Brewer's: Hundred-handed

(The). Three of the sons of Uranus were so called, viz. Ægaeon or Briareus [Bri'-a-ruce], Kottos, and Gyges or Gyes. Called in Greek Hekatogcheiros [hek'-ka-ton-kiros]. After the war between Zeus and the Titans, when the latter were overcome and hurled into Tartarus, the Hundred-handed ones were set to keep watch and ward over them. (See Giants.)

Sometimes the three-headed Cerberus is so called, because the necks were covered with snakes instead of hair.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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