Several times, individuals and creatures attempted to take over Olympus. The gods had to employ many ways to keep these attacks from succeding.These are a few of the ill-fated coup attempts.

     The half-brothers of Titans, the giants, made war with the gods and Olympus. The gods could do no more than stun the giants. They needed Hercules to give aid. He fulfilled the prophesy of Hera, that the Olympians would only succeed with the help of a lion-skinned mortal. Hercules, cloaked in his skin of the Nemean Lion, finished off the giants.

     In response to the death of her sons, the giants, Mother Earth gave birth to the son of Tartarus, Typhon. He had a horrible appearence. He had serpent heads for hands connected to his arms that stretched one hundred leagues, coiled serpents for legs, and the head of an ass. When Typhon attacked Mt. Olympus, all the gods were so scared they fled to Eygpt, all except Athene. The Goddess stood her ground and convinced Zues to fight back. Zeus had to defend Mount Olympus so he threw bolts of lightning at Typhon. Typhon fought back with force and cut off several of Zeus' muscles from his hands and feet. Typhon had his sister, Delphyne, guard the muscles in a cave, but Hermes tricked her and the muscles were returned to Zeus. Zeus became even more distraught and threw more thunderbolts at Typhon. Typhon fled around the world and in Sicily Zeus threw Mount Etna on top of him, which crushed Typhon. It is said to this day that the flames and steam that rise from the volcano are from Typhon.

     Another coup attempt came from the sons of Iphimedia. Otus and Ephialtes (possibly the sons of Poseidon) vowed to ravage Artemis and Hera. The Aloeides (what the two sons were called) assualted Olympus by piling Mount Pelion and Mount Ossa and then tried to bury Olympus. The threat to Olympus ended however, when the two fought over who got to go first in the ravaging. They killed each other.

• Eric Flaum. The Encyclopedia of Mythology (Philadelphia: Courage Books, 1993)