Offspring
Echidna was the mother by Typhon of many monstrous offspring, including:
- Orthrus - The two-headed dog which guarded the Cattle of Geryon.
- Cerberus - The many-headed dog which guarded the gates of Hades.
- The Lernaean Hydra - The many-headed sea monster which when one of its heads was cut off grew two more.
- The Chimera - A fire breathing beast that was part lion, part goat, and had a snake-headed tail.
- The Caucasian Eagle — An eagle that every day ate the liver of Prometheus.
- The Crommyonian Sow - Killed by Theseus.
- The Gorgon - According to Hyginus.
- The Colchian Dragon - A dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece.
- Scylla - According to Hyginus.
- The Teumessian fox - A fox that was destined never to be caught. It was sometimes called the Cadmean vixen.
Also included as the offspring of Echidna by Typhon, by some, are the Sphinx and the Nemean lion. However Hesiod's genealogy here is unclear, he says these two were fathered by Orthrus, but he has been read variously as saying that Echidna, the Chimaera, or even Ceto, was their mother.
Ladon, the dragon which guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, was also born of Echidna by Typhon, according to Apollodorus, and Hyginus, but according to Hesiod, Ladon was the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys.
Echidna is also sometimes identified as the mother by Heracles, of Scythes, an eponymous king of the Scythians, along with his brothers Agathyrsus and Gelonus.
Read more about this topic: Echidna (mythology)
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