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Typhon (also known as Typhoeus) is the last and most powerful child of the earth goddess Gaea, and is also known as the "Storm Giant" or "Father of all Monsters". His wife is Echidna and his father is the Protogenoi Tartarus. Feared even by the gods, he is especially hated by Aeolus, because when he is defeated, thousands of Venti are released, thus making Aeolus' job vastly more difficult. He is the most powerful foe the Olympians have ever faced.

History

Thousands of years ago, after the First Olympian War, Gaea was enraged at the defeat of the Titans (her children), and of how they were locked away in Tartarus. She was also angry that her second brood of children, the Gigantes were also defeated by the gods. She attempted revenge by sending her last and most powerful child, the great monster Typhon, to destroy the Olympians. Typhon alone is the greatest foe the gods ever faced, even mightier than the Titans and Giants themselves.

Having never anticipated such a powerful rival, the gods were quickly forced on the defensive and they eventually went into hiding, except for Zeus. Then, Typhon would have usurped control over all gods and men had Zeus not dared to resist. The thunderbolts falling from the sky were so many in number that they broke through the land and plunged through the sea, reaching even the depths of the Underworld. So mighty was the contention that even Olympus trembled at their strife and the earth groaned under the grappling powers. The sky was stricken with rolls of deafening thunder and cleft by lightning, while the very winds were set aflame, carrying the ruinous fire through every end of the globe. So far echoed the tumult that even Hades, governing the dead, shook with trepidation upon his infernal throne, while deep in Tartarus, the Titans were gripped by horror. At last, however, Zeus gathered again his might and smote Typhon with his greatest power, until all its heads were aflame with diverse fires. Several more times he struck the beast until finally it collapsed to the ground.

Zeus subsequently hurled Mount Etna on top of his foe, successfully trapping him. Ever since, Typhon's raw power itself and his struggles caused lava to ignite from the mountain's top in the form of a volcano. After the defeat of her last and most powerful child, Gaea admitted defeat and fell back to sleep, allowing the gods to rule Olympus without interference ever since.

Western Civilization

When the Olympian gods moved and followed the center of power of Western Civilization, Typhon was trapped in Mount Saint Helens. Like in Mount Etna, his raw power ignites lava from the mountain top. Though he was successfully imprisoned for thousands of years, his prison could not hold him forever.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

The Titan's Curse

When hypothesizing about the identity of the "Bane of Olympus," Chiron suggests it might be Typhon, due to the latter being the most feared monster at Olympus, though Chiron considered it unlikely. It is later revealed to be the Ophiotaurus instead.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Typhon is mentioned by Hephaestus, who understandably advises Percy and Annabeth to stay away from the Storm Giant. Later, during his efforts to kill a gang of telekhines in The Battle of the Labyrinth, Percy was forced to call on almost all of his power to escape from Mount Saint Helens. It was this that weakened the seal on Typhon's prison and made the Father of All Monsters stir in his sleep therefore causing him to be able to break free from his prison.

The Last Olympian

Olympians vs Typhon battle

The Olympian gods, minus Poseidon, fight Typhon.

Typhon escapes in a catastrophic explosion of Mount Saint Helens. Following his escape, Typhon heads to New York City. Using the Mist, Typhon is able to conceal his true form from the mortals and appears as a freak storm. The gods, or at the very least Artemis, Apollo, Athena, Hermes, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Zeus, are unable defeat him as Poseidon was occupied defending his undersea kingdom from Oceanus and Hades, Demeter, and Persephone refused to fight.

Not even Zeus' Master Bolt, the most powerful weapon ever created, is able to stop him, as shown when Percy, through a projection on Olympus, sees that Typhon merely stumbled backwards before continuing his way towards Olympus. Typhon also manages to incapacitate Dionysus and Hephaestus along the way, smashing Dionysus deep into a mountain, and smashing Hephaestus out of the sky with enough force to create a new lake in West Virginia. While the Olympians are busy fending off Typhon, the Titans make their way to Olympus, which is defended by demigods.

Percy prays to his father Poseidon and asks him to leave his kingdom and come to help the Olympians defeat Typhon. His father agrees and reluctantly leaves his kingdom to assist the gods. When Typhon steps into the Hudson River, the call of the ocean is heard and Poseidon rides into battle along with Tyson and his brethren, the Cyclopes, as well as Briares. They chain the monster down, and Poseidon opens a tunnel to Tartarus, casting Typhon down which Percy sees on a hologram Kronos lets him see to try and lower the demigods spirits. Once Typhon is defeated, a wave of storm spirits (venti) is born, much to Aeolus' dismay.

The Heroes of Olympus

The Lost Hero

Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez go to Boreas to get help for their quest to save Hera. As the god explains the release of the storm spirits, he shows them a video image of the gods defeating Typhon with Poseidon's help.

Appearance

Typhon's true appearance is unknown, since in The Last Olympian, he is always seen to be surrounded by thunder clouds. Through the Mist, Typhon appears to mortals as a massive freak storm and tornadoes that tear apart everything in their path. To demigods (who are immune or highly resistant to the Mist) he appears as a colossal shadowy figure composed of dark clouds. According to Percy, Typhon was "gigantic enough to use the Chrysler Building as a baseball bat, had blisters the size of buildings, clawed hands the size of city blocks, and feet the size of Yankee Stadium."

According to Hesiod, Typhon supposedly had a hundred tongues hissing from a hundred serpent heads, and each dreadful head was inset with fiery orbs for eyes. From each mouth, a terrible clamor arose, tormenting the ears of every listener, sounding even greater than all the gods turned to simultaneous wrath, or the beasts of ivory and horn that prowl the gloomy wood, shaking the foundations of the loftiest mountains and issuing tremors through the earth.

In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Typhon is described as "more or less humanoid" from the waist up, but his legs were like the bodies of boa constrictors. On each hand, he had a hundred fingers tipped with red-eyed serpent heads. He had massive leathery wings and long matted hair that smelled like volcanic smoke. Typhon is so fearsome that even the Olympian gods themselves all fled from him in terror after first seeing him, except for Zeus (who was paralyzed with fear, but was determined to set a good example for the other gods by engaging the fearsome foe). He is also said to be as tall as the sky, which, if correct, does indeed make him the largest creature in the whole series, surpassing even Apophis in physical size.

If a demigod or mortal looks at him too long, they risk going insane from trying to comprehend what they are looking at. Based on comments, he has some sort of structure to serve as legs, and claw-like hands. Percy also says that he could not identify the monster's face because it changes every second to an even more horrifying monster than the previous one.

Abilities

Typhon, as Gaea's single most powerful child, has power of apocalyptic proportions, being even stronger and more powerful than any of the Olympians, the Titans, and the giants, making him one of the most powerful beings in all of Greek Mythology. His mere presence was more than enough to intimidate the Olympians themselves making them flee all the way to Egypt (except for Zeus). The second time Typhon awoke in The Last Olympian, although the gods didn't fear him as much anymore, still they weren't even able to significantly slow him down as even Zeus' lightning barely caused Typhon to stumble. Even after his first defeat, the legacy of Typhon's power remained on earth in the form of numerous monsters, like the Nemean Lion, the Chimera, Orthus, etc. These tasks were left for demigods to complete.

  • Massive Strength: Typhon is incalculably strong, stronger than any individual Olympian, exceeding even those of the Big Three, since even Zeus was unable to break free of Typhon's mighty grasp on him in their first battle in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods. Hence, Typhon is the only known being to have ever defeated Zeus himself, by tearing out the god's divine tendons, which is a terrific feat in and of itself. He effortlessly drove Selene away, causing the craters on the Moon. He razed many cities, sank entire islands, and tore apart whole mountains. In The Last Olympian, Typhon knocked Hephaestus so hard out of the sky, that a new lake was created where Hephaestus fell. He sent Dionysus flying, burying the god hundreds of feet deep into a mine, crushed under many tons of rubble. Typhon was only defeated in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods when Zeus took him by surprise. Typhon was barely awake before Zeus bombarded him with tremendous lightning bolts from his Master Bolt (blinding the monster and slicing off his serpentine fingers) and crushed him under Mount Etna before the monster had a chance to fight back.
  • Durability: Typhon is incredibly durable, almost invulnerable to all of the Olympians' attacks, easily absorbing those of Apollo, Artemis, and Ares and most of the other gods. Only weapons of tremendous power, such as Zeus' Master Bolt and Poseidon's Trident, could harm the Storm Giant, though even then he recovers.
  • Natural Disasters: Typhon could summon/create/manipulate all forms of natural disasters, including avalanches, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hydrological disasters, meteorological disasters, wildfires, health disasters, space disasters, violent thunderstorms, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and floods. The crushed, imprisoned Typhon sometimes caused Mount Etna to erupt above him, but couldn't free himself for eons. His defeat unleashed a huge wave of storm spirits, as revealed in The Lost Hero.
  • Fire-Breath: Typhon could breathe gigantic torrents of fire from his monstrous maw, and managed to burn off Zeus' beard during their battle in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods.
  • Poison Generation: Typhon's two hundred serpentine fingers can simultaneously spew vast amounts of venom that instantly poisoned the seas in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, managing to kill numerous sea creatures and temporarily incapacitate even Poseidon himself.
  • Shapeshifting: Typhon may have this power because he can change form and cause people to go insane.

Trivia

  • Interestingly, in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Percy mentions that since most of the Olympian gods fled from Typhon all the way to Egypt in the form of animals, they might have induced Egyptian myths about "gods with animal heads." However, Percy admits that this is unlikely, since Egyptian myths are much older than Greek ones.
    • Also in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Typhon is also called Typhoeus.
Monsters
Species: Amphisbaena | Apollo's Cattle | Blemmyae | Basilisk | Carnivorous Sheep | Centaur | Cyclops | Cynocephali | Dragon | Drakon | Empousa | Eurynomos | Feather-Shooting Bird | Fire-Breathing Horse | Flesh-Eating Horse | Gegeines | Geminus | Giant Eagle | Giant Scorpion | Giant Snake | Ghoul | Gorgon | Gryphon | Harpy | Hellhound | Hippalektryon | Hippocampus | Hydra | Hyperborean Giant | Ichthyocentaur | Karpoi | Katobleps | Keres | Khromandae | Laistrygonian Giant | Leucrotae | Lycanthrope | Makhai | Merperson | Myrmekes | Nikai | Pandai | Pegasus | Pit Scorpion | Satyr | Scythian Dracaena | Sea Serpent | Siren | Strix | Stymphalian Birds | Tauri Sylvestres | Telekhine | Troglodyte | Unicorn | Vrykolakai | Yale
Friendly Monsters: Argus | Blackjack | Briares | Bombilo | Chiron | Cottus | Don | Ella | Festus | Gleeson Hedge | Gray | Grover Underwood | Guido | Gyges | Lysas | Mrs. O'Leary | Ophiotaurus | Peaches | Peleus | Porkpie | Rainbow | Scipio | Tyson | Tempest | Sssssarah
Enemy Monsters: Antaeus | Agrius and Oreius | Arachne | Cacus | Carthaginian Serpent | Charybdis and Scylla | Chimera | Chrysaor | Clazmonian Sow | Colchis Bulls | Echidna | Euryale | Geryon | Kampê | Karkinos | Kekrops | Lamia | Manticore | Medusa | Minotaur | Nemean Lion | Polyphemus | Python | Skolopendra | Sphinx | Stheno | Sun Dragons | Typhon | Trojan Sea Monster
Neutral Monsters: Cerberus | Erymanthian Boar | Gray Sisters | Furies | Ladon | Orthus | Sybaris
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Core Series: The Lightning Thief | The Sea of Monsters | The Titan's Curse | The Battle of the Labyrinth | The Last Olympian
Main Characters: Percy Jackson | Grover Underwood | Annabeth Chase | Tyson | Clarisse La Rue | Thalia Grace | Nico di Angelo | Chiron | Luke Castellan | Rachel Elizabeth Dare
Secondary Characters: Sally Jackson | Travis Stoll | Connor Stoll | Mrs. O'Leary | Silena Beauregard | Charles Beckendorf | Paul Blofis | Blackjack | Zoë Nightshade | Bianca di Angelo | Juniper | Ethan Nakamura | Daedalus
Minor Characters: Gabe Ugliano | Argus | Tantalus | Hylla Ramírez-Arellano | Frederick Chase | Michael Yew | May Castellan | Austin Lake | Kayla Knowles | Maria di Angelo | Will Solace | Elevator Security Guard
Olympian Gods: Zeus | Hera | Poseidon | Demeter | Ares | Athena | Apollo | Artemis | Hephaestus | Aphrodite | Hermes | Dionysus | Hades | Hestia
Minor Gods: Amphitrite | Ariadne | Ganymede | Hecate | Iris | Janus | Morpheus | Nemesis | Pan | Phobos | Deimos | Persephone | Triton
Titans: Kronos | Atlas | Calypso | Iapetus | Krios | Hyperion | Oceanus | Prometheus
Mythical Creatures: Minotaur | Centaur | Furies | Satyr | Cyclops | Manticore | Ophiotaurus | Nemean Lion | Empousa
Related Content: Rick Riordan | Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief | Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters | The Demigod Files | Demigods and Monsters | The Ultimate Guide | The Heroes of Olympus | The Trials of Apollo | Percy Jackson Demigod Collection | The Lightning Thief: Illustrated Edition | Disney+ Series
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