Giant is the English word (coined 1297) commonly used for the monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength common in the mythology and legends of many different cultures. The word Giant was derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes (Greek: γίγαντες[1]) of Greek mythology. In various Indo-European mythologies, gigantic peoples are featured as primeval creatures associated with chaos and the wild nature, and they are frequently in conflict with the gods, be they Olympian, Celtic, Hindu or Norse. Giants also often play similar roles in the mythologies and folklore of other, non Indo-European peoples, such as in the Nartian traditions. There are also accounts of giants in the Old Testament, most famously Goliath, Og King of Bashan, the Nephilim, the Anakim, and the giants of Egypt mentioned in 1 Chronicles 11:23. Attributed to them are extraordinary strength and physical proportions. Fairy tales such as "Jack the Giant Killer" have formed our modern perception of giants as stupid and violent monsters, sometimes said to eat humans, especially children (though this is actually a confusion with ogres, which are distinctly cannibalistic). The ogre in "Jack and the Beanstalk" is often described as a giant. In some more recent portrayals, like those of Jonathan Swift and Roald Dahl, some giants are both intelligent and friendly. Abrahamic mythology Genesis 6:4-5 tells of the Nephilim before and after the Flood. According to Genesis 7:23, the Nephilim were destroyed in the Flood, but Nephilim are reported after the Flood, including: the Anakites (Numbers 13:28-33) the Emites (Deuteronomy 2:10) the Amorites (Amos 2:9) the Rephaites (Joshua 12:4) The Bible also tells of Gog and Magog, who later entered into European folklore, and of the famous battle between David and the Philistine giant Goliath. The 1st-century historian Flavius Josephus, and the 1st-2nd-century BC Dead Sea Scrolls give Goliath's height as "four cubits and a span," approximately 2.00 m or about six feet seven inches. The King James translation of the Bible reports the giant Goliath as "six cubits and a span" in height—about nine feet nine inches tall, (over 2.75 m) (1Samuel 17:4 KJV), but the Septuagint, a Greek Bible, gives Goliath's height as "four cubits and a span" (~2.00 m). See also Gibborim. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also described the Amorites as giants in his Antiquities of the Jews, circa 93 AD, indicating that fossil evidence still remained at that time: "For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men." In Islam, giants known as jababirat or jabbirun such as Jalut (Goliath) are mentioned, as well as 'Uj ibn Anaq. The Book of Enoch describes giants as the offspring of fallen angels and mortal women in 7:2.

• published: 20 Aug 2014
• views: 1