TYPHON

also spelled Typhaon, or Typhoeus, in Greek mythology, youngest son of Gaea (Earth) and Tartarus (of the nether world). He was described as a grisly monster with a hundred dragons' heads who was conquered and cast into the underworld by Zeus. In other accounts, he was confined in the land of the Arimi in Cilicia or under Mount Etna or in other volcanic regions, where he was the cause of eruptions. Typhon was thus the personification of volcanic forces. Among his children by his wife, Echidna, were Cerberus, the three-headed hound of hell, the multiheaded Lernean Hydra, and the Chimera (q.v.). He was also the father of dangerous winds (typhoons), and by later writers he was identified with the Egyptian god Seth.