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( ÔéôÜí , usually in the plur. Ôéôᾶíåò , of uncertain derivation).. These children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth) were, SEE TITANES, according to the earliest Greek legends, the vanquished predecessors of the Olympian gods, condemned by Zeus to dwell in Tartarus, yet not without retaining many relics of their ancient dignity (AEsch. Prom. Vinct. passim). By later (Latin) poets they were confounded with the kindred Gigantes (Horace, Odes, 3, 4, 42, etc.), as the traditions of-the primitive Greek faith died away; and both terms were transferred by the Sept. to the Rephaim of ancient Palestine. SEE GIANT.
The usual Greek rendering of Rephaim is indeed Ãßãáíôåò (Gen_14:5; Jos_12:4, etc.), or, with a yet clearer reference to Greek mythology, ãçãåíåῖò (Proverbs 2, 18; Pro_9:18) and èåïìÜ÷ïé (Symmach.; Pro_9:18; Pro_21:16; Job_26:5). But in 2Sa_5:18; 2Sa_5:22 “the valley of Rephaim” is represented by ἡ êïéëὰò ôῶí ôéôÜíùí instead of ἡ êïéëὰò ôῶí ãéãÜíôùí (1Ch_11:15; 1Ch_14:9; 1Ch_14:13); and the same rendering occurs in a Hexapl. text in 2Sa_23:13. Thus Ambrose defends his use of a classical allusion by a reference to the old Latin version of 2 Samuel 5, which preserved the Sept. rendering (De Fide, 3, 1, 4, “Nam et gigantes et vallem Titanum prophetici sermonis series non refugit. Et Esaias Sirenas... dixit”). It can therefore occasion no surprise that in the Greek version of the triumphal hymn of Judith (16, 7) “the sons of the Titans” ( õἱïὶ ÔéôÜíùí ; Vulg. filii Titan; old Lat. filii Dathan; f. Tela; f. bellatorum) stands parallel with “high giants,” ὑøçëïὶ Ãßãáíôåò , where the original text probably had øְôָàַéí and âַּáּåֹøַéí . The word has yet another interesting point of connection with the Bible; for it may have been from some vague sense of the struggle of the infernal and celestial powers, dimly shadowed forth in the classical myth of the Titans, that several Christian-fathers inclined to the belief that ÔåéôÜí was the mystic name of “the beast” indicated in Rev_13:18 (Ireneus, 5 30, 3, “Divinum putatur' apud multos esse hoc nomen .... et ostentationem quandam continetultionis ... et alias autem et antiquum, et fide dignum, et regale, magis autem et tyrannicum nomen ... ut ex multis colligamus ne forte Titan vocetur qui veniet” ).