Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained.
In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Typhon, the most powerful monster in Greek
mythology.
This is a topic we made a short video on last year, and now we’re going to examine it
in greater detail.
First we’re going to look at what’s told in The Library of Greek Mythology, a concise
yet comprehensive compendium of Greek mythology written by Apollodorus.
It describes a version of Typhon’s battle with Zeus in which Typhon chases the gods
out of Olympus, cuts the tendons from Zeus’ hands and feet, and then imprisons the king
of the gods in a cave.
Following that, we’re going to look at an alternative version of this battle, the one
told in Hesiod’s Theogony, which details a brief affair in which Typhon is thoroughly
trounced and walloped by Zeus.
And finally, we’re going to look at the many monstrous children Typhon sired by Echidna,
including: Orthos, Cerberus, the Hydra of Lerna, and the Chimera.
Let’s get into it.
The Giants were a brutal and belligerent race of prodigious size and strength.
They were born to Uranus, the personification of the sky, and Gaia, the personification
of the earth, when droplets of blood from Uranus’ severed genitals fell to the earth
and impregnated Gaia.
Led by Zeus and reinforced by the hero Hercules, 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 joined in a sexual union
with Tartarus, the personification of the cavernous abyss that existed beneath the earth;
and from their union was born Typhon, unequivocally the most powerful monster in Greek mythology.
He was a nightmarish 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 trio
of giant one-eyed cyclops, as well as the indomitable and behemoth trio of Hecatonchires,
each of them with 50 heads surmounting their bodies and a tangle of 50 arms protruding
from each shoulder, were eclipsed by Typhon.
From head to thigh he appeared somewhat human, but in size he was so colossal that he towered
above the mountains, walking among ranges of craggy peaks as someone might navigate
the water-worn rocks that carpet a dry riverbed.
His head was so high that it pressed upwards against the vault of the sky, brushing against
the stars as a person’s head would a canopy of leaves hanging above a long-neglected and
overgrown path.
If he fully outstretched his arms, he would 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, and shins, and feet should have been, were masses of vipers’ coils; and when these
coils weren’t intertwined and knotted, instead fully-extended, they were long enough that
the sinuous length of each snake constituting these masses could straighten upward so that
their heads became parallel with Typhon’s own, emitting fierce hissing noises when positioned
like this.
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 without support, his solitary
advance was the gravest threat the gods had yet faced - more so than the Titan war, the
Titanomachy, and more so than the Giant war, the Gigantomachy.
He was the incarnation of fury and implacability.
He hurled flaming projectiles the size of mountains, and when he bellowed, it was so
ferocious and thunderous that 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 from him, avoiding his deadly path with
every trick and maneuver at their disposal.
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 crackling bolt after crackling bolt.
Once the distance between them was closed, Zeus changed tactics, bringing out his adamantine
sickle.
Already wounded from Zeus’ electric bombardment, now faced with 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 and wished to put this threat down for good; but unfortunately,
the desire for a quick and decisive victory made Zeus vulnerable to a counterattack.
After chasing Typhon many long leagues, all the way to Mount Casion, the peak of which
looms over Syria, Typhon ceased to run, turning to face his pursuer, but this time, though
Typhon was grievously injured, the exchange did not go favorably for Zeus; for he became
wrapped up in his adversary’s coils, immobilized; and trapped as he was, Typhon prized the sickle
from his hand and proceeded to cut into his hands and feet, excising the tendons inside.
Now incapacitated, Zeus was carried through the sea to Cilicia, later deposited on the
ground inside the Corycian cave.
The tendons also were brought, wrapped in a bear pelt, but they weren’t simply placed
on the ground as Zeus was; no, the she-dragon Delphyne, who was half-maiden and half-beast
in appearance, was set to guard them.
This version hasn’t yet been brought to its end, but I think it’s safe to say that,
insofar as the events of this account are concerned, without the intervention of outside
help, Zeus was in a predicament he couldn’t independently extricate himself from, meaning
that, per the events detailed by Apollodorus, it can be said 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 tendons and then furtively fits them back into Zeus’ hands and feet
without being noticed.
With the use of his limbs restored, Zeus makes a surreptitious escape from the cave he was
held captive in, then travels back to Olympus, a safe haven where he could wait for his strength
to regenerate.
Once recovered, he makes a rapid descent from the lofty heights of his heavenly 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 Typhon, who is overcome and forced to make a hasty retreat.
Making his situation even more dire are the fates, who tricked Typhon into tasting the
ephemeral fruits.
You see, persuaded by the promise of augmented power, he did as instructed, but really, he
was taken in by a ruse, beguiled, for contrary to what he was told, the fruits he tasted
didn’t augment his power, but rather sapped it.
Continuing to flee, Typhon was driven to Thrace, to Mount Haimos, where he finally turned to
fight, launching projectiles of his own, whole mountains that his mammoth hands gouged from
the earth; however, despite his own efforts, none of what he threw reached his foe, for
each mountain he launched through the sky was parried and reflected, turned back towards
Typhon by bolts that Zeus himself hurled.
The futility of his resistance made clear, Typhon tried to escape yet again, though his
attempt was to no avail; for Zeus, temporarily sheathing his lightning, let fly a mountain
of his own; and so, Typhon was buried beneath Mount Etna, which was said to still erupt
in fire when struck by Zeus’ bolts.
Another version, the one given in Hesiod’s Theogony, describes a very different sequence
of events that unfold 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, the 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…”
We’re going to wrap up this video by quickly discussing the monstrous children born to
Typhon and Echidna, who was a cave dwelling half-maiden, half-snake monster.
By her Typhon sired Orthus, Cerberus, the Hydra of
Lerna, and the Chimera.
Orthus was a two-headed hound belonging to Geryon, a triple-bodied giant, and both of
them were killed by Hercules during the Hero’s 10th labor.
Cerberus, known as the ‘Hound of Hades’ was described as having between three and
50 heads, and the object of Hercules’ 12th labor was to overpower Cerberus without weapons
and carry him to the land of the living.
The Hydra of Lerna was a massive serpent with a multitude of heads; famously, two would
grow back after each one was destroyed, either severed or severely bludgeoned, and was the
object of Hercules’ second labor.
And finally, the chimera was a hybrid female monster with three heads, that of a lion,
a goat, and a snake.
Though she breathed fire and was incredibly deadly, the chimera was killed by the hero
Bellerophon, who circled her at a distance, shooting arrows while flying on the back of
Pegasus, the mythical winged horse that sprung from the gory stump of Medusa’s neck after
she was decapitated by Perseus.
And that’s it for this video!
If you enjoy the content please LIKE the video and SUBSCRIBE to the channel.
As always, leave your video suggestions down below