Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video,
we’re going to discuss Typhon: Greek Mythology’s most powerful monster.
First, we’re going to look at what’s said in ‘The Library of Greek Mythology’,
a concise yet comprehensive compendium attributed to Apollodorus. It describes
a version of Typhon’s battle with Zeus in which Typhon chases the gods out of Olympus, cuts the
sinews from Zeus’ hands and feet, and imprisons Zeus in a cave. Following that, we’re going to
quickly look at another version of this battle, the one told in Hesiod’s Theogony, which details
a brief struggle in which Typhon is thoroughly trounced, walloped by Zeus in short order.
Alright, let’s get into it.
Looked at one way, the early events of Greek Mythology, as recounted by Apollodorus, are a
story of loss and revenge. This view centers on Gaia, who repeatedly produced children to avenge
the defeat of her older children, continuing in this way for multiple generations. The Titans
were defeated by Zeus and his coalition of gods and monsters. After ten years of war , the Titans
were finally bested and subdued, soon to be imprisoned in the depths of Tartarus. That
her children were condemned to the abyss enraged Gaia, so she produced the Giants to challenge the
gods to exact retribution. When the giants were subsequently destroyed, she then produced Typhon,
Greek Mythology’s final boss, if you will, the last existential threat Olympus had to overcome.
The Giants were a brutal and belligerent race of prodigious size and strength. They were
born after droplets of blood fell from Uranus’ severed genitals and impregnated Gaia. Led by
Zeus and reinforced by the hero Heracles, the gods fought and killed the Giants,
the war between them known as the Gigantomachy. Gaia was enraged by the destruction of her
children, so she coupled with Tartarus, earth and abyss joining to procreate;
and from their union was born Typhon, unequivocally the most powerful monster in
Greek mythology. He was a monstrous amalgamation of both man and beast, and in size and strength,
he was unsurpassed. Even the other monstrous children born to Gaia and Uranus - the Titans,
the trio Uranian Cyclopes, and the indomitable, behemoth trio of Hecatonchires,
each of them with 50 heads and 100 arms - were eclipsed by Typhon’s might and stature.
From head to thigh he appeared human, but in size he was so colossal that he towered above
the mountains. If he so wished, he could traverse ranges of craggy peaks as someone might navigate
the water-worn rocks that carpet a dry riverbed. He towered so high that his head pressed upwards
against the vault of the sky. If he fully outstretched his arms, he could simultaneously
reach the furthest Eastern and Western points of the mortal plane. Countless dragons’ heads
grew from his arms, and twisting out beneath his thighs - where calves, shins, and feet should have
been - was a tangle of writhing vipers’ coils; and when these coils weren’t knotted beneath - twined,
curled, and looped together in every way - instead fully extended, they could stretch out,
elongating upward, so that the heads of the snakes constituting this squirming,
seething mass became parallel with Typhon’s own. Wicked wings covered his terrible body. Thick
dirty hair matted his head and cheeks, and his eyes burned like the mouths of two fiery volcanoes
on the brink of eruption. Alone, he assailed Mount Olympus, and though he approached alone,
his solitary advance was the gravest threat the gods had yet faced - more so than the Titan war,
more so than the Giant war. He was the incarnation of terrible power, implacable.
He hurled flaming projectiles the size of mountains, and when he bellowed, the sound
exploded forth like the shockwave from a meteorite impact; dreadful and thunderous, no heart that
heard it was left entirely without fear. The gods fled before him, abandoning Olympus - their home,
their place of power, formerly believed to be impregnable. They took flight to Egypt,
and when they saw that Typhon continued his pursuit of them, they transformed themselves
into animals to hide. Only Zeus remained undaunted, filled with the fortitude to stand
his ground and face the monster that sought to end the rule of the gods. From afar he unleashed
an onslaught of lightning, hurling bolt after bolt. Once the distance between them was closed,
Zeus changed tactics, bringing out his adamantine sickle. Already wounded from Zeus’ bombardment,
and now imperiled by the impossibly sharp blade of such a lethal close-quarters weapon,
it was Typhon’s turn to flee, and Zeus, eager to press his advantage, was close behind:
he sensed victory, wishing to promptly put his challenger down for good; but unfortunately,
the desire for a quick and decisive victory made Zeus vulnerable to a counterattack. After being
chased many long leagues, Typhon stopped running and turned to face his pursuer.
Though his enemy was grievously injured, the exchange did no go favorably for Zeus,
who was quickly entangled in his adversary’s coils, immobilized; and trapped as he was,
Typhon prized the sickle from his hand and proceeded to cut into Zeus’s arms and legs,
excising the sinews inside. Incapacitated, the command of his limbs lost, Zeus was carried
across the sea to a cave. The sinews also were brought, wrapped in a bear pelt like an exotic
treasure and transported thus, but they weren’t simply placed on the ground as Zeus was; no,
the she-dragon Delphyne, a half-woman, half-beast monstrosity, was stationed to guard them.
Though this version hasn’t yet reached its conclusion, Zeus was virtually helpless.
Barring the intervention of outside help, he was mired in a predicament he couldn’t independently
extricate himself from. Because of this, insofar as the events of this account are concerned,
it can be said - fairly, I think - that Zeus was defeated by Typhon in a one-on-one showdown. But,
of course, this isn’t where the story ends. Hermes steals the sinews and then furtively
strings them back into Zeus’ arms and legs without being noticed. The use of his limbs restored,
Zeus escapes from the cave he was imprisoned in, retreating to Olympus, where he licks
his wounds and bides his time, waiting for his strength to return. Once recovered, he makes a
precipitous descent from the heights of his lofty abode, charging forward in a chariot drawn by a
team of winged horses. He engages Typhon a second time, again beginning the battle from a distance,
raining down a new barrage of bolts on his foe, who is overcome and forced to make a
hasty retreat. On the run, harried by electric volleys, an earlier interaction with the fates
made Typhon’s situation even more dire. They tricked him into tasting the ephemeral fruits.
Persuaded by the promise of augmented power, he did as instructed, but really, he was beguiled,
taken in by a ruse, for contrary to what he was told, the fruits he tasted didn’t augment
his power, but, in fact, sapped it. Continuing to flee, Typhon, both disadvantaged and diminished,
was driven to the foothills of a distant mountain, where, recognizing the futility of his current
course, he turned to fight, launching projectiles of his own. Whole mountains gouged from the earth
by gargantuan hands were sent flying - awesome streaks of lightning met by massive arcing earth;
however, despite his own efforts, none of what he launched struck his target, for each projectile
was countered and repulsed, sent flying back by a responding bolt each time. The untenable position
of his stand made clear, Typhon tried to escape yet again, though this attempt was of no avail:
Zeus decided to try his enemy’s weapon, letting fly a mountain of his own; and so,
Typhon was buried beneath Mount Etna, which was said to erupt when struck by Zeus’s lightning.
Another version, the one given in Hesiod’s Theogony, describes a very different sequence
of events that unfolded in the battle between Zeus and Typhon, one in which
Typhon was utterly overpowered and defeated. Here’s a passage from Hesiod’s Theogony that
describes this second version of the battle between Zeus and Typhon (you’ll
notice that his appearance here is recounted differently than in Apollodorus’ version):
“Out of his shoulders came a hundred fearsome snake-heads with black tongues flickering, and the
eyes in his strange heads flashed fire under the brows; and there were voices in all his fearsome
heads, giving out every kind of indescribable sound… he would have become king of mortals
and immortals, had the father of gods and men not taken sharp notice… When Zeus had accumulated his
strength, then, and taken his weapons, thunder, lighting, and smoking bolt, he leapt from Olympus
and struck, and scorched all the strange heads of the dreadful monster on every side. When he
had overcome him by belaboring him with blows… [Typhon] collapsed crippled, and the huge earth
groaned. Flames shot from the thunderstruck lord where he was smitten down, in the mountain glens…”
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