Echidna (she-viper) In Greek mythology, half-woman, half-serpent monster, child of Chrysaor and Callirrhoë, the daughter of Oceanus (or Phorcys and Ceto). Echidna was the mother, by the monster Typhon, of Orthus, Geryon’s hound, Cerberus, the Hydra, and the Chimaera. By Orthus she was the mother of the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion. According to Herodotus’s Histories (book 3) the hero Heracles had three children by her, Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scytha. Echidna appears in Hesiod’s Theogony (295 ff.) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book 9).
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow-Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante
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