Campe

In Greek mythology, Campe or Kampe (Greek: Κάμπη "crooked"; confer καμπή "a twist, a bend") is the name of a fearsome chthonic dracaena (she-dragon).

Etymology
The name given in Greek texts is Κάμπη, with an accent on the first syllable. As a common noun κάμπη is the Greek word for caterpillar or silkworm. It is probably related to the homophone καμπή (with the accent on the second syllable) whose first meaning is the winding of a river, and came to mean, more generally, any kind of bend, or curve.

Myths & Legends
Called the Nymph of Tartarus (Ταρταρία νύμφη), Campe was given the task of guarding the Hekatonkheires and the Cyclopes in Tartarus, by Cronus, leader of the Titans. When it was prophesied to Zeus that he would be victorious in the Titanomachy with the help of Campe's prisoners, Zeus killed Campe in order to have the Cylopes and Hekatoncheires assist him in the war against the Titans.

Appearance
Neither of the poets/historians Apollodorus nor Diodorus provide any description of Campe, however the Greek poet Nonnus provides an elaborately detailed one.

Campe is generally depicted as having the head and upper body of a beautiful woman, the lower body of a dragon, a massive scorpion's tail full of venom, snakes around her ankles, and 50 grisly heads of various creatures (wolves, snakes, bears, lions...) bubbling around her waist. This description by Nonnus is similar to Hesiod's description of the monster Typhon (Theogony 820 ff.). Joseph Eddy Fontenrose says that for Nonnus, Campe "was a female counterpart of his Typhon ... That is, she was Echidna under a different name." In his lexicon, Hesychius of Alexandria (K.614) noted that the poet Epicharmos had called Campe a kētos, or sea-monster.

Campe's fingernails were also said to be "curved like a crooktalon sickle", and she possessed black wings on her back. More rare depictions describe her as holding scimitars, having snake hair, holding a scythe etc.

Origins
We first hear of the imprisonment of the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers, and their subsequent release by Zeus, in Hesiod's Theogony. However Hesiod makes no mention of Campe, or any guard for the prisoners. These events were probably also told in the lost epic poem the Titanomachy, upon which the mythographer Apollodorus perhaps based his account of the war. According to Apollodorus: "Diodorus Siculus says that the god Dionysus, while camped beside the Lybian city of Zabirna, encountered and killed 'an earth-born monster called Campê' that was terrorizing the city, killing many of its residents."