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date: 05 November 2024

Typhōnlocked

Typhōnlocked

  • Ken Dowden

Extract

Typhōn (Typhaōn Typhōeus), monster and adversary of *Zeus. *Hesiod's Typhoeus (Theog.823–35) has 100 snake-heads, eyes blazing fire, and voices that cover the gamut of gods and animals. The final child (by *Tartarus) of Earth (*Gaia), he is blasted down to the place Tartarus by Zeus' thunderbolt, but remains the source of hurricanes (‘Typhoon’ merges Chinese dafeng—‘big wind’—with Greek myth). *Homer knows that Typhoeus lies amongst the Arimi (in Cilicia; Il. 2. 783, garbled by Verg.Aen. 9. 715–16). In Apollod. 1. 6. 3, the gods flee to Egypt in panic, turning themselves into animals (referring to Egyptian theriomorphism); Zeus with thunderbolts and an adamantine sickle wounds Typhon at Mt. Casius in *Syria, but is overpowered, his sinews cut out and both he and his sinews put in ‘the Corycian cave’ in Cilicia. *Hermes and Aegipan (‘Goat-*Pan’) steal the sinews and refit Zeus (in *Nonnus' Dionysiaca*Cadmus tricks the sinews from Typhon).

Subjects

  • Greek Myth and Religion

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