Echidna (mythology)

Equidna Sculpture of Pirro Ligorio 1555, at the Parco dei Mostri, Bomarzo, Italy.

In Greek mythology, Echidna (in ancient Greek, Ἔχιδνα - Ekhidna: "viper"; in Latin, Echidna) was a monstrous nymph that belonged to the lineage of the Phorcides, or female serpentine monsters. Sometimes called Drakaina Delphyne (Δρακαινα Δελφυνη, "dragon's belly"), she is described by Hesiod in his Theogony as a female monster, mother with Typhon of all monsters important of the Greek myths. She had the torso of a beautiful woman with fearsome dark eyes but the body of a serpent. When she and her companion Typhon attacked Mount Olympus, Zeus defeated them but allowed them and their children to live on as a challenge to future heroes.. Echidna has since lived in a cave in the country of the Árimos, a remote desert place located in Central Asia, probably Syria. Later the giant Argos would kill her while she slept in a cave in Sicily. Although according to Hesiod she Echidna was immortal and possessed eternal youth. She is usually the equivalent of Lilith from Hebrew legends and is related to Campe (chthonic monster and nymph of Tartarus, her scaly legs being like snakes) and also to be identified with Astarte from Babylonian mythology.

Genealogy

Echidna's parentage is unclear. In the Theogony the mother is not well specified, which could be, among other options, Ceto. According to Pausanias and Epimenides, Echidna is the daughter of the oceanid Estige (goddess of the River Styx) and a certain Pirante (who is not mentioned again by Pausanias). For Apollodorus she is the daughter of Tartarus and the Earth, but in Orphic traditions she is imagined as the daughter of the primordial Phanes.

The mother of monsters

Echidna gave birth to Typhon a monstrous offspring, with the feral nature of a dog, snake, lion, eagle or goat. It is not for nothing that Echidna is considered the mother of monsters. Virtually all of their offspring were annihilated at the hands of the heroes: Heracles killed four of them and at least captured Cerberus, but Oedipus defeated the Sphinx, Bellerophon the Chimera, Theseus Cromion's sow, and Jason (with the help of Medea) to the dragon of Colchis. Scylla, along with Charybdis, appears both linked with Jason and Odysseus in their wanderings. The following is the offspring of Echidna and Typhon cited in mythographic sources:

• Ortro, dog guarding Gerion cattle in Eritía
• Cerbero, bark bronchial tricephale that guards Hades; in his first mention he has fifty heads
• The Hidra of Lerna, to which Hera fed to be the ruin of Heracles
• Sphinx, ruin for the cadmous and named Fix (from Mount Ficio)
• Chimera of Lycia, with the form of lion, serpent and goat, that exhales fire; or raised by Amisodaro
• The Lion of Nemea, who Hera placed on the mountains, or was raised by Selene
• The Caucasus Eagle, which devoured the liver of Prometheus
• The serpent of the garden of the Hesperides, Ladon, of various voices
• The Cerda de Cromión, called Fea, like her cunt
• The Dragon who watched the Golden Fleece in the Colquide
• Scila, which had the upper part of woman and the lower with dog heads
• An unnominated giant only known to the math of Echidnades or Echidnada, and who was defeated by Ares
• Finally Higino is the only one to mention a Gorgon or Gorgon (Gorgo), a masculine monster with a flashing name, “horrendo; in this version his daughters then carry the patronymic of Gorgonas. There are those who interpret that Gorgon would be related to another similar horrifying monster, the Ega goat (Aix)

The dracaenas in the fountains

The dracaenas are female snakes (dragons), or simply dragons, that are related and identified with Echidna, explicitly or implicitly. Some authors also relate it to the serpentine called Síbaris or Lamia, for Antonino Liberal, who lurked in Fócide.

Dracaena de los Árimos or Coricia

For Hesiod the Echidna is «half nymph with lively eyes and beautiful cheeks, half instead monstrous and marbled serpent». She is the mother of monsters and dwells in the depths in a cave of the Arimos. Apollodorus describes in his part of the Typhonomachy, that "Typhon left the sinews of Zeus there, hidden in the skin of a bear and put as guardian the dragon Delphine, half animal, half woman. But Hermes and Aegipano, without being seen, stole the sinews and applied them to Zeus." The work refers to Delphine living in the Coricia cave in Cilicia.

Delphian Dracaena

In the Homeric Hymns it is said that Hera carried Typhon himself in the company of a dragoness, and that at least the Chimera was born from them. She killed her by Apollo throwing arrows at her.In later versions of the myth we already meet the dragon Python.

Tartarian Dracaena

Aristophanes describes Aeacus, as one of the judges of the dead, confronting Dionysus: «Echidna with a hundred heads, which will tear your entrails; a Tartessian murena (Myraina Tartesia, the "eel" of Tartarus) will grab hold of your lungs, and your two kidneys, bloodied, along with the other viscera, will be cut into pieces by the Gorgons titrasias". This Echidna is also related to the serpentine prisoner of Tartarus, Campe, whom he describes as a kind of female version of Typhon, with features of Echidna and Scylla. Ovid also mentions her in Tartarus, saying that she is the poison of Cerberus.

Argus Dracaena

Apolodorus says that Argos Panoptes killed Echidna, daughter of Tartarus and Gaea who abducted travelers, surprising her asleep. Another dracaena, if it is not the same one, is called Poine. She was invoked from the underworld by Apollo to punish the Argives for the cruel death of her son, Lino; she was killed by the hero Corebo.

Scythian Dracaena

According to Herodotus, the Greeks who lived in Pontus, a region on the southern shore of the Black Sea, told the story of an encounter between Heracles and this serpentine creature. Heracles was driving the herds of Geryones through what would later become Scythia, when he awoke one morning to find that his horses were missing. While he was searching for them, he “found in a cave a creature of double form, half maiden and half serpent; above the buttocks was a woman, below them a snake. He had the horses and promised to return them if Heracles had sex with her. Heracles agreed and she had three children with him: Agatirso, Gelono and Escites. She asked Heracles what she should do with her children: "Do I keep them here, since I am the queen of this country, or do I send them to you?" Heracles gave her a bow and a belt, and told her that she would only raise that child who was able to shoot the bow and wear the belt; the rest would be banished. The youngest son, Scytes, qualified and became the founder and eponym of the Scythians.