Typhon

Typhon mated with Echidna, and their union produced a brood of monsters. Typhon was a vast hybrid creature with prodigious strength. He had a hundred serpents’ heads, whose dark tongues flickered and whose voices produced the sounds of many animals. His eyes flashed fire. Other accounts gave him serpentine feet and hair, many arms, and animal heads among the serpent heads, including those of lions, leopards, bulls, boars, bears, cattle, wolves, and dogs. His mouths spat poison, and fire came from his eyes.

Echidna lived in a cave. She was described as half a lovely maiden and half a serpent. Together, Typhon and Echidna produced Orthrus, the hound of Geryon, which had two heads. They also produced Cerberus, the three-headed hound of Hades, and the Hydra of Lerna, a water-serpent with many heads. Their offspring included the Chimaera, which had a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s body, and breathed fire.

Some accounts extended the brood further. They named the eagle that fed on Prometheus’ liver and Ladon, the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides. The Sphinx and the Nemean Lion were also assigned to Typhon and Echidna in some genealogies. Another account added the Crommyonian Sow, which Theseus killed. One tradition instead made Orthrus the father of the Chimaera, the Sphinx, the Hydra, and the Nemean Lion by Echidna. The main genealogy presented Typhon and Echidna as the parents of the monstrous hounds, serpents, and Chimaera.

Typhon hurled flaming rocks at Olympus and attacked the gods with hissing and shouts. He was the child of Mother Earth and Tartarus, born in the Corycian Cave of Cilicia after the Giants were destroyed. He was part man and part beast, larger and stronger than all the other children of Earth. Serpents formed his lower body, dragons’ heads grew from his arms, wings covered him, and fire flashed from his eyes. His head reached the stars, while his outstretched arms reached across the world.

The gods fled to Egypt and changed themselves into animals. Zeus became a ram, Apollo a crow, Dionysus a goat, Hera a white cow, Artemis a cat, Aphrodite a fish, Ares a boar, and Hermes an ibis. Athene alone remained and taunted Zeus for his cowardice. Zeus resumed his true form and attacked Typhon with thunderbolts. At close quarters he struck him with an adamantine sickle, but Typhon overpowered him. He cut the sinews from Zeus’s hands and feet, carried him through the sea to Cilicia, and placed him in the Corycian Cave. The sinews were hidden in a bear’s skin, and the she-dragon Delphyne, half beast and half maiden, guarded them.

Hermes and Aigipan took the sinews without being seen and fitted them back into Zeus. When Zeus had recovered his strength, he descended from heaven in a chariot drawn by winged horses and pursued Typhon with thunderbolts. Typhon fled to Mount Nysa, where the Three Fates deceived him with ephemeral fruits. They persuaded him that the fruits would restore his strength, though they doomed him to death. He then reached Mount Haemus in Thrace and hurled whole mountains at Zeus. Zeus struck them back with thunderbolts, and they wounded Typhon. His blood flowed over the mountain, which was said to have taken the name Haemus from this event.

Typhon fled towards Sicily. Zeus ended the pursuit by hurling Mount Aetna upon him. Fire still belches from its cone.

Typhon hurled flaming rocks at heaven, sending the gods into terror. He had been born in Cilicia after the gods defeated the Giants. Gaia’s anger had grown over their destruction, so she joined with Tartarus and brought forth her youngest child. Several sources place his birth in the Corycian Cave of Cilicia. Other traditions give Hera as his mother. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Hera sought a son stronger than Zeus and entrusted the infant Typhon to the serpent Python.

Typhon was part man and part beast. In size and strength he surpassed all Gaia’s other children. His human form reached to his thighs, but his immense body rose above the mountains and often scraped the stars with his head. When he stretched out his arms, one hand reached towards the west and the other towards the east. A hundred serpents’ or dragons’ heads sprang from his arms, while countless serpent heads formed his hands in another account. Below his thighs, massive coils of vipers extended upwards and gave out violent hisses. Wings covered his body. Filthy hair streamed from his head and cheeks, and fire flashed from his eyes. Some descriptions make him soot black and give him hundreds of wings, serpent fingers, and the power to breathe fire.

As Typhon rushed towards Olympus, the gods fled to Egypt and disguised themselves as animals. Zeus became a ram, Apollo a crow, Dionysus a goat, and Hera a white cow. Athena alone remained and challenged Zeus to face him. Zeus then took his true form, seized his thunderbolts, and struck Typhon, burning his many heads before hurling him down in a ball of flame.