfman
George Pérez
deities=Greek
homeworld=
notable members=
powers=
subcat=DC Comics
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sortkey=PAGENAMEThe Titans of Myth are mythological deities who appear in the Wonder Woman and Teen Titans comics.

History

Origins

Gaia the Mother Earth fell in love with Uranus the Heavens (Father Sky) and gave birth to the Titans of Myth:
*Iapetus and Themis, Titans of Justice
*Crius and Mnemosyne, Titans of Memory
*Coeus and Phoebe, Titans of the Moon
*Hyperion and Thia, Titans of the Sun
*Oceanus and Tethys, Titans of the Sea
*Cronus and Rhea, Titans of the Earth

The Titans were beautiful godlike beings, but the rest of Gaia's brood were horrible monsters that Uranus banished to the pit of Tartarus. Hoping to free all of her children, Gaea gave Kronos, the youngest and bravest Titan, a potent weapon to use against his father. Kronos slew Uranus, but he did not release Gaea's brood. Instead, he and his fellow Titans created a "paradise" of subservience on the planet Earth.

However, Kronos feared an oracle which foretold that his own children would rise up against him, so he swallowed each of them as they were born, except his son Zeus, whom Rhea had saved. When Zeus reached manhood, he freed both his own siblings and Gaea's brood. Together, these Olympian Gods and their monstrous allies defeated the Titans. Kronos was mistakenly believed destroyed, and the rest were banished from Earth into the farthest reaches of space.

Titans Seeds

Zeus' curse bound the Titans to their new home; they lacked the power to even attempt to return to Earth. Instead, they transformed a nearby moon into New Cronus and began to guide the primitive race on the planet below (Synriannaq). Being the only Titan without her mate, Rhea mated many times with these primitives. The resulting demigods made war on the planet. After 3,000 years passed, they abandoned all hope of guiding that world. However, these gods were still driven to bequeath their power unto sentients. To this end, Rhea sacrificed herself and sent her own energy out in to the universe. Her power would fall upon several worlds and "seed" a child from each. Each of these children was plucked from certain death and returned to New Cronus. The Titans raised them and rebuilt New Cronus. At age 13, the children were returned to their home planets with no memory of their time with the Titans. Upon adulthood, they would be called to return, more powerful, and as gods, to New Cronus. One of these seeds, named Sparta, shook Mnemosyne's amnesia and went mad. Sparta conquered Synriannaq and brought war on New Chronus. She could not defeat her makers, and so set about a quest to claim the power of all the other seeds. Phoebe lost two-thirds of her power when she escaped and made her way to Earth in search of one seed: Donna Troy. At first, she found Princess Diana instead, but soon related the story to Donna and the New Titans. With Donna's memories restored, Phoebe died. ("New Titans" #50-51).

Donna's Titans were able to dodge Sparta's warriors and they used Sparta's "travelspheres" to return to New Cronus. One group rescued the seed Xanthi, the other spared Athyns just before his planet was destroyed. Xanthi died in the battle against Sparta. With Raven's help, Sparta was contained, and the remaining seeds restored the Titans to their full powers. It was their plan all along, to use their seeds' growing power to add to their own and break Zeus' curse. This they did and vowed never again to interfere with sentient lives. ("New Titans" #52-54) Sparta became a vegetable and was taken into the care of the gods. Athyns returned to Xanthi's planet and assumed his duties. Donna received several gifts: a pendant of Cronus, from Coeus; an armored metal from Thia and Hyperion; earrings from Iapetus and Themis; a bracelet that belonged to Phoebe; a cloth of the firmament, from Mnemosyne and Crius; a mystic net from Oceanus and Tethys; and the name, Troia, from Rhea. The Titans themselves departed for parts unknown. ("New Titans" #55)

War of the Gods

During a great battle between the Olympians and the sorceress, Circe, the Olympians bequeathed Olympus to the Roman Gods. They left Earth to join the Titans in their exploration of the universe. ("War of the Gods" #1-4, "Wonder Woman" v.2 #58-60) The Olympians eventually returned to Earth ("Wonder Woman" #122) and merged with their Roman counterparts. ("Wonder Woman" #130-133)

Children of Cronus

Though the Titans have remained true to their quest, their brother Cronus grew bitter during his imprisonment. He eventually cultivated a cult of believers to fuel his powers. His true goal was to possess all the power of the God Wave on Earth. To do this, he would have to defeat and destroy all the deities on Earth. He began by releasing the remainder of his progeny from his belly (those who had not been regurgitated at the time of Zeus' triumph). These were:
* Arch, god of strategy
* Disdain, goddess of emotion and vanity
* Harrier, god of swift death
* Oblivion, god of memory
* Slaughter, skilled killer
* Titan, his own monsterous sibling (omni present)

Another key to their success was the creation of a champion. As his children had created and empowered Princess Diana of Themyscira, so did Cronus create Devastation, a being gifted by all these new Titans. The Titan first heralded the coming Cronus ("Wonder Woman" #139), then Oblivion made an unsuccessful attempt to enslave Diana within her own Wonder Dome. ("Wonder Woman" #140-141) Devastation also proved unsuccessful against Diana; then Cronus made his move. He began by defeating the Olympians and casting Zeus down to Earth. He then conquered the Hindu pantheon and headed for Heaven. But Wonder Woman freed the Olympians and united with the Hindus and the Pax Dei (heavenly host). Diana trounced Cronus but the god still managed to touch the power of the Presence. In doing so, he gained perfect clarity. Humbled, he gave up his corporeal form and returned to mother Gaea. ("Wonder Woman" #150)

This upheaveal soon moved Zeus to form an alliance with the other pantheons. Indeed, Zeus soon appeared to Superman with several allies under the banner of I.D.C.A.P. (Interfaith Deity Council of Active Polytheistics). ("Superman: Man of Steel" #127)

The Return of Donna Troy

Donna Troy's role in Infinite Crisis is, at the end of "The Return of Donna Troy", fully stated: Donna had been reborn after her death at the hands of the Superman android. The Titans of Myth, realizing that she was the child who was destined to save them from some impending threat, brought her to New Cronus and implanted false memories within her mind to make her believe she was the original Goddess of the Moon and wife of Coeus. The Titans of Myth incited war between other worlds near New Cronus in order to gain new worshipers. They would then use the combined power of their collective faith to open a passageway into another reality, where they would be safe from destruction. Donna was another means to that end until she was found by the Teen Titans and The Outsiders who restored her true memories.

This was not without casualties, however. Sparta (who was restored to full mental health and stripped of the bulk of her power) had been made an officer in the Titans of Myth's royal military. She was sacrificed by the Titans of Myth in an attempt to lay siege to the planet, Minosyss, which housed a Sun-Eater factory miles beneath its surface. But Sparta's death had inadvertently helped trigger Donna's memory restoration. Athyns had also reappeared by this time, and aided the heroes and the Mynossian resistance in battling the Titans of Myth. It was then that Hyperion, the Titan of the Sun, revealed Donna's true origins to her and ordered her to open a passageway into another reality by means of a dimensional nexus that once served as a gateway to the Multiverse itself, within the Sun-Eater factory's core, which turned out to be the Titans of Myth's real target.

Donna did so, but fearing they would simply continue with their power-mad ambitions, she banished most of them into Tartarus. However, Hyperion and his wife, Thia, were warned of the deception at the last moment. Enraged, they turned on Donna, intending to kill her for the betrayal, but Coeus activated the Sun-Eater to save her and Arsenal. As the Sun-Eater began absorbing their vast solar energies, Hyperion and Thia tried to escape through the Nexus, but they were both torn apart by the combined forces of the Nexus' dimensional pull and the Sun-Eater's power. Coeus, who had learned humility and compassion from Donna, vowed to guard the gateway to make certain the other Titans of Myth remained imprisoned forever.

Pre-Crisis Origins

The early "pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths" origins of the Titans is the same as above. Instead, however, when the Titans were defeated, the Olympians imprisoned them in columns of stone in Tartarus.

Thousands of years passed, and only the Titan Thia had escaped. Finally, Hyperion freed himself and bewitched the mortal Teen Titan known as Wonder Girl and then released his fellow Titans. Together they made an assault upon Mount Olympus and were thus opposed by the Olympians, the Amazons of Themyscira and other Teen Titans. Cronus intended to remake the Earth into the paradise that he remembered, but eventually, Zeus and his daughter Athena convinced him that man must have free will to chart his own destiny. Wonder Girl was released from her spell and the Titans returned to Tartarus in order to forge a new life for themselves there.

Sometime later, Thia resurfaced, and she too attempted to conquer Olympus. Fearing reprisals from her fellow Titans, she set the Giants of Myth against them. Despite the assistance of the Teen Titans, Iapetus, Crius and Tethys were all killed before Hyperion sacrificed his life to destroy his mad wife Thia. Zeus invited the surviving Titans to stay on Olympus and live in peace. The offer was accepted.

Pre-Crisis, Thia is the mother of Lilith, a member of the Teen Titans. Post-Crisis, the identity of Lilith's mother has not been revealed. [http://www.titanstower.com/source/whoswho/lilith.html]

Other Titans

The Titans had many children and grandchildren, some of whom were also called Titans. Notable among them is Iapetus' son Atlas, who often lends his incredible stamina to the world's mightiest mortal, Captain Marvel. "Wonder Woman" #130 describes Themis as the "last of the Titans," and she resided on Olympus. This does not fit with existing history.

Titans and Zeus

Cronus married Rhea whore bored him many children. But Cronus swalloed them all, afraid they might over rule him. Rhea was upset so intead of her youngest son Zeus she gave Cronus a rock wraped in baby cloths. The mother, Rhea, took Zeus to the island of crete. There the nyphs took care of him. He grew older and tricked his father in vomiting up all his other siblings. Then Zeus and his brothers and sisters took war against Cronus. They defeted him. Then Zeus sent Cronus, and his brothers and sisters to a layer below Hades.