Greek Myths XS: How Alpos created the Alps

Earth mother Gaia was heartbroken when her beloved children, the titans and the giants, were defeated – and for the most part destroyed – by the new generation of gods, the Olympians. But she wouldn’t give up. She kept on creating new offspring, and one of them was exceptional in every aspect. Alpos was enormous, the hugest and ugliest monster that ever lived. He dwelt in the Sicilian mountains, sowing terror in gods and humans alike. But not in Dionysos, who had a mission of his own: to be recognised as a god and to earn his place at Mount Olympos. “The colossal son of Earth, tall as the clouds, took a cliff as a javelin, held a pine tree like a club and lifted an olive tree, swinging it like a sword…” Dionysos however carried a secret weapon: his magical staff, called “thyrsus”. It only took a few swirls, and the giant rolled over, “filling the whole deep hollow of the sea”… It’s perfectly reasonable to suppose his fall caused a massive tsunami, which shifted the “booth” of Italy a few inches and created the mountain range at its limits. The Alps.

Dionysus and the Indians, mosaic, National Museum Rome, Italy

Gigantomachy relief, reproduction, Antikensammlung Berlin, Germany

Did you know?

• The story is told by the mythographer Nonnus (5th cent. A.D.), in his “Dyonisiaca”.

• About the clashes between titans, giants and Olympians: “The Last Stand”, “Nerve Racking”, “The Weight of the World”, “Cheating Mother Nature”; “The Deer Hunters”,

  “Holy Moly”.

• About Dionysos’ thyrsus: “The Holy and the Ivy”.