TYPHON

In Greek mythology, 'Typhon' (ancient Greek: ), also 'Typhoeus' (), 'Typhaon' () or 'Typhus' () is the final son of Gaia, with Tartarus; Typhon attempts to replace Zeus as the king of gods and men. Hesiod narrates his birth:
:''But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven,
:''mother Earth bare her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of
:''Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite.'' —Hesiod, ''Theogony'' 820-822.
In the alternative account of the origin of Typhaon, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo makes the monster Typhaon at Delphi a son of archaic Hera in her Minoan form, produced out of herself, like a monstrous version of Hephaestus, and whelped in a cave in Cilicia and confined there in the enigmatic land of the Arimi— ''en Arimois'' (''Iliad'', ii. 781-783). It was in Cilicia that Zeus battled with the ancient monster and overcame him, in a more complicated story: It was not an easy battle, and Typhon temporarily overcame Zeus, cut the "sinews" from him and left him in the "leather sack", the ''korukos'' that is the etymological origin of the ''korukion atron'', the Korykian or Corycian Cave in which Zeus suffers temporary eclipse as if in the Land of the Dead. The region of Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia had many opportunities for coastal Hellenes' connection with the Hittites to the north. From the first reappearance of the Hittite myth of Illuyankas, it has been seen as a prototype of the battle of Zeus and Typhon.^[1] Walter Burkert and Calvert Watkins each note the close agreements. Watkins' ''How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics'' (Oxford University Press) 1995, reconstructs in disciplined detail the flexible Indo-European poetic formula that underlies myth, epic and magical charm texts of the lashing and binding of Typhon.
The inveterate enemy of the Olympian gods is described in detail by Hesiod^[2] as a vast grisly monster with a hundred snakelike heads "with dark flickering tongues" flashing fire from their eyes and a din of voices and a hundred serpents issuing from his thighs, a feature shared by many primal monsters of Greek myth that extend in serpentine or scaly coils from the waist down. The titanic struggle created earthquakes and tsunamis.^[3] Once conquered by Zeus' thunderbolts, Typhon was cast into Tartarus, the common destiny of many such archaic adversaries, or he was confined beneath Mount Aetna, also known as Mount Etna,(Pindar, ''Pythian Ode'' 1.19 - 20; Aeschylus, ''Prometheus Bound'' 370), where "his bed scratches and goads the whole length of his back stretched out against it," or in other volcanic regions, where he is the cause of eruptions.
Typhon is thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces, as Hephaestus (Roman Vulcan) is their "civilized" Olympian manifestation. Amongst his children by Echidna are Cerberus, the serpent-like Lernaean Hydra, the Chimera, the hundred-headed dragon Ladon, the half-woman half-lion Sphinx, the two-headed wolf Orthus, Ethon the eagle who tormented Prometheus, and the Nemean Lion.
Typhon is also the father of hot dangerous storm winds which issue forth from the stormy pit of Tartarus, according to Hesiod.
His name is apparently derived from the Greek "typhein", to smoke, hence it is considered to be a possible etymology for the word ''typhoon,'' supposedly borrowed by the Persians (as طوفان ''Tufân'') and Arabs to describe the cyclonic storms of the Indian Ocean. The Greeks also frequently represented him as a storm-daemon, especially in the version where he stole Zeus's thunderbolts and wrecked the earth with storms (cf. Hesiod, Theogony; Nonnus, Dionysiaca).
Since Herodotus, Typhon has been identified with the Egyptian Set (interpretatio Graeca). In the Orphic tradition, Typhon leads the Titans when they attack and kill Dionysus, just as Set is responsible for the murder of Osiris. Furthermore, the slaying of Typhon by Zeus is analogous to the killing of Vritra by Indra (also a lightning deity), and two stories likely are ultimately derived from a common Indo-European myth.

Contents

In popular culture

Notes

References

External links

In popular culture

★ Typhon is the two-headed tyrant of Urth in Gene Wolfe's ''Book of the New Sun''—who built the generation ship ''Whorl'' in ''Book of the Long Sun'' and is referred to there as Pas.

★ Typhon is the main "villain" in the mythology-based computer action-RPG ''Titan Quest''.

★ In the Gameboy Advance remake of Final Fantasy I, Typhon appears in one of the optional dungeons as a Boss.

★ In the Super Nintendo, Playstation and Gameboy Advance versions of Final Fantasy VI, Typhon is a Boss.
However, in the earlier versions his name was translated into Chupon.

★ In the Playstation game 'Final Fantasy VII'', Typhon is the name of an optional summon. Portrayed as a purple creature with a head at each end. Typhon unleashes a strong breath that creates a whirlwind causing wind damage to all enemies.

★ Typhon appears in , as Typhoon, as a summon of the Magun. The english version Soil Charge Triad needed for it is: An infinity that surpasses the heavens, Sky Blue, A completeness that goes through solid ground, Earth Brown! The deception to hollow out a dimension, Magic Violet!

★ In the Playstation 2 game ''God of War II'', Typhon is portrayed as a wind-blowing Titan, immobile in a cave-like lair, on an island. The main character, Kratos, makes his way up to Typhon's eye, and attacks it, ultimately pulling out its magic, a bow-and-arrow-like weapon, called Typhon's Bane.

★ In '', Typhon, played by Glenn Shadix, is Echidna's doting husband and is a cheerful giant. He was trapped in stone until Hercules freed him.

★ "Typhon" is the name of a song by the metal band Therion

★ Typhon is the name of a line of locomotive horns manufactured by the Leslie Company, formerly of Parsippany, NJ.

★ Typhon is the name of a character who seems to be a demon in Dean Koontz's book "The Face."

★ Typhon is the name of a character from warhammer 40,000 before the Horus Heresy. After which the Choas god Nurgle renamed him Typhus and gifted him the Destroyer Plague, an infestation of insect that pour from inside of him blotting out the sun and getting in Typhus's enemies.

Notes

1. W. Porzig, "Illuyankas und Typhon", ''Kleinasiatische Forschung'' I.3 (1930) pp 379-86.
2. ''Theogony'' 820-868
3. "The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about, at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking." (Hesiod, ''Theogony'').

References

★ Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 1985

★ Robert Graves, ''The Greek Myths'', (1955) 1960, §36.1-3

★ Karl Kerenyi, ''The Gods of the Greeks'' 1951

★ Calvert Watkins, ''How to Kill a Dragon'' 1995, 448-459

External links

★ Typhoeus at Theoicompiled sources of myth in classical literature