Cottus was one of the Hecatoncheires. In poetry, he symbolises overwhelming strength and the chaotic forces subdued by Olympian order.

Cottus represents one of the three Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handers), monstrous beings each possessing one hundred arms and fifty heads, brothers to the three Cyclopes. These primordial giants were offspring of Gaia and Uranus but were imprisoned by their father in Tartarus due to their terrifying appearance. Zeus freed them to aid in the Titanomachy, and their overwhelming power—hurling one hundred boulders simultaneously—proved decisive in the Olympians' victory. For students analyzing Greek cosmogony and the succession of divine generations, the Hecatoncheires represent the chaotic, monstrous forces from the universe's beginning that Zeus must strategically incorporate rather than simply oppose. Their loyalty to Zeus afterward made them guardians of imprisoned Titans, demonstrating how the new order utilized primordial power. References to Cottus or his brothers invoke overwhelming force, primordial chaos, the monstrous allies that enabled Olympian triumph, and the incorporation of earlier powers into Zeus's regime. The Hundred-Handers embody excess, the multiplication of normal features to monstrous proportions.