Subject: (urth) RE: Typhon and Apollodorus

From: James Wynn <crushtv at hotpop.com>
Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 17:57:53 +0000

The following is the story of Typhonâs war with Zeus and the Olympians as
told by Apollodorus. It is a story that seems rife with potential background
for Wolfeâs Typhon. Unfortunately, I canât seem to find anyone to take Zeusâ
role. The bit about Typhonâs head brushing the stars and his reach extending
to the west and east is certainly applicable. Also, when Severian finds
Typhon, he can be thought of as entombed in a mountain.

Can anyone find a stand-in for Zeus in the Sun books? Surely not Severian,
heâs Apollo (who according to Apollonius Rhodius killed Delphyne) or
Hercules. Nor Ymar since, if Iâm right about Typhon being entombed in a
mountain ala Mt Etna, the end of Typhonâs war with Zeus occurs shortly after
the prophecy of the Concilliator in the Urth of the New Sun. Perhaps
Tzadkiel? But Iâm not aware of any evidence that the Hieros ever so
completely fleeing before Typhon. Perhaps the war is personified in the
dying red Sun that Severian must rejuvenate. Whadya say?

-- Crush

Apollodorus, Book 1, Chapter 6, Section 3
âWhen the gods had overcome the giants, Earth, still more enraged, had
intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon in Cilicia, a hybrid
between man and beast. In size and strength he surpassed all the offspring
of Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious
bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the
stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east,
and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads. From the thighs downward
he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head
and emitted a loud hissing. His body was all winged, unkempt hair streamed
on the wind from his head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his eyes. Such
and so great was Typhon when, hurling kindled rocks, he made for the very
heaven with hissings and shouts, spouting a great jet of fire from his
mouth. But when the gods saw him rushing at heaven, they fled to Egypt, and
being pursued they changed their forms into those of animals.
However Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close
quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickleâ¦â

Note from Crush: This is, of course, the same sickle that Cronus used to
castrate Ouranosâthat is, to âcut the link between Earth and the Heavensâ
ala the Hittite myth of Ullikummi. The connection between Typhon and
Ullikummi is drawn credulously by Robert Graves as well as Hittite mythology
scholars. Ullikummi was the child of the obscure god, Kum-arbis, who
precisely parallels Cronus. It was Kum-arbis who separated Earth from Heaven
with the knife used against Ullikummi.

Apollodorus continues:

ââ¦and as Typhon fled, Zeus pursued him closely as far as Mount Casius, which
overhangs Syria. There, seeing the monster sore wounded, he grappled with
him. But Typhon twined about him and gripped him in his coils, and wresting
the sickle from him severed the sinews of his hands and feet, and lifting
him on his shoulders carried him through the sea to Cilicia and deposited
him on arrival in the Corycian cave. Likewise he put away the sinews there
also, hidden in a bearskin, and he set to guard them the she-dragon
Delphyne, who was a half-bestial maiden.
But Hermes and Aegipan stole the sinews and fitted them unobserved to Zeus.
And having recovered his strength Zeus suddenly from heaven, riding in a
chariot of winged horses, pelted Typhon with thunderbolts and pursued him to
the mountain called Nysa, where the Fates beguiled the Typhon; for he tasted
of the ephemeral fruits believing that he would be strengthened by them. So
being again pursued he came to Thrace, and in fighting at Mount Haemus he
heaved whole mountains. But when these recoiled on him through the force of
the thunderbolt, a stream of blood gushed out on the mountain, and they say
that from that circumstance the mountain was called Haemus. And when he
started to flee through the Sicilian sea, Zeus cast Mount Etna in Sicily
upon him. That is a huge mountain, from which down to this day they say that
blasts of fire issue from the thunderbolts that were thrown. So much for
that subject.â

--