The hecatoncheires, or hekatonkheires (singular: Hecatoncheir; "Hundred-Handed Ones"; Latinised Centimani), were figures in an archaic stage of Greek mythology, three giants of incredible strength and ferocity that surpassed that of all Titans whom they helped overthrow - "each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads". Hesiod's Theogonyreports that the three Hekatonkheires became the guards of the gates of Tartarus.