Typhon
（
*Tufa/wn,
*Tufweu/s,
*Tufw/s), or TYPHOEUS, a monster of the primitive world, is described sometimes as a destructive hurricane, and sometimes as a fire-breathing giant.
According to Homer (
Hom. Il. 2.782; comp.
Strab. xiii. p.929) he was concealed in the country of the Arimi
1 in the earth, which was lashed by Zeus with flashes of lightning.
In Hesiod Typhaon and Typhoeus are two distinct beings. Typhaon there is a son of Typhoeus (
Theog. 869), and a fearful hurricane, who by Echidna became the father of the dog Orthus, Cerberus, the Lernaean hydra, Chimaera, and the Sphynx. (
Theog. 306; comp.
Apollod. 2.3.1,
3.5.8.) Notwithstanding the confusion of the two beings in later writers, the original meaning of Typhaon was preserved in ordinary life. (
Aristoph. Frogs 845;
Plin. Nat. 2.48.) Typhoeus, on the other hand, is described as the youngest son of Tartarus and Gaea, or of Hera alone, because she was indignant at Zeus having given birth to Athena. Typhoeus is described as a monster with a hundred heads, fearful eyes, and terrible voices (
Pind. P. 1.31,
8.21,
Ol. 4.12); he wanted to acquire the sovereignty of gods and men, but was subdued, after a fearful struggle, by Zeus, with a thunderbolt. (
Hes. Th. 821, &c.)
He begot the winds, whence he is also called the father of the Harpies (
V. Fl. 4.428), but the beneficent winds Notus, Boreas, Argestes, and Zephyrus, were not his sons. (
Hes. Th. 869, &c.) Aeschylus and Pindar describe him as living in a Cilician cave. (
Pind. P. 8.21; comp. the different ideas in
Apollon. 2.1210, &c., and
Hdt. 3.5.)
He is further said to have at one time been engaged in a struggle with all the immortals, and to have been killed by Zeus with a flash of lightning; he was buried in Tartarus under Mount Aetna, the workshop of Hephaestus. (
Ov. Ep. 15.11,
Fast. 4.491; Aeschyl.
Prom. 351, &c.;
Pind. P. 1.29, &c.)
The later poets frequently connect Typhoeus with Egypt, and the gods, it is said, when unable to hold out against him, fled to Egypt, where, from fear, they metamorphosed themselves into animals, with the exception of Zeus and Athena. (
Ant. Lib. 28 ; Hygin.
Poet. Astr. 2.28;
Ov. Met. 5.321, &c. ; comp.
Apollod. 1.6.3;
Ov. Fast. 2.461;
Hor. Carm. 3.4.53.)
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