A TYPHON READER
Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs (homepage)
last updated 22nd. July 2004
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HOMER |
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and the earth groaned beneath them, as beneath Zeus that hurleth the thunderbolt in his wrath, when he sourgeth the land about Typhoeus in the country of the Arimi, where men say is the couch of Typhoeus [1] |
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HESIOD |
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But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bare
her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite.
Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god
were untiring. From his shoulders grew an hundred heads of a snake, a fearful
dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes
in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he
glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every
kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the
gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in a
proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of
heart; and at another, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at
another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed. And truly a thing
past help would have happened on that day, and he would have come to reign
over mortals and immortals, had not the father of men and gods been quick to
perceive it. But he thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around
resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean's streams
and the nether parts of the earth. Great |
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There [at Crisa beneath Parnassus; MAS] the lord Phoebus Apollo resolved to make his lordly temple But near by was a sweet flowing spring, and there with his strong bow the lord, the son of Zeus, killed the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked sheep; for she was a very bloody plague. She it was who once received from gold-throned Hera and brought up fell, cruel Typhaon to be a plague to men. Once on a time Hera bare him because she was angry with father Zeus, when the Son of Cronos bare all-glorious Athena in his head Straightway large-eyed queenly Hera took him and bringing one evil thing to another such, gave him to the dragoness; and she received him. And this Typhaon used to work great mischief among the famous tribes of men. Whosoever met the dragoness, the day of doom would sweep him away, until the lord Apollo, who deals death from afar, shot a strong arrow at her.[3] |
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HERODOTUS |
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from this Serbonian marsh [in |
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AESCHYLUS |
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Pity moved me [Prometheus; MAS], too, at the sight of the earth-born dweller of the Cilician caves curbed by violence, that destructive monster of an hundred heads, impetuous Typhon. He withstood all the gods, hissing out terror with horrid jaws, while from his eyes lightened a hideous glare, as though he would storm amain the sovereignty of Zeus. But upon him came the unsleeping bolt of Zeus, the swooping levin brand with breath of flame, which smote him, frightened, from his high-worded vauntings; for, stricken to the very heart, he was burnt to ashes and his strength blasted from him by the lightning bolt. And now, a helpless and a sprawling bulk, he lies hard by the narrows of the sea, pressed down beneath the roots of Aetna; whilst on the topmost summit Hephaestus sits and hammers the molten ore. Thence there shall one day burst forth rivers of fire, with savage jaws devouring the level fields of Sicily, land of fair fruit such boiling rage shall Typho, although charred by the blazing levin of Zeus, send spouting forth with hot jets of appalling, fire-breathing surge.[5] |
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PLINY |
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A terrible comet was seen by the people of Ethiopia and Egypt, to which Typhon the king of that period gave his name; it had a fiery appearance and was twisted like a coil, and it was very grim to behold: it was not really a star so much as what might be called a ball of fire.[6] |
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SENECA |
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Has Typhoeus thrown off the mountainous mass and set his body free?[7] |
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OVID |
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Lofty Etna lies over the mouth of huge Typhoeus, whose fiery breath sets the ground aglow. There the goddess [Demeter in search of Persephone; MAS] kindled two pine-trees to serve her as a light [8] |
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The huge island of Sicily had been heaped upon the body of the giant, and with its vast weight was resting on Typhoeus, who had dared to aspire to the heights of heaven Lying prone beneath this mountain, the fierce Typhoeus spouts forth ashes and vomits flames from his mouth.[9] |
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APOLLODORUS |
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The other giants Zeus smote and destroyed with thunderbolts and all of them Hercules shot with arrows as they were dying. When the gods had overcome the giants, Earth, still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon in Cilicia, a hybrid between man and beast. In size and strength he surpassed all the offspring of Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out‑topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads. From the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head and emitted a loud hissing. His body was all winged: unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his eyes. Such and so great was Typhon when, hurling kindled rocks, he made for the very heaven with hissings and shouts, spouting a great jet of fire from his mouth. But when the gods saw him rushing at heaven, they made for Egypt in flight, and being pursued they changed their forms into those of animals. However Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickle, and as he fled pursued him closely as far as Mount Casius, which overhangs Syria. There, seeing the monster sore wounded, he grappled with him. But Typhon twined about him and gripped him in his coils, and wresting the sickle from him severed the sinews of his hands and feet, and lifting him on his shoulders carried him through the sea to Cilicia and deposited him on arrival in the Corycian cave. Likewise he put away the sinews there also, hidden in a bearskin, and he set to guard them the she-dragon Delphyne, who was a half-bestial maiden. But Hermes and Aegipan stole the sinews and fitted them unobserved to Zeus. And having recovered his strength Zeus suddenly from heaven, riding in a chariot of winged horses, pelted Typhon with thunderbolts and pursued him to the mountain called Nysa, where the Fates beguiled the fugitive; for he tasted of the ephemeral fruits in the persuasion that he would be strengthened thereby. So being again pursued he came to Thrace, and in fighting at Mount Haemus he heaved whole mountains. But when these recoiled on him through the force of the thunderbolt, a stream of blood gushed out on the mountain, and they say that from this circumstance the mountain was called Haemus. And when he started to flee through the Sicilian sea, Zeus cast Mount Etna in Sicily upon him. That is a huge mountain, from which down to this day they say that blasts of fire issue from the thunderbolts that were thrown.[10] |
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These apples [the apples of the Hesperides; MAS] were not, as some have said, in Libya, but on Atlas among the Hyperboreans. They were presented by Earth to Zeus after his marriage with Hera, and guarded by an immortal dragon with a hundred heads, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which spoke with many and divers sorts of voices. With it the Hesperides also were on guard, to wit, Aegle, Erythia, Hesperia, and Arethusa.[11] |
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PHILOSTRATUS |
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The neighbouring island [probably Hiera or modern Volcano; MAS], my boy, we may consider a marvel; for fire smoulders under the whole of it A giant, namely, was once struck down there, and upon him as he struggled in the death agony the island was placed as a bond to hold him down, and he does not yet yield but from beneath the earth renews the fight and breathes forth this fire as he utters threats. Yonder figure, they say, would represent Typho in Sicily or Enceladus here in Italy, giants that both continents and islands are pressing down, not yet dead indeed but always dying. And you, yourself, my boy, will imagine that you have not been left out of the contest, when you look at the peak of the mountain; for what you see there are thunderbolts which Zeus is hurling at the giants, and the giant is already giving up the struggle but still trusts in the earth, but the earth has grown weary because Poseidon does not permit her to remain in place [1] |
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CLAUDIAN |
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I sang of Enceladus and conquered Typhoeus, the first a prisoner beneath Inarime, the second oppressed by the weight of Etna.[1] |
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STRABO |
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And they add that the place is woody and subject to strokes of lightning, and that the Arimi live there, for after Homer's verse, 'in the land of the Arimi where men say is the couch of Typhoeus,' they insert the words, 'in a wooded place, in the fertile land of Hydκ.' But others lay the scene of this myth in Cilicia, and some lay it in Syria, and still others in the Pithecussae Islands, who say that among the Tyrrhenians 'pitheci' are called 'arimi.' But Pindar associates the Pithecussae which lie off the Cymaean territory, as also the territory in Sicily, with the territory in Cilicia, for he says that Typhon lies beneath Aetna: 'Once he dwelt in a far-famed Cilician cavern; now, however, his shaggy breast is o'er-pressed by the sea-girt shores above Cymae and by Sicily.' And again, 'round about him lies Aetna with her haughty fetters,' and again, 'but it was father Zeus that once amongst the Arimi, by necessity, alone of the gods, smote monstrous Typhon of the fifty heads.' But some understand that the Syrians are Arimi, who are now called the Arimaeans, and that the Cilicians in Troy, forced to migrate, settled again in Syria and cut off for themselves what is now called Cilicia. Callisthenes says that the Arimi, after whom the neighbouring mountains are called Arima, are situated near Mt. Calycadnus and the promontory of Sarpedon near the Corycian cave itself.[12] |
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Though formerly called Typhon, its name [of the Orontes; MAS] was changed to that of Orontes, the man who built a bridge across it. Here, somewhere, is the setting of the mythical story of Typhon's stroke by lightning and of the mythical story of the Arimi, of whom I have already spoken. They say that Typhon (who, they add, was a dragon), when struck by the bolts of lightning, fled in search of a descent underground; that he not only cut the earth with furrows and formed the bed of the river, but also descended underground and caused the fountain to break forth to the surface; and that the river got its name from this fact.[13] |
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for they tell the mythical story, namely, that Isis placed coffins of Osiris beneath the earth in several places (but only one of them, and that unknown to all, contained the body of Osiris), and that she did this because she wished to hide the body from Typhon, fearing that he might find it and cast it out of its tomb.[14] |
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HYGINUS |
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Tartarus begat by Tartara, Typhon, a creature of immense size and fearful shape, who had a hundred dragon heads springing from his shoulders. He challenged Jove to see if Jove would contend with him for the rule. Jove struck his breast with a flaming thunderbolt. When it was burning him he put Mount Etna, which is in Sicily, over him. From this it is said to burn still.[15] |
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NONNUS (a selection) |
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Then Cilician Typhoeus stretched out his hands, and stole the snowy tools of Zeus, the tools of fire; then spreading his row of rumble‑rattling throats, he yelled as his warcry the cries of all wild beasts together: the snakes that grew from him waved over his leopard's heads, licked the grim lion's manes, girdled with their curly tails spiral‑wise round the bull's horns [16] |
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The Giant turned back, and passed from north to south, he left one pole and stood by the other. With a long arm he grasped the Charioteer, and flogged the back of hailstorming Aigoceros; he dragged the two Fishes out of the sky and cast them into the sea With trailing feet Typhoeus mounted close to the clouds: spreading abroad the far‑scattered host of his arms, he shadowed the bright radiance of the unclouded sky by darting forth his tangled army of snakes.[17] |
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the lines of heavenly Constellations in a disciplined circle came shining to the fray. A varied host maddened the upper air with clamour and with flame The unshaken congregation of the fixt stars with unanimous acclamation left their places and caught up their travelling fellows. The axis passing through the heaven's hollow and fixt upright in the midst, groaned at the sound The sky was full of din, and, answering the seven‑zoned heaven, the seven‑throated cry of the Pleiads raised the war‑shout from as many throats; and the planets as many again banged out an equal noise.[18] |
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Now after the frontier of the deep, after the well-laid foundation of the earth, this bastard Zeus armed his hand with fire-barbed thunderbolt: raising the gear of Zeus was hard work for the monster Typhoeus with two hundred furious hands, so great was the weight; but Cronion would lightly lift it with one hand the lightning was dim, and only a softish flame shone sparkling shamefacedly, like smoke shot with flame. The thunderbolts felt the hands of a novice.[19] |
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The immortals moved about the cloudless Nile, but Zeus Cronides on the brows of Tauros awaited the light of toil-awakening dawn. It was night. Sentinels stood in line around Olympos and the seven zones, and as it were from the summit of towers came their nightly alarms; the calls of the stars in many tongues were carried all abroad, and the moon's turning-mark received the creaking echo from Saturn's starting-point. Now the Seasons, guardians of the upper air, handmaids of Phaλthon, had fortified the sky with a long string of covering clouds like a coronal. The stars had closed the Atlantean bar of the inviolable gates, lest some stealthy troop should enter the heavens whilst the Blessed ones were away Old Oxherd was on guard with unsleeping eyes, in company with the heavenly Serpent of the Arcadian Bear, looking out from on high for some nightly assault of Typhon: the Morning Star watched the east, the Evening Star the west, and Cepheus, leaving the southern gates to the Archer, himself patrolled the rainy gates of the north. Watchfires were all around: for the blazing flames of the stars, and the lightly lamp of unresting Selene, sparkled like torches. Often the shooting stars, leaping through the heights of Olympos with windswept whirl from the ether, scored the air with flame on Cronion's right hand; often the lightning danced, twisting about like a tumbler, and tearing the clouds as it shot through, the uncertain brilliance which runs to and fro, now hidden, now shining, in alternating swing; and the comet twined in clusters the long strands of his woven flame, and made a ragged light with his hairy fire. Stray meteors were also shining, like long rafters stretching across the sky, shooting their long fires as allies of Zeus; and the rain's comrade, the bow of Iris, wove his many colours into a rounded track, and shone bent under the light-shafts of Phaλthon opposite, mingling pale with dark, and light with rosy The sun appeared, and many-armed Typhoeus roared for the fray with all the tongues of all his throats, challenging mighty Zeus.[20] |
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Victory in the form of Leto admonished Zeus to take action against Typhon: Fight, brandish your lightning, the fiery spear of Olympos! Gather once more your clouds, lord of the rain! For the foundations of the steadfast universe are already shaking under Typhon's hand: the four blended elements are melted![21] |
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Thus impartial Enyo held equal balance between the two sides, between Zeus and Typhon, while the thunderbolts with booming shots held revel like dancers of the sky. Cronides 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. For the lurking flame crushed within rushed about struggling to find a passage through; over the smoke the fire-breeding clouds rumble in their agony seeking the middle path; the fire dares not go upwards: for the lightning leaping up is kept back by the moist air bathed in rainy drops, which condenses the seething cloud above, but the lower part is parched and gapes and the fire runs through with a bound. As the female stone is struck by the male stone, one stone on another brings flame to birth, while crushed and beaten it produces from itself a shower of sparks: so the heavenly fire is kindled in clouds and murk crushed and beaten, but from earthly smoke, which is naturally thin, the winds are brought forth.[22] |
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GREEK MAGICAL PAPYRI |
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Toward the rising sun say: |
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'I call you who did first control gods' wrath, |
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You who hold royal scepter o'er the heavens, |
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You who are midpoint of the stars above, |
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You, master Typhon, you I call, who are |
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The dreaded sovereign o'er the firmament [23] |
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HEPHAESTION OF THEBES |
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Esti de kai heteros komētēs titan hos kaleitai Typhōn, chalepos lian kai pyrōdēs, amorphos kai bradykinētos, echei de tēn chaitēn hōs mallon opisō, epikatapheresthai de eiōthe tōi Hēliōi en tois perasi tou arktikou polou, phaneis de pollōn kakōn aitios estai, karpōn apōleias kai basileōn en te tēi anatolēi kai dysei.[24] |
[1] Homer, Iliad, II. 781-783, in A. T. Murray (tr.), Homer: the Iliad, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, 1946: I 108-109
[2] Hesiod, Theogony, 820-874, in H. G. Evelyn-White (tr.), Hesiod; the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, 1914: 138-143
[3] Hesiod, Hymn to Pythian Apollo, 281-285, 300-309, 372-380, in H. G. Evelyn-White (tr.), Hesiod; the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, 1914: 344-349
[4] Herodotus, Historiae, III. 5, in A. D. Godley (tr.), Herodotus, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, I-IV, 1921: II 8-9
[5] Aeschylus, Prometheus Vinctus, 349-374, in H. W. Smyth (tr.), Aeschylus, 'Loeb Classical Library', I-II, William Heinemann, London, 1963: I 246-249
[6] Pliny, Naturalis historia, II. 23. 91, in H. Rackham (tr.), Pliny; Natural History, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, 1967, I‑X: I 234f.
[7] Seneca, Thyestes, 789-878, in F. J. Miller (tr.), Seneca: Tragedies, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968, I-IX: II 154-163
[8] Ovid, Fasti, IV. 489-494, 574-576, in G. P. Goold (tr.), Ovid, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, 1989, I-VI: V 224f., 230f.
[9] Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 346ff., in F. J. Miller (tr.), Ovid; Metamorphoses, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heineman, London, 1916, I‑II: I 262f.
[10] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, I. 6. 3, in Sir J. G. Frazer (tr.), Apollodorus: the Library, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, I-II, 1921: I 46-51
[11]Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, II. 5. 11, in Sir J. G. Frazer (tr.), Apollodorus: the Library, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, I-II, 1921: I 220-221
[12] Strabo, Geographia, 13. 4. 6, in H. L. Jones (tr.), The Geography of Strabo, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, I-VIII, 1929: VI 174-177
[13] Strabo, Geographia, 16. 2. 7 (C751), in H. L. Jones (tr.), The Geography of Strabo, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, I-VIII, 1954: VII 244-245
[14] Strabo, Geographia, 17. 1. 23, in H. L. Jones (tr.), The Geography of Strabo, 'Loeb Classical Library', William Heinemann, London, I-VIII, 1949: VIII 74-75. Note: the 'Typhon' mentioned here is the Egyptian Set.
[15] Hyginus, Fabulae, 152, in M. Grant (tr.), The myths of Hyginus, University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, 1960: 123
[16] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, I. 154ff., in W. H. D. Rouse (tr.), Nonnus; Dionysiaca, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995 (1940), I-III: I 14f.
[17] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, I. 176ff., in W. H. D. Rouse (tr.), Nonnos: Dionysiaca, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995 (1940), I-III: I 16f.
[18] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, I. 219f., in W. H. D. Rouse (tr.), Nonnos: Dionysiaca, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995 (1940), I-III: I 18f.
[19] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, I. 294-306, in W. H. D. Rouse (tr.), Nonnos: Dionysiaca, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984 (1940), I-III: I 24-25
[20] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, II. 167-204, 244-246, in W. H. D. Rouse (tr.), Nonnos: Dionysiaca, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984 (1940), I-III: I 56-63
[21] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, II. 207-211, in W. H. D. Rouse (tr.), Nonnos: Dionysiaca, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984 (1940), I-III: I 60-61
[22]Nonnus, Dionysiaca, II. 475-498, in W. H. D. Rouse (tr.), Nonnos: Dionysiaca, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984 (1940), I-III: 80-81
[23] Greek Magical Papyrus, IV. 261‑265, in H. D. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in translation; including the Demotic spells, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 19922 (1986): 43
[24] Hephaestion of Thebes, Apotelesmatica, I. 24. 11, in D. Pingree (ed.), Hephaestionis Thebani Apotelesmaticorum libri tres, Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig, 1973: I 76
[1]Philostratus, Imagines, II. 17. 4 (365-366), in A. Fairbanks (tr.), Philostratus the Elder: Imagines, 'Loeb Classical Library', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979: 200-201
[1] Claudian, Panegyricus de sexto consulatu Honorii Augusti, XXVII. 17-18, in M. Platnauer (tr.), Claudian, 'Loeb Classical Library', I-II, William Heinemann, London, 1956: II 70-71