Meet the monster Echidna and be surprised with all its legends. We explain its powers, myths and conflicts with other gods.
Echidna, the monster
Echidna is a somewhat obscure, but nevertheless fearsome monster in Greek mythology. Homer’s Iliad and Hesiod’s poem Theogony are some of the oldest writings featuring her, and thus have been influential in shaping the modern Echidna narrative. Apart from what is established in The Iliad, Theogony and later texts by other authors, not much is known about this creature.
Who was Echidna?
Echidna is a guardian, goddess, monster or mother of the spirits that are the alternative to the Olympians, depending on the source. Regardless of how she is viewed, as the mother of many of the creatures that Heracles was tasked with slaying, her importance to the Greeks is undoubted.
Origin
Echidna was the daughter of Gaia and Tartarus, or of Keto and Phorkys. Either way, the cave birth of this half-woman, half-serpent would herald a new era in the Greek pantheon, a time when the birth of her children would present her with the title of “Mother of all monsters.”
Family
She was married to Typhon, her parents were Gaia and Tartarus was her older brother. Perhaps this would explain the countenance of all her children together. If her parents were Keto and Phorkys, then perhaps her countenance can be explained as a combination of her beautiful mother’s features, and her father’s monstrous features.
Like Echidna, Phorkys’ upper body was humanoid, while his lower half was not. But instead of being a snake, his lower half was that of a fish. But its upper half was not cute; instead, it was covered in crab skin.
Regardless of their lineage, as Mother of all monsters, Echidna’s children with Typhon figured prominently in the tales of almost all the great heroes of Greek mythology.
Myths about Echidna
Most of Echidna’s history focuses not on her, but on her famous children. Her title of Mother of all monsters is well deserved. The Echidna husband, like Echidna herself, was also half-humanoid and half-serpent. Her children, however, were dominated by their monstrous sides.
Death of the sons at the hands of the Greek heroes
One can assume that Echidna has no love lost for any of the great heroes of Greek mythology. Most of her sons were overtaken or killed by them. Bellerophon killed Chimera, the three-headed monster that seems to be made from the remains of a dragon, a goat and a lion. Echidna’s son, the Dragon of Colchia, was shown more mercy, and simply fell asleep in Jason effort to retrieve the Golden Fleece he guarded.
His daughter the Sphinx, half human and half lion, committed suicide, either by throwing herself off a cliff or by devouring her own body, when Oedipus was able to answer her riddles. There is very little information about his daughter Gorgon, except that at some point she became three daughters and not one. Euryale, Medusa and Stheno shared hideous faces and hair consisting of writhing, wrathful snakes. Of the three, only Medusa was mortal, which is probably why it is sometimes questioned that she is the daughter of Echidna. That is probably also why only her death, at the hands of Perseus, is noted.
Echidna and Herakles
Surely the hero who hated her the most would be Heracles. In his 12 labors, he defeated or killed six of her children. The victim in his first labor was the Lion of Nemea, who would become the constellation Leo. His second labor brought him face to face with the Lernaean Hydra, and again, another of his sons was killed. In his fourth job, on a side part of his quest, Hercules killed the Caucasian Eagle, which may or may not have been a son of Echidna.
Hercules would close the last three labors by stalking more of Echidna’s sons. At the age of ten, he killed the two-headed dog Orthrus while stealing the cattle of the giant Geryon. His eleventh job saw the death of Echidna’s serpent/dragon son Ladon when he stole the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides. Finally, in his twelfth labor, Hercules showed some mercy, and only captured Echidna’s offspring, Cerberus, or perhaps the extra head was too much for the hero.
Other Children
There are a couple of additional monsters from Greek mythology that are sometimes attributed to Echidna. The first is Phaea, also known as the Crommyonian Sow. Theseus gets in on the action in this one, killing her and many other criminals on his first trip to Athens.
Finally there is Scylla, whom Odysseus had encountered, but who was killed by Heracles off duty. Occasionally she is attributed to Echidna, but more often she is related to a coupling of Hecate and Typhon.
Current Influence
She is said to live in Tartarus, choosing to be near her husband after her humiliating defeat by Zeus. There are no further records of their having had any more children after this event; perhaps the fact that Zeus trapped Typhon beneath Mount Etna had some effect on her libido.
Place of Worship of Echidna
The place of worship of Echidna has its origin in Phrygia, where she was considered the guardian of the treasures of the Earth. Earthquakes are said to be the result of her movement, coiling and uncoiling her snake-like lower body. As such, she is often invoked to prevent or minimize damage and injury during these catastrophes.
Facts about Echidna
- The Echidna, an Australian mammal, is named after the Echidna of Greek mythology. This is because it exhibits both reptilian and mammalian qualities.
- There are no confirmed ancient artistic depictions of Echidna. The most widely accepted image of her is formed by Hesiod’s description of a beautiful serpent woman living in a cave, but authors such as Aristophanes contradict this and describe her as a hideous beast with a hundred heads living in the underworld.
- One theory about Echidna’s genealogy places her as the daughter of Tartarus and Gaia, which would make her and her lover Typhon brothers.
- Echidna is also known as the Eel of Tartarus (a possible reference to her father), the Serpent of the Womb, and the Mother of Monsters.
More facts
- Most authors believe that Echidna’s mother was a sea nymph.
- Echidna’s murderer, Argus Panoptes, was a sworn servant of Hera. The order to kill her was a secondary duty. His main duty was to keep an eye on Zeus’ lover, Io, and to make sure that Zeus stayed away from her.
- In Ovid’s Metamorphoses Echidna is said to be capable of producing a poisonous venom with the power to induce madness.
- Because of Echidna’s taste for raw human flesh, Daniel Ogden, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter, suggests that she may have had the head of a snake to more easily devour her prey. This contradicts the generally accepted image of Echidna, who is portrayed as having the head and torso of a beautiful woman, but the tail of a serpent.
- The Homeric Hymns (a series of anonymous writings in the style of Homer) equates Echidna with the Delphian Python, a serpent sent by Gaia to protect the Oracle of Delphi. In this account, the python is born from the rotting mud left by the Great Flood and killed by the god Apollo
