Many European cultures had the idea of an early era of giants/titans that was replaced by a subsequent generation of gods or culture heroes (the latter after conversion to Christianity). There is no evidence that this reflects some prehistoric succession of belief systems. Rather, it appears that this aspect of the belief system embraced the supernatural beings that had always been the subject of devotion and ritual, giving them a depth and a backstory that lent them an opportunity to demonstrate their power and value.

It was easy to imagine that the world and the larger aspects of the landscape were shaped by gigantic entities. This may seem counter to intuition since it would seem that the gods could have done this as well - if they were gods, after all - right? But Europeans tended to ascribe the really big events of creation to an earlier generation of enormous creative powers. The gods (the very name conjures the wrong impression given modern society's omniscient, omnipotent deity) were often regarded as having smaller proportion, making them more approachable for people: one could look eye to eye with a goddess, but never with a titan.