Echidna (I) As a mate of Typhon Echidna gave birth to many ugly babies, … The poet Pindar (c. 470 BC), who has Typhon born in Cilicia, and nurtured in "the famous Cilician cave"[40] an apparent allusion to the Corycian cave,[41] also has Zeus slaying Typhon "among the Arimoi". No certain ancient depictions of Echidna survive. The oldest genealogy relating to Echidna, Hesiod's Theogony (c. 8th – 7th century BC), is unclear on several points. 1. [9], Hesiod's Echidna was half beautiful maiden and half fearsome snake. [35] It was perhaps from this same cave, that Echidna used to "carry off passers-by". mother of the sprits that are the alternative to the Olympians She was half woman half snake, lived in a cave, and was known as a mother figure, in this case, as the progenitor of the Scythians (rather than of monsters).[60]. [51] The third-century BC poet Lycophron, placed Echidna's lair in this region. Apollodorus, cites Hesiod as his source for the Chimera being the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. "[10] Hesiod's apparent association of the eating of raw flesh with Echidna's snake half suggests that he may have supposed that Echidna's snake half ended in a snake-head. Echidna (Greek mythology) is the mother of the most famous and fearsome of Greek monsters. Copyright © 2020 MythoBlogy. The first one comes from Greek mythology. Contemporary artists often like to depict women with serpent body waist down, probably due to the exciting mixture of admiration and disgust that they potentially arouse in the viewers. [43] The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, preserving a possible Orphic tradition, has Typhon born "under Arimon in Cilicia",[44] and Nonnus mentions Typhon's "bloodstained cave of Arima" in Cilicia. ii. Quintus Smyrnaeus has Echidna and Typhon as Cerberus' parents with Orthrus as his brother. According to the geographer Pausanias (2nd century AD), Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) had Echidna as the daughter of the Oceanid Styx (goddess of the river Styx) and one Peiras (otherwise unknown to Pausanias),[7] while according to the mythographer Apollodorus (1st or 2nd century AD), Echidna was the daughter of Tartarus and Gaia. [48] According to Strabo, some placed the Arimoi, and the battle between Typhon and Zeus at Catacecaumene,[49] while Xanthus of Lydia added that "a certain Arimus" ruled there. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Online version at Harvard University Press, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Books 6–14, at the Perseus Digital Library, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Echidna_(mythology)&oldid=982467785, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. [59], From the fifth century BC historian Herodotus, we learn of a creature who, though Herodotus does not name as Echidna, is called an echidna ("she-viper") and resembles the Hesiodic Echidna in several respects. For an extensive discussion see Lane Fox, especially pp. ECHIDNA (I) (gr. In Greek mythology, Echidna (/ɪˈkɪdnə/; Greek: Ἔχιδνα, "She-Viper")[2] was a monster, half-woman and half-snake, who lived alone in a cave. Hesiod described "the goddess fierce Echidna" as a flesh eating "monster, irresistible", who was like neither "mortal men" nor "the undying gods", but was "half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin", who "dies not nor grows old all her days. According to Hesiod, Echidna was born to a "she" who was probably meant by Hesiod to be the sea goddess Ceto, making Echidna's likely father the sea god Phorcys; however the "she" might instead refer to the Oceanid Callirhoe, which would make Medusa's offspring Chrysaor the father of Echidna. By the way – Echidna marks another step on the Path of Hydra – enter and vote for next entries. – in Greek language Echidna. Echidna Mythology The Mother of Greek Monsters. Poll 6. All rights reserved.Powered by WordPress. [71] Pausanias identifies two standing figures on the left as Echidna and Typhon, with Tritons standing on the right, with no other details concerning these figures given. Married to the god/monster Typhon (Greek mythology), the two beasts bore a brood of children that only a half-serpent mother could love. The geographer Strabo (c. 20 AD) discusses the question in some detail. [19] Hesiod next names two more descendants of Echidna, the Sphinx, a monster with the head of a woman and the body of a winged lion, and the Nemean lion, killed by Heracles as his first labor. And Heracles gave her a bow and belt, and told her, that when the boys were grown, whichever would draw the bow and wear the belt, keep him and banish the others. [12], In the Orphic account (mentioned above) Echidna is described as having the head of a beautiful woman with long hair, and a serpent's body from the neck down. Echidna's family tree varies by author. [11] Aristophanes (late 5th century BC), who makes her a denizen of the underworld, gives Echidna a hundred heads (presumably snake heads), matching the hundred snake heads Hesiod says her mate Typhon had. Hyginus gives three possible parentages for the Caucasian Eagle: Typhon and Echidna, Terra and Tartarus, or that it was fashioned by Vulcan and given life by Jove. Path of Trolls. [26] Hyginus[27] in his list of offspring of Echidna (all by Typhon), retains from the above: Cerberus, the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Hydra and Ladon, and adds "Gorgon" (by which Hyginus means the mother of Medusa, whereas Hesiod's three Gorgons, of which Medusa was one, were the daughters of Ceto and Phorcys), the Colchian dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece[28] and Scylla.[29]. The region in the vicinity of the ancient Cilician coastal city of Corycus (modern Kızkalesi, Turkey) is often associated with Typhon's birth. [70] According to Pausanias, Echidna was depicted, along with Typhon, on the sixth century BC Doric-Ionic temple complex at Amyclae known as the throne of Apollo, designed by Bathycles of Magnesia. [37] But neither Homer nor Hesiod say anything more about where this Arima might be. [45], Just across the Gulf of Issus from Corycus, in ancient Syria, was Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra in Turkey) and the Orontes River, said to be the site of the battle of Typhon and Zeus.