Briareus

British  

/ braɪˈɛərɪəs /

noun

1. Greek myth a giant with a hundred arms and fifty heads who aided Zeus and the Olympians against the Titans

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Other Word Forms

• Briarean adjective

Example Sentences

Some of the apostles were found, upon careful search, to be centipedes; and others to have had as many hands as Briareus.

From Dealings with the Dead, Volume I (of 2) by School, A Sexton of the Old

So does the sun himself upon a vaster arena and before a greater spectator, like another Briareus; holding out his seventeen planets, and nobody knows how many comets, in his hundred hands.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 by Various

The river spread out as many arms as Briareus; short, stubby creeks, slow waters prone to overflow and creep, between high knotted roots of live-oak and cypress, into thickets of bog myrtle.

From The Long Roll by Johnston, Mary

The giant Briareus, with his hundred hands, is truly in China of a most stupendous and colossal stature, being commonly from fifty to sixty feet in height, and sometimes as tall as eighty feet.

From Travels in China, Containing Descriptions, Observations, and Comparisons, Made and Collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a Subsequent Journey through the Country from Pekin to Canton by Barrow, John, Sir

Briareus was another giant, remarkable for having fifty heads and a hundred hands.

From The Student's Mythology A Compendium of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Hindoo, Chinese, Thibetian, Scandinavian, Celtic, Aztec, and Peruvian Mythologies by White, Catherine Ann