Quotations

Pliny the Elder (23–79 A.D.): “It is a matter of observation that the stature of the entire human race is becoming smaller … When a mountain in Crete was cleft by an earthquake, a skeleton 46 cubits long was found, which some people thought must be that of Orion and others of [the young giant] Otus. The records attest that the skeleton of Orestes dug up at the command of an oracle measured 7 cubits. Moreover, the famous bard Homer nearly 1,000 years ago never ceased to lament that mortals were of smaller stature than in the old days” (Natural History 7.73–75).

Julius Solinus (third century A.D.): “At Phlegra [northern Greece], before there were any men there, the story goes that a battle was fought between the gods and the giants … Great proofs and tokens of that war have and continue to appear to this day. Whenever the streams rise with rainstorms, the waters overflow their banks and flood the fields, they say that through the action of the water are discovered bones like men’s carcasses but far bigger. Due to the immeasurable hugeness of the bones they are reported to have been the monstrous bodies of the army of giants” (Collectanea rerum memorabilium 1.90–91).