Typhon: the Monster That Threatened Olympus in Greek Mythology

Typhon, a monstrous storm giant from Greek mythology, waged a fierce struggle with Zeus for power over Olympus.

Typhon, or Typhaeus as he was known, was a powerful snake-like creature with a hundred heads that could shoot fire from its eyes. He spoke using many sounds and voices: he roared like a bull, barked like a dog, and roared like a lion. He was the greatest and last rival of Zeus in the struggle for the throne of Olympus. His defeat led to the coronation of Zeus and the division of power among the Olympians.

The earliest mention of Typhon is in Hesiod's Theogony, written in the 8th century BC. In it, the poet writes that Typhon is the child of Gaea and Tartarus. He is the youngest son of Haea, born after Zeus defeated and imprisoned the Titans, or giants, according to the first-century BC author Apollodorus. Although there is a common misconception that Gaia was angry with Zeus for his treatment of the previous generation of gods and therefore gave birth to Typhon specifically so that he could take revenge, there is no textual evidence to support this view.

Presumably the birth of Typhon by Gaea was due to events from the myth of succession to the throne, in which it is predicted that Uranus will be overthrown by his son Cronus, and Cronus by his son Zeus. Zeus is also predicted to have a child by Metida (Metis) who will overthrow him and become the ruler of the heavens.

To prevent this, he swallows Metida and their child, the goddess Athena, is born from Zeus' head. After this, Metida lives inside Zeus, unable to give birth to a male child, thus the cycle is interrupted. This means that Zeus' victory over Typhon, who could not be born, can be final and fixes his rule as eternal, unlike his predecessors, which Gaia would hardly allow.

Another version of Typhon's origin comes from Homer's "Hymn to Apollo Delianus". In the poem, the monster is born not by Gaia, but by Hera. She gives birth to Typhon by parthenogenesis, virgin birth, because she is angry with Zeus that he himself gave birth to Athena. She struck the ground with her palm and begged Gaea, Uranus and all the Titans trapped in Tartarus to give birth to a son stronger than Zeus.

Hera heard her prayer and fulfilled everything, and for a year Hera did not share Zeus' bed. At the end of the year Hera gave birth to Tiphon. Then she brought Tiphon to Delphi, where he was brought up by the half-woman half-snake Echidna.

In both versions, Typhon is born with the express purpose of challenging Zeus, and he turns out to be Zeus' greatest rival.

When Typhon attacked Olympus, the force of his attack filled the gods with a terror they had never known before. Fortunately, they received a warning from the god Pan. They all fled to Egypt, to the banks of the Nile River, where they hid themselves by reincarnating as animals. This is an etiological myth that explains why the Egyptians worshipped animals. The godApollo became a hawk like god of the Mountains,Hermes became an ibis like god Thoth, Artemis became a cat like Bastet, Hephaestus a bull like Ptah, and Dionysus is a goat like Osiris.

For the Egyptians, Typhon was equated with their god Set, the god of destruction. The fifth-century historian Herodotus reported that the Egyptians had a myth in which Typhon was once the supreme king of the cosmos but was overthrown by Apollo, the Egyptian Horus, who became the last divine king of Egypt. Although not part of the Greek tradition, it is remarkable that the Greeks found no contradictions between their cosmogony and that of their neighbors and could easily incorporate aspects or even whole stories into their own tradition.

Hesiod's version is brief and emphasizes the cosmic implications of Typhon's potential victory, while later authors provide more detail.

This fits into the general theme of the myth of succession, and also has parallels with the succession myths of the Near Eastern Hurro-Hittite culture, from which the Greek version is thought to have originated. In Apollodorus' Library of Greek Mythology, Typhon stormed Olympus by throwing red-hot stones into the heavens.

After the warning of danger, when the gods saw Typhon approaching, they all fled to Egypt and hid, turning into animals. Only Zeus, and sometimes Athena is mentioned, remained to fend off the monster by hurling lightning bolts at it. When Typhon approached, Zeus tried to attack him with an adamantine sickle, similar to the one used to castrate Uranus, but Typhon fled to Mount Casius.

Zeus followed, hoping to finish the job, but Typhon grabbed him in his serpentine embrace. The beast took a sickle and cut the tendons from Zeus' arms and legs, immobilizing him. He then took Zeus to Cilicia and left him in a cave in Coricia, hiding the sinews and leaving the dragon to guard him.

But Hermes stole the tendons and implanted them back into Zeus. Having regained his strength, the king of gods pursued Typhon, throwing lightning bolts at him while he fled to Mount Nyssa. There Typhon, according to legend, was tricked by the goddesses of fate - the Moirae, who forced him to eat the fruit of Dionysus (i.e. wine grapes). They said they would give him strength, but what the Moiras actually did is unclear.

Typhon fought Zeus desperately, throwing whole mountains at him, but the god destroyed them with lightning. When Typhon fled to Sicily, Zeus cornered him and brought Mount Etna down on him, imprisoning him.

According to legend, Typhon was imprisoned under Mount Etna in Sicily under the protection of Hephaestus. It is believed that from his prison, Typhon sends flames into the mountain, which Hephaestus uses to smelt his divine weapons.

Another version links Typhon to Egypt, claiming that he was buried under the Serbon Swamps, an area east of the Nile Delta between Mount Kazi, the Isthmus of Suez, and the Mediterranean Sea. This story also links Typhon to Seth.

Typhon is believed to have fathered many of the strange and dangerous creatures that populated Greek mythology. His monstrous brood terrorized the mortal world, and most of them were eventually destroyed by a race of heroes. Some, like the three-headed hound Cerberus guarding the gates of the underworld, were incorporated into the cosmic order of Zeus.

In Hesiod, the author calls Tipheus and Typhon (both named Typhon) two different beings, although later authors often mix them together. Tipheus was the last son of Gaia, who tried to overthrow Zeus and was imprisoned under Mount Etna. Typhon was the consort of Echidna, a half-virgin half-snake, and begot from her a race of monsters.

These monsters were as much a threat to the order of the world as Typhon himself, because they represented the same aspects of chaos. As soon as the last of Typhon's brood, at least those to whom Zeus had not given a proper place in the cosmos, were slain, the world took its modern shape.

From Typhon were born the two-headed dog Orpheus, the Lernaean hydra, the Nemean lion, the eagle Ephon, who flew to the Caucasus mountains and ate Prometheus' liver every day, and the dragon Ladon, who guarded the golden apples of Hesperides. All of them were killed by Heracles during his 12 feats. Typhon was also the father of the chimera, which was killed by Bellerophontes, and the dragon guarding the golden fleece in Colchis, which was killed by Jason.

Hesiod's Theogony serves to explain the structure of the world and how things came to be as they are, culminating in the reign of Zeus. With each new succession of gods, the world takes on more familiar, delineated forms as the gods are born, given names and powers.

The Typhon episode explains the order of sounds and modes of communication in the cosmos with an emphasis on mortal and divine voices. Hesiod makes the threat of the Typhon sound rather than physical. The poet spends many lines describing the chaotic and horrible sounds produced by Typhon:

"...The unspeakable, the most different: then there was a rant.

A voice understood by the immortal gods, and behind that it was as if.