Delphyne

Region: Greece
Time Period: Unknown
References in Literature: Homer’s Hymn to Apollo
Sources: Ancient Deities, p145, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins

Notes:

• Dragon-woman that guarded the sinews of Zeus.
• The sinews were stolen by Aegipan (Zeus’s son) and Hermes.
• She was killed by Apollo.
• Delphyne is also identified with Telphusa, the underworld goddess.
• Alkaios’s version of Apollo in Delphi contains no dragons.

The Hymn’s fusion of versions brings about an interesting change in the myth. Instead of a dragon pair, male and female, the champion encounters two dragonesses. The Delphian dragoness occupies the place that the male dragon should have; it is this to whose deadly home the god is enticed, and she is killed first ….. Ordinarily the male dragon is met in the first encounter. But he is not absent either; the Delphian dragoness has reared Typhon …. ” (Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins pg 373.)