Echidna

Echidna is known as the Mother of All Monsters. With her husband, the giant Typhon, she gave birth to such creatures as the Lernaean Hydra, She-Demon, Stymphalian Bird, Cerberus, and Obie. Though her children are born "good" if they are to taste blood they become wild and "evil." The goddess Hera often exploits this, turning Echidna's 3 eldest children into monsters which she sends to attack Hercules.

Once, grief-stricken at the deaths of her children and bent on revenge, Echidna hired Demetrius to lure Hercules into a trap. Demetrius faked a loving relationship with Alcmene and then kidnapped her and brought her to Echidna. Hercules followed and defeated Demetrius and rescued Alcmene. At his mother's request, Hercules spared Echidna's life. The hero sealed her in a cave (HTLJ "The Mother of All Monsters").

With help from Hera, Maceus and his men re-opened the entrance to Echidna's cave hoping to get Echidna's help to kill Hercules. Echidna agreed but changed her mind when Hercules reunited her with her husband Typhon who had been imprisoned for over a century by Hera. In a battle with Hercules, Echidna accidentally killed Maceus (HTLJ "Cast a Giant Shadow").

Alcmene had apparently more than forgiven Echidna for her actions, even going so far as to invite the mother of all monsters to her own wedding to Jason. Although Echidna would have liked to attend, Hercules was told by Phoebe that she was unable to come because she was pregnant (HTLJ "The Wedding of Alcmene").

Echidna later gave birth to Obie. Hera sent her Head Archer to retrieve the baby so it could be trained as a killer. Echidna refused. Klepto pretended to be a friend of Hercules' and kidnapped Obie to bring him to the warlord Bluth so he could be trained for Hera. Klepto eventually became fond of Obie and helped to get him back to his parents. Echidna then accepted Klepto's apology and he became Obie's babysitter (HTLJ "Monster Child in the Promised Land").

Background[]

Echidna was immortalized in plastic as an action figure by ToyBiz.
Echidna's appearance had to be reimagined by the show's production designers, and mythology is vague on her appearance and only mentions that she had human and serpentine features.

Mythology[]

After Typhon was vanquished by the Olympians, Zeus left Echidna and her children alive as challenges to future heroes. Echidna herself was not slain by a hero, but by another monster: Argus the hundred-eyed giant, acting as Hera's enforcer.
Echidna's children were Orthrus, Cerberus, the Lernaean Hydra, the Chimera, the Caucasian Eagle, the Crommyonian Sow, the Colchian Dragon and the Cadmean Vixen. Scylla, The Sphinx, the Nemean Lion and Ladon were sometimes listed as her children as well. Cerberus and the Hydra appeared on H:TLJ while the Caucasian Eagle (as the Promethean Bird) appeared on XWP, but only the Hydra was identified as Echidna's child.
In an obscure myth that was (for obvious reasons) not portrayed in the show, Heracles had three sons with Echidna, who went on to become the ancestors of the Scythians.