In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek: Τῑτάν Tītā́n; plural: Τῑτᾶνες Tītânes) were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. Their role as Elder Gods that were overthrown by a present race of younger gods, the Olympians, was a Greek borrowing from the Ancient Near East.[1]
There were twelve Titans[2] from their first literary appearance, in Hesiod, Theogony; pseudo-Apollodorus, in Bibliotheke, adds a thirteenth Titan Dione, a double of Theia (a.k.a. Medusa). The six male Titans are known as the Titanes, and the females as the Titanides ("Titanesses"). The Titans were associated with various primal concepts, some of which are simply extrapolated from their names: ocean and fruitful earth, sun and moon, memory and natural law. The twelve first-generation Titans were ruled by the youngest, Cronus, who overthrew their father, Uranus ('Sky'), at the urgings of their mother, Gaia ('Earth').
The Titans later gave birth to other Titans, notably the children of Hyperion (Helios, Eos, and Selene), the daughters of Coeus (Leto and Asteria), and the sons of Iapetus Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius; all of these descendants in the second generation are also known as "Titans".
The Titans preceded the Twelve Olympians, who, led by Zeus, eventually overthrew them in the Titanomachy ('War of the Titans'). The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld, with a few exceptions.
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Titan (pronounced /ˈtaɪtən/ TYE-tən, or as Greek: Τῑτάν) or Saturn VI is the largest moon of Saturn, the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere,[6] and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.[7]
Titan is the twentieth most distant moon of Saturn and sixth farthest among those large enough to assume a spheroid shape. Frequently described as a satellite with planet-like characteristics, Titan has a diameter roughly 50% larger than Earth's moon and is 80% more massive. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, after Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and it is larger by diameter than the smallest planet, Mercury (although only half as massive). Titan was the first known moon of Saturn, discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens.[8]
Titan is primarily composed of water ice and rocky material. The dense atmosphere prevented understanding of Titan's surface until new information accumulated with the arrival of the CassiniHuygens mission in 2004, including the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon lakes in the satellite's polar regions. These are the only large, stable bodies of surface liquid known to exist anywhere other than Earth. The surface is geologically young; although mountains and several possible cryovolcanoes have been discovered, it is relatively smooth and few impact craters have been discovered.
The atmosphere of Titan is largely composed of nitrogen and its climate includes methane and ethane clouds. The climateincluding wind and raincreates surface features that are similar to those on Earth, such as sand dunes and shorelines, and, like Earth, is dominated by seasonal weather patterns. With its liquids (both surface and subsurface) and robust nitrogen atmosphere, Titan is viewed as analogous to the early Earth, although at a much lower temperature. The satellite has thus been cited as a possible host for microbial extraterrestrial life or, at least, as a prebiotic environment rich in complex organic chemistry. Researchers have suggested a possible underground liquid ocean might serve as a biotic environment.[9][10
