Artemis, Otus, and Ephialtes

  Although her brother Apollo had numerous wives, Zeus remained true to Artemis and never made her marry. However one time she herself promised her hand to a suitor, but she had no intention of keeping her promise. The suitor was Otus, the gigantic son of Poseidon, and this is the story.

   Otus and his brother, Ephialtes, were almost sixty feet tall when they reached manhood, but they never stopped growing. An oracle once predicted that no one could kill the brothers, not even a god. Mother Earth was very happy with them, for she still held a grudge against Zeus for keeping her sons, the Titans, in Tartarus. She wanted the brothers to overthrow Zeus. One night Mother Earth whispered to the brothers that such tall, strong and handsome youths as themselves should not be ruled by Zeus. The brothers piled mountains on top of mountains till they built a new mountain as tall as Olympus. From the top they called to Zeus to surrender his powers to them and move out of his palace along with the other Olympians. Only Artemis could stay and become the bride of Otus, and Hera of Ephialtes. Zeus was really worried, but Apollo, the god of reason, said that if no one could kill them they must kill each other. Zeus persuaded Artemis to pretend that she was in love with Otus. She told Otus that she excepted his proposal and would meet him on the island of Naxos. Ephialtes became jealous that Artemis fell in love with his brother and Hera hadn’t fallen in love with him. Still, Ephialtes went with Otus to meet Artemis.