Typhon the Father of All Monsters

Typhon was a monstrous creature of mythology. It is considered a personification of the meteorological typhoon due to its external appearance and characteristic movement.

When the Olympian gods destroyed the Giants, their mother Gaia, blinded by pain, indignation and rage, fused with her son Tartarus (in another version with Uranus), and from this union was born in Cilicia, Typhon ( or Tyfaon or Typhoeus) whose volume and strength far exceeded those of the other children of Gaia.

According to Homer’s version, which links the disturbance of weather conditions to the myth, the birth of Typhon took place in a different way: Gaia, in order to take revenge for the death of her children, sowed discord between Zeus and Hera, who demanded advice of Saturn to punish Jupiter.

Kronos, wanting to take revenge on Zeus himself for his lost kingdom, gave her two eggs soaked in his sperm and told her to bury them in the earth, so that the one who would dethrone Zeus would be born from them. Hera buried them on Mount Arimaion in Cilicia and in a short time Typhon was born from the eggs.

Typhon grew up in Typhonion Andron in Cilicia, which was so contaminated by the poisonous Typhoon that any animal that entered it died after a while.

Growing up, Typhon, urged by Gaia, decided to take revenge on the gods for exterminating the Giants, so he attacked Olympus by hurling huge volumes of rock with incredible fury.

The gods tried to escape the fury of the Typhoon in any way they could. Zeus transformed himself into a ram, Apollo into a falcon, Mercury into a waterfowl, Ares and Artemis into fish, Dionysus into a goat and the rest of the gods into various other animals and hurried away in the direction of Egypt.

All except the goddess Athena, who stayed and resisted mainly blaming Zeus for his cowardice. Aggrieved then, Zeus returned and confronted Typhon with his thunderbolts, until he forced him to retreat and reach the Cassian mountain (today’s Syria).

His monstrous appearance

What is certain is that Typhoon was a huge creature, something between a man and a monster. From the waist up his image was human. But from the waist down, instead of legs, he had coiled snakes.

His body was covered with wings and on his shoulders he had dragon heads. His eyes emitted fire and his snake heads emitted strange sounds like screams.

His size was equally impressive, since according to legend, when he opened his arms, one reached the East and the other the West, while his human head reached the stars.

Typhoon surpassed all the other children of the Earth in size and was bigger than all the mountains.
He was raised in a cave called Typhonion Andron and when he grew up, encouraged by his mother, he decided to take revenge on the Gods for exterminating the giants.

Battle of Typhon with Zeus

Typhon threw rocks and forced the gods to flee to Egypt and transform into animals. Athena resisted him and accused Zeus of cowardice.
Zeus tried to protect Olympus and struck Typhon with lightning, but initially Typhon prevailed in a fight from the cluster and left Zeus helpless by severing his tendons (arms and legs) and forcing him to take refuge in Korykion Andros in Cilicia.

Then Typhon gave Delphine, his sister, to guard the sinews of Zeus, but Hermes and Pana stole them and released Zeus who regained his strength and chased Typhon blasting him and hurling huge mountains against him shut him up in the bowels of the earth from where it continues to emit screams and tongues of fire from time to time.

Mount Aimos got its name because Typhon bled on it as Zeus struck it with lightning. Finally, Typhon, chased by Zeus, tried to throw Mount Etna at him, but Zeus struck it with lightning several times and overwhelmed Typhon.

According to Homer, Typhon is found chained in the land of the Arims, i.e. in Cilicia and Phrygia, while according to Pindar he is buried in the bowels of Etna in Sicily. According to other myths, Typhon was the son of Hera who was born in a moment of discord between the heavenly couple, thus expressing the disturbance of the atmosphere.