The Giants of the Ancients Maybe Weren’t So Ancient
Man’s been flexing stories on stone long before the alphabet could crawl. Four thousand years ago, someone with a steady hand painted a red-skinned titan, muscles humming, carrying two elephants like toys. Power was pigment. Were these murals myth, metaphor, or memory? One of the first passages in the Bible even says, “There were giants in the earth in those days” — coincidence or ancient truth?
Ancient Art Reveals Giant Legends
The Nubians carved strength into permanence. Perhaps the elephants are symbolic, perhaps literal — a man carrying the weight of the world, or the dream of a shared pulse between human and beast. Art is our immortality, a snapshot of imagination made concrete.
Maybe giants never left. Maybe we just got smaller, and the stories got taller. Share on X
Epic Heroes and Historical Giants
Then there’s Gilgamesh, half god, half trouble, striding the earth like it owed him an explanation. Muscles made of myth, eyes full of storm. He wrestled beasts, defied gods, and chased immortality across deserts and dreams. Humans have shared giant stories for thousands of years — from Greek cyclopes to biblical Goliath. Were any real?
Even modern giants exist. Robert Wadlow, nearly 9 feet tall, remains the tallest documented human (Guinness World Records). Giants walk our stories like old rumors — Jack’s beanstalk climbers, the BFG’s gentle stomp — blurring myth and memory.
Sometimes history is stranger than myth, especially when the ceiling barely fits the subject. Share on X
Here, kitty kitty
Smithsonian clerk: “Quick! Hide these giant skulls in the file cabinet downstairs in the basement!”
That Jolly Green Giant wasn’t so Jolly.
Prehistoric Titans and Human Imagination
Some whispers suggest giant skulls and bones exist, buried or hidden, sparking stories of Nephilim and Anunnaki (Smithsonian Magazine). True or not, these tales reveal a fascination with scale, awe, and the impossible. Maybe the giants never left; maybe we just got smaller.
Egyptian pyramids get the headlines, but giants had their own swagger — painted, sculpted, river-fed, gold-rich. Art has always been man’s favorite form of immortality, proof that someone once lived on a scale beyond ordinary life.
If giants ever return, they’ll probably just sigh at humans measuring themselves in inches instead of ambition. Share on X
Meanwhile, somewhere, a titan probably rolls its eyes at humans claiming they’re the apex species.
Exploring the known and the unknown with a beat writer’s eye for truth. -Chip Von Gunten
A quick overview of the topics covered in this article.
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