9. Brood of Echidna
"Men say that Typhoeus
the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her Echidna, the
maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring;
first she bare Orthus the hound of Geryon, and then again she bare a second, a
monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw
flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Haides, fifty-headed, relentless and strong.
And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess,
white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Herakles
. . . She (Echidna) was the mother of Chimera who breathed raging fire, a
creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a
grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat,
breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire” (Hesiod, Theogony 306)
Echidna was the Mother of All Monsters. Okay not all of them, but so far we have
Orthus, Cerberus, the Hydra, and Chimera.
Other authors add; the Crommyon Sow and the Sphinx of Thebes.
In theory much of the struggles in Greek mythology represent
the gods (and civilization) creating order out of Chaos and the heroes,
especially Heracles, slaying the monstrous representatives of Chaos; the
monsters. Orthus was a two headed dog,
Cerberus a multi-head dog, the Hydra a nine-headed poisonous serpent, the
Chimera had three different heads and breathed fire, the Crommyon Sow was a
giant pig and mother of a similar beast, the man-eating Sphinx was half
womanish with a lioness’ body serpent for a tail and wings. Their mother was a man-eater, half an
immortal “maid with glancing eyes”, and
half serpent. And we won’t even describe their monstrous, wild
and immortal father. He almost destroyed
the universe. Here’s the catch, most of
them were someone’s pet.[i]
Orthus was a
sheep dog for King Geryon. Geryon was a
three-bodied monster from another lineage of monsters. Geryon wondered if he was divine or
mortal. Heracles made the decision by
slaying Geryon and his guard dog.
Cerberus is the
three headed dog is the pet of Lord Hades.
Cerberus guards the gates of Hell.
Sounds pretty ferocious right?
Let’s think about that. A dog
can’t bit a ghost, he’s not keeping them in.
He’s attempting to keep us form accidently wandering. Dogs are man’s best friend.
The Hydra was a
nine headed poisonous serpent ruining the countryside. Hera, Queen of the Gods was his wet
nurse. When Heracles cut off one of the
Hydra’s heads, two more appeared in its place.
The hulking hero ended up slicing off a head and holding the neck, so
his therapon could scorch the
stub. Then on the next. When they found the immortal invulnerable
head, they buried it under a rock.
The Chimera was brought
up by Amisodarus, king of Caria. He used
the monster on his enemies in battle.
Talk about a weapon of massive destruction. It was slain by a hero and another monster from
the other monster lineage; Pegasus, the uncle of Geryon.
The Crommyon
Sow and her descendants were just giant pigs rutting and tearing up the
country-side. Their lineage was killed
off by the heroes, who sacrificed and ate them.
Hera, asked the man-eating
Sphinx to lay waste to Thebes. The
Olympian gods didn’t exactly love the Theban deities. When Oedipus defeated the Sphinx at her own
game, she leapt onto the rocks and killed herself, just like the Sirens (who
were once beautiful maidens but made some bad life choices.) Oh wait!
They were all immortal. Remember
no one really dies in Greek mythology.
The Sphinx and the Sirens just became goddesses of the funeral rites
living underground sort of like the guard dog Orthus lived above ground and his
brother lived below ground in the same role.
Jenny Strauss-Clay (Hesiod's Cosmos) is kind enough to refer
to the "monsters" of Greek mythology as "hybrids".
Their "monstrousness" seems due, not to their vastness or evil
intent, but because they are not theomorphic like ourselves. We lucked
out. The gods could have decided they
liked their monsters better than us and they would have been the “heroes”
hunting us to extinction.
[i] "They say that the Lion of Nemea fell
from the moon (Selene). At any rate Epimenides [C6th B.C. poet] also has
these words : ‘For I am sprung from fair-tressed Selene the Moon, who in a
fearful shudder shook off the savage lion in Nemea, and brought him forth at
the bidding of Queen Hera.’" (Aelian,
On Animals 12. 7) http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Selene.html
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