Typhon, Typhoeus, Typhaon or Typhos, was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology.
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Typhon, Typhoeus, Typhaon or Typhos, was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology.
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Defeated, Typhon was cast into Tartarus, or buried underneath Mount Etna, or in later accounts, the island of Ischia.
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Typhon mythology is part of the Greek succession myth, which explained how Zeus came to rule the gods.
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Typhon's story is connected with that of Python, and both stories probably derived from several Near Eastern antecedents.
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Typhon was identified with the Egyptian god of destruction Set.
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For Nicander, Typhon was a monster of enormous strength, and strange appearance, with many heads, hands, and wings, and with huge snake coils coming from his thighs.
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Typhon's body was all winged: unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his eyes.
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Hyginus, in his list of offspring of Typhon, retains from the above: Cerberus, the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Hydra and Ladon, and adds "Gorgon", the Colchian dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece and Scylla.
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In one poem Pindar has Typhon being held prisoner by Zeus under Etna, and in another says that Typhon "lies in dread Tartarus", stretched out underground between Mount Etna and Cumae.
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Wounded, Typhon fled to the Syrian Mount Kasios, where Zeus "grappled" with him.
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Typhon then fled to Sicily, where Zeus threw Mount Etna on top of Typhon burying him, and so finally defeated him.
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Immediately Typhon extends "his clambering hands into the upper air" and begins a long and concerted attack upon the heavens.
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Cadmus, disguised as a shepherd, enchants Typhon by playing the panpipes, and Typhon entrusting the thunderbolts to Gaia, sets out to find the source of the music he hears.
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Cadmus stops playing, and Typhon, released from his spell, rushes back to his cave to discover the thunderbolts gone.
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Finally Typhon falls, and Zeus shouts out a long stream of mocking taunts, telling Typhon that he is to be buried under Sicily's hills, with a cenotaph over him which will read "This is the barrow of Typhoeus, son of Earth, who once lashed the sky with stones, and the fire of heaven burnt him up".
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The later forms Typhos and Typhon occur from the 5th century BC onwards, with Typhon becoming the standard form by the end of that century.
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