Echidna (mythology)

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For other senses of this word, see Echidna (disambiguation).

In the most ancient layers of Greek mythology Echidna (Greek: Έχιδνα) (ekhis, meaning "she viper") was called the "Mother of All Monsters". Echidna was described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered with her mate Typhoeus (or Typhon) every major horrible monster in the Greek myths,

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)

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), her face and torso of a beautiful woman was depicted as winged in archaic vase-paintings, but 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): chthonic Echidna as protector of the vineyard perhaps.

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 Panoptes, the hundred-eyed giant. [1]

1 Typhon and Echidna's offsprings
2 Echidna in popular culture
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Typhon and Echidna's offsprings

The offspring of Typhon and Echidna were:^{[citation needed]}

Some sources^{[citation needed]} also include the Gorgons and the Graeae as her children. Hesiod claims that Sphinx and the Nemean Lion were her children by her son, Orthrus.

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

[edit] Echidna in popular culture

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A story in Argosy, "The Snake Woman," illustrated by John R. Neill, invokes the Echidna legend.

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 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.

Echidna is the name of one of the bosses in Capcom's game, Devil May Cry 4. She is depicted as having a humanoid form embedded within the mouth of the traditional She-Viper image.

Echidna is the name of a recurring boss in the game 'The Bouncer'.