In the most ancient layers of Greek mythology Echidna (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 monster in the Greek mythos,

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 Uranus and Gaia, or sometimes Ceto and Phorcys (by Hesiod) or Chrysaor and the naiad Callirhoe, 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 Panopes, the hundred-eyed giant.

Echidna and Typhon's offspring

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The offspring of Typhon and Echidna were:

1. Nemean Lion
2. Cerberus
3. Orthrus
4. Ladon
5. Chimera
6. Sphinx
7. Lernaean Hydra
8. Ethon

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

1. Agathyrsus
2. Gelonus
3. Scytha/Scylla

Echidna in popular culture

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Echidna was a recurring character in the television series The Legendary Journeys as she is played by Bridget Hoffman. This version of her is shown as a multi-tentacled reptilian creature.

In the Gargoyles episode "The New Olympians", a snake woman named Ekidna is presumed to be Echidna's descendant.

In Disney's Hercules, Echidna also appeared as the mother of monsters.

Echidna appears as a boss monster in Final Fantasy III and Dawn of Souls.

In Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun, Echidna appears as the Great Queen of the gods and the wife of the chief god Pas.

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

See also

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• Echidna, a monotreme mammal of Australia and New Guinea.

References

• Mythography article
• Kark Kerenyi, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks (Thames and Hudson)

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