Iliad
- 2.780–784
- So marched they then as though all the land were swept with fire; and the earth groaned beneath them, as beneath Zeus that hurleth the thunderbolt in his wrath, when he scourgeth the land about Typhoeus in the country of the Arimi [εἰν Ἀρίμοις], where men say is the couch of Typhoeus. Even so the earth groaned greatly beneath their tread as they went;
- 2.864–866
- And the Maeonians [Lydians] had captains twain, Mesthles and Antiphus, [865] the two sons of TaIaemenes, whose mother was the nymph of the Gygaean lake; and they led the Maeonians, whose birth was beneath Tmolas.
- 20.381–385
- But Achilles leapt among the Trojans, his heart clothed about in might, crying a terrible cry, and first he slew Iphition, the valiant son of Otrynteus, the leader of a great host, whom a Naiad nymph bare to Otrynteus, sacker of cities, [385] beneath snowy Timolus in the rich land of Hyde.
Odyssey
- 12.124–125
- Nay, row past with all thy might, and call upon Crataiis, [125] the mother of Scylla, who bore her for a bane to mortals.
Theogony
- 265–269
- And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deep-flowing Ocean, and she bore him swift Iris and the long-haired Harpies, Aello (Storm-swift) and Ocypetes (Swift-flier) who on their swift wings keep pace with the blasts of the winds and the birds; for quick as time they dart along.
- 270–294.
- And again, Ceto bore to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean [275] in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One1 in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. [280] And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs2 of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade3 in his hands. Now Pegasus flew away and left the earth, the mother of flocks, [285] and came to the deathless gods: and he dwells in the house of Zeus and brings to wise Zeus the thunder and lightning. But Chrysaor was joined in love to Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious Ocean, and begot three-headed Geryones. Him mighty Heracles slew [290] in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean.
- 1 i.e. Poseidon.
- 2 pegae
- 3 aor
- 295–305
- And in a hollow cave she [Ceto? Callirrhoe?] bore another monster, irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake [ὄφιν], great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, [305] a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days.
- 306–318
- Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bore Orthus the hound of Geryones, [310] and then again she bore a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong. And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, [315] being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of Athena the spoil driver.
- 319–336
- She [Echidna?] was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, [320] a creature fearful, great, swift footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion, another of a goat, and another of a snake, a fierce dragon; in her forepart she was a lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. [325] Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay; [326] but ["she" Echidna?] was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the deadly Sphinx which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which Hera, the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of Nemea, a plague to men. [330] There he preyed upon the tribes of her own people and had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas: yet the strength of stout Heracles overcame him. And Ceto was joined in love to Phorcys and bore her youngest, the awful snake [Ladon] who guards [335] the apples all of gold in the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. This is the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys.
- 824–825
- From his [Typhon's] shoulders [825] grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon,
Hymn to Apollo (3)
- 300–304
- [300] But near by was a sweet flowing spring, and there with his strong bow the lord, the son of Zeus, killed the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked sheep; for she was a very bloody plague.
- 305–306
- [305] She it was who once received from gold-throned Hera and brought up fell, cruel Typhaon to be a plague to men.
- 349–369
- But when the months and days were fulfilled [350] and the seasons duly came on as the earth moved round, she bare one neither like the gods nor mortal men, fell, cruel Typhaon, to be a plague to men. Straightway large-eyed queenly Hera took him and bringing one evil thing to another such, gave him to the dragoness; and she received him. [355] And this Typhaon used to work great mischief among the famous tribes of men. Whosoever met the dragoness, the day of doom would sweep him away, until the lord Apollo, who deals death from afar, shot a strong arrow at her. Then she, rent with bitter pangs, lay drawing great gasps for breath and rolling about that place. [360] An awful noise swelled up unspeakable as she writhed continually this way and that amid the wood: and so she left her life, breathing it forth in blood. Then Phoebus Apollo boasted over her:
- “Now rot here upon the soil that feeds man' You at least shall live no more to be a fell bane to men [365] who eat the fruit of the all-nourishing earth, and who will bring hither perfect hecatombs. Against cruel death neither Typhoeus shall avail you nor ill-famed Chimera, but here shall the Earth and shining Hyperion make you rot.”
fr. 7 Fowler apud Pausanias 8.18.2 [= FGrHist 457 F 5; Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 3 B 6]
- Fowler 2001, p. 96
- Pausanias 8.18.2
- Epimenides of Crete, also, represented Styx as the daughter of Ocean, not, however, as the wife of Pallas, but as bearing Echidna to Peiras, whoever Peiras may be.
- Freeman, p. 10 (apud Demonax | Hellenic Library Beta)
- 6. (Pausanias: Epimenides also makes Styx the daughter of Ocean, and unites her not with Pallas but with an unknown Peiras, to whom she bore Echidna).
fr. 8 [=FGrHist 457 F 6a, Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 3 B 7]
- Fowler 2001, p. 96
- Freeman, p. 10 (apud Demonax | Hellenic Library Beta)
- 7. (Epimenides says that the Harpies are the children of Ocean, and were slain near (Rhegium?)).
- Gantz, p. 18
- the Epimenides Theogony, however calls [the Harpies] daughters of Okeanos and Gaia (3B7),
Olympian
- 4.6–7
- Son of Cronus, you who hold Aetna, the wind-swept weight on terrible hundred-headed Typhon,
Pythian
- 1.15–28
- [15] among them is he who lies in dread Tartarus, that enemy of the gods, Typhon with his hundred heads. Once the famous Cilician cave nurtured him, but now the sea-girt cliffs above Cumae, and Sicily too, lie heavy on his shaggy chest. And the pillar of the sky holds him down, [20] snow-covered Aetna, year-round nurse of bitter frost, from whose inmost caves belch forth the purest streams of unapproachable fire. In the daytime her rivers roll out a fiery flood of smoke, while in the darkness of night the crimson flame hurls rocks down to the deep plain of the sea with a crashing roar. [25] That monster shoots up the most terrible jets of fire; it is a marvellous wonder to see, and a marvel even to hear about when men are present. Such a creature is bound beneath the dark and leafy heights of Aetna and beneath the plain, and his bed scratches and goads the whole length of his back stretched out against it.
- 8.15–16
- Violence trips up even a man of great pride, in time. Cilician Typhon with his hundred heads did not escape you,
Fragment 92 [apud Strabo 13.4.6]
- Race, p. 317
- 92 [apud Strabo 13.4.6] Strabo, Geography of Greece. "Pindar associates the territory of Pithekoussai and of Sicily with that of Cilicia, for he says that Typhos lies beneath Aitna (he quotes Pyth. 1.17-19), and further":1
- around him Aitna, an enormous confinement,
- lies.
Fragment 93 [apud Strabo 13.4.6]
- Race, p. 318
- 93 The same [Strabo]. "and further":
- but father Zeus alone of the gods was slaying unapproachable, fifty-headed1 Typhos by force once among the Arimoi.2
- 1 Elsewhere in Pindar Typhos has one hundred heads.
- 2 Cf. Il. 2.783 and Hes. Th. 304. It is uncertain whether this is a people or place—or where either is located.
- West, p. 250
- Pi fr. 93 ἀλλ᾽ οἶος ἄπλατον ...
Fontenrose, pp. 72–73
- [Pindar] describes Typhon much as Aeschylus does and definitely places him in the "Cilician cave of many names" (Κιλίκιον θρέψεν πολυώνυμον ἄντρον), i.e., the Corycian Cave; but he barely allides to the combat, swaying only that Zeus destroyed Typhon among the Arimoi (presumbly in Cilicia) and that he lies in dread Tartaros under Etna. He is the earliest author to mention the flight of the gods before Typhon, when they took animal forms to escape him.7
- 7 Aesch. Pr. 353-374, Sept. 511-517; Pind. Pyth. 1.15-20, 8.16, Ol. 4.7 f., frags. 81, 240 Bowra.
Fox Lane, p. 292
- In the early fifth century BC Pindar described the lair which "nurtured Typhon" [Pythian 1.17] as the "highly celebrated Cilician cave": it was presumably there, as we know in a fragment of one of his lost poems, that he claimed that "once, among the Arimoi," Zeus had battered Typhon, the monster with "fifty" heads.33
Fragment 706A (Campbell, pp. 310–311)
- The Sphinx was daughter of Echidna and Typhon, according to Lasus of Hermione.
- [See also Theoi "Ekidna"]
(Cited by Ogden 2013a)
Fragment 79
- The dog stealer ... hisses like a viper
ANDRISANO, p. 295
- [το]ῦ κυνὸς τὸν φιλήτην/ [ ]ὡς ἔχιδνα συρίζει (Hipponax fr. 79.10–11 W2 = 79 Deg.2) (...the dog-stealer ... hisses like a viper, trans. Gerber 1999, 415)
West 1971, p. 133
fr. 13 Fowler [= FGrH 2F13, Ogden 2013a] [= Diels Vorsokr.5 9 B 6 = FGrH 2 F13?, Hošek]
- Fowler 2001, p. 11
- Ἐχίδνης καὶ Τυφῶνος Κέρβεροη καὶ ἄλλα τερατώδη τέκνα
- Fowler 2013, p. 28
- Kerberos and 'other monsters' duly reappear as children of Typhon and Echidna in Akous. fr. 13;
- Freeman, p. 15 [= Demonax | Hellenic Library Beta]
- 6. (Cerberus is the son of Echidnê and Typho; also other monsters, including the eagle that eats the liver of Prometheus).
- Gantz, p. 22
- To this list, Akousilaos (2F13) and Pherekydes (3F7) agree in adding the eagle who devoured Prometheus' liver; Hesiod gives it no parentage.
- Ogden 2013a, pp. 149–150 with n. 4
- In the meantime the pair [Echidna and Typhon] had also aquired another monstrous child, according to Acusilaus and Pherecydes, in the form of the eagle that devoured Prometheus' liver.4
- 4Aucsilaus of Argos F13 Fowler, Pherecydes F7 Fowler.
Prometheus Bound 353–356
- Pity moved me, too, at the sight of the earth-born dweller of the Cilician caves curbed by violence, that destructive monster [355] of a hundred heads, impetuous Typhon.
Ode 5.62
- So it was, they say, that the gate-destroying unconquerable son [Heracles] of Zeus of the flashing thunderbolt went down to the halls of slender-ankled Persephone [60] to bring up into the light from Hades the razor-toothed dog [Cerberus], son of the fearsome Echidna.
fr. 7 Fowler [= FGrH 3F7 = Frag. 21 Müller = Schol. Ap. Rhod. 2.1248-50a (212.12 Wendel)]
- Fowler 2001, p. 278
- Τυφῶνος καὶ Ἐχίδνης τῆς Φόρκυνος τὸν ἀετὸν τὸν ἐπιπεμφθέντα Προμηθεῖ
- Fowler 2013, p. 28
- To this progeny, Pher. fr. 7 adds the eagle who devoured Prometheus' liver. The great hero-tormenting eagle sits reasonably well with siblings such as the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion.98
- 98 The genealogy is repeated in Apollod. 2.119.
- Ogden 2013a, pp. 149–150 with n. 4
- In the meantime the pair [Echidna and Typhon] had also aquired another monstrous child, according to Acusilaus and Pherecydes, in the form of the eagle that devoured Prometheus' liver.4
- 4Aucsilaus of Argos F13 Fowler, Pherecydes F7 Fowler.
- Gantz, p. 22
- To this list, Akousilaos (2F13) and Pherekydes (3F7) agree in adding the eagle who devoured Prometheus' liver; Hesiod gives it no parentage.
- Allen, "Prometheus and The Caucasus", American Journal of Philoogy, Vol. XIII, No. 49, p. 61)
- Pherecydes of Leros ... treated the story of Prometheus. The one quotation we have from this narrative concerns itself with the parentage of the eagle which tortured Prometheus.1 It [eagle] was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna.
- 1Frag. 21 Müller (= Schol. Apoll. Rhod. II.1252).
- Hošek, p. 678
- Pherecydes, FGrH 3 F 7 names the father [of Echidna] -»Phorkys without specifying a mother
fr. 16b Fowler [= FGrH 3 F 16 b]
- Fowler 2001, p. 286
- Fowler 2013, p. 28
- Pher. fr. 16b adds [to the children of Typhon of Echidna] a hundred-headed, nameless snake [Ladon] that guarded the apples of the Hesperides.97
- 97 So also Apollod, Bibl. 2.113, Hyg. Fab. 151.1; Ap. Rhod. 4.1396-8 makes him earthborn and is the first to call him Ladon. Hesiod. Th. 333-5 made the serpent child of Keto and Phorkys.
- Fowler 2013, p. 292
- Fr. 16b says ...she [Hera] appointed a monstrous snake, child of Typhon and Echidna, possessing '100 heads and all manner of voices', to guard [the Golden Apples]
- Ogden 2013a, p. 149 n. 3
- 3 ... Prior to Hyginus, Echidna had been made the mother of Ladon by Pherecydes F16b Fowler;
- Hošek, p. 678
- Children of E. and Typhon: ... Pherecydes, FGrH 3 F 16 b, the hundred-headed serpent that guards the golden apples of the Hesperides (-»Hesperides, -»Hercules;. Cf. Hes. Theog. 333-336).
fr. 54 Fowler
- Fowler 2001, p. 307
- Fowler 2013, p. 29
- The report of Pher. fr. 54 makes it clear that ...
- Gantz, p. 50
- Pherekydes also told the story: a summary of his account relates that Typhoeus flees to Caucasus and then, when those mountains begin burning (from a thunderbolt?), to Italy, where the island of Pithekoussai is thrown up around him (3F54).
Women of Trachis 1097–1099
- you [Heracles] tamed the beast in Erymanthia, and underground the three-headed whelp of Hades, a resistless terror, offspring of the fierce Echidna;
1.93
- There are not many marvellous things in Lydia to record, in comparison with other countries, except the gold dust that comes down from Tmolus. [2] But there is one building to be seen there which is much the greatest of all, except those of Egypt and Babylon. In Lydia is the tomb of Alyattes, the father of Croesus, the base of which is made of great stones and the rest of it of mounded earth. It was built by the men of the market and the craftsmen and the prostitutes. [3] There survived until my time five corner-stones set on the top of the tomb, and in these was cut the record of the work done by each group: and measurement showed that the prostitutes' share of the work was the greatest. [4] All the daughters of the common people of Lydia ply the trade of prostitutes, to collect dowries, until they can get themselves husbands; and they themselves offer themselves in marriage. [5] Now this tomb has a circumference of thirteen hundred and ninety yards, and its breadth is above four hundred and forty yards; and there is a great lake hard by the tomb, which, the Lydians say, is fed by ever-flowing springs; it is called the Gygaean lake. Such then is this tomb.
4.8
- This is what the Scythians say about themselves and the country north of them. But the story told by the Greeks who live in Pontus is as follows. Heracles, driving the cattle of Geryones, came to this land, which was then desolate, but is now inhabited by the Scythians. [2] Geryones lived west of the Pontus, settled in the island called by the Greeks Erythea, on the shore of Ocean near Gadira, outside the pillars of Heracles. As for Ocean, the Greeks say that it flows around the whole world from where the sun rises, but they cannot prove that this is so. [3] Heracles came from there to the country now called Scythia, where, encountering wintry and frosty weather, he drew his lion's skin over him and fell asleep, and while he slept his mares, which were grazing yoked to the chariot, were spirited away by divine fortune.
4.9
- When Heracles awoke, he searched for them, visiting every part of the country, until at last he came to the land called the Woodland, and there he found in a cave a creature of double form that was half maiden and half serpent; above the buttocks she was a woman, below them a snake. [2] When he saw her he was astonished, and asked her if she had seen his mares straying; she said that she had them, and would not return them to him before he had intercourse with her; Heracles did, in hope of this reward. [3] But though he was anxious to take the horses and go, she delayed returning them, so that she might have Heracles with her for as long as possible; at last she gave them back, telling him, “These mares came, and I kept them safe here for you, and you have paid me for keeping them, for I have three sons by you. [4] Now tell me what I am to do when they are grown up: shall I keep them here (since I am queen of this country), or shall I send them away to you?” Thus she inquired, and then (it is said) Heracles answered: [5] “When you see the boys are grown up, do as follows and you will do rightly: whichever of them you see bending this bow and wearing this belt so, make him an inhabitant of this land; but whoever falls short of these accomplishments that I require, send him away out of the country. Do so and you shall yourself have comfort, and my will shall be done.”
4.10
- So he drew one of his bows (for until then Heracles always carried two), and showed her the belt, and gave her the bow and the belt, that had a golden vessel on the end of its clasp; and, having given them, he departed. But when the sons born to her were grown men, she gave them names, calling one of them Agathyrsus and the next Gelonus and the youngest Scythes; furthermore, remembering the instructions, she did as she was told. [2] Two of her sons, Agathyrsus and Gelonus, were cast out by their mother and left the country, unable to fulfill the requirements set; but Scythes, the youngest, fulfilled them and so stayed in the land. [3] From Scythes son of Heracles comes the whole line of the kings of Scythia; and it is because of the vessel that the Scythians carry vessels on their belts to this day. This alone his mother did for Scythes. This is what the Greek dwellers in Pontus say.
The Phoenician Women
- 1019–1025 [Coleridge]
- You [the Sphinx] came, you came, O winged creature, born of earth [1020] and hellish viper [Ἐχίδνας], to prey upon the sons of Cadmus, full of death, full of sorrow, half a maiden, a murderous monster, with roving wings [1025] and ravening claws;
- 1019–1025 [Wyckoff]
- You came, you came,
- you winged thing, earth's offspring, monster's child,
- to seize the sons of Cadmus.
- Half a maiden, fearful beast,
- with roving wings and claws that fed on blood.
- Ogden 2913a, p. 149 n. 3
- Prior to Hyginus, Echidna had been made the mother of ... the Sphinx by Euripides Phenissae 1020 ...
- See also Pearson, p. 154; Mastronarde, p. 437
Frogs
- 465–478
- Aeacus [to Dionysus disguised as Heracles]
- O impious, daring, and most shameless wretch,
- O villain, double villain, and arch-villain,
- It was you who came before, and stole my dog,
- Poor Cerberus! you gagged and seized him,
- And then ran off—I was guarding him! but now we've got you,
- Thus the black-hearted Stygian rock
- and the crag of Acheron dripping with gore
- can hold you; and the circling hounds of Cocytus
- and Echidna with her hundred heads shall tear [473]
- your entrails; your lungs will be attacked by
- the Tartesian Eel, your kidneys
- bleeding with your very entrails
- the Tithrasian Gorgons will rip apart.
- To them I will direct my hasty foot.
F22
- Edmonds, The Fragments of "Attic Comedy" After Meineke, Bergk, and Kock: Augm., Newly Ed. with Their Contexts, Annot., and Completely Transl. Into English Verse. Old comedy, pp. 340–341
- [See Ogden 2013a, p. 4 n. 7: Anaxilas Comicus F22 lines 1–6 asserts that courtesans are less civilized even than an unapproachable drakaina, the Chimaera, Charybdis, Scylla, the Sphinx, the Hydra, a lioness, the Echidna, or Harpies;" ]
FGrH 124 F33 [apud Strabo 13.4.6]
- Callisthenes says that the Arimi, after whom the neighboring mountains are called Arima, are situated near Mt. Calycadnus and the promontory of Sarpedon near the Corycian cave itself.
- Lane Fox
- p. 292
- According to Callisthenes, "the Arimoi are located by the Corycian cave near Calycadnus and the promintory of Sarpedon: the neighbourging mountains are called 'Arima.'"34
- p. 406
- 34. Callisthenes, FGrH 124 F33.
fragment 515 Pfeiffer (Trypanis, pp. 258–259) [= fragment 40 (161) Mair (below)]
- ... the foreigner.a bringing the monstrous son of Echidna from below.
- a Heracles, who dragged Cerberus, the monstrous dog, guardian to the entrance of the lower world, away. Cerberus was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna.
fragment 40 (161) Mair [= fragment 515 Pfeiffer (above)]
- The guest bringing from the underworld the snaky [ἐχιδναῖον] beast.c
- c The 12th labour of Heracles was to bring from Hades Cerberus whose mother was Echidna.
Argonautica
- 2.1208–1215 (pp. 184–185)
- so huge a serpent keeps round and about it [the fleece] deathless and sleepless, which Earth [Gaia] herself brought forth on the sides of Caucasus, by the rock of Typhaon, where Typhaon, they say, smitten by the bolt of Zeus, son of Cronos, when he lifted against the god his sturdy hands, dropped from his head hot gore; and in such plight he reached the mountains and plain of Nysa, where to this day he lies whelmed beneath the waters of the Serbonian lake.
- 4.1396 (pp. 388–389)
- Ladon, the serpent of the land, till yesterday kept watch over the golden apples in the garden of Atlas;
Alexandra
- 1351ff. (pp. 606–607)
- And in turn falconsf [Tyrrhenians from Lydia come to Eturia] set forth from Tmolus and Cimpsus and the gold-producing streams of Pactolus and the waters of the lake where the spouseg [Echidna] of Typhon couches in the hidden recess of her dread bed,
2.43.3
- At a later time, as the Scythians recount the myth, there was born among them a maiden sprung from the earth; the upper parts of her body as far as her waist were those of a woman, but the lower parts were those of a snake. With her Zeus lay begat a son whose name was Scythes. This son became more famous than any who had preceded him and called the folk Scythians after his own name.
5.71.2–6
- He [Zeus] also visited practically the entire inhabited earth, putting to death robbers and impious men and introducing equality and democracy; and it was in this connection, they say, that he slew the Giants and their followers, Mylinus in Crete and Typhon in Phrygia.
Ciris 67 [Latin commentary]
- Sive illam monstrum genuit grave Echidna biformis,
Lyne, pp. 130–131
5.4.9 [Jones, LacusCutius]
- The island of Prochyta lies off Cape Misenum, and it is a fragment broken off of Pithecussae.356 Pithecussae was once settled by Eretrians and also [p. 457] Chalcidians, who, although they had prospered there on account of the fruitfulness of the soil and on account of the gold mines, forsook the island 357 as the result of a quarrel; later on they were also driven out of the island by earthquakes, and by eruptions of fire, sea, and hot waters; for the island has "fistulas" of this sort, [248] and it was these that caused also the people sent thither by Hiero the tyrant of Syracuse to forsake the island and the fortress they had erected there; and then the Neapolitans came over and took possession. Hence, also, the myth according to which Typhon lies beneath this island, and when he turns his body the flames and the waters, and sometimes even small islands containing boiling water, spout forth. But what Pindar says is more plausible, since he starts with the actual phenomena; for this whole channel, beginning at the Cumaean country and extending as far as Sicily, is full of fire, and has caverns deep down in the earth that form a single whole, connecting not only with one another but also with the mainland; and therefore, not only Aetna clearly has such a character as it is reported by all to have, but also the Lipari Islands, and the districts round about Dicaearchia, Neapolis, and Baiae, and the island of Pithecussae. This, I say, is Pindar's thought when he says that Typhon lies beneath the whole region: "Now, however, both Sicily and the sea-fenced cliffs beyond Cumae press hard upon his shaggy breast."
- 356 But cp. 1.3.19.
- 357 Strabo's conciseness (if the MSS. are correct) leaves the passage obscure as to whether (1) both peoples left together because of a quarrel with other inhabitants, and later on returned, only to be driven out by the earthquakes (about 500 B.C.), or (2) left separately, first, the Chalcidians, because of a quarrel between the two, and, later on, the Eretrians, because of the earthquakes, or (3) part of each left at first, and the rest later on; but the first interpretation seems more likely. Livy (8.22), without mentioning the Eretrians, ascribes the founding of Cumae to the Chalcidians who had previously settled "Aenaria and Pithecussa."
9.2.20 [Jones, Perseus]
- Among the neighboring lakes are Lake Trephia1 and the Cephissian Lake, which is also mentioned by the poet: "Who dwelt in Hyle, strongly intent upon wealth, on the shore of the Cephissian Lake."2 For he does not mean Lake Copais, as some think, but lake Hylice (accented on the last syllable like lyricé), which is named after the village near by that is called Hyle (accented like lyra and thyra), not Hyde, as some write, "who dwelt in Hyde." For Hyde is in Lydia, "below snowy Tmolus in the fertile land of Hyde,"3 whereas Hyle is in Boeotia; at any rate, the poet appends to the words, "on the shore of the Cephissian lake," the words, "and near him dwelt the rest of the Boeotians." For Lake Copais is large, and not in the territory of Thebes; whereas the other is small, and is filled from lake Copais through subterranean channels; and it is situated between Thebes and Anthedon. Homer, however, uses the word in the singular number, at one time making the first syllable long, as in the Catalogue, "and Hyle and Peteön,4 by poetic licence, and at another making it short, "who dwelt in Hyle," and "Tychius . . . , by far the best of leatherworkers, who had his home in Hyle."5 And certain critics are not correct in writing Hyde here, either; for Aias was not sending to fetch his shield from Lydia.
12.8.19 [Jones, Perseus] [= the first part of Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum Xanthus F4 p. 36 =? FGrH 765 F4a (see Ogden) or F13? (see Lane Fox)]
- One should also hear the words of the ancient historians, as, for example, those of Xanthus, who wrote the history of Lydia, when he relates the strange changes that this country often underwent, to which I have already referred somewhere in a former part of my work.1 And in fact they make this the setting of the mythical story of the Arimi and of the throes of Typhon, calling it the Catacecaumene2 country. Also, they do not hesitate to suspect that the parts of the country between the Maeander River and the Lydians are all of this nature, as well on account of the number of the lakes and rivers as on account of the numerous hollows in the earth. And the lake3 between Laodiceia and Apameia, although like a sea,4 emits an eflluvium that is filthy and of subterranean origin. And they say that lawsuits are brought against the god Maeander for altering the boundaries of the countries on his banks, that is, when the projecting elbows of land are swept away by him; and that when he is convicted the fines are paid from the tolls collected at the ferries.
- 1 1.3.4.
- 2 Cp. 13.4.11.
- 3 Now called Chardak Ghieul.
- 4 i.e., in size and depth.
13.4.5 [Jones, Perseus]
- Sardeis is a great city, and, though of later date than the Trojan times, is nevertheless old, and has a strong citadel. It was the royal city of the Lydians, whom the poet calls Meïonians; and later writers call them Maeonians, some identifying them with the Lydians and others representing them as different, but it is better to call them the same people. Above Sardeis is situated Mt. Tmolus, a blest mountain, with a look-out on its summit, an arcade of white marble, a work of the Persians, whence there is a view of the plains below all round, particularly the Caÿster Plain. And round it dwell Lydians and Mysians and Macedonians. The Pactolus River flows from Mt. Tmolus; in early times a large quantity of gold-dust was brought down in it, whence, it is said, arose the fame of the riches of Croesus and his descendants. But the gold-dust has given out. The Pactolus runs down into the Hermus, into which also the Hyllus, now called the Phrygius, empties. These three, and other less significant rivers with them, meet and empty into the sea near Phocaea, as Herodotus says.1 The Hermus rises in Mysia, in the sacred mountain Dindymene, and flows through the Catacecaumene country into the territory of Sardeis and the contiguous plains, as I have already said,2 to the sea. Below the city lie the plain of Sardeis and that of the Cyrus and that of the Hermus and that of the Caÿster, which are contiguous to one another and are the best of all plains. Within forty stadia from the city one comes to Gygaea,3 which is mentioned by the poet, the name of which was later changed to Coloe, where is the temple of Coloënian Artemis, which is characterized by great holiness. They say that at the festivals here the baskets dance,4 though I do not know why in the world they talk marvels rather than tell the truth.
- 1 Hdt. 1.80.
- 2 Cf. 13. 1. 2.
- 3 Lake Gygaea, Hom. Il. 2.865
- 4 Thought to be the baskets carried on the heads of maidens at festivals.
13.4.6 [Jones, Perseus]
- The verses of Homer are about as follows: “Mnesthles and Antiphus, the two sons of Talaemenes, whose mother was Lake Gygaea, who led also the Meïonians, who were born at the foot of Tmolus;”1 but some add the following fourth verse: “At the foot of snowy Tmolus, in the fertile land of Hyde.” But there is no Hyde to be found in the country of the Lydians. Some also put Tychius there, of whom the poet says, “far the best of workers in hide, who lived in Hyde.”2 And they add that the place is woody and subject to strokes of lightning, and that the Arimi live there, for after Homer's verse, “in the land of the Arimi where men say is the couch of Typhon,”3 they insert the words, “in a wooded place, in the fertile land of Hyde.” But others lay the scene of this myth in Cilicia, and some lay it in Syria, and still others in the Pithecussae Islands, who say that among the Tyrrhenians "pitheci"4 are called "arimi." Some call Sardeis Hyde, while others call its acropolis Hyde. But the Scepsian5 thinks that those writers are most plausible who place the Arimi in the Catacecaumene country in Mysia. But Pindar associates the Pithecussae which lie off the Cymaean territory, as also the territory in Sicily, with the territory in Cilicia, for he says that Typhon lies beneath Aetna: “Once he dwelt in a far-famed Cilician cavern; now, however, his shaggy breast is o'er-pressed by the sea-girt shores above Cymae and by Sicily.”6 And again, “round about him lies Aetna with her haughty fetters,” and again, “but it was father Zeus that once amongst the Arimi, by necessity, alone of the gods, smote monstrous Typhon of the fifty heads.”7 But some understand that the Syrians are Arimi, who are now called the Arimaeans, and that the Cilicians in Troy, forced to migrate, settled again in Syria and cut off for themselves what is now called Cilicia. Callisthenes says that the Arimi, after whom the neighboring mountains are called Arima, are situated near Mt. Calycadnus and the promontory of Sarpedon near the Corycian cave itself.
- 1 Hom. Il. 2.864
- 2 Hom. Il. 7.221
- 3 Hom. Il. 2.783
- 4 i.e., monkeys.
- 5 Demetrius of Scepsis.
- 6 Pind. P. 1.31
- 7 Pind. Fr. 93 (Bergk)
13.4.11 [Jones, Perseus] [= the second part of Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum Xanthus F4 p. 36 =? FGrH 765 F4b (see Ogden) or F13? (see Lane Fox)]]
- After this region one comes to the Catacecaumene country,1 as it is called, which has a length of five hundred stadia and a breadth of four hundred, whether it should be called Mysia or Meïonia (for both names are used); the whole of it is without trees except the vine that produces the Catacecaumenite wine, which in quality is inferior to none of the notable wines. The surface of the plain is covered with ashes, and the mountainous and rocky country is black, as though from conflagration. Now some conjecture that this resulted from thunderbolts and from fiery subterranean outbursts, and they do not hesitate to lay there the scene of the mythical story of Typhon; and Xanthus adds that a certain Arimus was king of this region;
- 1 i.e., "burnt" country, situated about the upper course of the Hermus and its tributaries. Hamilton (Researches, II, p. 136, quoted by Tozer (Selections, p. 289, confirms Strabo's account.
16.2.7 [Jones, LacusCutius]
- The Orontes River flows near the city. This river has its sources in Coelê-Syria; and then, after flowing underground, issues forth again; and then, proceeding through the territory of the Apameians into that of Antiocheia, closely approaches the latter city and flows down to the sea near Seleuceia. Though formerly called Typhon, its name was changed to that of Orontes, the man who built a bridge across it. Here, somewhere, is the setting of the mythical story of the Arimi, of whom I have already spoken.43 [751] They say that Typhon (who, they add, was a dragon), when struck by the bolts of lightning, fled in search of a descent underground; that he not only cut the earth with furrows and formed the bed of the river, but also descended underground and caused the fountain to break forth to the surface; and that the river got its name from this fact. Now on the west, below Antiocheia and Seleuceia, lies the sea; and it is near Seleuceia that the Orontes forms its outlets, this city being forty stadia distant from the outlets, and one hundred and twenty from Antiocheia. Inland voyages from the sea to Antiocheia are made on the same day one starts. To the east of Antiocheia are the Euphrates, as also Bambycê and Beroea and Heracleia, [p. 247] small towns once ruled by the tyrant Dionysius, the son of Heracleon. Heracleia is twenty stadia distant from the temple of Athena Cyrrhestis.
- 43 12.8.19, 13.4.6
16.4.27 [Jones, LacusCutius]
- [p. 373] The poet also mentions "Arimi,"222 by which, according to Poseidonius, we should interpret the poet as meaning, not some place in Syria or in Cilicia or in some other land, but Syria itself; [785] for the people in Syria are Aramaeans, though perhaps the Greeks called them Arimaeans or Arimi
- 222 Iliad 2.783.
Fabulae
- Preface
- From Gorgon and Ceto, Sthenno, Eurylae, Medusa.
- From Thaumas and Electra: Iris, Harpies, Celaeno, Ocypete, Podarce.
- From Typhon and Echidna: Gorgon, Cerberus, the dragon which guarded the Golden Fleece at Colchis, Scylla who was woman above but dog-forms below [whom Hercules killed]; Chimaera, Sphinx who was in Boeotia, Hydra serpent which had nine heads which Hercules killed, and the dragon of the Hesperides.
- From Neptune and Medusa, the horse Pegasus.
- 14
- They drove away the three Harpies, Aëllopous, Celaeno, and Ocypete, daughter of Thaumas and Oxomene, from Phiensu, son of Agenor, when Jason’s comrades were going to Colchis.
- 30
- The Nemean Lion, an invulnerable monster, which Luna had nourished in a two-mouthed cave, he [Hercules] slew and took the pelt for defensive covering.
- He killed at the spring of Lerna the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra, offspring of Typhon.
- The huge dragon, Typhon’s son, which used to guard the golden apples of the Hesperides, he killed near Mount Atlas, and brought the apples to King Eurystheus.
- 67
- the Sphinx, offspring of Typhon,
- 151
- CHILDREN OF TYPHON AND ECHIDNA
- From Typhon the giant and Echidna were born Gorgon, the three-headed dog Cerberus, the dragon which guarded the apples of the Hesperides across the ocean, the Hydra which Hercules killed by the spring of Lerna, the dragon which guarded the ram’s fleece at Colchis, Scylla who was woman above but dog below, with six dog-forms sprung from her body, the Sphinx which was in Boeotia, the Chimaera in Lycia which had the fore part of a lion, the hind part of a snake, while the she-goat itself formed the middle. From Medusa, daughter of Gorgon, and Neptues, were born Chrysaor and horse Pegasus; from Chrysaor and Callirhoe, three-formed Geryon.
Poeticon astronomicon
- 2.15
- [Zeus] sent an eagle to [Prometheus] to eat out his liver which was constantly renewed at night. Some have said that this eagle was born from Typhon and Echidna, other from Terra and Tartarus, but many point out it was made by the hands of Vulcan and given life by Jove.
Metamorphoses
- 4.500–501
- And with a monstrous composite of foam—
- once gathered from the mouth of Cerberus,
- the venom of Echidna,
- 7.406–409
- Medea, seeking his destruction, brewed
- the juice of aconite, infesting shores
- of Scythia, where, 'tis fabled, the plant grew
- on soil infected by Cerberian [Echidneae "of Echidna"] teeth.
- 10.311 ff.
- Cupid declares his weapons never caused
- an injury to Myrrha, and denies
- his torches ever could have urged her crime.—
- one of the three bad sisters kindled this,
- with fire brand from the Styx, and poisoned you
- with swollen vipers.
- 13.749
- And the nymph,
- daughter of Nereus, thus replied to her [Crataeide i.e the daughter of Crataeis, Scylla]:
Natural History
- 5.30
- Lydia, bathed by the sinuous and ever-recurring windings of the river Mæander, lies extended above Ionia; it is joined by Phrygia on the east and Mysia on the north, while on the south it runs up to Caria: it formerly had the name of Mæonia1. Its place of the greatest celebrity is Sardes2, which lies on the side of Mount Tmolus3, formerly called Timolus. From this mountain, which is covered with vineyards, flows the river Pactolus4, also called the Chrysorroas, and the sources of the Tarnus: this famous city, which is situate upon the Gygæan Lake5, used to be called Hyde6 by the people of Mæonia. This jurisdiction is now called that of Sardes, and besides the people of the places already mentioned, the following now resort to it—the Macedonian Cadueni7, the Loreni, the Philadelpheni8, the Mæonii, situate on the river Cogamus at the foot of Mount Tmolus, the Tripolitani, who are also called the Antoniopolitæ, situate on the banks of the Mæander, the Apollonihieritæ9, the Mesotimolitæ10, and some others of no note.
1 By this name alone it is known to Homer.
2 Its ruins, now called Sart, are very extensive, though presenting nothing of importance. Its citadel, situated on a rock, was considered to be almost impregnable.
3 Now called Kisilja Musa Dagh. It was famous for its wine, saffron, and gold.
4 Now called the Sarabat. It was famous for its gold-producing sands.
5 On the road between Thyatira and Sardes: near it was situate the necropolis of Sardes.
6 Strabo says that some persons called the citadel only by that name.
Argonautica
- 4.422–435 Latin
- His tale was done; and clam winds were making the canvas fill. The morrow’s dawn showed to the Minyae that the night’s journey had not been vain; all that they see is new – the Thynian shores near-by aghast at the fate of prophetic Phineus, oppressed at his life’s close by the gods’ stern might. For not only is he a stranger from his land, not only blind, but moreover the Harpies, daughters of Typhoeus, ministers of the Thunderer’s wrath, do ravage him, thieving his food from his very mouth. Such portents and such penalties doth he suffer for his crimes; one hope alone the old man hath: the Fates decreed of yore that the sons of Aquilo should dispel the cruel plague. So Phineus, aware that the Minyae and sure succour are drawing nigh, goes down with his staff’s aid to the water’s edge, and lifting up sightless eyes seeks out the ship.
- 4.514–528 Latin
- "Here while they hovered, weary and panting with fear of death’s approach, and weighed down in low and timorous flight implored with ghastly shriek their father Typho, he rose and brought up the darkness with him, mingling high and low, while from the heart of the gloom a voice was heard: “It is enough to have chase the goddesses so far; why strive ye farther in rage against the ministers of Jove, whom, though he wield the thunderbolt and the aegis, he has chosen to work his mighty wrath? Now also hath that same Jove commanded them to depart from the dwellings of Agenor’s son; they hearken to his prompting, and withdraw upon his word. Yet anon will ye also in like manner flee, when the fatal bow shall bring doom upon you.20 Never shall the Harpies lack sustenance, so long as mortals shall merit the anger of the gods.” The twain stopped short in the air, and hovered awhile with doubtful wing; then they depart, and in triumph rejoin their comrades’ ranks."
- Paul Murgatroyd, Commentary on Book Four of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica p. 215
1.2.6
- And to Sea ( Pontus) and Earth were born Phorcus, Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto.1 Now to Thaumas and Electra were born Iris and the Harpies, Aello and Ocypete;2 and to Phorcus and Ceto were born the Phorcides and Gorgons,3 of whom we shall speak when we treat of Perseus.
1.6.3
- When the gods had overcome the giants, Earth, still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon in Cilicia,1 a hybrid between man and beast. In size and strength he surpassed all the offspring of Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads. ... However Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickle, and as he fled pursued him closely as far as Mount Casius, which overhangs Syria. There, seeing the monster sore wounded, he grappled with him. But Typhon twined about him and gripped him in his coils, and wresting the sickle from him severed the sinews of his hands and feet, and lifting him on his shoulders carried him through the sea to Cilicia and deposited him on arrival in the Corycian cave. Likewise he put away the sinews there also, hidden in a bearskin, and he set to guard them the she-dragon Delphyne, who was a half-bestial maiden.
- 1 As to Typhon, or Typhoeus, as he is also called, who was especially associated with the famous Corycian cave in Cilicia, see Hes. Th. 820ff.; Pind. P. 1.15ff.; Aesch. PB 351ff.; Ant. Lib. 28; Ov. Met. 5.321ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 152; Mela i.76, ed. G. Parthey; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 4, 29, 92 (First Vatican Mythographer 11, 86; Second Vatican Mythographer 53). As to the Corycian cave, see Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. i.152ff. According to Hesiod (Hes. Th. 821, Typhoeus was the youngest child of Earth.
2.1.2
- It is said, too, that Echidna,5 daughter of Tartarus and Earth, who used to carry off passers-by, was caught asleep and slain by Argus.
2.3.1
- It is said, too, that this Chimera was bred by Amisodarus, as Homer also affirms, [Illiad 16.328] and that it was begotten by Typhon on Echidna, as Hesiod relates
2.5.1
- First, Eurystheus ordered him to bring the skin of the Nemean lion;1 now that was an invulnerable beast begotten by Typhon.
- 1 As to the Nemean lion, compare Hes. Th. 326ff.; Bacch. 8.6ff., ed. Jebb; Soph. Trach. 1091ff.; Theocritus xxv.162ff.; Diod. 4.11.3ff.; Eratosthenes, Cat. 12; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.232ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 30. According to Hesiod, the Nemean lion was begotten by Orthus, the hound of Geryon, upon the monster Echidna. Hyginus says that the lion was bred by the Moon.
2.5.10
- He [Geryon] owned red kine, of which Eurytion was the herdsman and Orthus, the two-headed hound, begotten by Typhon on Echidna, was the watchdog.
2.5.11
- These apples were not, as some have said, in Libya, but on Atlas among the Hyperboreans.3 They were presented < by Earth> to Zeus after his marriage with Hera, and guarded by an immortal dragon with a hundred heads [Ladon], offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which spoke with many and divers sorts of voices.
- the Caucasus the eagle, offspring of Echidna and Typhon, that was devouring the liver of Prometheus,
3.5.8
- For Hera sent the Sphinx,2 whose mother was Echidna and her father Typhon; and she had the face of a woman, the breast and feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird.
E1.1
- Third, he slew at Crommyon the sow that was called Phaea after the old woman who bred it;1 that sow, some say, was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon.
E7.20
- And after that he came to two ways. On the one side were the Wandering Rocks, and on the other side two huge cliffs, and in one of them was Scylla, a daughter of Crataeis and Trienus or Phorcus,3 with the face and breast of a woman, but from the flanks she had six heads and twelve feet of dogs.
- 3 Homer mentions Crataeis as the mother of Scylla, but says nothing as to her father (Hom. Od. 12.124ff.). According to Stesichorus, the mother of Scylla was Lamia. See Scholiast on Hom. Od. 12.124; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xii.85, p. 1714. Apollonius Rhodius represents Scylla as a daughter of Phorcus by the night-wandering hag Hecate (Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.828ff.), and this parentage has the support of Acusilaus, except that he named her father Phorcys instead of Phorcus (Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.828; compare Eustathius on Hom. Od. xii.85, p. 1714). Hyginus calls her a daughter of Typhon and Echidna (Hyginus, Fab. 125, 151, and praefat. p. 31, ed. Bunte). A Scholiast on Plat. Rep. 9, 588c, who may have copied the present passage of Apollodorus, calls Scylla a daughter of Crataeis and Tyrrhenus or Phorcus, adding that she had the face and breasts of a woman, but from the flanks six heads of dogs and twelve feet. Some said that the father of Scylla was Triton (Eustathius on Hom. Od. xii.85, p. 1714); and perhaps the name Triton should be read instead of Trienus in the present passage of Apollodorus. See the Critical Note.
3.18.10
- It [throne of Apollo at Amyclae] is supported in front, and similarly behind, by two Graces and two Seasons. On the left stand Echidna and Typhos, on the right Tritons.
8.18.2
- Epimenides of Crete, also, represented Styx as the daughter of Ocean, not, however, as the wife of Pallas, but as bearing Echidna to Peiras, whoever Peiras may be.
Posthomerica (or Fall of Troy),
- 6.249–254 (pp. 272–273)
- There lay the bulk of giant Geryon
- Dead mid his kine. His gory heads were cast
- in dust, dashed down by that resitles club
- Before him that most murderous hound
- Orthros, in furious might like Cerberus
- His brother-hound
- 6.260–262 (pp. 272–273)
- And there, a dread sight even for Gods to see,
- Was Cerberus, whom the Loathy Worm [Έχιδνα] had borne
- To Typho in a craggy cavern's gloom
- Close on the borders of Eternal Night,
- 8.97–98 (pp. 354–355)
- In craggy Dardanus, where the bride-bed [εὐναί] is
- Whereon Anchises clasped the Queen of Love.
- 12.449–453 (pp. 518–519)
- A cave there was, beneath a rugged cliff
- Exceeding high, unscalable, wherein
- Dwelt fearful monsters of the deadly brood
- Of Typhon, in the rock-clefts of the isle
- Calydna that looks Troyward from the sea.
Dionysiaca
- 1.140. (I pp. 12–13)
- [Cadmos] came to the bloodstained cave of Arima,
- 1.154. (I pp. 14–15)
- Then at a nod from his mother, the Earth, Cilician Typhoeus streched out his hands, and stole the snowy tools of Zeus, the tools of fire;
- 1.258–260 (I pp. 20–23)
- Now Typhoeus shifted to the rocks, leaving the air, to flog the seas. He grasped and shook the peak of Corycios,a and crushing the flood of the river that belongs to Cilicia, joined Tarsos and Cydnos together in one hand;
- 1.321 (I pp. 26–27)
- Well at the very time when Cadmos paid his visit to Arima in his wanderings,
- 2.35 (I pp. 46–47)
- as he [Typhon] marched, the solid earth did sink, and the steady ground of Cilicia shook to its foundations under those dragon feet.
- 2.631 ff. (I pp. 90–91)
- Thus he mocked the hal-living corpse of the son of Earth [Typhon]. Then the Cilician Tauros brayed a victorious noise on his stony trumpet for Zeus Almighty, while Cydnos danced a zigzag on his watery feet,
- 4.315–318 (I pp. 156–157)
- On the way, Cadmos espied from the road a sacred place where the Pythian had noticed on a hill the ninecircling coil of the dragon's back, and put to sleep the deadly poison of the Cirrhaiana serpent [echidna].
- a Loosely for "Delphic," Cirrha being the harbout-town below Delphi.
- 18.273 ff. (II pp. 82–83)
- Show me yourself [Dionysus] like Ares, for he also brought low such another, Echidna's son, the gods' enemy, spitting the horrible poison of hideous Echidna. He had two shapes together, and in the forest he shook the twisting coils of his mother's spine. Cronos used this huge creature to confront the thunderbolt, hissing war with the snaky soles of his feet; when he raised his hands above the circle of the breast and fought against your Zeus, and lifted his high head, covered it with masses of cloud in the paths of the sky.
Orphic fragments
- 58 Kern [= Athenagoras, Apology 20]
- Athenagoras, Apology 20, (Pratten, p. 393)
- "But from the sacred womb Phanes begat
- Another offspring, horrible and fierce,
- In sight a frightful viper, on whose head
- Were hairs: its face was comely; but the rest,
- From the neck downwards, bore the aspect dire
- Of a dread dragon [drakontos]"3);
- 3 Fragments.
- Fowler 2013, p. 9
- Echidna, who in later Orphic tradition (fr. 58 Kern, 81 Bernabé) is a daughter of Phanes himself, so perhaps there was a more elevated role for her in early Orphic tradition, and her father.
- van den Broek, p. 137 n. 20
- Orphic Fragment no. 58 (ed. Kern = Athenagoras, Apol. 20), where it is said that Phanes generated φοβερωπὸν Ἔχιδναν, / ...
Commentary on Plato's Phaedo (Taylor 1824, 76–77 n. 63)
- Typhon, Echidna, and Python being the progeny of Tartarus and Earth, which is conjoined with Heaven, form, as it were, a certain Chaldaic triad, which is the inspective guardian of the whole disordered fabrication.
- Typhon is the cause of the all-various subterranean winds and waters. But Echidna is a cause revenging and punishing rational souls; and hence the upper arts of her are those of a virgin, but the lower those of a serpent. And Python is the guardian of the whole of prophetic production. Though it will be better to say, that he is the cause of the disorder and obstruction pertaining to things of this kind. Hence, also, Apollo destroyed Python, in consequence of the latter being adverse [to the prophetic energy of the former].