Tonight, the war of the Titans. Hesiod needs every word he has for noise and fire and size. So will we.
Hesiod’s Theogony · C2
Part Ten: The War of the Titans
The vocabulary of noise, light and scale (deafening, blinding, colossal, din, reverberate, earth-shattering, dazzling, towering, gargantuan, searing): C2 descriptive language for the loudest battle in Greek poetry.
⚡ Play the story too: in the gamebook, you are Briareos.Play the gamebook →
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Finally, a battle!
The story
After Hesiod’s Theogony, lines 664–735
At dawn the gods and the Titans met, and the sea roared, the earth crashed, the sky groaned. Zeus held nothing back: dazzling bolts flew from his hand, and the thunder reverberated through every valley. The din was deafening.
Forests burned in the searing heat; even Ocean boiled. The towering Hundred-Handers threw colossal rocks, three hundred at a time, in a gargantuan effort; it seemed, in an earth-shattering crash, as if Earth and Sky were colliding.
The Titans were driven down to Tartarus, as far below the earth as the sky is above it, and bound behind bronze gates, which the Hundred-Handers guard for ever.
It seemed as if Earth and wide Sky above were crashing together.
Noise
MARCOS
A deafening noise. The din of battle. The thunder reverberated.
SOPHIA
For noise: deafening, ear-splitting, thunderous; a din, a roar, a clamour; reverberate, echo, resound.
Light and heat
DEMETRIA
A blinding flash. The dazzling bolts. The searing heat.
SOPHIA
For light: blinding, dazzling, glaring, brilliant. For heat: searing, scorching, blistering. Many have figurative uses: a dazzling career, searing criticism.
Scale
PHILO
Colossal rocks, towering giants, a gargantuan effort, an earth-shattering crash.
SOPHIA
Words of size often come from stories: colossal (the Colossus of Rhodes), gargantuan (Rabelais’s giant), titanic (the Titans themselves!). Also towering, mammoth, immense.
Sophia’s summary
| Form | Use | From the story |
|---|---|---|
| deafening, ear-splitting; a din | noise | The noise was deafening. |
| reverberate, resound | sound echoing | The thunder reverberated. |
| blinding, dazzling | light | a dazzling flash |
| searing, scorching | heat | the searing heat |
| colossal, gargantuan, towering, titanic | scale | a colossal rock |
Practice
Answer all the questions, then press “Check my answers”. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Choose
Choose the correct form.
1. The applause was ___: we couldn’t hear ourselves speak.
2. Her voice ___ round the empty hall.
3. A ___ statue stood at the harbour entrance.
4. He gave a ___ performance: everyone was amazed.
5. I can’t work with this ___ outside.
6. The ship hit an iceberg: it was a ___ mistake to call it unsinkable.
B · Write
Write the correct form of the word in brackets, or the missing word.
7. The heat of the desert. (sear)
8. A effort was needed to build the pyramids. (Gargantua)
9. The cliffs rose above the sea. (very tall)
10. The news was for the whole family. (shattering the earth)
C · Right or wrong?
Is it correct?
11. “There was a blinded flash of lightning.”
12. “The critics gave the film a searing review.”
13. “The noise was so deafened that I left.”
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