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In Greek mythology, the Aloadae (/ˌælˈd/) or Aloads (Ancient Greek: Ἀλωάδαι Aloadai) were Otus (or Otos) (Ὦτος) and Ephialtes (Ἐφιάλτης), sons of Iphimedia, wife of Aloeus, by Poseidon,[1] whom she induced to make her pregnant by going to the seashore and disporting herself in the surf or scooping seawater into her bosom.[2] From Aloeus they received their patronymic, the Aloadae. They were strong and aggressive giants, growing by nine fingers every month[3] nine fathoms tall at age nine, and only outshone in beauty by Orion.[4][5]



The Aloadae were bringers of civilization, founding cities and teaching culture to humanity. They were venerated specifically in Naxos and Boeotian Ascra,[11] two cities they founded. Ephialtes (lit. "he who jumps upon") is also the Greek word for "nightmare",[12] and Ephialtes was sometimes considered the daimon of nightmares. In the Inferno of Dante's Divine Comedy Ephialtes is one of four giants placed in the great pit that separates Dis, or the seventh and eighth circles of Hell, from Cocytus, the Ninth Circle. He is chained.

In popular culture


  1. Odyssey, 11.305–8.
  2. Bibliotheke 1.7.4.
  3. Hyginus, Fabulae 28.
  4. Kerényi, 1951:154.
  5. Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Aloeidae". In William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 132–133.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  6. Odyssey 11.319–20.
  7. Hyginus.
  8. It is related in the Iliad by the goddess Dione to her daughter Aphrodite
  9. Hamilton, Edith (1942). Mythology. New York: Grand Central Publishing. p. 144.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  10. This mytheme, of the brothers' mutual murder, features in the myth of the mutual killings of Eteocles and Polynices that is recounted in Seven Against Thebes.
  11. Pausanias 9.29.1.


  • Kerenyi, Karl (1951). The Gods of the Greeks. pp. 153ff.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>

External links