11 Apollo’s Great Deeds: the Delphic Serpent and Typhaon (299-354)

In that age though

Crissa was still haunted by a monstrous serpent  (300)

her evil concealed by the beauty of a clear-flowing spring.

[But her time was at hand]

 She was slain by the mighty bow

of the heir-to-Zeus

[whose-accomplishments-are-far-known]

[who-follows-in-the-footsteps-of-his-father]

The Pythian Serpent

[Make present the memory of the she-Serpent in your mind.

Look at her:]

fat and bloated with slaughter,

enormous,

a savage, primordial beast.

For many ages before,

she had thinned the numbers of humans there,

a constant specter of death for them

[both directly:]

countless corpses of humans in her wake

[and by destroying their livelihood]

trailing the savaged bodies

of their long-legged sheep

[We call her a serpent, but for them]

She was a plague,

encrusted with bloody gore.

Long before her death,

in an earlier age,

[before Apollo stabilized the world for humans]

[even Zeus’ reign was not yet secure]^[1]

The She-serpent

had been entrusted with the care of another monster

given to her by the

powerful-queen

who-sits-upon-a-golden-throne 

Hera

[A monster whose story is well known.]

For she was a perverse surrogate mother,

nursing and raising the creature known as:

Typhaon. 305

horrendous and terrible monster.

[threat to the very throne of Olympus]

plague for men and gods alike

abomination

birthed by Hera but

[slain by Zeus].

The Birth of Typhaon

Hera gave birth to Typhaon

in an act of rage, having been provoked by Zeus,

the-father-of-all .

The heir to Kronos’ throne and twisted legacy,

had chosen that he would be the father of

yet another child:

one who would reflect the greatest honour

to her lucky parents  — Athena

[Worse than Zeus’ many affairs, Hera’s grievance was that…]

[The father-of-all had insulted her role and duties

by taking the role of wife and mother:]

giving birth to the child himself, 

using his head as a womb.

[Make present the memory in your mind]

[See her:]

Hera,

the powerful queen,

[wife of and rival to great Zeus]

choking on an angry heart,

filled with bile.

She steps up to address the assembly of the immortals.

Hear how she rouses them: 310

“Assembled gods and goddesses:

pay close attention to my case.

Hear how

Zeus,

who-shepherds-concealing-clouds,

[to hide his many affairs]

has again wronged my sacred honour — my tîmê,

striking first and without provocation.

Is it not the case that he himself chose to assign me these duties:

To be

his wife  [– mother of his heirs –]?

his partner— with all the trust implied?

manager of his household,  alongside him?

So why is it then–

in discordance with those duties and

in a direct insult to my status —

he has now chosen to give birth alone,

without a partner or wife

[to one virtually a twin of his own thundering mind]:

to her: whose eyes-mirror-the-flash-in-a-dark-storm?

to Athena?

And before he can object, let me make this clear:

there are no grounds for claiming that this was

[payback for my previous actions] or that

this justly balances the scales between us.

[For proof of this,

you need do nothing more than examine the results.]

On the one side–

[Look at the child he birthed…]

She will be easy to spot:

standing head and shoulders above others,

her beauty and noble grace set her far apart 

even from the other ruling gods,

–those named as free-from-mortal-cares–.

On the other side of the scales– 315 

Look at the child I birthed

[He

will be difficult to see in the crowd:]

as he was born unable to to stand at all;

the most graceless and misshapen of all divine beings

[–even among the lower classes]:

the broken-footed-god

Hephaestus.^[2]

[The thing that I managed to produce

is clearly not something which offended Zeus

but a source of shame for me.]^[3]

Can you imagine my anger– how insulted I was–

when I first looked upon his appearance,

at how his worth would be measured against others…

[when I thought about how he reflected upon my reputation, my honour…]

I hurled him out like garbage,

abandoning him to the depths of the impossibly-wide-sea.

[But you know the rest of that story:]

Somehow another busybody took up that which I had renounced…

that daughter of the sea king Nereus,

she whose-feet-are-the-crests-of-waves,

…

Thetis

Together with her seemingly innumerable sisters,

she became his surrogate mother,

nursing him and raising him. 320

I only wish that she had chosen to spend all of that free time and energy

doing something useful for us blessed gods instead!

As for you, Lord Zeus —

…

Or since you are following in his footsteps

should I better refer to you by your father’s title:

Crooked-minded-trickster?

…

I can only ask:

What further dishonours do you have planned for us?

What possible defense could you provide

for [this attack on my status?]

for choosing to give birth to her all by yourself

to the one whose eyes-mirror-the-flash-in-a-dark-storm

to Athena?

Will you claim that I am not worthy enough to have birthed her for you —

even though I am your lawful wife,

chosen –by you –to be the mother of your heirs?

…

Or perhaps… you mean to say that ‘wife’ and ‘queen’ are just empty titles?

Ranks with no privilege or honours?

Just something I am meant to be called

by all of these other good immortals who sit in judgement

–the nobility who keep their homes here in the wide-heavens

[whose own ranks are assigned and guaranteed by you]–? 325

For the future,

I present you an ultimatum:

be very careful not to wrong me again or

you will find me a wicked opponent

both of you and of your rule;

[– even if, alone, I cannot stand against you –]

I can still cause torturous pain.

[And do not forget what happened to your father

after he dared to dishonour the statuses of the other gods, and

took the power of birth from our mother.]

For the moment

this is how I will pay you back:

I too will give birth to a child

who will take his place as first among the immortal gods.

This is how I will balance the scales.

But before you object: there is no need to worry. 

Unlike you, I would not dare do this by disgracing the holy rules of marriage

seeking a partner to defile the bed which we share for the production of heirs

But I also caution you not to get too excited…

I will not be joining you in it either.

Instead this child will be conceived and born through my power alone.

In addition, for the time until the birth,

[we will see how well you function without me at your side:]

[Your house will no longer be my house or our house]

I will renounce my status and live amongst these other immortal gods”.                330

That was her grievance.

Then she snuck out, away from the gods, with bile still filling her heart.

Without hesitation, she prayed:

the queen,

with-eyes-dark-like-cows-on-the-fertile-earth.

Hera

struck the earth with the flat of her hand

and uttered the following terrible invocation:

“|Hear me now:

Gaia, dark-earth-mother,

expansive Ouranos, covering-sky-above,  335

you Titans and gods who dwell beneath the hollows of the earth

in the endless dark of Tartaros.

I call upon the elders:

all those who came before both humans and the current gods.

Obey me now:

grant me a child

without Zeus as father but with equal strength.

… No… stronger, even!

Let Zeus of-vision-far-reaching be as inferior in size and strength to this child

as his father Kronos once was to Zeus.”

She said this and struck the earth again with her hand even more forcefully. 340

Gaia, earth-which-brings-forth-life, shook, as if nodding.

The sight of this

brought joy to Hera’s heart,

for she believed it a sign that her prayer would be fulfilled.

From that time, for a full year

[She abandoned her duties and roles:]

the household and marriage bed: vacant

previously shared with Zeus wise-and-mindful-advisor

her delicately-crafted-golden throne: empty

this had been her role in better times:   345

sitting enthroned on his left,

guiding him with her shrewd counsel.

[Instead she stood outside of Zeus’ order]

lurking, hidden deep within her own temples

–full of suppliants–

content with only the honors that could be found there:

Powerful-Queen,

with-eyes-dark-like-cows-on-the-fertile-earth,

Hera.

But the allotted months

and days eventually

came to their end

the year had run a full circle

and the seasons had turned

around again when  350

she gave birth to

…a thing…

an abomination

in form, twisted

neither resembling humans or gods:

Typhaon —

a fearful and terrible monster,

a plague.

As soon as she saw what it looked like,

what she had created, she

Queen,

with-dark-eyes-like-cows-on-the-fertile-earth,

Hera

grabbed him, and

hurled him out like garbage

tossing him to the Serpent,

abandoning evil to evil.

And she, for her part, welcomed him and raised him.

[Until Typhaon one day dared to march on Olympus, to claim the throne of Zeus

And the far-thrown thunderbolts of the King ended his threat forever.]

[So too it would one day be for the She-Serpent.]