The Mother of Dragons Is Not Daenerys

Valerie Willis
Feb 12
5 min read

Updated: Feb 13

‘Delphyne’ and ‘Delphinus’ were words developed during the late roman language timeframe, but the root word ‘delphys’ for ‘womb’ was created in Ancient Greek. Even the alternate version, Delphine, dates to the 14th century meaning a ‘woman from Delphi,’ but sources older than this point become mangled or disappear altogether. Much of the ancient context and uses for this root word is overlaid with the references of dolphins and their current Latin genus name of ‘delphinidae’ making research a disaster at best.

Both Delphyne and her lover Typhon were described as half human on the top with bottom half of a dragon or serpent. Delphyne has also been labeled as ‘drakaina’, a feminine form of ‘drakon’ which later gave birth to the modern term of ‘dragon.’ In later artwork, the human half was replaced with a more dragon-like creature and look with fangs, wings, and an animalistic head. There are examples of this shift with artwork featuring Apollo versus Typhon, sometimes labelled Python, on vases, statues, and even artwork in the centuries long after the Romans fell.

Delphyne is consistently marked as the ‘Mother of Dragons’ in several places, but unlike Typhon, she is not found on pottery or in the artwork. It’s a peculiar thing which shows the limitations to what has been made accessible online could be the reason for the lack of these visual aids. Despite it all, there is a chain of events which are mentioned in a wide variety of areas. From within the stories of other titans and gods or translated books like ‘Argonautica’ can be pieced together to give some insight to who Delphyne was and her story. Here are my gathered snippets put into a more complete telling of who the ‘mother of dragons’ was, and her journey in short.

The intriguing part is how several sources indicate Delphyne is a daughter of Gaea, the mother to all the major titans, yet she is not listed among her siblings. You will not find her next to any of her sisters or brothers in the family trees and flow charts tracking the breakdown of the godly family which makes up the foundation of Greek Mythology. Instead, you get snippets here and there of her name being mentioned, dropped in obscure places stretching between Greek and Roman tales. For example, in the Hymn of Phoebe, her maternal sister, it is sung of her son Apollo’s feat:

“…once beneath the rocky ridge of Parnassus he slew with his bow the monster Delphyne…” - ARGONAUTICA BOOK 2, TRANSLATED BY R. C. SEATON

Delphyne was born from Gaea, mother of earth, to serve as the womb for all the creatures of the world. From lore on Gaea, the mother of all titans, it becomes clear she and her son Kronus grew jealous of the creation of mankind. Delphyne was first gifted to Kronus as a gift, perhaps a means of torturing mankind, no one will ever know. At this point, Kronus was not satisfied with his mother’s gift, or decided it best, to give her to his son Zeus. At this point, we are on a more familiar name and entity, the god of who led the Olympians and was famous for his lightning. Zeus took care of her at this point as a sort of pet, but I believe she may have inspired the later tales of the Gorgons such as the famous Medusa.

At some point, Zeus enraged is grandmother Gaea and before he knew it, she had sculpted a creature from the Earth itself to come for him:

“The one seemed to be a monstrous son of baleful Typhoeus or of Earth herself, such as she brought forth aforetime, in her wrath against Zeus…” - ARGONAUTICA BOOK 2, TRANSLATED BY R. C. SEATON

The tale goes on as to how Typhon came and stole the sinews of Zeus and took them to Mt. Parnassus in hopes of gaining or perhaps stealing his power. It was Delphyne who came to Zeus’ rescue, battling Typhon and reclaiming Zeus’ sinews. She protected the god until he recovered. It is here that things fade or jump around. What can be assumed is she came under fire from Gaea for intervening, which never bodes well for anyone in the other stories involving her, so Zeus gave Delphyne away. It seems sad, to think she was handed off again to Zeus’ Aunt Phoebe. It was she who gave Delphyne her final home.

Being the Titaness who established the Sibyls, or Oracles, she gave Delphyne the task of being the protector of the Oracle on Mt. Parnassus. There seems to be some interesting overlap when you compare different stories and snippets which mention Delphyne. At this point, some imply she was chained to the mountain, cared for by the Nymphs who name the great ancient city Delphi in her honor. Even more intriguing is the implication that Typhon joined her in her task and Mt. Parnassus became the origin point in which all monsters and dragons came into the world. Hence the official titles ‘Mother of Dragons’ and ‘Father of Monsters’ was established.

Soon Phoebe’s son Apollo came to Mt. Parnassus and it is here that we find a weird mixture. It is only in one mentioning that it is Delphyne who he slays. Artwork and several other sources show it was Typhon, or Python, who he kills. Again, this flips from a half man version on older vases to a full fledge dragon in later paintings. Oddly enough, the Oracles here on the mountain worshipped Apollo at this point. This seems accurate when you consider the mountain, the sibyls and even the guardian dragons on were all owned by his mother Phoebe depending on which resource and snippet you chase to the one slither of information left behind.

It is never clear as to why Apollo came to the mountain, other than to seek counsel of the oracle. Nor does it make sense why he needed to fight his way to a temple devoted to him and owned, founded even, by his mother who adored him from how the mythology unfolds. Regardless, Apollo came and with it he brought an end to the ‘mother of dragons’ and without a doubt at least killed her lover. Perhaps she is still on Mt. Parnassus, alone and forgotten. It’s a tragic ending to a less glamorous life she had endured. A lot of similarities to the Khaleesi’s own tragic starts. The question is, will the King of Arcadia and sigil of the wolf, Apollo, make his debut on ‘Game of Thrones’ and slay the Mother of Dragons like the Greek influence suggests?