Delphyne

In early literary accounts (notably the Homeric Hymn to Apollo) Delphyne is presented as the she‑serpent inhabiting the Delphic area whom Apollo shoots and kills when establishing his temple and oracle at Delphi. Some traditions further connect her to the Typhonic cycle: the Homeric Hymn records that Typhon was 'given to the dragoness' as a fosterling, while later accounts (e.g., Apollodorus) make her a guardian of items (Zeus' severed sinews) placed in a Corycian cave after Typhon maimed Zeus. Variants in the record place episodes at the Parnassian Corycian cave above Delphi or at a Corycian cave in Cilicia; later tradition also conflates or replaces her with the serpent Python.

Sources describe Delphyne as a large, bloated she‑serpent (drakaina). The Homeric Hymn calls her 'the bloated, great she‑dragon' and a 'very bloody plague' to men and flocks. Apollodorus sometimes depicts her in hybrid terms as a 'half‑bestial maiden,' indicating a partly human/part‑snake form in some literary descriptions. Later authors reiterate her monstrous serpentine appearance when recounting Apollo's slaying.

Literary texts portray Delphyne as a deadly menace to humans and their flocks: the Homeric Hymn describes her as a plague whose encounter brings doom. In other accounts she functions in a guardian capacity—nurse or foster to Typhon in the Hymn, and guardian of concealed sinews or spoils in Apollodorus—rather than as a recurring ritualized threat. The narratives do not enumerate supernatural powers (e.g., venom, petrifying gaze) beyond her depiction as a large, lethal drakaina and as a chthonic, disorderly presence.