Who was this 30 foot tall Kegtolochus aka Teutobochus Rex?

While working on an unrelated article I ran into this little 1882 paragraph pertaining to the Giants of Old. It is talking about 25-33 foot Giants. It specifically mentions one named Kegtolochus Rex. "Rex" means King in Latin language. Kegtolochus is only mentioned in Google as it pertains to this same very book it was found in.

We know that in Greek mythology, Antilochus was the son of Nestor, king of Pylos, and was one of the Acheans in the Trojan War. But who was this Kegtolochus?

Giants_of_Old_16_century.png

It looks like the below article is talking about the same 25 foot giant, only this time his name is somewhat different.
  • Alternate name: Theutobochus Rex
  • World-Historical Individual: Teutobod
    • Teutobod was a king of the Teutons, who, together with the Cimbri invaded the Roman Republic in the Cimbrian War, won a spectacular victory at the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC. He was captured at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC.
    • At the Battle of Aquae Sextiae the Teutons were virtually annihilated and Teutobod along with, reportedly, 20,000 of his people were captured.
    • After this, he and his tribe drop out from history.
    • He most likely was sent to Rome for a triumphal procession to celebrate his defeat, then ritually executed afterwards.
I think it's safe to assume that Theutobochus Rex is the same giant mentioned in the OP. Both articles are virtually the same. This time searching for the giant's name produced some results.
Teutobochus was a legendary giant and king of the Teutons. Large bones discovered in 1613 were claimed to be his skeleton. In 1869 W.A. Seaver wrote: "In times more modern (1613), some masons digging near the ruins of a castle in Dauphiné, in a field which by tradition had long been called 'The Giant's Field,' at a depth of 18 feet discovered a brick tomb 30 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8 feet high, on which was a gray stone with the words 'Theutobochus Rex' cut thereon.
The Tomb of Teutobochus.jpg

When the tomb was opened they found a human skeleton entire, 25-1/2 feet long, 10 feet wide across the shoulders, and 5 feet deep from the breast to the back. His teeth were about the size of an ox's foot, and his shin-bone measured 4 feet in length."

The bones were displayed in Paris by Pierre Mazurier, a surgeon who claimed to be one of the finders.

Elephant
After the finding of the bones, the legend of the king Teutobochus, which was thought to be the Teuton king defeated by Caius Marius, spread despite analysis by anatomist Jean Riolan the Younger, who ascribed the bones to one of Hannibal's elephants.
Deinotherium
As you can see, it took our scientists 367 years to "positively" identify "a plaster mold." Deinotherium ("terrible beast" derived from the Ancient Greek δεινός, deinos meaning "terrible" and θηρίον, therion meaning "beast") was a large prehistoric relative of modern-day elephants.
  • Deinotherium appeared in the Middle Miocene and survived until the Early Pleistocene.
    • Went extinct: 2.58 - 0.77 mln years ago
  • During that time, it changed very little. In life, it probably resembled modern elephants, except it had downward-curving tusks attached to the lower jaw.
D. giganteum skull from Oxford University
Deinotherium_giganteum_skull.jpg

Here is what adult species of these Deinotherium were supposed to look like I guess. Sounds like we have 2 complete skeletons, and a few additional bones, though I am not sure.

Deinotherium_skeletals.jpg


Man vs. Elephant
The skeleton of this Deinotherium looks virtually identical to that of our contemporary elephant. Sure there can be differences a scientist would recognize. At the same time does this skeleton look like it could belong to a humanoid? I don't think so.

Comparative_view_of_the_human_and_elephant_frame,_Benjamin_Waterhouse_Hawkins,_1860.jpg

On the other hand, if our "elephant" looked something like this... well... may be... I don't know.

eleph2.jpg

We are also supposed to believe that cyclops did not exist.
The Blinding of Polyphemus1.jpg

cyclopes_amp_large_image_101.jpg

I was unable to find any pictures of the actual "elephant" bones they allegedly keep at the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy. And I have no idea what plaster mold was given to Léonard Ginsburg to analyze.

The below 1657 publication casts doubt on the entire story. At the same time it is hard to blame its author for being skeptical, if all he had was a secondary source of information.

bones-1.jpg

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There are several 16th-17th century publications mentioning Theutobochus. Most are in Latin. If Theutobochus and Teutobod were indeed one and the same... could it add some credibility to the story? Let's see what else we have.

Teutonic Mythology
Teutonic Mythology.jpg

1883 Source

Teutons - Titans
I got sucked into this rabbit hole. So far it appears that both Teutons and Titans were giants. Do we have any textual connection between the two? The first book I ran into, gave me more than I bargained for. The Sioux are in the mix?

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Simple google-searching produced the following: 2019 book titled Myths of the Rhine.

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And one more pub dated with 1811...

tt22.jpg

I do not know if the above information is credible, but it sounds interesting enough to prompt further investigation.


KD: Anyways, too sad that our main stream historians have their hands tied. Who did Alexander Nevsky really fight in 1242?
 
Ran into this early 1800s pub.

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Apart from 19th century individuals considering their 17th century counterparts being stupid, I wanted to note that in early 1800s, Teutobochus rex was considered to be one of the kings of Cimbri.
  • The Cimbri were an ancient tribe in Europe. Ancient authors described them variously as a Celtic people, Germanic people, or even Cimmerian.
  • Several ancient sources indicate that they lived in Jutland, which in some classical texts was called the Cimbrian peninsula.
  • There is no direct evidence for the language they spoke, though some scholars argue that it must have been a Germanic language, while others argue that it must have been Celtic.
Cimbri "chieftains" who fought against Gaius Marius.
As far as Teutobochus rex goes, we have this above mentioned wiki article:
  • Teutobochus was a legendary giant and king of the Teutons.
The Teutons were an ancient northern European tribe mentioned by Roman authors. The Teutons are best known for their participation, together with the Cimbri and other groups, in the Cimbrian War with the Roman Republic in the late second century BC.

So, what "tribe" did Teutobochus rex belong to, Cimbri or Teutons?

In ref. to the giants: To the Romans they appeared to be giants - most of the men being over six feet tall, and the women nearly as large.
  • KD: 7 through 30 feet is above six, so they would not be lying.
  • Heritage History
  • Diodorus Siculus. The Cimbri, who had the appearance of giants, endowed with enormous strength, destroyed several large Roman armies and attacked Italy with four hundred thousand men; but, thanks to the courage of the Romans, they were completely exterminated.
 
From french sources available on Gallica, Teutobochus is most often refered to as a German. In France Teutons is a common term use to refere to Germans. Quite intresting, this 1880 newspaper talks about the size of Teutobochus in comparaison of Old Testament caracters like Adam, Abraham and Moise. It says (ironicly) that mankind is constantly shrinking since antedeluvian times.

This phrase catch my attention :
As for Teutobochus and the man who witnessed the deluge, you know like me that the first was a mammoth, the second a salamander.
 
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