Picolous

In Greek mythology, Picolous (Ancient Greek: Πικόλοος, Pikóloos) is the name of one of the Gigantes, the offspring of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus. Picolous fought against the Olympian gods during the Gigantomachy. He fled the battle, only to be slain shortly thereafter by Helios the sun god when the giant attempted to attack his daughter Circe.^[1][2] Picolous's role in the Gigantomachy is attested by two Byzantine scholars of the Middle Ages, Eustathius of Thessalonica and Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople, both of which quote earlier writers, Alexander of Paphos and Ptolemaeus Chennus respectively.

Helios against an unidentified Giant in the southern frieze of the Pergamon Altar, Pergamon Museum, Germany.

Mythology

Picoloos, one of the Giants, by fleeing from the war led against Zeus, reached Circe’s island and tried to chase her away. Her father Helios killed him, protecting his daughter with his shield; from the blood which flowed on the earth a plant was born, and it was called μῶλυ because of the μῶλος or the battle in which the Giant aforementioned was killed.

— Eustathius, Ad Odysseam 10.305^[3]

Patriarch Photius, who attributes the tale to Ptolemy Chennus, writes of an unnamed giant that attacked Circe and was killed by her father the sun god Helios, who was protecting his daughter; from his blood sprang a white herb, named moly after the hard battle (=môlos in Ancient Greek^[4]) that took place between the giant and the god.^[5][6]

In greater detail, the homeric scholiast Eustathius of Thessalonica, quoting Alexander of Paphos, writes that Picolous fought alongside the other Giants against Zeus during the war that was known as the Gigantomachy, but fled the battle; he went to Aeaea, the home island of the sorceress goddess Circe and attempted to chase her away from her land, but then her father Helios slew him. From the blood of the giant that seeped on the ground a herb, moly, sprang that had a black root for the black blood of Picolous, and a white flower for the white Sun that killed him, or for the fact that Circe grew white out of terror.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The plant that sprang from Picolous' death, moly, has been identified with the Prometheion, the special plant Medea used for her potion, which has a similar origin story as both were said to have grown from blood, that of Picolous and Prometheus respectively, as well as the Κιρκαῖον, "Circe's plant", another magical herb connected to Circe.^[2][11] As for real-world identifications, the plant that grew from Picolous's blood has been suggested to be the snowdrop, a flower that counteracts amnesia, hallucinations, and delusions, which are hypothesized to be the real physics behind Circe's magic.^[12]

See also

• Ancient Greece portal
• Mythology portal

• Alcyoneus
• Clytius
• Mimas (giant)
• Polybotes

Notes

1. Chrystal 2020, p. 101.
2. Knight 1995, p. 180.
3. Translation by Zucker and Le Feuvre, p. 324
4. Beekes 2009, p. 989.
5. Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 4, as epitomized by Patriarch Photius in Myriobiblon 190.32
6. Pareto 1935, p. 103, note 179.
7. Eustathius, Ad Odysseam 10.305
8. Rahner 1971, p. 204.
9. Apollonius Rhodius 1928, p. 89, note on line 845.
10. Le Comte 1975, p. 75.
11. Barca 2023, p. 183.
12. Plaitakis & Duvoisin1983, pp. 1–5.

References

• Apollonius Rhodius (1928). The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius: Book III. Translated by Marshall M. Gillies, introduction and commentary. Cambridge University Press.
• Barca, Natale (March 31, 2023). Knossos, Mycenae, Troy: The Enchanting Bronze Age and its Tumultuous Climax. Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-78925-947-6.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Lucien van Beek (ed.). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. II. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Publications. ISBN 978-90-04-17419-1.
• Chrystal, Paul (September 30, 2020). War in Greek Mythology. Yorkshire - Philadelphia: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-52676-616-8.
• Knight, Virginia (1995). The Renewal of Epic: Responses to Homer in the Argonautica of Apollonius. Leiden-New York-Köln: Brill Publishers. ISBN 90-04-10386-4.
• Le Comte, Edward (1975). Poets' Riddles: Essays in Seventeenth-century Explication. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press. ISBN 0-8046-9065-0.
• Pareto, Vilfredo (1935). Arthur Livingston (ed.). The Mind and Society. Vol. II. Translated by Arthur Livingston; Andrew Bongiorno; James Harvey Rogers. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. ISBN 9785872243489.
• Plaitakis, Andreas; Duvoisin, Roger C. (1983). "Homer's moly identified as Galanthus nivalis L.: physiologic antidote to stramonium poisoning". Clinical Neuropharmacology. 6 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1097/00002826-198303000-00001. PMID 6342763. S2CID 19839512.
• Rahner, Hugo (1971). Greek Myths and Christian Mystery. New York, USA: Biblo & Tannen Publishers. ISBN 9780819602701. SBN 8196-0270-1.
• Zucker, Arnaud; Le Feuvre, Claire (January 18, 2021). Ancient and Medieval Greek Etymology: Theory and Practice I. Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-071487-6.

External links

• GIGANTES from The Theoi Project