In Greek mythology , Delphyne ( Greek : Δελφύνη ) is the name given, by some accounts, to the monstrous serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi . Although, in Hellenistic and later accounts, the Delphic monster slain by Apollo is usually said to be the male serpent Python , in the earliest known account of this story, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (6th century BC), the god kills a nameless she-serpent ( drakaina ), subsequently called Delphyne. According to the Suda , Delphi was named after Delphyne.
114-449: The Homeric Hymn describes the serpentess as "the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked sheep; for she was a very bloody plague", and says that "whosoever met the dragoness, the day of doom would sweep him away". According to the Hymn, she was the foster mother of the serpentine monster Typhon , who
228-567: A BBC News television crew, after magma exploded upon contact with snow. An eruption on 24 December 2018, following a dyke intrusion at shallow depth, spewed ash into the air, forcing the closure of airspace around Mount Etna. Two days later, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake shook the town of Fleri and surrounding towns and hamlets in the Province of Catania, damaging buildings and injuring four people. Beginning in February 2021, Mount Etna began
342-420: A "babel of screaming sounds". Nonnus also gives Typhon "legions of arms innumerable", and where Nicander had only said that Typhon had "many" hands, and Ovid had given Typhon a hundred hands, Nonnus gives Typhon two hundred. According to Hesiod 's Theogony , Typhon "was joined in love" to Echidna , a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon "fierce offspring". First, according to Hesiod, there
456-472: A "hissing" Typhon, his eyes flashing, "withstood all the gods", but "the unsleeping bolt of Zeus" struck him, and "he was burnt to ashes and his strength blasted from him by the lightning bolt. And now, a helpless and a sprawling bulk, he lies hard by the narrows of the sea, pressed down beneath the roots of Aetna; while on the topmost summit Hephaestus sits and hammers the molten ore. There, one day, shall burst forth [370] rivers of fire,1with savage jaws devouring
570-457: A contest, offering Cadmus any goddess as wife, excepting Hera whom Typhon has reserved for himself. Cadmus then tells Typhon that, if he liked the "little tune" of his pipes, then he would love the music of his lyre – if only it could be strung with Zeus' sinews. So Typhon retrieves the sinews and gives them to Cadmus, who hides them in another cave, and again begins to play his bewitching pipes, so that "Typhoeus yielded his whole soul to Cadmos for
684-407: A fiery flood of smoke, while in the darkness of night the crimson flame hurls rocks down to the deep plain of the sea with a crashing roar. That monster shoots up the most terrible jets of fire; it is a marvellous wonder to see, and a marvel even to hear about when men are present. Such a creature is bound beneath the dark and leafy heights of Aetna and beneath the plain, and his bed scratches and goads
798-421: A huge tsunami , which left its mark in several places in the eastern Mediterranean . The steep walls of the valley have suffered subsequent collapses on numerous occasions. The strata exposed in the valley walls provide an important and easily accessible record of Etna's eruptive history. The most recent collapse event at the summit of Etna is thought to have occurred about 2,000 years ago, forming what
912-552: 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. The most elaborate description of Typhon is found in Nonnus 's Dionysiaca . Nonnus makes numerous references to Typhon's serpentine nature, giving him a "tangled army of snakes", snaky feet, and hair. According to Nonnus, Typhon was a "poison-spitting viper", whose "every hair belched viper-poison", and Typhon "spat out showers of poison from his throat;
1026-610: A new artificial channel, far from Zafferana, and it would have taken months to re-establish a long lava tube. Shortly after the blasting, the rate of lava emission dropped, and during the remainder of the eruption (until 30 March 1993) the lava never advanced close to the town again. Following six years (1995–2001) of unusually intense activity at the four summit craters of Etna, the volcano produced its first flank eruption since 1991–1993 in July–August 2001. This eruption, which involved activity from seven distinct eruptive fissures mostly on
1140-498: A series of explosive eruptions, which have had an impact on nearby villages and cities, with volcanic ash and rock falling as far away as Catania. As of 12 March 2021 , the volcano has erupted 11 times in three weeks. The eruptions have consistently sent ash clouds over 10 km (33,000 ft) into the air, closing Sicilian airports. There have been no reports of injuries. In February 2022 there were two eruptions. On 11 February 2022, at 6 pm, there were lava fountains from
1254-415: A slowly diminishing rate for 417 days, until 6 July 2009, making this the longest flank eruption of Etna since the 1991–1993 eruption that lasted 473 days. Previous eruptions, in 2001, 2002–2003, and 2004–2005 had lasted 3 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months, respectively. Lava flows advanced 6.5 km during the first few days of this eruption but thereafter stagnated at many minor distances from the vents; during
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#17327733037821368-475: A snake-headed tail) with Typhon then being the father. While mentioning Cerberus and "other monsters" as being the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, the mythographer Acusilaus (6th century BC) adds the Caucasian Eagle that ate the liver of Prometheus . The mythographer Pherecydes of Athens (5th century BC) also names Prometheus's eagle, and adds Ladon (though Pherecydes does not use this name),
1482-442: A tradition which had the gods, in order to escape from Typhon, transform themselves into animals, and flee to Egypt. Pindar calls Typhon the "enemy of the gods", and says that he was defeated by Zeus' thunderbolt. In one poem Pindar has Typhon being held prisoner by Zeus under Etna, and in another says that Typhon "lies in dread Tartarus", stretched out underground between Mount Etna and Cumae . In Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound ,
1596-480: A vent on the eastern side of the Southeast Crater in mid-August 2007. On 4 September 2007, a major episode of lava fountaining occurred from the new vent on the east side of the Southeast Crater, also producing a plume of ash and scoriae which fell over the east flank of the volcano. A lava flow travelled about 4.5 km (2.8 mi) into the uninhabited Valle del Bove. This eruption was visible far into
1710-535: A zone known as Ripe della Naca. The village of Mascali , lying down-slope of the Ripe della Naca, was almost completely destroyed in two days. Only a church and a few surrounding buildings survived in the north part of the village, called Sant'Antonino or "il quartiere". During the last days of the eruption, the flow interrupted the Messina-Catania railway line and destroyed the train station of Mascali. The event
1824-407: Is Morgan le Fay, the rich underworld queendom of which she is the mistress is accessed not through a fiery grotto on the slopes of Etna, but through a 'fountain' (i.e., a spring ) – a circumstance more in keeping with Morgan's original watery, rather than fiery, associations, before her incorporation into the folklore of Sicily. Another Sicilian conception of the fairy realm or castle of Morgan le Fay
1938-428: Is able to cut off some of Typhon's hands with "frozen volleys of air as by a knife", and hurling thunderbolts is able to burn more of Typhon's "endless hands", and cut off some of his "countless heads". Typhon is attacked by the four winds, and "frozen volleys of jagged hailstones." Gaia tries to aid her burnt and frozen son. Finally Typhon falls, and Zeus shouts out a long stream of mocking taunts, telling Typhon that he
2052-846: Is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily , Italy , in the Metropolitan City of Catania , between the cities of Messina and Catania . It is located above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate . It is one of the tallest active volcanoes in Europe , and the tallest peak in Italy south of the Alps with a current height (September 2024) of 3,403 m (11,165 ft), though this varies with summit eruptions. For instance, in 2021
2166-452: Is born, Hera, now reconciled with Zeus, informs him. According to Hesiod , Typhon was "terrible, outrageous and lawless", immensely powerful, and on his shoulders were one hundred snake heads, that emitted fire and every kind of noise: Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under
2280-451: Is buried under the island. Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC), like Pherecydes, presents a multi-stage battle, with Typhon being struck by Zeus' thunderbolt on mount Caucasus , before fleeing to the mountains and plain of Nysa, and ending up (as already mentioned by the fifth-century BC Greek historian Herodotus ) buried under Lake Serbonis in Egypt. Like Pindar, Nicander has all
2394-697: Is confusion between this eruption and an earthquake that devastated southeast Sicily (including Catania) 24 years later in 1693 . A study on the damage and fatalities caused by eruptions of Etna in historical times reveals that only 77 human deaths are attributable with certainty to eruptions of Etna, most recently in 1987 when two tourists were killed by a sudden explosion near the summit. Since 1750, seven of Etna's eruptions have had durations of more than 5 years, more than any other volcano except Vesuvius. As "Europe's most active volcano", eruptions occur frequently (with as many as 16 eruptions taking place in 2001). However, several eruptions of note have occurred over
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#17327733037822508-500: Is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire. The first certain references to Typhon buried under Etna, as well as being the cause of its eruptions, occur in Pindar: Son of Cronus, you who hold Aetna, the wind-swept weight on terrible hundred-headed Typhon, and: among them
2622-430: Is he who lies in dread Tartarus, that enemy of the gods, Typhon with his hundred heads. Once the famous Cilician cave nurtured him, but now the sea-girt cliffs above Cumae, and Sicily too, lie heavy on his shaggy chest. And the pillar of the sky holds him down, snow-covered Aetna, year-round nurse of bitter frost, from whose inmost caves belch forth the purest streams of unapproachable fire. In the daytime her rivers roll out
2736-531: Is imprisoned underneath Etna, while above him Hephaestus "hammers the molten ore", and in his rage, the "charred" Typhon causes "rivers of fire" to pour forth. Ovid has Typhon buried under all of Sicily, with his left and right hands under Pelorus and Pachynus , his feet under Lilybaeus , and his head under Etna; where he "vomits flames from his ferocious mouth". And Valerius Flaccus has Typhon's head under Etna, and all of Sicily shaken when Typhon "struggles". Lycophron has both Typhon and Giants buried under
2850-588: Is known as the Piano Caldera. This caldera has been almost entirely filled by subsequent lava eruptions but is still visible as a distinct break in the slope of the mountain near the base of the present-day summit cone. Mount Etna is moving towards the Mediterranean Sea at an average rate of 14 mm (0.55 in) per year, the massif sliding on an unconsolidated layer above the older sloping terrain. The first known record of eruption at Etna
2964-460: Is straightforward; however, a more involved version of the battle is given by Apollodorus. No early source gives any reason for the conflict, but Apollodorus's account seemingly implies that Typhon had been produced by Gaia to avenge the destruction, by Zeus and the other gods, of the Giants, a previous generation of offspring of Gaia. According to Apollodorus, Typhon, "hurling kindled rocks", attacked
3078-554: Is that of Diodorus Siculus . In 396 BCE, an eruption of Etna reportedly thwarted the Carthaginians in their attempt to advance on Syracuse during the Second Sicilian War . A particularly violent explosive ( Plinian ) summit eruption occurred in 122 BCE, and caused heavy tephra falls to the southeast, including the town of Catania , where many roofs collapsed. To help with reconstruction after
3192-541: Is that the name is derived from the Phoenician word attuna meaning 'furnace' or 'chimney'. In Classical Greek , it is called Αἴτνη ( Aítnē ), a name given also to Catania and the city originally known as Inessa . In Latin it is called Aetna . In Arabic , it is called Jabal al-Nār ( جبل النار , 'the Mountain of Fire'). According to both Roman and Greek mythology, Vulcan / Hephaestus ,
3306-892: Is the Fata Morgana , an optical phenomenon common in the Strait of Messina . Eruptions of Etna follow multiple patterns. Most occur at the summit, where there are five distinct craters: the Northeast Crater, the Voragine, the Bocca Nuova, and two at the Southeast Crater Complex. Other eruptions occur on the flanks, which have more than 300 vents ranging in size from small holes in the ground to large craters hundreds of metres across. Summit eruptions can be highly explosive and spectacular but rarely threaten
3420-531: Is to be buried under Sicily's hills, with a cenotaph over him which will read "This is the barrow of Typhoeus, son of Earth, who once lashed the sky with stones, and the fire of heaven burnt him up". Most accounts have the defeated Typhon buried under either Mount Etna in Sicily , or the volcanic island of Ischia , the largest of the Phlegraean Islands off the coast of Naples , with Typhon being
3534-743: The Canary Islands surpasses it in the whole of the European–North-African region west of the Black Sea. In Greek mythology , the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under this mountain by Zeus , the god of the sky and thunder and king of gods, and the forges of Hephaestus were said also to be underneath it. Mount Etna is one of the world's most active volcanoes and is in an almost constant state of activity. The fertile volcanic soils produced from this activity support extensive agriculture , with vineyards and orchards spread across
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3648-544: The Moirai tricked Typhon into eating "ephemeral fruits" which weakened him. Typhon then fled to Thrace , where he threw mountains at Zeus, which were turned back on him by Zeus' thunderbolts, and the mountain where Typhon stood, being drenched with Typhon's blood, became known as Mount Haemus (Bloody Mountain). Typhon then fled to Sicily , where Zeus threw Mount Etna on top of Typhon burying him, and so finally defeated him. Oppian (2nd century AD) says that Pan helped Zeus in
3762-595: The Orontes River , which flowed beneath the Syrian Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra ), while fleeing from Zeus, and some placed the battle at Catacecaumene ("Burnt Land"), a volcanic plain, on the upper Gediz River , between the ancient kingdoms of Lydia , Mysia and Phrygia , near Mount Tmolus (modern Bozdağ) and Sardis the ancient capital of Lydia. In the versions of the battle given by Hesiod, Aeschylus and Pindar, Zeus' defeat of Typhon
3876-463: The Theogony Zeus and Typhon meet in cataclysmic conflict: [Zeus] thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean's streams and the nether parts of the earth. Great Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat. And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea, through
3990-517: The 1970s Etna erupted vortex rings , one of the first recorded events of this type, which are extremely rare. This happened again in 2000. Video footage of 8 June 2000 event was captured. Another event occurred on 11 April 2013. Other similar events occurred during the summer of 2023 (see photo) and 2024. The borders of ten municipalities ( Adrano , Biancavilla , Belpasso , Bronte (from two sides), Castiglione di Sicilia , Maletto , Nicolosi , Randazzo , Sant'Alfio , Zafferana Etnea ) meet on
4104-487: The 1983 eruption; it has now been rebuilt. Following a slow and non-destructive lava outflow on the upper southeastern flank between September 2004 and March 2005, intense eruptions occurred at the Southeast Crater in July–December 2006. These were followed by four episodes of lava fountaining, again at the Southeast Crater, on 29 March, 11 April, 29 April and 7 May 2007. Ash emissions and Strombolian explosions started from
4218-505: The 20th century. Since 2000, Etna has had four flank eruptions – in 2001, 2002–2003, 2004–2005, and 2008–2009. Summit eruptions occurred in 2006, 2007–2008, January–April 2012, in July–October 2012, December 2018, and again in February 2021. Volcanic activity first took place at Etna about 500,000 years ago, with eruptions occurring beneath the sea off the ancient coastline of Sicily. About 300,000 years ago, volcanism began occurring to
4332-815: The Arima mountains in Cilicia, near the Calycadnus river, the Corycian cave and the Sarpedon promomtory. The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, mentioned above, says Typhon was born in Cilicia "under Arimon", and Nonnus mentions Typhon's "bloodstained cave of Arima" in Cilicia. Just across the Gulf of Issus from Corycus , in ancient Syria, was Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra ) and the Orontes River , sites associated with Typhon's battle with Zeus, and according to Strabo,
4446-796: The Caucasian Eagle, Ladon, and the Sphinx, also adds the Nemean lion (no mother is given), and the Crommyonian Sow , killed by the hero Theseus (unmentioned by Hesiod). Hyginus (1st century BC), in his list of offspring of Typhon (all by Echidna), retains from the above: Cerberus, the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Hydra and Ladon, and adds "Gorgon" (by which Hyginus means the mother of Medusa , whereas Hesiod's three Gorgons , of which Medusa
4560-650: The Delphian dragon. For example, according to the 7th-century chronicler John of Antioch , some said the Pythian Games were held in honor of the male serpent Delphynes, while others said the heroine ( hêrôis ) Delphyne. Typhon Typhon ( / ˈ t aɪ f ɒ n , - f ən / ; Ancient Greek : Τυφῶν , romanized : Typhôn , [tyːpʰɔ̂ːn] ), also Typhoeus ( / t aɪ ˈ f iː ə s / ; Τυφωεύς , Typhōeús ), Typhaon ( Τυφάων , Typháōn ) or Typhos ( Τυφώς , Typhṓs ),
4674-535: The Etna Observatory (built in the late 19th century), destroyed the first generation of the Etna cable-car, and seriously threatened several small villages on Etna's east flank. In March 1981, the town of Randazzo on the northwestern flank of Etna narrowly escaped destruction by unusually fast-moving lava flows. That eruption was remarkably similar to one in 1928 that destroyed Mascali. The 1991–1993 eruption saw
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4788-663: The Latin phrase in monte Gyber ('within Etna') to describe the location of Arthur's kingdom. The Fada de Gibel of the Castle of Gibaldar (Fairy of Etna) appears in Jaufre , the only surviving Arthurian romance in the Occitan language , the composition of which is dated to between 1180 and 1230. However, in Jaufre , while it is clear from her name that the fairy queen in question
4902-425: The Southeast Crater which became a single Strombolian eruption by 7 pm. Between 10 and 11 pm it had reached a height of almost 1,000 m and lava bombs were thrown at a considerable distance. Ash was blown west by the wind and then turned southeast. There was large lava flow in the western flank. On 19 February at 10.15 am there was an explosive eruption, again from the Southeast Crater, high lava fountains and lava flows,
5016-605: The Titans, to give her a son stronger than Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise, and Typhon grew up to become a great bane to mortals. Several sources locate Typhon's birth and dwelling place in Cilicia , and in particular the region in the vicinity of the ancient Cilician coastal city of Corycus (modern Kızkalesi , Turkey). The poet Pindar ( c. 470 BC ) calls Typhon "Cilician", and says that Typhon
5130-633: The aid of golden Aphrodite ". The mythographer Apollodorus (1st or 2nd century AD) adds that Gaia bore Typhon in anger at the gods for their destruction of her offspring the Giants . Numerous other sources mention Typhon as being the offspring of Gaia, or simply "earth-born", with no mention of Tartarus. However, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (6th century BC), Typhon was the child of Hera alone. Hera, angry at Zeus for having given birth to Athena by himself, prayed to Gaia, Uranus , and
5244-434: The battle by tricking Typhon to come out from his lair, and into the open, by the "promise of a banquet of fish", thus enabling Zeus to defeat Typhon with his thunderbolts. The longest and most involved version of the battle appears in Nonnus 's Dionysiaca (late 4th or early 5th century AD). Zeus hides his thunderbolts in a cave, so that he might seduce the maiden Pluto , and so produce Tantalus . But smoke rising from
5358-501: The brows of his eyes in his marvelous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at another, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at another, he would hiss, so that
5472-656: The cause of its volcanic activity. Most notably the Giant Enceladus was said to be entombed under Etna, the volcano's eruptions being the breath of Enceladus, and its tremors caused by the Giant rolling over from side to side beneath the mountain. Also said to be buried under Etna were the Hundred-hander Briareus , and Asteropus who was perhaps one of the Cyclopes . Typhon's final resting place
5586-513: The cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Though Hesiod has Typhon simply cast into Tartarus by Zeus, some have read a reference to Mount Etna in Hesiod's description of Typhon's fall: And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which
5700-553: The cosmos. The two fought a cataclysmic battle, which Zeus finally won with the aid of his thunderbolts. Defeated, Typhon was cast into Tartarus, or buried underneath Mount Etna , or in later accounts, the island of Ischia . Typhon mythology is part of the Greek succession myth, which explained how Zeus came to rule the gods. Typhon's story is also connected with that of Python (the serpent killed by Apollo ), and both stories probably derived from several Near Eastern antecedents. Typhon
5814-583: The crater area at 2,920 m is accessible. Ferrovia Circumetnea – Round-Etna railway – is a narrow-gauge railway constructed between 1889 and 1895. It runs around the volcano in a 110-km long semi-circle starting in Catania and ending in Riposto 28 km north of Catania. There are two ski resorts on Etna: one at the Sapienza Refuge, with a chairlift and three ski lifts, and a smaller one on
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#17327733037825928-573: The defeated Typhon is the father of destructive storm winds. Typhon challenged Zeus for rule of the cosmos. The earliest mention of Typhon, and his only occurrence in Homer , is a passing reference in the Iliad to Zeus striking the ground around where Typhon lies defeated. Hesiod 's Theogony gives the first account of their battle. According to Hesiod, without the quick action of Zeus, Typhon would have "come to reign over mortals and immortals". In
6042-521: The devastating effects of the eruption, the Roman government exempted the population of Catania from paying taxes for ten years. The Roman poet Virgil gave what was probably a first-hand description of an eruption in the Aeneid . During the first 1500 years CE, many eruptions went unrecorded (or records have been lost); among the more significant are: (1) an eruption in about 1030 CE near Monte Ilice on
6156-407: The divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire. Defeated, Typhon is cast into Tartarus by an angry Zeus. Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) seemingly knew a different version of the story, in which Typhon enters Zeus' palace while Zeus is asleep, but Zeus awakes and kills Typhon with a thunderbolt. Pindar apparently knew of
6270-565: The dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides (according to Hesiod, the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys). The lyric poet Lasus of Hermione (6th century BC) adds the Sphinx . Later authors mostly retain these offspring of Typhon by Echidna, while adding others. Apollodorus , in addition to naming as their offspring Orthrus, the Chimera (citing Hesiod as his source)
6384-400: The eruption continued, and lava surmounted the barriers, heading directly toward Zafferana. Engineers then decided to use explosives near the source of the lava flow, to disrupt a very efficient lava tube system through which the lava travelled for up to 7 km (4 mi) without losing significant heat or fluidity. The main explosion on 23 May 1992 destroyed the tube and forced the lava into
6498-528: The fire'), one of the Latin names of the god Vulcan. Today, the name Mongibello is used for the area of Mount Etna containing the two central craters , and the craters located southeast and northeast of the volcanic cone . The name Mongibel is found in Arthurian Romance , as the name of the otherworld castle (or realm) of Morgan le Fay and her half-brother, King Arthur , localised at Etna, according to traditions concerning them derived from
6612-405: The following days, with an ash plume that reached 7 km (23,000 ft) in height that forced Catania airport to shut down for a few hours. Volcanic gas emissions from this volcano are measured by a multi-component gas analyzer system , which detects pre-eruptive degassing of rising magmas, improving prediction of volcanic activity . An eruption on 16 March 2017 injured 10 people, including
6726-695: The god of blacksmithing, had his forge under mount Etna. The volcano is also known as Muncibbeḍḍu in Sicilian and Mongibello in Italian, generally regarded as deriving from the Romance word monte / munti plus the Arabic word jabal ( جبل ), both meaning 'mountain'. According to another hypothesis, the term comes from the Latin Mulciber ( qui ignem mulcet , 'he who placates
6840-558: The gods, "with hissings and shouts, spouting a great jet of fire from his mouth." Seeing this, the gods transformed into animals and fled to Egypt (as in Pindar and Nicander). However "Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickle". Wounded, Typhon fled to the Syrian Mount Kasios, where Zeus "grappled" with him. But Typhon, twining his snaky coils around Zeus,
6954-407: The gods, but Zeus and Athena , transform into animal forms and flee to Egypt: Apollo became a hawk, Hermes an ibis, Ares a fish, Artemis a cat, Dionysus a goat, Heracles a fawn, Hephaestus an ox, and Leto a mouse. The geographer Strabo (c. 20 AD) gives several locations which were associated with the battle. According to Strabo, Typhon was said to have cut the serpentine channel of
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#17327733037827068-458: The high mountains re-echoed. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes Typhon as "fell" and "cruel", and like neither gods nor men. Three of Pindar 's poems have Typhon as hundred-headed (as in Hesiod), while apparently a fourth gives him only fifty heads, but a hundred heads for Typhon became standard. A Chalcidian hydria ( c. 540 –530 BC), depicts Typhon as a winged humanoid from
7182-535: The historian Posidonius (c. 2nd century BC) identified the Arimoi with the Aramaeans of Syria. Mount Etna This is an accepted version of this page Mount Etna , or simply Etna ( Italian : Etna [ˈɛtna] or Mongibello [mondʒiˈbɛllo] ; Sicilian : Muncibbeḍḍu [mʊntʃɪbˈbɛɖɖʊ] or 'a Muntagna ; Latin : Aetna ; Ancient Greek : Αἴτνα and Αἴτνη ),
7296-404: The inhabited areas around the volcano. In contrast, flank eruptions can occur down to a few hundred metres altitude , close to or even well within inhabited areas. Numerous villages and small towns lie around or on cones of past flank eruptions. Since the year AD 1600, at least 60 flank eruptions and countless summit eruptions have occurred; nearly half of these have happened since the start of
7410-446: The island of Ischia. Virgil , Silius Italicus and Claudian , all calling the island "Inarime", have Typhon buried there. Strabo, calling Ischia "Pithecussae", reports the "myth" that Typhon lay buried there, and that when he "turns his body the flames and the waters, and sometimes even small islands containing boiling water, spout forth." In addition to Typhon, other mythological beings were also said to be buried under Mount Etna and
7524-496: The land of the Arimoi ( εἰν Ἀρίμοις ), where Zeus lashes the land about Typhoeus with his thunderbolts. Presumably this is the same land where, according to Hesiod, Typhon's mate Echidna keeps guard "in Arima" ( εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν ). But neither Homer nor Hesiod say anything more about where these Arimoi or this Arima might be. The question of whether an historical place was meant, and its possible location, has been, since ancient times,
7638-604: The last century. A major eruption took place in June 1923, lasting from 6 June until 29 June. A large lava flow from an eruption in 1928 led to the destruction of a population centre for the first time since the 1669 eruption. The eruption started high on Etna's northeast flank on 2 November. Then new eruptive fissures opened at decreasing elevations down the flank of the volcano. The third and most vigorous of these fissures opened late on 4 November at an unusually low elevation, approximately 1,200 m (3,937 ft) above sea-level, in
7752-399: The last months of the eruption lava rarely advanced more than 1 km downslope. Through January 2011 to February 2012, the summit craters of Etna were the site of intense activity. Frequent eruptions and ash columns forced the authorities to shut down the Catania airport on several occasions. The July 2011 episode also endangered the Sapienza Refuge, the main tourist hub on the volcano, but
7866-463: The lava flow was successfully diverted. In 2014, a flank eruption started involving lava flows and strombolian eruptions. This was the first flank eruption since 2008–09. On 3 December 2015, an eruption occurred which climaxed between 03:20 and 04:10 local time. The Voragine crater exhibited a lava fountain which reached 1 km (3,300 ft) in height, with an ash plume which reached 3 km (9,800 ft) in height. The activity continued on
7980-478: The level fields of Sicily, land of fair fruit—such boiling rage shall Typho, although charred by the blazing lightning of Zeus, send spouting forth with hot jets of appalling, fire-breathing surge." According to Pherecydes of Athens , during his battle with Zeus, Typhon first flees to the Caucasus , which begins to burn, then to the volcanic island of Pithecussae (modern Ischia ), off the coast of Cumae, where he
8094-556: The longest of which went down the north-eastern flank towards the Bove Valley. On 29 May 2022 a sudden collapse of the Southeast Crater created a fracture on its northern flank at an elevation of circa 2,800 m (9,186 ft). A small lava flow emerged and headed in the direction of the Leone Valley, just above the much larger Bove Valley. It continued for three days and was accompanied by small and sporadic eruptions from two of
8208-497: The lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south. Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, Mount Etna has been designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations . In June 2013, it was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites . One view is that the word Etna is from the Greek αἴθω ( aíthō ), meaning "I burn", through an iotacist pronunciation . Another view
8322-425: The lower southeast flank, which produced a lava flow that travelled about 10 km, reaching the sea north of Acireale; the villages of Santa Tecla and Stazzo are built on the broad delta built by this lava flow into the sea; (2) an eruption in about 1160 (or 1224), from a fissure at only 350–450 m (1,148–1,476 ft) elevation on the south-southeast flank near the village of Mascalucia, whose lava flow reached
8436-554: The many vents at the top of this crater. Etna erupted once again on 4 July 2024 causing the Catania Airport to close due to volcanic ash in the air. The airport reopened the next day. On August 14, 2024, Mt. Etna erupted violently sending an ash cloud 9.5km into the atmosphere. Catania Airport was forced to close the following day. The Global Volcanism Program has assigned a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) to all of Mount Etna's eruptions since January 1955: In
8550-465: The melody to charm". With Typhon distracted, Zeus takes back his thunderbolts. Cadmus stops playing, and Typhon, released from his spell, rushes back to his cave to discover the thunderbolts gone. Incensed Typhon unleashes devastation upon the world: animals are devoured, (Typhon's many animal heads each eat animals of its own kind), rivers turned to dust, seas made dry land, and the land "laid waste". The day ends with Typhon yet unchallenged, and while
8664-454: The monster Delphyne", "beneath the rocky ridge of Parnassus", and that the victory was cheered by the "Corycian nymphs", who were associated with the Corycian cave on the slopes of Parnassus above Delphi. Plutarch (c. 46 AD – 120 AD), refers to the monster who "fought with Apollo for the oracle at Delphi" as female, and says that although it was recorded that at one time the oracle at Delphi
8778-424: The monstrous Echidna . Like Apollodorus' Delphyne, Echidna was half-maid and half-snake, and both were a "plague" ( πῆμα ) to men. Both were also intimately connected to Typhon, and associated with the Corycian cave. The name Delphyne means "womb" ( δελφύς ), and probably arose by back-formation from Delphi. Other related forms of the name: Delphyna (female) and Delphynes (male), were, apparently, also used for
8892-533: The mountain torrents were swollen, as the monster showered fountains from the viperish bristles of his high head", and "the water-snakes of the monster's viperish feet crawl into the caverns underground, spitting poison!". Following Hesiod and others, Nonnus gives Typhon many heads (though untotaled), but in addition to snake heads, Nonnus also gives Typhon many other animal heads, including leopards, lions, bulls, boars, bears, cattle, wolves, and dogs, which combine to make 'the cries of all wild beasts together', and
9006-465: The north. Thousands of years ago, the eastern flank of the mountain experienced a catastrophic collapse, generating an enormous landslide in an event similar to that seen in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens . The landslide left a large depression in the side of the volcano, known as 'Valle del Bove' (Valley of the Ox). Research published in 2006 suggested this occurred around 8,000 years ago, and caused
9120-408: The offspring of Cronus . Gaia, angry at the destruction of the Giants, slanders Zeus to Hera. So Hera goes to Cronus, her and Zeus' father (whom Zeus had overthrown), and Cronus gives Hera two eggs smeared with his own semen, telling her to bury them underground, and that from them would be born one who would overthrow Zeus. Hera, angry at Zeus, buries the eggs in Cilicia "under Arimon", but when Typhon
9234-401: 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
9348-610: The other gods "moved about the cloudless Nile", Zeus waits through the night for the coming dawn. Victory "reproaches" Zeus, urging him to "stand up as champion of your own children!" Dawn comes and Typhon roars out a challenge to Zeus. And a cataclysmic battle for "the sceptre and throne of Zeus" is joined. Typhon piles up mountains as battlements and with his "legions of arms innumerable", showers volley after volley of trees and rocks at Zeus, but all are destroyed, or blown aside, or dodged, or thrown back at Typhon. Typhon throws torrents of water at Zeus' thunderbolts to quench them, but Zeus
9462-420: The plains of Sicily, ending the following morning between the hours of 5 to 7 a.m. local time. Catania-Fontanarossa Airport shut down operations during the night for safety precautions. An eruption on the morning of 13 May 2008, immediately to the east of Etna's summit craters was accompanied by a swarm of more than 200 earthquakes and significant ground deformation in the summit area. The eruption continued at
9576-466: The sea just to the north of Catania, in the area now occupied by the portion of the city named Ognina. Rabban Bar Sauma , a Chinese traveller to the West, recorded the eruption of Etna on 18 June 1287. The 1669 eruption , Etna's most destructive since 122 BCE, started on 11 March 1669 and produced lava flows that destroyed at least 10 villages on its southern flank before reaching the city walls of
9690-471: The severed tendons in the Corycian cave in Cilicia (a different cave than the one above Delphi), and set the dragoness Delphyne, to guard over them. The (2nd-century AD?) geographical poet Dionysius Periegetes mentions a coil of the serpent Delphyne leaning against Apollo's sacrificial tripod . Nonnus in his Dionysiaca says that Apollo first killed Delphyne and then he went to live at Olympus . Delphyne shares several similarities with Typhon's mate,
9804-553: The south slope of the volcano, was well covered by the mass-media because it occurred at the height of the tourist season and numerous reporters and journalists were already in Italy to cover the G8 summit in Genoa . It also occurred close to one of the tourist areas on the volcano, and thus was easily accessible. Part of the "Etna Sud" tourist area, including the arrival station of the Etna cable car, were damaged by this eruption, which otherwise
9918-442: The southeastern crater reached a height of 3,357 m, but was then surpassed by the Voragine crater after the summer 2024 eruptions. Etna covers an area of 1,190 km (459 sq mi) with a basal circumference of 140 km (87 miles). This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy , being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius . Only Mount Teide on Tenerife in
10032-688: The southwest of the summit (centre top of the volcano), then activity moved towards the present centre 170,000 years ago. Eruptions at this time built up the first major volcanic edifice, forming a stratovolcano in alternating explosive and effusive eruptions. The growth of the mountain was occasionally interrupted by major eruptions, leading to the collapse of the summit to form calderas . From about 35,000 to 15,000 years ago, Etna experienced some highly explosive eruptions, generating large pyroclastic flows , which left extensive ignimbrite deposits. Ash from these eruptions has been found as far away as south of Rome 's border, 800 km (497 mi) to
10146-662: The stories told by the Breton conteurs who accompanied the Norman occupiers of Sicily. What were originally Welsh conceptions concerning a dwarf king of a paradisal , Celtic underworld became attached to the quasi-historic figure of Arthur as "Ruler of the Antipodes " and were then transplanted into a Sicilian milieu, by Bretons impressed by the already otherworldly associations of the great, volcanic mountain of their new home. Mediaevalist Roger Sherman Loomis quotes passages from
10260-407: The subject of speculation and debate. Strabo discusses the question in some detail. Several locales, Cilicia , Syria , Lydia , and the island of Ischia , all places associated with Typhon, are given by Strabo as possible locations for Homer's "Arimoi". Pindar has his Cilician Typhon slain by Zeus "among the Arimoi", and the historian Callisthenes (4th century BC), located the Arimoi and
10374-452: The summit of Mount Etna, making this a multipoint of elevenfold complexity. Etna is one of Sicily's main tourist attractions, with thousands of visitors every year. The most common route is through the road leading to Sapienza Refuge ski area, lying at the south of the crater at elevation of 1,910 m. From the Refuge, a cableway runs uphill to an elevation of 2,500 m, from where
10488-400: The thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking. Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because of
10602-434: The thunderbolts, enables Typhon, under the guidance of Gaia, to locate Zeus's weapons, steal them, and hide them in another cave. Immediately Typhon extends "his clambering hands into the upper air" and begins a long and concerted attack upon the heavens. Then "leaving the air" he turns his attack upon the seas. Finally Typhon attempts to wield Zeus' thunderbolts, but they "felt the hands of a novice, and all their manly blaze
10716-572: The tourist station Piano Provenzana, on the northeastern flank of the volcano, and part of the tourist station "Etna Sud" around the Rifugio Sapienza on the south flank. Footage from the eruptions was recorded by Lucasfilm and integrated into the landscape of the planet Mustafar in the 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith . The Rifugio Sapienza is near the site of a cable car station which had previously been destroyed in
10830-463: The town of Catania five weeks later, on 15 April. The lava was largely diverted by these walls into the sea to the south of the city, filling the harbour of Catania. A small portion of lava eventually broke through a fragile section of the city walls on the western side of Catania and destroyed a few buildings before stopping in the rear of the Benedictine monastery, without reaching the centre of
10944-431: The town of Zafferana threatened by a lava flow, but successful diversion efforts saved the town with the loss of only one building a few hundred metres from the town's margin. Initially, such efforts consisted of the construction of earth barriers built perpendicularly to the flow direction; it was hoped that the eruption would stop before the artificial basins created behind the barriers would be completely filled. Instead,
11058-451: The town. Contrary to widespread reports of up to 15,000 (or even 20,000) human fatalities caused by the lava, contemporaneous accounts written both in Italian and English mention no deaths related to the 1669 eruption (but give very precise figures of the number of buildings destroyed, the area of cultivated land lost, and the economic damage). Therefore, it is uncertain where the enormous number of fatalities can be attributed. One possibility
11172-419: The unending clamor and the fearful strife. Zeus with his thunderbolt easily overcomes Typhon, who is thrown down to earth in a fiery crash: So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and lurid thunderbolt, he leaped from Olympus and struck him, and burned all the marvellous heads of the monster about him. But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus
11286-500: The waist up, with two snake tails for legs below . Aeschylus calls Typhon "fire-breathing". For Nicander (2nd century BC), Typhon was a monster of enormous strength, and strange appearance, with many heads, hands, and wings, and with huge snake coils coming from his thighs. Apollodorus describes Typhon as a huge winged monster, whose head "brushed the stars", human in form above the waist, with snake coils below, and fire flashing from his eyes: In size and strength he surpassed all
11400-456: The whole length of his back stretched out against it. Thus Pindar has Typhon in Tartarus, and buried under not just Etna, but under a vast volcanic region stretching from Sicily to Cumae (in the vicinity of modern Naples ), a region which presumably also included Mount Vesuvius , as well as Ischia. Many subsequent accounts mention either Etna or Ischia. In Prometheus Bound , Typhon
11514-454: The works of Gervase of Tilbury and Caesarius of Heisterbach (dating from the late twelfth century) featuring accounts of Arthur's returning of a lost horse which had strayed into his subterranean kingdom beneath Etna. Caesarius quotes as his authority for the story a certain canon Godescalcus of Bonn, who considered it a matter of historical fact of the time of Emperor Henry 's conquest of Sicily circa 1194. Caesarius employs in his account
11628-599: Was Orthrus , the two-headed dog who guarded the Cattle of Geryon , second Cerberus , the multiheaded dog who guarded the gates of Hades , and third the Lernaean Hydra , the many-headed serpent who, when one of its heads was cut off, grew two more. The Theogony next mentions an ambiguous "she", which might refer to Echidna, as the mother of the Chimera (a fire-breathing beast that was part lion, part goat, and had
11742-517: Was (from c. 500 BC ) also identified with the Egyptian god of destruction Set . In later accounts, Typhon was often confused with the Giants . According to Hesiod 's Theogony ( c. 8th – 7th century BC), Typhon was the son of Gaia (Earth) and Tartarus : "when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bore her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by
11856-457: Was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology . According to Hesiod , Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus . However, one source has Typhon as the son of Hera alone, while another makes Typhon the offspring of Cronus . Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters. Typhon attempted to overthrow Zeus for the supremacy of
11970-539: Was a rather modest-sized event by Etna standards. In 2002–2003, a much larger eruption threw up a huge column of ash that could easily be seen from space and fell as far away as Libya , 600 km (370 mi) south across the Mediterranean Sea . Seismic activity in this eruption caused the eastern flanks of the volcano to slip by up to two metres, and many houses on the flanks of the volcano experienced structural damage. The eruption also completely destroyed
12084-454: Was able to wrest away the sickle and cut the sinews from Zeus' hands and feet. Typhon carried the disabled Zeus across the sea to the Corycian cave in Cilicia where he set the she-serpent Delphyne to guard over Zeus and his severed sinews, which Typhon had hidden in a bearskin. But Hermes and Aegipan (possibly another name for Pan ) stole the sinews and gave them back to Zeus. His strength restored, Zeus chased Typhon to mount Nysa, where
12198-542: Was apparently also said to be in Boeotia . The Hesiodic Shield of Heracles names a mountain near Thebes Typhaonium, perhaps reflecting an early tradition which also had Typhon buried under a Boeotian mountain. And some apparently claimed that Typhon was buried beneath a mountain in Boeotia, from which came exhalations of fire. Homer describes a place he calls the "couch [or bed] of Typhoeus", which he locates in
12312-529: Was born in Cilicia and nurtured in "the famous Cilician cave", an apparent allusion to the Corycian cave in Turkey. In Aeschylus ' Prometheus Bound , Typhon is called the "dweller of the Cilician caves", and both Apollodorus and the poet Nonnus (4th or 5th century AD) have Typhon born in Cilicia. The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, preserving a possibly Orphic tradition, has Typhon born in Cilicia, as
12426-458: Was given to the dragoness, "an evil to an evil" ( κακῷ κακόν ), by his mother Hera . Typhon was to eventually battle Zeus for supremacy of the cosmos. The Hymn goes on to describe how, while building his oracular temple at Delphi, Apollo encountered the she-serpent near a "sweet flowing spring". Apollo shot the dragoness with an arrow from his bow, and the monster: Apollonius of Rhodes (early 3rd century BC), says that Apollo "slew with his bow
12540-414: Was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount, when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in
12654-508: Was made "desolate and unapproachable" by a dragoness, in fact, "it was the desolation that attracted the creature rather than that the creature caused the desolation". Delphyne also appears in Apollodorus ' account (1st or 2nd century AD) of Typhon's battle with Zeus, where she is called both a "she-dragon" ( drakaina ) and a "half-bestial maiden". According to Apollodorus, Typhon managed to cut away Zeus' sinews from his body. Typhon then hid
12768-723: Was one, were the daughters of Ceto and Phorcys), the Colchian dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece and Scylla . The Harpies , in Hesiod the daughters of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra , in one source, are said to be the daughters of Typhon. The sea serpents which attacked the Trojan priest Laocoön , during the Trojan War , were perhaps supposed to be the progeny of Typhon and Echidna. According to Hesiod,
12882-436: Was unmanned." Now Zeus' sinews had somehow – Nonnus does not say how or when — fallen to the ground during their battle, and Typhon had taken them also. But Zeus devises a plan with Cadmus and Pan to beguile Typhon. Cadmus, disguised as a shepherd, enchants Typhon by playing the panpipes, and Typhon entrusting the thunderbolts to Gaia, sets out to find the source of the music he hears. Finding Cadmus, he challenges him to
12996-431: Was used by Benito Mussolini 's fascist regime for propaganda purposes, with the evacuation, aid, and rebuilding operations being presented as models of fascist planning. Mascali was rebuilt on a new site, and its church contains the Italian fascist symbol of the torch, placed above the statue of Jesus Christ . Other major 20th-century eruptions occurred in 1949, 1971, 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1991–1993. In 1971, lava buried
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