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@deathlessathanasia / deathlessathanasia.tumblr.com

Greek mythology enthusiast with some interest in ancient Greek religion and an unfortunate love for pedantry and nitpicking.
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"Themis’ appearance at the birth of Apollo, accordingly, has more to do with her particular affiliation to Zeus’ regime than it does to her status as a Titan: Apollo will be his father’s mouthpiece, and Themis’ role as nurse is therefore thematically crucial for aligning the young god with his father and the order instantiated by his regime, in contrast to the opposition to Zeus embodied in Typhon, the son of Hera and nursling of the she-dragon. The opposition of the two groups animates the hymn: the conflict between Hera and Zeus revolves around the children they have independent of one another. Hera’s anger at Zeus derives from the birth of Athena, and her response at that time was to produce Typhon, who embodied her anger and constituted a threat to Zeus’ order. The contrast is deepened by the identities of the children’s respective nurses: the joint facts that the she-dragon nurses Typhon and that the two will be slain by Apollo and Zeus, respectively, reflect their opposition to the father-son pair, while the fact that Themis nurses Apollo aligns her both with the two monster-slayers and the order they safeguard.

But not only does the hymn contrast Themis with the she-dragon as the nurse of the infant Apollo, it also sets her against Hera. For compare how Hera’s withdrawal from Zeus’ court during the gestation of Typhon is characterized in the same language as elsewhere describes Themis’ role as an intimate of Zeus. οὔτε ποτ’ εἰϲ θῶκον πολυδαίδαλον ὡϲ τὸ πάροϲ περ αὐτῷ ἐφεζομένη πυκινὰϲ φραζέϲκετο βουλάϲ (345-6). Nor did [Hera], as she had previously, regularly devise detailed boulai while sitting with him at his well-wrought throne. ὃϲ τε Θέμιϲτι ἐγκλιδὸν ἑζομένῃ πυκινοὺϲ ὀάρουϲ ὀαρίζει (h. Zeus 2-3). [Zeus], who converses intimately with Themis as she sits leaning in toward him. The Homeric Hymn to Zeus makes no mention of the boulê Dios, but the similarity of αὐτῷ ἐφεζομένη πυκινάϲ / ἐγκλιδὸν ἑζομένῃ πυκινούϲ suggests that formulaic language of close and well-worked counsel underlies both. Counsel of this sort is appropriate to intimates: in the first Book of the Iliad, Hera complains at being left out of Zeus’ decision-making process (1.540-3), and the collusion she suspects is very much framed as a kind of infidelity. In the Hymn to Apollo, Hera’s opposition goes hand in hand with the complaint that she is not mother of Zeus’ children (313-5), and her withdrawal from his confidence mirrors her absence at the birth of Apollo. Themis’ presence in the assembly of goddesses attending to Leto and Apollo, in contrast, underlies the link between herself, Zeus’ will and Apollo. Cosmic order is at stake in the hymn’s references to Themis and Hera: although Themis is a Titan, the irony in the Hymn to Apollo is that the “threat to Zeus’s rule arises not from the old gods as in the Theogony, but from within the Olympian family itself, in fact, at its very center.” In essence, Themis’ role in the hymn is therefore bound up with her traditional mythological affiliation with Zeus’ will and the orderly operation of the cosmos: there is nothing at this point in the hymn to suggest a direct connection between Themis and the oracle."

- Themis in Sophocles by Christopher Michael Sampson

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"Art suggests a stronger congruence between the imperfect, monstrous forms of Hera's two sons than literature does, for in return to Olympus scenes Hephaestus is often depicted with severely twisted feet, which accordingly recall Typhon's anguipede form. An ancient variant of Hephaestus' myth, already in the Iliad, tells that he was lamed rather when Zeus hurled him from heaven for helping Hera against him. And in this he parallels Typhon who, the Theogony tells, crashes to earth lamed when overcome by Zeus, and is then hurled down again into Tartarus. In his final confinement too Typhon is associated with Hephaestus: the Theogony compares him to the tin melted in the mountains under the guidance of Hephaestus, whilst, according to Pindar, he 'sends up the most terrible fountains of Hephaestus'. But Aeschylus and Nicander co-opt Hephaestus to serve as guard over Typhon and as confiner of him at this point, setting his anvils over him and working his metals on top of his body."

- Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds by Daniel Ogden

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It’s so funny how when Hera birthed Hephaestus she was so upset over his disability she threw him off a Mountain but when she gave birth to the lovecraftian horror that is Typhon she just gave him to some monster lady that she just so happen to be acquainted with and only felt bad about creating him later on. Which is hilarious and sad but also proof that while Hera is a terrible mom she doesn’t care about others appearances, only their usefulness to her.

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What I would like to know is whether, in the versions where Hera is responsible for/involved in the birth of Typhon, Zeus is aware of what she did or not. And if he is, what was his reaction? I think it's reasonable to assume that he knows, given that in Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo Hera tells Zeus that she will have an outstanding child on her own just before she leaves and conceives the monster apart from the gods, and in the Iliad scholia it is said that once Typhon was born Hera had reconciled with Zeus and told him everything. We never hear of her being punished as a result to this incident, so could it be that Zeus simply forgave her and let her get away with that without any repercursions, or did he retaliate against her but in a more subtle/less public way?

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„He [Typhon] felt an urge to usurp the rule of Zeus and not one of the gods could withstand him as he attacked. In panic they fled to Aigyptos, all except Athena and Zeus, who alone were left.” - Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses

„Not otherwise did Typhoeus, boasting that already the kingdom of the sky and already the stars were won, feel aggrieved that Bacchus in the van and Pallas, foremost of the gods, and a maiden’s snakes confronted him.” - Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica

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When it comes to how I imagine the birth order of Hera's children, I'll admit that I'm not faithfully adhering to any ancient source, but mostly combining various accounts and adding and subtracting as necessary. I think I have somewhat unorthodox opinions about this but I'm fine with it.

To start with what some sources tell us: in Hesiod's Theogony Hera bears to Zeus Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia (listed in this order) and in the Library of Apollodoros Hebe, Eileithyia and Ares (listed in this order in all translations I've read, but I haven't looked at the Greek text to confirm). Note that the order in which these three gods are named need not be their actual birth order. In Hesiod's Theogony, for example, Styx is mentioned last on the catalogue of daughters of Okeanos, yet she is the oldest of them all. The birth of Hephaistos is set apart from those of Hera's other children in both sources, in the Theogony taking place after (and likely in reaction to) Athena's birth, in the Bibliotheke before it. However, the birth order of the younger gods obviously can differ greatly from one source to another: Apollon is the oldest son of Zeus in the Theogony, but in Homeric Hymn to Apollo Hephaistos seems to have been born before him, and in Kallimachos' Hymn to Delos both Ares and Hephaistos are older; in Hesiod's Theogony Ares is conceived after but born before Athena, in the Bibliotheke he is both conceived and born before her, but in one variant (only attested by Ovid but this doesn't have to mean that he invented it) he is conceived and born in response to her birth; in the Theogony Apollon is born before Eileithyia, but in Homeric Hymn 3 he can only be brought into the world with her help; in the Theogony Apollon is also born before Athena, but in the Bibliotheke she is born before, and in one tradition (Hypereides fragment 67) she was the one who guided the pregnant Leto to Delos.

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Why do I almost exclusively hear about Ixion when the topic of people who were interested in Hera is brought up? Here is a more comprehensive list:

  • Ixion - the first kinslayer among mortals, purified by Zeus and brought to Olympos, where he proceeded to show his gratitude by trying to sleep with Hera: „For although he received a sweet life among the gracious children of Cronus, he did not abide his prosperity for long, when in his madness of spirit he desired Hera, who was allotted to the joyful bed of Zeus. But his arrogance drove him to extreme delusion; and soon the man suffered a suitable exquisite punishment. Both of his crimes brought him toil in the end. First, he was the hero who, not without guile, was the first to stain mortal men with kindred blood; second, in the vast recesses of that bridal chamber he once made an attempt on the wife of Zeus. … the man in his ignorance chased a sweet fake and lay with a cloud, for its form was like the supreme celestial goddess, the daughter of Cronus. The hands of Zeus set it as a trap for him, a beautiful misery. Ixion brought upon himself the four-spoked fetter, his own ruin.” (Pindar, Pythian 2)
  • Endymion - Famous for being Selene's sleeping lover, but according to a fragment from the Hesiodic Corpus he was brought to Olympos and fell in love with Hera, slept with a cloud shaped like her just as Ixion, and was sent down into Hades: „In the 'Great Eoiae' it is said that Endymion was transported by Zeus into heaven, but when he fell in love with Hera, was befooled with a shape of cloud, and was cast out and went down into Hades.” Epimenides of Crete has a slightly different account: „Endymion in heaven fell in love with Hera, and Zeus condemned him to eternal sleep”.
  • Eurymedon - One of the Gigantes, he either raped the young Hera or was her lover before Zeus married her, whereupon both Eurymedon and the son Hera bore to him, Prometheus, were punished. The story is attributed to Euphorion and is quoted in the Iliad scholia: „Hera, while she was being nurtured by her parents, was raped by one of the Gigantes, Eurymedon, and she became pregnant and bore Prometheus. Zeus, after marrying his sister and learning of the event, punished Eurymedon by throwing him into Tartarus, and Prometheus, under the pretext of fire, was bound in chains.” (Schol. ad Il. 14.295); „Some say that Hera, when she was a maiden, fell in love with Eurymedon, one of the Gigantes, and by him bore Prometheus. Zeus, knowing this, hurled Eurymedon into Tartarus, and on the pretext of the stolen fire, chained up Prometheus.” (Schol. T ad Il. 14.296)
  • Ephialtes - One of the two Aloadai, the gigantic sons of Poseidon who attempted to make war on the gods. According to the Library of Apollodoros, „Ephialtes paid amorous attention to Hera, as did Otos to Artemis.”
  • Typhoeus - Zeus's greatest adversary, for whose birth Hera is sometimes responsible. In the Dionysiaca of Nonnos, he plans to take Hera as his wife after his defeat of Zeus: „Kronion also shall lift the spinning heavens of Atlas, and bear the load on weary shoulders – there shall he stand, and hear the song at my wedding, and hide his jealousy when I shall be Hera’s bridegroom.”
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Everyone knows about Hera conceiving Hephaistos on her own after Zeus gave birth to Athena, and this is treated as the regular and most common version, but one does not get this impression when actually looking at the sources we have. In fact, outside Hesiod's Theogony, this order of events doesn't really seem to be attested much if at all, and many other accounts contradict it.

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Hera as nurse, mother and employer of monsters

Hera is connected with quite a few monsters in Greek mythology, especially with serpents and serpentine creatures. This aspect of her doesn't seem to get much attention, but it is certainly interesting.

She was nurse to the Lernaean Hydra, the many-headed, venomous water snake which Herakles had to subdue: "Her [Echidna's] third child was the loathsome Hydra of Lerna, and she was nurtured by white-armed Hera whose wrath at mighty Herakles was implacable." (Hesiod, Theogony)

She raised the Nemean Lion, apparently for no reason other than causing trouble for mortals: "the Lion of Nemea, who was reared by Hera, the glorious wife of Zeus, and settled on the hills of Nemea as a scourge to mankind." (Hesiod, Theogony)

She gave birth to Typhon, father of most monsters, in an attempt to produce a child more powerful than Zeus: "And once from golden-throned Hera she received and reared dreadful and baneful Typhaon, a scourge to mortals. Hera gave birth to him in anger at father Zeus, when the son of Kronos gave birth to glorious Athena from his head;" (Homeric Hymn 3. To Apollon)

Hera sent the Sphinx to terrorise the Thebans: "While he [Kreon] was king, quite a scourge held Thebes in suppression, for Hera sent upon them the Sphinx, whose parents were Echidna and Typhon. (Apollodoros, Bibliotheke)

She appointed the hundred-headed serpent son of Typhon as guardian over her tree of golden apples: "This is the large serpent, the one that lies between the two Bears. They say that it is the one that guarded the golden apples and was killed by Heracles; it was placed among the constellations by Hera, who had appointed it to guard the apples in the land of the Hesperides. For according to Pherecydes, ... because the daughters of Atlas constantly stole the fruit, she stationed this enormous snake there as a guard." (Hyginus, Astronomy)

She sent two serpents to attack Herakles: "... then sent the wily Hera two dire monsters of serpents, bridling and bristling and with azure coils, to go upon the broad threshold of the hollow doorway of the house, with intent they should devour the child Heracles." (Theokritos, Idyll 24).

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“They say that Gaia, upset by the massacre of the Giants, lodged a complaint against Zeus with Hera. Hera went and told everything to Kronos, who gave her two eggs which he had anointed with his own sperm and told her to put them underground. From these eggs would emerge the daime who was destined to remove Zeus from power. She, however, because was wrathful, put them under Arimon in Cilicia. When Typhon emerged, Hera had reconciled with Zeus and told him everything. Zeus then struck the place with a lightning bolt and named the mountain Aetna.” (Scholion on Iliad 2.783)

Honestly, this variant is awesome! I don't even know what part is the most hilarious to imagine: Gaia going to Hera to complain about Zeus? Hera going to her father, of all people, to complain about her brother-husband? Hera having to tell Zeus something like "Will you be angry, Father Zeus, if I reveal to you that I might have conspired with your enemies in order to bring into the world an even more formidable enemy for you?"? Or maybe it's Hera doing a complete 180 from "Hell yes, Zeus has to go!" to "Oh no, I can't let this happen. He must learn of this before it is too late!"

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"Zeus himself, the central character in Hesiod’s Theogony, bears some of the most easily recognizable Northwest Semitic features, in addition to those of the Indo-European Sky God inherited by the Greeks. It is not necessary, therefore, to discuss them at length. It suffices to recall that the Canaanite Storm God Baal and the homologous Greek god share a similar position in the succession of kings in Heaven, as well as the position of the youngest son. They both reign from a palace on a northern mountain (Olympos, Zapanu/Zaphon), and they wield thunder as their distinctive weapon. As with his Near Eastern counterparts, thunder, lightning, and the thunderbolt were the “missiles/shafts of great Zeus.” The position of his sister and principal consort Hera is like that of Anat, Baal’s sister and partner (though not consort). For some, this coupling “violates the incest taboo” in Greek myth but allows Hera to remain an “equal” partner according to her right of birth, as the daughter of Kronos. In Il. 4.59 she is the oldest daughter, in Il. 16.432,18.352 she is called “sister and wife” and in Hesiod Th. 454 she is the youngest daughter of Kronos, exactly as Zeus is the last son.

The list of similarities between Zeus and the different manifestations of the Canaanite god (either Baal or El or Yahweh in the later Hebrew theology) is long and has been the subject of much discussion by classicists, Semitists, and biblical scholars. Perhaps most interesting are the parallels noticeable at the level of their epithets, such as Zeus the “cloud-gatherer” (nephelegereta)or “lightener” (asteropetes), and the frequent characterization of Baal in Ugaritic poetry as the “cloud-rider” (rkb ʿrpt). Other epithets of the Northwest Semitic Storm God Adad (Haddad) are preserved in Akkadian hymns, such as “lord of lightning” or “establisher of clouds.” …

Zeus’ “high-in-the-Sky” position and Sky-nature are reflected in other epithets such as hypatos and hypsistos. At the same time, similar divine epithets meaning “the high one” (eli, elyon, and ram) are very common in Northwest Semitic religious texts, accompanying several principal divinities. For instance, this epithet is used in the Ugaritic epic for Baal, and different forms of the adjective are attested in Aramaic, as well as in the Hebrew Bible accompanying El, Yahweh, and Elohim. … The association of the Storm God in Syro-Palestine with the bull as a symbol of fertility is also present in the various mythological narratives involving Zeus, most clearly in the famous motif of Zeus’ kidnapping the Phoenician princess Europa and carrying her on his back after taking the shape of a bull.

The final fight of Zeus with Typhon (Th. 820-880) has also been compared to the fight between Baal and Yam (the Sea) in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle and to that between Demarous and Pontos (the Sea) in Philon’s Phoenician History (P.E. 1.10.28). As mentioned earlier, the Storm God’s struggle with a monster also (albeit more distantly) resembles the clash between the Hurrian Weather God Teshub and the monsters Ullikummi, Illuyanka, and Hedammu. The figure of Typhon in Hesiod can in fact be seen as a Greek version of a “cosmic rebel” repeatedly reimagined with different characteristics in the specific versions, who endangers the Weather God’s power and generally has both marine and chthonic features. The Levantine and Greek adversaries probably have more than a merely thematic resonance, as the very name of Typhon might have a Semitic origin. It has hypothetically but quite convincingly been associated with the Semitic name Zaphon. Mount Zaphon (Ugaritic Zapunu or Zapanu) is a central point of reference in the geography and the religion of Ugarit. Known by Greeks and Romans as Kasion oros/ mons Casius (today Jebel al-Aqra), this peak on the north coast of Syria (south of the Orontes River) was also mentioned in Hurrian-Hittite myths. The mountain occupies a central spot in both the fight between Ullikummi and Teshub (as Mount Hazzi) and in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. In the Ugaritic epic, the fight against Yam (the Sea) is not described as taking place on the mountain, but the celebration of Baal’s victory is, as it is the god’s abode overlooking the Mediterranean: “With sweet voice the hero sings / over Baalu on the summit / of Sapan (= Zaphon).” Much later, Apollodoros locates the cosmic fight with Typhon on Mons Casius precisely, which indicates that the link between Typhon and Zaphon had persisted, even though the name known to Hellenistic authors was the Greek, not the Semitic one."

- When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East by Carolina López-Ruiz

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“In the early account by Hesiod, the issue is settled by single combat between Zeus and Typhon. Rising up against the monster in all his strength, Zeus thundered mightily as Typhon poured forth flame, until the earth, sea and sky began to boil, and the world to shake, causing even Hades to tremble in the subterranean land of the dead, and the Titans far below in Tartaros. Zeus leapt down from Olympos after these initial exchanges, and struck at Typhon and lashed him and burned his many heads, forcing him down to the ground as a maimed and helpless wreck; and he then completed his victory by hurling him down to Tartaros. Nothing was left of him in the world above apart from his progeny, namely his offspring by Echidna and all the fierce and harmful winds that bring danger to sailors and damage the crops. These noxious winds of Typhoean origin are distinguished from the divine and beneficial winds that were brought forth by Eos. . . .  

In post-Hesiodic accounts of Typhon’s career, many new features are introduced into his story, mainly from the east. Since Apollodorus provides a composite account that includes most of these new elements, it will be convenient to summarize his narrative before considering certain elements in further detail. When Typhon launched an attack against heaven itself, hurling flaming rocks and emitting fearsome hisses and screams, the gods were so terrified that they fled to Egypt, where they concealed themselves by transforming themselves into animals of various kinds. So Zeus was obliged to confront Typhon on his own, first pelting him with thunderbolts from a distance, and then striking at him with an adamantine sickle (harpe¯). After pursuing the wounded monster to Mt Kasion in Syria, he grappled with him face to face; but Typhon enveloped Zeus in his coils, wrested the sickle from him, and used it to cut the tendons from his hands and feet. He then carried him through the sea to Cilicia and deposited him in a cave there (the Corycian cave), hiding the severed tendons inside in a bear’s skin; and he appointed a fellow-monster as guard, the she-dragon Delphyne, who was formed half like a snake and half like a beautiful maiden. Hermes and Aigipan (Goat-Pan) managed to steal tendons, however, and fitted them back into Zeus, who soon recovered his vigour and returned to the fray. Descending from heaven in a chariot, he hurled thunderbolts at Typhon and pursued him to Mt Nysa (of uncertain location), where the Moirai (Fates) deceived him into eating the ‘ephemeral fruits’ (otherwise unknown), which robbed him of some of his strength. When pursued onward to Haimon, a mountain-range in Thrace (or now Bulgaria), he was still strong enough to hurl entire mountains at Zeus; but Zeus hurled them back at him by means of a thunderbolt, causing him to shed so much blood (haima) that the range below was known as Haimon from that time forth. He then fled overseas to Sicily, where Zeus completed his victory by burying him under Mt Etna.

The ignominious tale of the flight and transformation of the gods was of earlier origin than one might suppose if Pindar did indeed recount it in one of his processional odes, as is reported. It was inspired by an Egyptian myth in which the god Seth and his followers were said to have transformed themselves into animals when pursued by Horus. Since the Greeks identified Typhon with Seth rather than the pursuer Horus and had no interest in the original significance of the transformations, the myth was naturally much altered when they adapted it for their  own purposes, to provide a mythical explanation for the theriomorphic nature of the Egyptian gods. In the earliest version to have survived, as ascribed to Nicander, all the gods fled in a panic apart from Zeus, and they turned themselves into animals on their arrival in Egypt, Apollo into a hawk, Hermes into an ibis, Artemis into a cat, Hephaistos into an ox, and so forth. The basic pattern is obvious enough: the Greek gods are identified with specific Egyptian gods in accordance with accepted tradition, and are said to have transformed themselves into the animal form associated with that Egyptian god. If the animal in question has some connection with the respective Greek god in native myth or cult, so much the better, but that is not the essential point. So Apollo, for instance, who happens to be compared to a hawk in the Iliad and elsewhere, turns himself into a falcon in the present myth because he was identified with the Egyptian god Horus, who was represented as a falcon or with a falcon’s head. Ovid neglects the point in his later version by saying that Apollo turned himself into a crow, the bird that was most closely associated with him in Greek myth. A further detail is added to the story in astral mythology to provide a mythical explanation for the origin of Capricorn, a constellation representing a ‘goat-fish’, a Mesopotamian monster that had no counterpart in Greek myth. After fleeing to Egypt along with the other god, goat-footed Pan threw himself into the Nile, turning his hindquarters into those of a fish and his forequarters into those of a goat; and Zeus was so impressed by his ingenious disguise that he placed an image of the resulting goat-fish among the stars.

Although Apollodorus’ narrative takes Typhon into other areas besides, he was most closely associated with Asia Minor, especially the south-eastern province of Cilicia, which may well have been his original homeland. In a passing reference in the Iliad, Homer states that he lay in the land of the Arimoi (ein Arimois, a phrase that was also interpreted as referring to some mountains called the Arima); and Hesiod states correspondingly that Echidna, a monster who bore children to Typhon in his account, lived in a cave beneath the earth ein Arimoisin. Most scholars of Hellenistic and later times believed that the Arimoi were a people who lived somewhere in Asia Minor; but even if they were right, as is likely enough, their ideas were apparently based on conjecture rather than direct evidence from the early tradition. It seems to have been well-established by Pindar’s time in any case that Cilicia was Typhon’s homeland, for the poet refers to him as ‘Cilician Typhoeus’, and remarks that he was reared in the ‘renowned Cilician cave’ that plays such an important part in Apollodorus’ narrative. Apollodorus’ story of the stolen sinews was surely taken over from Near Eastern mythology; it has been observed that there is a parallel in the Hittite tale of the struggle between the Storm-god and the dragon Illuyanka. In that myth, the Storm-god was initially defeated by Illuyanka, who robbed him of his heart and eyes; but he went on to father a son who married the dragon’s daughter and recovered the stolen heart and eyes with his wife’s aid. When the Storm-god was then restored to his original condition, he set out against the dragon for a second time and killed him. Typhon’s connection with Etna was fairly old even if it could not have been a very ancient feature of his legend. Pindar and the Prometheus Bound already mention that he is buried under the volcano and causes its eruptions by breathing forth streams of fire. Apollodorus seems to be exceptional in ascribing the eruptions to the after-effects of the thunderbolts that were hurled against him by Zeus. According to an alternative tradition first recorded by Pherecydes, Zeus buried Typhon under the island of Pythekousai (i.e. Ischia, off Naples, which contains hot springs and a volcano which was still active in antiquity). Other mythical explanations were also offered for the flame and smoke of Etna, for some claimed that the Giant Enkelados was buried under it, or that the forge of Hephaistos was located in it.”

 - The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology

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“The myth of Typhon was almost certainly of earlier origin than that of the war between the gods and the Giants, which is not mentioned in Hesiod’s Theogony. TYPHON (Typhaon in epic) or TYPHOEUS was the most terrible of these adversaries of Zeus, for he was so immensely strong that he could threaten the divine order single-handedly. According to Hesiod (who uses both forms of his name), Gaia bore him to Tartaros as the last of her primordial children, and he was such a formidable monster that he might well have succeeded in his revolt if Zeus had not been quick to respond to the threat. Strength lay in his hands, and the feet of the mighty god were untiring; and from his shoulders sprang a hundred serpent’s heads, terrible dragon’s heads with dark flickering tongues, and the eyes beneath the brows of these wondrous heads flashed fire, and fire blazed from every head as he glared around. In all his dreadful heads there were voices that sent forth every kind of unspeakable sound, for at one time they uttered words that would be comprehensible to the gods, and at other times sounds like those of a bellowing bull, proud in its untamed fury, and sometimes like those of a lion, relentless in its valour, and sometimes like those of yelping puppies, a wonder to hear, and sometimes he would hiss like a snake until the high mountains echoed. Although eloquent in its clumsy fashion, this earliest description of Typhon is neither complete nor precise. In the next literary portrait of him, from a prose summary of a poem by Nicander (second century BC), he has a great many arms in addition to his many heads, and he is also equipped with wings and has enormous dragon’s coils springing from his thighs. The wings can be found at an earlier period in vase-paintings, which generally depict Typhon as a composite being with a human head and torso and a lower body formed from two or more serpent’s tails. . . . In Apollodorus’ description of Typhon, which is full and memorable if muddled in places, there seems to be some confusion between these serpent’s tails, as found in artistic images, and the serpent’s heads that spring from Typhon’s shoulders in the Theogony; for we are told that a hundred dragon’s heads sprang from his arms, and that the serpent’s coils from beneath his thighs reached up to his head when fully extended and emitted violent hisses. He was of such monstrous size (so the mythographer states) that he rose higher than any mountain, and could reach out to the east and the west with his outstretched arms; and he had wings all over his body, and foul hair sprang from his head and cheeks, and fire flashed from his eyes.

. . . Hesiod does not explain why Gaia, who was otherwise well-disposed toward Zeus, should have wished to give birth to this threatening monster, nor does he state that she did so with hostile intent. According to Apollodorus, Gaia brought forth the Giants first of all in anger at the fate of the Titans, and brought forth Typhon as a further danger to the gods after the Giants were defeated by them. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo offers a different account of Typhon’s origin in which Hera is said to have brought him to birth as a fatherless child because she was furious that her husband should have brought Athena to birth without her involvement (i.e. from his head). In her anger, she struck the ground with her hand and prayed to Earth, Sky and the Titans that she should bear a child on her own that would be as much stronger than Zeus as Zeus was stronger than Kronos. She gave birth in due time to Typhon, a being who resembled neither the gods nor mortal men, and she entrusted him to the Delphian she-dragon to be reared. The poet tells us very little about the subsequent life of the monster, merely observing twice that it was a danger to mortals. According to a strange account from the Homeric scholia, Gaia complained to Hera after the slaughter of the Giants, prompting her to approach Kronos, who gave her two eggs smeared with his own semen and told her to bury them in the ground, saying that they would generate a being who would deprive Zeus of his power. Hera buried them as instructed, in Cilicia in Asia Minor, and the monstrous Typhon was born from them; but she then had second thoughts and informed Zeus, who struck Typhon down with a thunderbolt.”

- The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology

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"And now that day there would have been done a thing past mending, and Typhoeus would have been master of gods and of mortals, had not [Zeus] the father of gods and men been sharp to perceive it and gave a hard, heavy clap of thunder, so that the earth gave grisly reverberation, and the wide heaven above, and the sea, and the streams of Okeanos (Oceanus), and the underground chambers. And great Olympos was shaken under the immortal feet of the master as he moved, and the earth groaned beneath him, and the heat and blaze from both of them was on the dark-faced sea, from the thunder and lightning of Zeus and from the flame of the monster, from his blazing bolts and from the scorch and breath of his stormwinds, and all the ground and the sky and the sea boiled, and towering waves were tossing and beating all up and down the promontories in the wind of these immortals, and a great shaking of the earth came on, and Haides, lord over the perished dead, trembled, and the Titanes under Tartaros, who live beside Kronos, trembled to the dread encounter and the unending clamour.

But now, when Zeus had headed up his own strength, seizing his weapons, thunder, lightning, and the glowering thunderbolt, he made a leap from Olympos, and struck, setting fire to all those wonderful heads set about on the dreaded monster. Then, when Zeus had put him down with his strokes, Typhoeus crashed, crippled, and the gigantic earth groaned beneath him, and the flame from the great lord so thunder-smitten ran out along the darkening and steep forests of the mountains as he was struck, and a great part of the gigantic earth burned in the wonderful wind of his heat, and melted, as tin melts in the heat of the carefully grooved crucible when craftsmen work it, or as iron, though that is the strongest substance, melts under stress of blazing fire in the mountain forests worked by handicraft of Hephaistos inside the divine earth. So earth melted in the flash of the blazing fire; but Zeus in tumult of anger cast Typhoeus into broad Tartaros.” - Hesiod, Theogony

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“When the gods saw him [Typhoeus] rushing toward the sky, they headed for Aigyptos to escape him, and as he pursued them they changed themselves into animal shapes. But Zeus from a distance hurled thunderbolts at Typhon, and when he had drawn closer Zeus tried to strike him down with a sickle made of adamant. Typhon took flight, but Zeus stayed on his heels right up to Mount Kasion, which lies in Syria. Seeing that he was badly wounded, Zeus fell on him with his hands. But Typhon entwined the god and held him fast in his coils, and grabbing the sickle he cut out the sinews from Zeus' hands and feet. Then, placing Zeus up on his shoulders, he carried him across the sea to Kilikia, where he deposited him in the Korykion cave. He also hid away the sinews there in the skin of a bear, and posted as guard over them the Drakaina Delphyne, a girl who was half animal. But Hermes and Aigipan stole back the sinews and succeeded in replanting them in Zeus without being seen. So Zeus, again possessed of his strength, suddenly appeared from the sky in a chariot drawn by winged horses, and with thunderbolts chased Typhon to the mountain called Nysa. There the Moirai deceived the pursued creature, for he ate some of the ephemeral fruit on Nysa after they had persuaded him that he would gain strength from it. Again pursued, he made his way to Thrake, where while fighting round Haimos he threw whole mountains at Zeus. But when these were pushed back upon him by the thunderbolt, a great quantity of his blood streamed out on the mountain, which allegedly is why the mountain is called Haimos. Then, as Typhon started to flee again through the Sikelian Sea, Zeus brought down Sikelia's Mount Aitna on him , a great mountain which they say still erupts fire from the thunderbolts thrown by Zeus."” - Pseudo-Apollodoros, the Bibliotheke

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“Then the din of battle resounded on both sides. Eris was Typhon's escort in the mellay, Nike led Zeus into battle. No herds of cattle were the cause of that struggle, no flocks of sheep, this was no quarrel for a beautiful woman, no fray for a petty town: heaven itself was the stake in the fight, the sceptre and throne of Zeus lay on the knees of Nike as the prize of combat. Zeus flogging the clouds beat a thundering roar in the sky and trumpeted Enyo's call, then fitted clouds upon his chest as a protection against the Gigante's missiles. Nor was Typhoeus silent: his bull-heads were self-sounding trumpets for him, sending forth a bellow that made Olympos rattle again; his serpents intermingled whistled for Ares' pipes. He fortified the ranks of his high-clambering limbs, shielding mighty rock with rock until the cliffs made an unbroken wall of battlements, as he set crag by crag uprooted in along line. It looked like an army preparing for battle; for side by side bluff pressed hard on bluff, tor upon tor, ledge upon ledge, and high in the clouds one tortuous ridge pushed another; rugged hills ere Typhon's helmets, and his heads were hidden in their beetling steeps. In that battle, the Gigante indeed one body, but many necks, but legions of arms innumerable, lions' jaws with well-sharpened fangs, hairbush of vipers mounting over the stars. Trees were doubled up by Typhaon's hands and thrown against Kronides, and other fine leafy growths of earth, but all these Zeus unwilling burnt to dust with one spark of thunderbolt cast in a heavy throw. Many an elm was hurled against Zeus with firs coeval, and enormous plane-trees and volleys of white poplar; many a pit was broken in earth's flank.

The whole circuit of the universe with its four sides was buffeted. The four Winds, allied with Kronion, raised in their air columns of sombre dust; they swelled the arching waves, they flogged the sea until Sikelia quaked; the Pelorid shores resounded and the ridges of Aitna, the Lilybaian rocks bellowed prophetic things to come, the Pakhynian promontory crashed under the western wave. Near the Bear, the Nymphe of Athos wailed about her Thrakian glen, the forest of Makedon roared on the Pierian ridge; the foundations of the east were shaken, there was crashing in the fragrant valleys of Assyrian Libanos. Aye, and from Typhaon's hands were showered volleys against the unwearied thunderbolts of Zeus. Some shots went past Selene's car, and scored through the invisible footprints of her moving bulls; others whirling through the air with sharp whiz, the Winds blew away by counterblast. Many a stray shot from the invulnerable thunderbolts of Zeus fell into the welcoming hand of Poseidon, unsparing of his earthpiercing trident's point; old Nereus brought the brine-soaked bolts to the ford of the Kronion Sea, and dedicated them as an offering to Zeus.

Now Zeus armed the two grim sons of Enyalios, his own grandsons, Phobos and Deimos his servant, the inseparable guardsmen of the sky : Phobos he set up with the lightning, Deimos he made strong with the thunderbolt, terrifying Typhon. Nike lifted her shield and held it before Zeus: Enyo countered with a shout, and Ares made a din. Zeus breasting the tempests with his aigis-breastplate swooped down from the air on high, seated in Time's chariot with four winged steeds, for the horses that drew Kronion were the team of the Winds. Now he battled with lightnings, now with Levin; now he attacked with thunders, now poured out petrified masses of frozen hail in volleying showers. Waterspouts burst thick upon the Gigante's head with sharp blows, and hands were cut off from the monster by the frozen volleys of the air as by a knife. One hand rolled in the dust, struck off by the icy cut of the hail; it did not drop the crag which it held, but fought on even while it fell, and shot rolling over the ground in self-propelled leaps, a hand gone mad! As if it still wished to strike the vault of Olympos. Then the sovereign of the heavens brandished aloft his fiery bolt, and passing from the left wing of the battle to the right, fought manifest on high. The many-armed monster hastened to the water torrents; he entwined his rows of fingers into a living mat, and hollowing his capacious palms, he lifted from the midst of the wintry rivers their waters as it came pouring down from the mountains, and threw these detached parcels of the streams against the lightning. But the ethereal flame blazed with livelier sparks through the water of the torrents which struck it; the thirsty water boiled and steamed, and its liquid essence dried up in the red hot mass. Yes--to quench the ethereal fire was the bold Gigante's plan, poor fool! He knew not that the fire-flaming thunderbolts and lightnings are the offspring of the clouds from whence the rain-showers come!

Again, he cut straight off sections of the torrent-beds, and designed to crush the breast of Zeus which no iron can wound; the mass of rock came hurtling at Zeus, but Zeus blew a light puff from the edge of his lips, and that gentle breath turned the whirling rock aside with all its towering crags. The monster with his hand broke off a rounded promontory from an island, and rising for the attack circled it round his head again and again, and cast it at the invincible face of Zeus; then Zeus moved his head aside, and dodged the jagged rock which came at him; but Typhon hit the lightning as it passed on its hot zigzag path, and at once the rock was white-patched at the tip and blackened with smoke--there was no mistake about it. A third rock he cast; but Kronion caught it in full career with the flat of his infinite open hand, and by a playful turn of the wrist sent it back like a bouncing ball to Typhon. The crag returned with many an airy twist along its homeward path, and of itself shot the shooter. A fourth shot he sent, higher than before: the rock touched the tassel-tips of the aigis-cape, and split asunder. Another he let fly: storm-swift the rock flew, but a thunderbolt struck it, and half-consumed, it blazed. The crags could not pierce the raincloud; but the stricken hills were broken to pieces by the rainclouds.

Thus impartial Enyo held equal balance between the two sides, between Zeus and Typhon, while the thunderbolts with booming shots revel like dancers in the sky. Kronides fought fully armed: in the fray, the thunder was his shield, the cloud his breastplate, he cast the lightning for a spear; Zeus let fly his thunderbolts from the air, his arrows barbed with fire. For already from the underground abyss a dry vapour diffused around rose from the earth on high, and compressed within the cloud was stifled in the fiery gullet, heating the pregnant cloud. ...

Zeus the father fought on : raised and hurled his familiar fire against his adversary, piercing his lions, and sending a fiery whirlwind from heaven to strike the battalion of innumerable necks with their babel of tongues. Zeus cast his bolt, and one blaze burnt the monster's endless hands, one blaze consumed his numberless shoulders and the speckled tribes of his serpents; heaven's blades cut off those countless heads; a writhing comet met him front to front discharging a thick bush of sparks, and consumed the monster's hair. Typhon's heads were ablaze, the hair caught fire; with heaven's sparks silence sealed the hissing tresses, the serpents shrivelled up, and in their throats the poison-spitting drops were dried. The Gigante fought on : his eyes were burnt to ashes in the murky smoke, his cheeks were whitened with hoar-frost, his faces beaten with showers of snow. He suffered the fourfold compulsion of the four Winds. For if he turned flickering eyes to the sunrise, he received the fiery battle of neighbouring Euros. If he gazed towards the stormy clime of the Arkadian Bear, he was beaten by the chilly frost of wintry whirlwinds. If he shunned the cold blast of snow-beaten Boreas, he was shaken by the volleys of wet and hot together. If he looked to the sunset, opposite to the dawn of the grim east, he shivered before Enyo and her western tempests when he heard the noise of Zephyros cracking his spring-time lash; and Notos, that hot wind, round about the southern foot of Aigokeros  flogged the aerial vaults, leading against Typhon a glowing blaze with steamy heat. If again Rainy Zeus poured down a watery torrent, Typhoeus bathed all his body in trouble-soothing showers, and refreshed his benumbed limbs after the stifling thunderbolts.

Now as the son was scourged with frozen volleys of jagged hailstones, his mother dry Gaia was beaten too; and seeing the stone bullets and icy points embedded in the Gigante's flesh, the witness of his fate, she prayed to Titan Helios with submissive voice: she begged of him one red hot ray, that with its heating fire she might melt the petrified water of Zeus, by pouring his kindred radiance over frozen Typhon. She herself melted along with his bruised body; and when she saw his legion of highclambering hands burnt all round, she besought one of the tempestuous winter's blasts to come for one morning, that he might quench Typhon's overpowering thirst by his cool breezes.

Then Kronion inclined the equally balanced beam of the fight. But Gaia his mother had thrown off her veil of forests with her hand, and just then was grieving to behold Typhaon's smoking heads. While his faces were shrivelling, the Gigante's knees gave way beneath him; the trumpet of Zeus brayed, foretelling victory with a roll of thunder; down fell Typhoeus's high-uplifted frame, drunk with the fiery bolt from heaven, stricken with a war-wound of something more than steel, and lay with his back upon Gaia (the Earth) his mother, stretching his snaky limbs in the dust and belching flame.” - Nonnos, Dionysiaca

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