In Greek mythology, Menoetius was one of the Titans, a sibling of Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Atlas, all sons of the earlier primordial titan Iapetus. Their mother is variously represented as Asia or as Clymene, daughter of Okeanos. Like his brothers, Menoetius represents a negative personal trait which can give rise to fatal errors, such as impudence against the gods, or disproportionate violent rage and hasty premature decisions. His name means "doomed might," deriving from the Ancient Greek words menos "might, passion, force, battery" and oitos "doomed, ill-fated." Hesiod also gives him the epithet Hybristes, meaning "violent, insolent."

During the Titanomachy, a great feud between the titans and the gods of Mount Olympus, Menoetius was stricken down by a thunderbolt of Zeus, who cast the subdued titan either into the Underworld's darkest pit, Erebos, or into Tartarus, a jail full of all manner of torments for the very worst offenders against the gods, to remain imprisoned there for his hubristic violence.

His name is variously spelled Menoetius, Menoitios, or Menoetes, in Greek Μενοίτιος, and can be pronounced in IPA /məˈ niː ʃiəs/ or /məˈ niː tiz/.

There are one or two other people named Menoetius, in Greek mythology. The first is the Argonaut Menoetius of Opus, the son of Actor and Aegina, and the father of Patroclus, who was the companion of Achilles. The second is Menoetius, son of Keuthonymos, living in Hades and herding the cattle who graze the pastures of the Underworld. This second Menoetius may be the same as the titan; Keuthonymos is suspected to be an epithet of Iapetus. The latter Menoetius had a wrestling match with Herakles, as part of Herakles' twelfth labour, the theft of the three-headed dog Cerberus.

Menoetius should not be confused with the similarly-pronounced Menoeceus, a name belonging to both the father and then son of Creon of Thebes.

Iron Noder 2019, 16/30

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