#koios

This is an old idea I had sketched out a year or two ago that I felt like revisiting. I mean, think about it. When Apollo fell into Tartarus during his fight with Python, it must have caught the attention of quite a few souls, and maybe one of those souls was his dear old grandpa! Wouldn't that be fun?

leto aesthetic [titaness of modesty & demureness]

the titans

[and Koios]: The Aeolians use ‘K’ instead of ‘P’: he means Poios, as in ‘quality’ [poiótēs]. Kreios is that which is royal and ruling [as if derived from kreíōn: ruler], Hyperion is the motion of everything above [hypér] the earth, and Iapetos is derived from ‘to go’ [ĭénai]; for since by nature all things heavy, when released, fall down [píptein] from above, he calls this tendency Iapetos. And these, according to Akousilaos (BNJ 2 fr. 7), are called Titans and Titanides. Zeno (SVF I fr. 100 Arnim), relating more to physics, says that they are called ‘Titans’ because the elements are arranged [diatáttesthai] throughout the whole cosmos. But otherwise they allegorize Koios as being quality [poiótēs], Kreios as being differentiation [diákrisis]; Hyperion as the sky which above us [hyperánō] moves on [iónta]; and Iapetos as its motion, from ‘going’ [íesthai] and ‘flying’ [pétesthai], for the sky is ever-moving.

Coeus went mad according to the Argonautica. He could make an absolutely unhinged villain, maybe even a sympathetic one taking into account the righteous anger he must feel over the fate of his daughter Asteria.

And what about Asteria's husband Perses? How would a Titan named for Destruction react if he found out the Kings of the Heavens and Seas both tried violating his wife and harassed her to the point she gave up her immortal life to escape them?

Coeus's son Lelantos also lost his own daughter Aura to the cruel actions of Artemis, Nemesis, Eros, & Dionysus. That would be a good reason make him team up with his dad.

Want a less sympathetic villain that could still be interesting? Maybe Pallas would be a good option. The Titan-God of Warcraft and the consort of Styx, the Goddess of Oaths and Hatred, who left him during the Titanomachy at the suggestion of her father Oceanus. Imagine a showdown between Pallas and his daughter Nike, the Goddess of Victory.

As when Coeus in the lowest pit bursts the adamantine bonds and trailing Jove’s fettering chains invokes Saturn and Tityus, and in his madness conceives a hope of scaling heaven, yet though he repass the rivers and the gloom the hound of the Furies and the sprawling Hydra’s crest repel him.

The first thing that stands out is who he invokes.

Saturn (Kronos) makes sense. He's his king, his brother, and a fellow prisoner. There's history behind them, and they should join forces to escape.

Then there's Tityus and he's not an ally Coeus should want. After all, he's the giant who attempted to rape Leto, Coeus' daughter.

This can be read as madness—that Coeus is so far gone that he'd reach for anyone, even a monster that wronged his own bloodline.

But I see another interpretation.

They're both in Tartarus for punishment. What are the chances he'd not want to take vengeance in his own hand while he's at it? I imagine not a lot.

For Saturn, he goes as a brother.

For Tityus, a father wanting revenge.

The second thing that stands out is Flaccus' choice of Coeus himself.

While some interpret him as a god of knowledge due to his name meaning "questioning," it changes how his escape attempt feels.

He didn't just use brute force. It was thought, calculation, persistence, and patience that came with planning to leave his prison.

And for a moment, it works, but only briefly.

He cannot overpower or out think Cerberus or the Furies.