26 Facts About Typhon

1.

Typhon, Typhoeus, Typhaon or Typhos, was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology.

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2.

Typhon attempted to overthrow Zeus for the supremacy of the cosmos.

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3.

Defeated, Typhon was cast into Tartarus, or buried underneath Mount Etna, or in later accounts, the island of Ischia.

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4.

Typhon mythology is part of the Greek succession myth, which explained how Zeus came to rule the gods.

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5.

Typhon's story is connected with that of Python, and both stories probably derived from several Near Eastern antecedents.

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6.

Typhon was identified with the Egyptian god of destruction Set.

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7.

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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8.

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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9.

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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10.

The earliest mention of Typhon, and his only occurrence in Homer, is a passing reference in the Iliad to Zeus striking the ground around where Typhon lies defeated.

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11.

Epimenides seemingly knew a different version of the story, in which Typhon enters Zeus' palace while Zeus is asleep, but Zeus awakes and kills Typhon with a thunderbolt.

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12.

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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13.

Apollonius of Rhodes, like Pherecydes, presents a multi-stage battle, with Typhon being struck by Zeus' thunderbolt on mount Caucasus, before fleeing to the mountains and plain of Nysa, and ending up buried under Lake Serbonis in Egypt.

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14.

Wounded, Typhon fled to the Syrian Mount Kasios, where Zeus "grappled" with him.

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15.

Typhon carried the disabled Zeus across the sea to the Corycian cave in Cilicia where he set the she-serpent Delphyne to guard over Zeus and his severed sinews, which Typhon had hidden in a bearskin.

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16.

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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17.

Oppian says that Pan helped Zeus in the battle by tricking Typhon to come out from his lair, and into the open, by the "promise of a banquet of fish", thus enabling Zeus to defeat Typhon with his thunderbolts.

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18.

Immediately Typhon extends "his clambering hands into the upper air" and begins a long and concerted attack upon the heavens.

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19.

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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20.

Cadmus stops playing, and Typhon, released from his spell, rushes back to his cave to discover the thunderbolts gone.

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21.

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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22.

Ovid has Typhon buried under all of Sicily, with his left and right hands under Pelorus and Pachynus, his feet under Lilybaeus, and his head under Etna; where he "vomits flames from his ferocious mouth".

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23.

Typhon's final resting place was apparently said to be in Boeotia.

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24.

Several locales, Cilicia, Syria, Lydia, and the island of Ischia, all places associated with Typhon, are given by Strabo as possible locations for Homer's "Arimoi".

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25.

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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26.

Typhon's story seems related to that of another monstrous offspring of Gaia: Python, the serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi, suggesting a possible common origin.

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