Aka : the Winter Snake Goddess 

Origin

Gaea and Tartarus (Pondus) are her parents. Other myths say that she is the offspring of Callirrhoe and Chrysaor.  

Description

Echidna is the mixture of a serpent and a woman, a beautiful fair-faced nymph from the waist up, but a horrible serpent below. She grew up in her cave and used her beautiful head and torso to lure men but once they were trapped, her serpent nature took over and she ate them raw.

Echidna mated with the storm god Typhon and gave birth to a great lot of famous monsters: Chimaera, the Hydra of Lernae, the dragons of Colchis and the garden of the Hesperides, the Gorgons, the eagle that eats Prometheus’ liver, Cerberus and its brother Orthrus the dog of Geryon who mated with his own mother and become the father of the lion of Nemea and the Sphinx,

The hundred-eyed Argos kills Echida in her sleep to prevent her from eating him as she has eaten other travelers. 

The serpent woman and her offsprings were held responsible for most of the chaos and hardship that existed in the world. Christian symbolism turned her into a notorious prostitute whose visible attraction do not conceal her shameful lower nature.

 image