[♦] ‘Gerhæ’ replaced with ‘Gerrhæ’
Gersus and Gerrhus, a river of Scythia. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 56.
Gēryon and Gēryŏnes, a celebrated monster, born from the union of Chrysaor with Callirhoe, and represented by the poets as having three bodies and three heads. He lived in the island of Gades, where he kept numerous flocks, which were guarded by a two-headed dog, called Orthos, and by Eurythion. Hercules, by order of Eurystheus, went to Gades and destroyed Geryon, Orthos, and Eurythion, and carried away all his flocks and herds to Tirynthus. Hesiod, Theogony, li. 187.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 661; bk. 8, li. 202.—Silius Italicus, bk. 1, li. 277.—Apollodorus, bk. 2.—Lucretius, bk. 5, li. 28.
Gessătæ, a people of Gallia Togata. Plutarch, Marcellus.
Gessoriăcum, a town of Gaul, now Boulogne, in Picardy.
Gessos, a river of Ionia.
Geta, a man who raised seditions at Rome in Nero’s reign, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2, ch. 72.——Septimius, a son of the emperor Severus, brother to Caracalla. In the eighth year of his age he was moved with compassion at the fate of some of the partisans of Niger and Albinus, who had been ordered to be executed; and his father, struck with his humanity, retracted his sentence. After his father’s death he reigned at Rome, conjointly with his brother; but Caracalla, who envied his virtues, and was jealous of his popularity, ordered him to be poisoned; and when this could not be effected, he murdered him in the arms of his mother Julia, who, in the attempt of defending the fatal blows from his body, received a wound in her arm from the hand of her son, the 28th of March, A.D. 212. Geta had not reached the 23rd year of his age, and the Romans had reason to lament the death of so virtuous a prince, whilst they groaned under the cruelties and oppression of Caracalla.
Getæ (singular, Getes), a people of European Scythia, near the Daci. Ovid, who was banished in their country, describes them as a savage and warlike nation. The word Geticus is frequently used for Thracian. Ovid, ex Ponto; Tristia, poem 5, li. 111.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Statius, bk. 2, Sylvæ, poem 2, li. 61; bk. 3, poem 1, li. 17.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 54; bk. 3, li. 95.
Getulia. See: [Gætulia].
Gĭgantes, the sons of Cœlus and Terra, who, according to Hesiod, sprang from the blood of the wound which Cœlus received from his son Saturn; whilst Hyginus calls them sons of Tartarus and Terra. They are represented as men of uncommon stature, and with strength proportioned to their gigantic size. Some of them, as Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges, had 50 heads and 100 arms, and serpents instead of legs. They were of a terrible aspect; their hair hung loose about their shoulders, and their beards were suffered to grow untouched. Pallene and its neighbourhood was the place of their residence. The defeat of the Titans, with whom they are often ignorantly confounded, and to whom they were nearly related, incensed them against Jupiter, and they all conspired to dethrone him. The god was alarmed, and called all the deities to assist him against a powerful enemy who made use of rocks, oaks, and burning woods for their weapons, and who had already heaped mount Ossa upon Pelion, to scale with more facility the walls of heaven. At the sight of such dreadful adversaries, the gods fled with the greatest consternation into Egypt, where they assumed the shape of different animals to screen themselves from their pursuers. Jupiter, however, remembered that they were not invincible, provided he called a mortal to his assistance; and by the advice of Pallas, he armed his son Hercules in his cause. With the aid of this celebrated hero, the giants were soon put to flight and defeated. Some were crushed to pieces under mountains, or buried in the sea, and others were flayed alive, or beaten to death with clubs. See: [Enceladus], [Aloides], [Porphyrion], [Typhon], [Otus], [Titanes], &c. The existence of giants has been supported by all the writers of antiquity, and received as an undeniable truth. Homer tells us that Tityus, when extended on the ground, covered nine acres; and that Polyphemus ate two of the companions of Ulysses at once, and walked along the shores of Sicily, leaning on a staff which might have served for the mast of a ship. The Grecian heroes, during the Trojan war, and Turnus in Italy, attacked their enemies by throwing stones, which four men of the succeeding ages would have been unable to move. Plutarch also mentions, in support of the gigantic stature, that Sertorius opened the grave of Antæus in Africa, and found a skeleton which measured six cubits in length. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 2, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 151.—Plutarch, Sertorius.—Hyginus, fable 28, &c.—Homer, Odyssey, bks. 7 & 10.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 280; Æneid, bk. 6, li. 580.