Polybotes

Polybotes is one of the Gigantes, born of Gaia in the wake of Uranus's castration; as a member of the earth-born Giants he took part in the Gigantomachy, the primordial struggle in which the Giants rose against the Olympian gods. In the tradition preserved in Apollodorus and repeated by later authors, Poseidon chased Polybotes through the sea to the island of Cos and broke off a piece (Nisyrum) to hurl upon him, so that the Giant was crushed and lies beneath the island. Strabo records the same tradition and notes an alternative that Polybotes lies beneath Cos itself. Pausanias records Coan local versions and mentions an Athenian statue depicting Poseidon attacking Polybotes.

As a member of the Gigantes, descriptions applied to Polybotes follow general Gigantes traits: enormous bulk and invincible might, a terrible aspect with long locks, and (in Apollodorus's description of the race) dragon-like scales on the feet. Specific visual attestations identify Polybotes in vase-painting scenes from the sixth and fifth centuries BC showing him in combat with Poseidon or Zeus; one amphora depicts Poseidon bearing an island (Nisyros) on his shoulder ready to hurl it at the Giant, and a late fifth-century cup shows Poseidon attacking the Giant with his trident while Gaia rises from the earth.

The sources portray Polybotes primarily as a martial opponent in the Gigantomachy: a powerful Giant who fought the Olympian gods and was prominent enough to be singled out in literature and art. The tradition does not attribute independent geological or ritual powers to Polybotes; the island-underfoot motif is the result of Poseidon's action in pursuing and subduing him rather than an ability of the Giant himself.