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Difference between revisions of "Echidna"

 
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[[Image:Echidna.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Appolon facing Echidna]]
[[Image:Echidna1.jpg|right|200px|thumb|A modern illustration (author unknown)]]
 
'''Echidna''' was called the "Mother of All Monsters" and described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave,  who mothered with her mate [[Typhon]] every major monster in the Greek mythos.
Echidna was called the "Mother of All Monsters" and described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave,  who mothered with her mate Typhoeus or [[Typhon]] every major monster in the Greek mythos.




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'''Echidna''' from Greek ''ekhis'' means "she viper"
'''Echidna''' from Greek ''ekhis'' means "she viper"


==Description==
==Description==
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Usually considered offspring of [[Tartarus]] and [[Gaia]], or of [[Ceto]] and [[Phorcys]] (according to Hesiod) or of Chrysaor and the [[naiad]] Callirhoe, or Peiras and [[Styx]] (according to Pausanias, who did not know who Peiras was aside from her father)
Usually considered offspring of [[Tartarus]] and [[Gaia]], or of [[Ceto]] and [[Phorcys]] (according to Hesiod) or of Chrysaor and the [[naiad]] Callirhoe, or Peiras and [[Styx]] (according to Pausanias, who did not know who Peiras was aside from her father)


===Echidna and Typhon's offspring===
===Echidna and Typhon's offspring===
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# [[Sphinx]]
# [[Sphinx]]
# [[Lernaean Hydra]]
# [[Lernaean Hydra]]
# [[Ethon]]
# [[Aethon]]
# [[Teumessian fox]]
# [[Teumessian fox]]


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# Gelonus
# Gelonus
# Scylla
# Scylla
[[Image:Echidna.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Appolon facing Echidna]]


==Places==
==Places==


The site of her cave, Arima, [[Homer]] calls "the couch of Typhoeus (''Iliad'', II.783). When she and her mate attacked the Olympians, [[Zeus]] beat them back and punished Typhon by sealing him under Mount Etna. However, Zeus allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes. She was an immortal and ageless nymph to Hesiod (''Theogony'' above), but was killed where she slept by Argus Panopes, the hundred-eyed giant.
The site of her cave, Arima, [[Homer]] calls "the couch of Typhoeus (''Iliad'', II.783). When she and her mate attacked the Olympians, [[Zeus]] beat them back and punished Typhon by sealing him under Mount Etna. However, Zeus allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes. She was an immortal and ageless nymph to Hesiod (''Theogony'' above), but was killed where she slept by Argus Panopes, the hundred-eyed giant.




    
    
=History/Beliefs=
=History/Beliefs=
==Authors==
* Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th BC
    * Greek Lyric III Lasus, Fragments - Greek Lyric C6th BC
    * Greek Lyric IV Bacchylides, Fragments - Greek Lyric C5th BC
    * Epimenides, Fragments - Greek Epic C5th BC
    * Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd BC
    * Aristophanes, Frogs - Greek Comedy C5th-4th BC
    * Callimachus, Fragments - Greek C3rd BC
    * Lycophron, Alexandra - Greek C3rd BC
    * Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy - Greek Epic C4th AD
    * Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd AD
    * Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd AD
    * Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st BC - C1st AD
    * Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th AD
==Stories==
===PARENTAGE OF EKHIDNA===
"But she Keto bore to Phorkys another unmanageable monster like nothing human nor like the immortal gods either, in a hollow cave. This was the divine and haughty Ekhidna, and half of her is a Nymphe with a fair face and eyes glancing, but the other half is a monstrous serpent (ophis), terrible, enormous and squirming and voracious, there in earth's secret places. For there she has her cave on the underside of a hollow rock, far from the immortal gods, and far from all mortals. There the gods ordained her a fabulous home to live in which she keeps underground among the Arimoi the mythical Arimaspoi, grisly Ekhidna, a Nymphe who never dies, and all her days she is ageless." - Hesiod, Theogony 295
"Zeus who delights in thunder were angry, as when he batters the earth about Typhoeus, in the land of the Arimoi Arimaspoi, where they say Typhoeus lies prostrate this is the same underground home given to Ekhidna by Hesiod, above." - Homer, Iliad 2.780
NB Both Homer and Hesiod mention that Typhoeus and Ekhidna were imprisoned beneath the stormy land of the Arimoi, a semi-mythical Skythian tribe (also called Arimaspoi or Kimmaroi), who dwelt at the ends of the earth in eternal gloom. In other words, the pair were trapped in Tartaros.
"She Ekhidna was a daughter of Tartaros and Ge." - Apollodorus, The Library 2.4
===EKHIDNA NURSE & MATE OF TYPHOEUS===
"They say that Typhaon, the terrible, violent and lawless, was joined in love with this girl Ekhidna of the glancing eyes, and she conceiving bore children to him with hard tempers." - Hesiod, Theogony 295
"Straightway large-eyed queenly Hera took him her child, the storm-daimon Typhaon and bringing one evil thing to another such, gave him to the Drakaina Ekhidna-Python; and she received him. And this Typhaon used to work great mischief among the famous tribes of men." - Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo 356
"Grabbing the sickle he Typhon 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 Korykrian 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 Aegipan stole back the sinews." - Apollodorus, The Library 1.42
"Drakaina Delphyne." - Callimachus, Fragment 116
"Illustrated on the throne of the statue of Aphrodite at Amyklai, Lakedaimon On the left stand Ekhidna and Typhos, on the right Tritones the serpent tails of the one pair, balancing the fish-tails of the other." - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 3.18.10-16
"The waters of the lake perhaps the salt-lake of Tatta in Kilikia where the spouse Ekhidna of Typhon couches in the hidden recess of her dread bed." - Lycophron, Alexandra 1351
K5.12 EKHIDNA,
APOLLON
   
===EKHIDNA MOTHER OF MONSTERS===
"Phoibos Apollon boasted over her the Drakaina Python ' ... Against cruel death neither Typhoeus her consort shall avail you nor ill-famed Khimaira her spawn, but here, shall the Earth and shining Hyperion make you rot (pytho)." - Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo 356
"Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her Ekhidna, the maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bare Orthos the hound of Geryones, and then again she bare a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Kerberos who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Haides, fifty-headed, relentless and strong. And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Herakles ... She was the mother of Khimaira who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasos and noble Bellerophontes slay." - Hesiod, Theogony 306
"The Sphinx was daughter of Ekhidna and Typhon, according to Lasus of Hermione." - Greek Lyric III Lasus, Frag 706A (from Natale Conti, Mythology)
"The jagged-toothed dog Kerberos, son of unapproachable Ekhidna." - Greek Lyric IV Bacchylides, Frag 5
"Kerberos, whom Ekhidna (the Loathly Worm) had borne to Typhon in a craggy cavern's gloom close on the borders of Eternal Night." - Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 6.260
"That most murderous hound Orthros, in furious might like Kerberos his brother-hound." - Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 6.249
"It the Khimaira was allegedly reared by Amisodaros, as Homer also states, and according to Hesiod its parents were Typhon and Ekhidna." - Apollodorus, The Library 2.31
"While he Kreon was king, quite a scourge held Thebes in suppression, for Hera sent upon them the Sphinx, whose parents were Ekhidna and Typhon." - Apollodorus, The Library 3.52
"An immortal serpent the Drakon Hesperios guarded them the golden apples, the child of Typhon and Ekhidna, with one hundred heads which spoke with voices of various types." - Apollodorus, The Library 2.113
"When he Herakles reached the mainland on the other side he killed with an arrow the Eagle on the Kaukasos, the product of Ekhidna and Typhon that had been eating the liver of Prometheus." - Apollodorus, The Library 2.120
"Theseus slew the sow at Krommyon called Phaia after the old woman who kept it. Some say its parents were Ekhidna and Typhon." - Apollodorus, The Library E1.1
"The foreigner Herakles bringing the monstrous son of Ekhidna Kerberos from below." - Callimachus, Fragment 515
"From Typhon and Echidna were born: Gorgon, Cerberus, Draco which guarded the golden fleece at Colchis, Scylla who was woman above but dog-forms below whom Hercules killed, Chimaera, Sphinx who was in Boeotia, Hydra serpent which had nine heads which Hercules killed, and Draco Hesperidum." - Hyginus, Preface
"From Typhon the giant and Echidna were born Gorgon, the three-headed dog Cerberus, the Draco which guarded the apples of the Hesperides across oceanus, the Hydra which Hercules killed by the spring of Lerna, the Draco which guarded the ram’s fleece at Colchis, Scylla who was woman above but dog below, with six dog-forms sprung from her body, the Sphinx which was in Boeotia, the Chimaera in Lycia which ahd the fore part of a lion, the hind part of a snake, while the she-goat itself formed the middle." - Hyginus, Fabulae 151
"He Zeus sent an Eagle to him to eat out his liver which was constantly renewed at night. Some have said that this eagle was born from Typhon and Echidna, other from Terra and Tartarus." - Hyginus, Astromomica 2.15
"Poisoned aconite ... said to be slobbered by Echidnaea Kerberos son of Ekhidna." - Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.412
"How could you compare with Echidna Lernaea Hydra." - Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.69
"Ares brought low such another, Ekhidna’s son, the gods’ enemy, spitting the horrible poison of hideous Ekhidna. He had two shapes together, and in the forest he shook the twisting coils of his mother’s spine." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 18.274
===EKHIDNA (PYTHON) DESTROYED BY APOLLON===
"Straightway large-eyed queenly Hera took him her child Typhaon and bringing one evil thing to another such, gave him to the Drakaina Ekhidna-Python; and she received him. And this Typhaon used to work great mischief among the famous tribes of men. Whosoever met the Drakaina, the day of doom would sweep him away, until the lord Apollon, who deals death from afar, shot a strong arrow at her. Then she, rent with bitter pangs, lay drawing great gasps for breath and rolling about that place. An awful noise swelled up unspeakable as she writhed continually this way and that amid the wood: and so she left her life, breathing it forth in blood. Then Phoibos Apollon boasted over her: 'Now rot here upon the soil that feeds man! You at least shall live no more to be a fell bane to men who eat the fruit of the all-nourishing earth, and who will bring hither perfect hecatombs. Against cruel death neither Typhoeus her consort shall avail you nor ill-famed Khimaira her spawn, but here, shall the Earth and shining Hyperion make you rot.' Thus said Phoibos, exulting over her: and darkness covered her eyes. And the holy strength of Helios made her rot away there; wherefore the place is now called Pytho (the Rotting), and men call the lord Apollon by another name, Pythian; because on that spot the power of piercing Helios made the monster rot away." - Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo 356
===EKHIDNA THE TARTEREAN DAIMON===
"Aiakos doorsman of Haides threatens Dionysos in Haides: 'The black hearted Stygian rock and the crag of Akheron dripping with gore can hold you; and the circling hounds of Kokytos and Typhoeus or Ladon the hundred-headed ekhidna (Serpent) shall tear your entrails; your lungs will be attacked by Ekhidna the Myraina Tartesia (the Tartesian Eel), your kidneys bleeding with your very entrails the Tithrasian Gorgones Teithrasiai will rip apart." - Aristophanes, Frogs 475
"The Erinys Tisiphone brought with her poisons too of magic power to invoke madness: lip-froth of Cerberus, the Echidna’s venom, wild deliriums, blindnesses of the brain, and crime and tears, and maddened lust for murder; all ground up, mixed with fresh blood, boiled in a pan of bronze, and stirred with a green hemlock stick." - Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.500


=Art / Fiction=
=Art / Fiction=


==Echidna in popular culture==
==Echidna in popular culture==


Echidna was a recurring character in the television series ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' as she is played by Bridget Hoffman. This version of her is shown as a multi-tentacled reptilian creature.
*Echidna was a recurring character in the television series ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' as she is played by Bridget Hoffman. This version of her is shown as a multi-tentacled reptilian creature.
 
*In the ''Gargoyles (TV series)|Gargoyles'' episode "The New Olympians", a snake woman named Ekidna is presumed to be Echidna's descendant.
In the ''Gargoyles (TV series)|Gargoyles'' episode "The New Olympians", a snake woman named Ekidna is presumed to be Echidna's descendant.
*In Disney's Hercules, Echidna also appeared as the mother of monsters.
*Echidna appears as a boss monster in ''Final Fantasy III'' and ''Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls''.
*In Gene Wolfe's ''Book of the Long Sun'', Echidna appears as the Great Queen of the gods and the wife of the chief god Pas.
*In Tecmo's recent Rygar: The Legendary Adventure, Echidna appears as a titan who was formerly Cleopatra.
*In Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei series, Echidna occasionally shows up as a demon.
*In Rick Riordan's the Lightning Thief, Echidna sets her son the Chimaera upon the main character in the Gateway Arch.
*Echidne of the Snakes [http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com] is a fairly popular liberalism|liberal feminist blog, whose pseudonym, Echidne, has adopted the persona of a part-human snake goddess.
*Echidna is the name of one of the gates of Radiata City in the role-playing game Radiata Stories.
*Echidna, is the name of a boss in Devil May Cry 4, possessing the body of a giant snake, blossoming into a woman.


In Disney's Hercules, Echidna also appeared as the mother of monsters.
In the television show Supernatural, the evil villian is called "The Mother of All Monsters."
 
Echidna appears as a boss monster in ''Final Fantasy III'' and ''Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls''.
 
In Gene Wolfe's ''Book of the Long Sun'', Echidna appears as the Great Queen of the gods and the wife of the chief god Pas.
 
In Tecmo's recent Rygar: The Legendary Adventure, Echidna appears as a titan who was formerly Cleopatra.
 
In Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei series, Echidna occasionally shows up as a demon.
 
In Rick Riordan's the Lightning Thief, Echidna sets her son the Chimaera upon the main character in the Gateway Arch.
 
Echidne of the Snakes [http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com] is a fairly popular liberalism|liberal feminist blog, whose pseudonym, Echidne, has adopted the persona of a part-human snake goddess.
 
Echidna is the name of one of the gates of Radiata City in the role-playing game Radiata Stories.


=References—related sources and media=
=References—related sources and media=


==Sources==
==Sources==


*[http://www.loggia.com/myth/echidna.html Mythography article]
*[http://www.loggia.com/myth/echidna.html Mythography article]
Line 188: Line 80:


{{Wikipedia}}
{{Wikipedia}}
==See also==
* [[Echidna]], a monotreme mammal of Australia and New Guinea.






[[Category:Angels and demons]]
[[Category:Demons]]
[[Category:Fabulous beasts]]
[[Category:Fabulous beasts]]
[[Category:Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Snake people]]
[[Category:Snake people]]

Latest revision as of 23:41, 16 February 2011

A modern illustration (author unknown)

Echidna was called the "Mother of All Monsters" and described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered with her mate Typhon every major monster in the Greek mythos.


Nature

Etymology

Echidna from Greek ekhis means "she viper"


Description

She was depicted with the face and torso of a beautiful woman, sometimes wings in archaic vase-paintings, and always with the body of a serpent (see also Lamia). She is also sometimes described as having two serpent's tails. Karl Kerenyi noted an archaic vase-painting with a pair of echidnas performing sacred rites in a vineyard, while on the opposite side of the vessel, goats were attacking the vines (Kerenyi 1951, p 51f). Echidna as protector of the vineyard perhaps.

the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days. (Theogony, 295-305)


Family

Usually considered offspring of Tartarus and Gaia, or of Ceto and Phorcys (according to Hesiod) or of Chrysaor and the naiad Callirhoe, or Peiras and Styx (according to Pausanias, who did not know who Peiras was aside from her father)


Echidna and Typhon's offspring

The offspring of Typhon and Echidna were:

  1. Nemean Lion
  2. Cerberus
  3. Orthrus
  4. Ladon
  5. Chimera
  6. Sphinx
  7. Lernaean Hydra
  8. Aethon
  9. Teumessian fox

Some sources also include the Gorgons and the Graeae as her children.

According to Herodotus (III.108), Hercules had three children by her:

  1. Agathyrsus
  2. Gelonus
  3. Scylla
Appolon facing Echidna


Places

The site of her cave, Arima, Homer calls "the couch of Typhoeus (Iliad, II.783). When she and her mate attacked the Olympians, Zeus beat them back and punished Typhon by sealing him under Mount Etna. However, Zeus allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes. She was an immortal and ageless nymph to Hesiod (Theogony above), but was killed where she slept by Argus Panopes, the hundred-eyed giant.


History/Beliefs

Art / Fiction

Echidna in popular culture

  • Echidna was a recurring character in the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as she is played by Bridget Hoffman. This version of her is shown as a multi-tentacled reptilian creature.
  • In the Gargoyles (TV series)|Gargoyles episode "The New Olympians", a snake woman named Ekidna is presumed to be Echidna's descendant.
  • In Disney's Hercules, Echidna also appeared as the mother of monsters.
  • Echidna appears as a boss monster in Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls.
  • In Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun, Echidna appears as the Great Queen of the gods and the wife of the chief god Pas.
  • In Tecmo's recent Rygar: The Legendary Adventure, Echidna appears as a titan who was formerly Cleopatra.
  • In Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei series, Echidna occasionally shows up as a demon.
  • In Rick Riordan's the Lightning Thief, Echidna sets her son the Chimaera upon the main character in the Gateway Arch.
  • Echidne of the Snakes [1] is a fairly popular liberalism|liberal feminist blog, whose pseudonym, Echidne, has adopted the persona of a part-human snake goddess.
  • Echidna is the name of one of the gates of Radiata City in the role-playing game Radiata Stories.
  • Echidna, is the name of a boss in Devil May Cry 4, possessing the body of a giant snake, blossoming into a woman.

In the television show Supernatural, the evil villian is called "The Mother of All Monsters."

References—related sources and media

Sources

Part of this article consists of modified text from Wikipedia, and the article is therefore licensed under GFDL.