Delphyne

deity earth Greek single tradition · 3

Delphyne is the name given to the monstrous serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi. 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.

↻ synthesized from 3 sources

When

First attested
800 BCE
Attested period
-800 – 2020
Historical notes
Attested in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo.

Relationships

enemy of
Apollo, Zeus
allied with
Typhon

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“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 the Delphian dragon.”

#6080 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Examples of the drakaina included Campe, Delphyne, Echidna and Sybaris. Python, slain by Apollo, and the earliest representations of Delphyne are shown as simply gigantic serpents, similar to other Greek dragons. However, although the word "drakaina" is literally the feminine form of drakon (Ancient Greek for dragon or serpent), most drakainas had some features of a human woman. Zeus slew Delphyne”

#6102 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“"she-dragon" Delphyne.”

#45273 · extracted by nvidia/nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free