Mimas (Giant)
In Greek mythology, Mimas was one of the Gigantes, the offspring of Gaia, born from the blood of the castrated Uranus. According to the mythographer Apollodorus, he was killed, during the Gigantomachy, the cosmic battle of the Giants with the Olympian gods, by Hephaestus with "missiles of red-hot metal" from his forge. In Euripides' Ion, the chorus, describing the wonders of the late sixth century Temple of Apollo at Delphi, tell of seeing depicted there the Gigantomachy showing, among other things, Zeus burning Mimas "to ashes" with his thunderbolt. In the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes, and the Gigantomachia by Claudian, Mimas was killed by Ares. Mimas is also mentioned in the company of other Giants, by the Latin writers Horace and Seneca.
A fragment of an Attic Black-figure dinos by Lydos dating from the second quarter of the sixth century, which depicted the Gigantomachy, shows Aphrodite with shield and spear battling a Giant also with shield and spear, whose name is inscribed as "Mimos", possibly in error for "Mimas".
He was said to be buried under Prochyte, one of the Phlegraean Islands off the coast of Naples. Claudian mentions Mimas as one of several vanquished Giants whose weapons, as spoils of war, hung on trees in a wood near the summit of Mount Etna.
Mimas is possibly the same as the Giant named Mimon on the Gigantomachy depicted on the north frieze of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, and a late fifth century BC cup from Vulci shown fighting Ares.
Saturn's moon, Mimas, is named for the Giant.
