In Greek mythology, Echidna (; , )Variant of from Proto-Indo-European *h₁égʰi- (see ). was a monster, half-woman and half-snake, who lived alone in a cave. She was the mate of the fearsome monster Typhon and was the mother of many of the most famous monsters of Greek myth.Ogden 2013a, p. 81.
Genealogy Echidna's family tree varies by author.For a discussion of Echidna's varying genealogy see Ogden 2013a, pp. 148–150. The oldest genealogy relating to Echidna, Hesiod's Theogony (c. 8th – 7th century BC), is unclear on several points. According to Hesiod, Echidna was born to a "she" who was probably meant by Hesiod to be the sea goddess Ceto, making Echidna's likely father the sea god Phorcys; however the "she" might instead refer to the Oceanid Callirhoe, which would make Medusa's offspring Chrysaor the father of Echidna.Hesiod, Theogony 270-300. Though Herbert Jennings Rose says simply that it is "not clear which parents are meant", Athanassakis, p. 44, says that Phorcys and Ceto are the "more likely candidates for parents of this hideous creature who proceeded to give birth to a series of monsters and scourges". The problem arises from the ambiguous referent of the pronoun "she" in Theogony 295. While some have read this "she" as referring to Callirhoe (e.g. Smith s.v. Echidna; Morford, p. 162), according to Clay, p. 159 n. 32, "the modern scholarly consensus" reads Ceto, see for example Most 2018a, p. 27 n. 16 ("Probably Ceto"); Gantz, p. 22 ("Phorkys and Keto produce Echidna"); Caldwell, pp. 7, 46 lines 295–303 ("presumably Keto"); West 1966, p. 249 line 295 ("probably Keto"); Grimal, s.v. Echidna ("Phorcys and Ceto"). The mythographer Pherecydes of Athens (5th century BC) has Echidna as the daughter of Phorcys, without naming a mother.Pherecydes, fr. 7 Fowler = FGrHist 3 F 7 (Fowler 2000, p. 278); Hošek, p. 678.
Other authors give Echidna other parents. According to the geographer Pausanias (2nd century AD), Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) had Echidna as the daughter of the Oceanid Styx (goddess of the river Styx) and one Peiras (otherwise unknown to Pausanias),Epimenides apud Pausanias, 8.18.2; Fowler 2013, p. 9. while according to the mythographer Apollodorus (1st or 2nd century AD), Echidna was the daughter of Tartarus and Gaia.Apollodorus, Library 2.1.2. According to the sixth century AD neoplatonist Olympiodorus, Typhon, Echidna, and Python were all the progeny of Tartarus and Gaia, with each being a cause of a specific kind of disorder, in Echidna's case, "a cause revenging and punishing rational souls; and hence the upper arts of her are those of a virgin, but the lower those of a serpent", see Taylor 1824, pp. 76–77 n. 63. In one account, from the Orphic tradition, Echidna was the daughter of Phanes (the Orphic father of all gods).Meisner, p. 135; Orphic Fragment 58 Kern = Athenagoras, Apology 20 (p. 397); van den Broek, p. 137 n. 20; Fowler 2013, p. 9.
Description Hesiod's Echidna was half beautiful maiden and half fearsome snake. Hesiod described "the goddess fierce Echidna" as a flesh eating "monster, irresistible", who was like neither "mortal men" nor "the undying gods", but was "half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin", who "dies not nor grows old all her days".Hesiod, Theogony 295-305 (Evelyn-White). Hesiod's apparent association of the eating of raw flesh with Echidna's snake half suggests that he may have supposed that Echidna's snake half ended in a snake-head.Ogden 2013a, p. 81. Aristophanes (late 5th century BC), who makes her a denizen of the underworld, gives Echidna a hundred heads (presumably snake heads), matching the hundred snake heads Hesiod says her mate Typhon had.Aristophanes, Frogs 473–474; Hošek. p. 678. Ogden 2013a, p. 81, calls Aristophanes's description "exuberant", which "need not relate to canon", see also Ogden 2013b pp. 65–66. For the hundred-headed Typhon see Hesiod, Theogony 825; see also Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 351; Apollodorus, 1.6.3. Pindar, Pythian 1.16; 8.15–16, and Olympian 4.7, all give Typhon a hundred heads, but Pindar, fragment 93 apud Strabo, 13.4.6 (Race, pp. 328–329) gives Typhon fifty.
In the Orphic account (mentioned above), Echidna is described as having the head of a beautiful woman with long hair and a serpent's body from the neck down.Orphic Fragment 58 Kern = Athenagoras, Apology 20 (p. 397); van den Broek, p. 137 n. 20; Fowler 2013, p. 9. Nonnus, in his Dionysiaca, describes Echidna as being "hideous" with "horrible poison".Nonnus, Dionysiaca 18.273 ff. (II pp. 82–83).
Offspring
According to Hesiod's Theogony, the "terrible" and "lawless" Typhon "was joined in love to [Echidna], the maid with glancing eyes" and she bore "fierce offspring".Hesiod, Theogony 306–314 (Evelyn-White). Compare with Lycophron, Alexandra 1351 ff. (pp. 606–607), which refers to Echidna as Typhon's spouse (δάμαρ). First there was Orthrus,Apollodorus, Library 2.5.10 also has Orthrus as the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica (or Fall of Troy) 6.249–262 (pp. 272–273) has Cerberus as the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, and Orthrus as his brother. the two-headed dog who guarded the Cattle of Geryon, second Cerberus,Acusilaus, fr. 13 Fowler (Fowler 2000, p. 11; Freeman, p. 15 fragment 6), Bacchylides, Ode 5.62, Sophocles, Women of Trachis 1097–1099, Callimachus, fragment 515 Pfeiffer (Trypanis, pp. 258–259), Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.500–501, 7.406–409, Hyginus, Fabulae Preface, 151, and Quintus Smyrnaeus, loc. cit., also have Cerberus as the offspring of Echidna, though only Acusilaus, Hyginus, and Quintus Smyrnaeus mention Typhon as the father. the multiheaded dog who guarded the gates of Hades, and third the Lernaean Hydra,Hyginus, Fabulae Preface, 30 (only Typhon is mentioned), 151 also has the Hydra and as the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. the many-headed serpent who, when one of its heads was cut off, grew two back. The Theogony mentions a second ambiguous "she" as the mother of the Chimera (a fire-breathing beast that was part lion, part goat, and had a snake-headed tail) which may refer to Echidna, though possibly the Hydra or even Ceto was meant instead.The referent of "she" in Theogony 319 is uncertain, see Clay, p. 159, with n. 34; Gantz, p. 22 ("Echidna ... the Hydra ... or even less probably Keto"); Most 2018a, p. 29 n. 18 ("probably Echidna"); Caldwell, p. 47 lines 319–325 ("probably Echidna, not Hydra"); West, pp. 254–255 line 319 ἡ δὲ ("Echidna or Hydra?"). Hesiod next names two more descendants of Echidna, the Sphinx, a monster with the head of a woman and the body of a winged lion, and the Nemean lion, killed by Heracles as his first labor. According to Hesiod, these two were the offspring of Echidna's son Orthrus and another ambiguous "she", read variously as the Chimera, Echidna herself, or again even Ceto.The referent of "she" in Theogony 326 is uncertain, see Clay, p. 159, with n. 34; Most 2018a, p. 29 n. 20 ("Probably Chimaera"); Gantz, p. 23 ("[Chimera] ... or just possibly Echidna"); Caldwell, p. 47 lines 326 ("either Echidna or Chimaira"); West 1966, p. 356 line 326 ἡ δ' ἄρα ("much more likely ... Chimaera" than Echidna). In any case, the lyric poet Lasus of Hermione (6th century BC) has Echidna and Typhon as the parents of the Sphinx,Lasus of Hermione, fragment 706A (Campbell, pp. 310–311). while the playwright Euripides (5th century BC), has Echidna as her mother, without mentioning a father.Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1019–1020; Ogden 2013a, p. 149 n. 3. While mentioning Cerberus and "other monsters" as being the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, the mythographer Acusilaus (6th century BC) adds the Caucasian Eagle that ate the liver of Prometheus.Acusilaus, fr. 13 Fowler (Fowler 2000, p. 11; Freeman, p. 15 fragment 6); Fowler 2013, p. 28; Gantz, p. 22; Ogden 2013a, pp. 149–150. Pherecydes also names Prometheus's eagle,Pherecydes, fr. 7 Fowler (Fowler 2000, p. 278); Fowler 2013, pp. 21, 27–28; Gantz, p. 22; Ogden 2013a, pp. 149–150. and adds Ladon (though Pherecydes does not use this name), the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides (according to Hesiod, the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys).Pherecydes, fr. 16b Fowler (Fowler 2000, p. 286); Hesiod, Theogony 333–336; Fowler 2013, p. 28; Ogden 2013a, p. 149 n. 3; Hošek, p. 678. The first to name the dragon Ladon is Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.1396 (pp. 388–389), which makes Ladon earthborn, see Fowler 2013, p. 28 n. 97. Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.36.360 (Kiessling, p. 54; English translation: Berkowitz, p. 33), also has Typhon as Ladon's father.
Later authors mostly retain these offspring of Echidna and Typhon while adding others. Apollodorus, in addition to naming as their offspring Orthrus, the Chimera (citing Hesiod as his source), the Sphinx, the Caucasian Eagle, Ladon, and probably the Nemean lion (only Typhon is named), also adds the Crommyonian Sow, killed by the hero Theseus (unmentioned by Hesiod).Apollodorus, Library 2.5.10 (Orthrus), 2.3.1 (Chimera), 3.5.8 (Sphinx), 2.5.11 (Caucasian Eagle), 2.5.11 (Ladon), 2.5.1 (Nemean lion), Epitome 1.1 (Crommyonian Sow). HyginusHyginus, Fabulae Preface, 151. in his list of offspring of Echidna (all by Typhon), retains from the above Cerberus, the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Hydra and Ladon, and adds "Gorgon" (by which Hyginus means the mother of Medusa, whereas Hesiod's three Gorgons, of which Medusa was one, were the daughters of Ceto and Phorcys), the Colchian dragon that guarded the Golden FleeceCompare with Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 2.1208–1215 (pp. 184–185), where the dragon is the offspring of Gaia by Typhon (Hošek, p. 678). and Scylla.See also Virgil, Ciris 67; Lyne, pp. 130–131. Others give other parents for Scylla. Several authors name Crataeis as the mother of Scylla, see Homer, Odyssey 12.124–125; Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.749; Apollodorus, E7.20; Servius on Virgil Aeneid 3.420; and schol. on Plato, Republic 9.588c. Neither Homer nor Ovid mention a father, but Apollodorus says that the father was Trienus (or Triton?) or Phorcus, similarly the Plato scholiast, perhaps following Apollodorus, gives the father as Tyrrhenus or Phorcus, while Eustathius on Homer, Odyssey 12.85 gives the father as Triton. The Hesiodic Megalai Ehoiai (fr. 262 MW = Most 200) gives Hecate and Phorbas as the parents of Scylla, while Acusilaus, fr. 42 Fowler (Fowler 2013, p. 32) says that Scylla's parents were Hekate and Phorkys (so also schol. Odyssey 12.85). Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4. 828–829 (pp. 350–351) says that "Hecate who is called Crataeis," and Phorcys were the parents of Scylla. Semos of Delos (FGrHist 396 F 22) says that Crataeis was the daughter of Hekate and Triton, and mother of Scylla by Deimos. Stesichorus, F220 PMG (Campbell, pp. 132–133) has Lamia as the mother of Scylla, possibly the Lamia who was the daughter of Poseidon. For discussions of the parentage of Scylla, see Fowler 2013, p. 32, Ogden 2013a, p. 134; Gantz, pp. 731–732; and Frazer's note to Apollodorus, E7.20.