Delphyne

In Greek mythology, Delphyne (Greek: Δελφύνη) is the name given, by some accounts, to the monstrous serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi. Although, in Hellenistic and later accounts, the Delphic monster slain by Apollo is usually said to be the male serpent Python, 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.^[1] According to the Suda, Delphi was named after Delphyne.^[2]

^ Hymn to Apollo (3) 300–306, 349–374; Ogden 2013a, pp. 40 ff.; Ogden 2013b, p. 41; Hard, p. 145; Gantz, p. 88; Fontenrose, pp. 13–14; p. 94. For the monster called "Delphyne" see for example: Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.705–707; Callimachus fragment 116 (364) Mair; Apollodorus, 1.6.3; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13.28. The earliest occurrence, in the literary record, of the male drakōn Python is found in a fragment of Simonides (c. 500 BC), although possibly earlier iconographic evidence exists for a male Delphic dragon, see Ogden 2013a, p. 43.
^ Suda, delta,210, pi,3137.

[1] Hymn to Apollo (3) 300–306, 349–374; Ogden 2013a, pp. 40 ff.; Ogden 2013b, p. 41; Hard, p. 145; Gantz, p. 88; Fontenrose, pp. 13–14; p. 94. For the monster called "Delphyne" see for example: Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.705–707; Callimachus fragment 116 (364) Mair; Apollodorus, 1.6.3; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13.28. The earliest occurrence, in the literary record, of the male drakōn Python is found in a fragment of Simonides (c. 500 BC), although possibly earlier iconographic evidence exists for a male Delphic dragon, see Ogden 2013a, p. 43.

[2] Suda, delta,210, pi,3137.

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