"Halos (Delphi) The Halos was a round open space close to the temple of Apollo in Delphi, where ancient rituals were being performed. Between the Bouleuterion and Sibyl's Rock in the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi there is a narrow pass leading to the fountain which the dragon Python was supposedly guarding. Apollo killed the dragon and then left for the land of the Hyperboreans in order to be expiated from the murder. This action signifies in mythology the transition from the early chthonic cults to the cult of the god of light and music. At that spot, in front"
"of Phorcys and Ceto as the Graeae (naming only two: Pemphredo, and Enyo), the Gorgons (Stheno, Euryale and Medusa), probably Echidna (though the text is unclear on this point) and Ceto's ""youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds"", also called the Drakon Hesperios (""Hesperian Dragon"", or dragon of the Hesperides) or Ladon. These children tend to be consistent across sources, though Ladon is often cited as a child of Echidna by Typhon and therefore Phorcys and Ceto's grandson. According to Apollodorus, Scylla was the"
"shares several similarities with Typhon's mate, the monsterous Echidna. Like Apollodorus' Delphyne, Echidna was half-maid and half-snake, and both were a ""plague"" (""πῆμα"") to men. Both were also intimately connected to Typhon, and associated with the Corycian cave. The name Delphyne means ""womb"" (""δελφύς""), and probably arose by back-formation from Delphi. Other related forms of the name: Delphyna (female) and Delphynes (male), were, apparently, also used for the Delphian dragon. For example, according to the 7th-century chronicler John of Antioch, some said the Pythian Games were held in honor of the male serpent Delphynes, while others said the heroine (""hêrôis"")"
"snakes, however, adds a demonic quality as well as an element of danger. Two more snakes radiate outward from her neck. The Medusa figure closely resembles ""Mistress of Animals"" deities found in the Near East and also resembles Mesopotamian demoness Lamashtu who was the equivalent of the Greek deity Lamia. Her children, Pegasus and Khrysaor, are at each side of her, despite the fact that they were born after her death. The face of Medusa is repulsive and shows an evil ""archaic smile"". The panthers, flanking Medusa on each side, serve as temple guardians and they gaze outward as if"
"Drakaina (mythology) In Greek mythology, a drakaina () is a female serpent or dragon, sometimes with humanlike features. Examples of the Drakaina included Campe, Delphyne, Echidna and Sybaris. Python, slain by Apollo, and the earliest representations of Delphyne are shown as simply gigantic serpents, similar to other Greek dragons. However, although the word ""drakaina"" is literally the feminine form of ""drakon"" (Ancient Greek for dragon or serpent), most drakainas had some features of a human woman. Lamia, Campe, Echidna, and many representations of Ceto, Scylla and Delphyne had the head and torso of a woman. The drakaina was a monster"
"serpent named Typhon: ""The narrators seem to have confused the dragon of Delphi, Python, with Typhon or Typhoeus, the adversary of Zeus"". The enemy dragoness ""... actually became an Apollonian serpent, and Pythia, the priestess who gave oracles at Delphi, was named after him. Many pictures show the serpent Python living in amity with Apollo and guarding the Omphalos, the sacred navel stone and midpoint of the earth, which stood in Apollo's temple"" (Kerenyi 1951:136). This myth has been described as an allegory for the dispersal of the fogs and clouds of vapor which arise from ponds and marshes (Python)"
"general area of Ophiuchus. However, Gavin White proposes that Ophiuchus may in fact be remotely descended from this Babylonian constellation, representing Nirah, a serpent-god who was sometimes depicted with his upper half human but with serpents for legs. The earliest mention of the constellation is in Aratus, informed by the lost catalogue of Eudoxus of Cnidus (4th century BC): To the ancient Greeks, the constellation represented the god Apollo struggling with a huge snake that guarded the Oracle of Delphi. Later myths identified Ophiuchus with Laocoön, the Trojan priest of Poseidon, who warned his fellow Trojans about the Trojan Horse"
"gave the name ""Cerberus"" to a genus of Asian snakes, which are commonly called ""dog-faced water snakes"" in English. Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus (; ""Kerberos"" ), often called the ""hound of Hades"", is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. Cerberus was the offspring of the monsters Echidna and Typhon, and usually is described as having three heads, a serpent for a tail, and snakes protruding from parts of his body. Cerberus is primarily known for his capture by Heracles, one of Heracles' twelve labours. Descriptions of Cerberus vary, including"
"Delphyne. Delphyne In Greek mythology, Delphyne () 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. The ""Homeric Hymn"" describes the serpentess as ""the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked"
"Kleodora In Greek mythology, Kleodora was one of the prophetic Thriai, nymphs who divined the future by throwing stones or pebbles. She and her sisters Melaina and Daphne lived on Mount Parnassus, were Delphi is located and was loved by Poseidon. With Poseidon she became the mother of Parnassus. In myths where demigods have two fathers the other is listed as Kleopompos. Parnassus is famous for creating a method of telling the future by using birds and founding the main city on Mt. Parnassus. Her father was the local river-god Cephissus of northern Boeotia. The meaning of her name and"
"the creature rather than that the creature caused the desolation."" Delphyne also appears in Apollodorus' account (1st or 2nd century AD) of Typhon's battle with Zeus, where she is called both a ""she-dragon"" (""drakaina"") and a ""half-bestial maiden"". According to Apollodorus, Typhon managed to cut away Zeus' sinews from his body. Typhon then hid the severed tendons in the Corycian cave in Cilicia (a different cave than the one above Delphi), and set the dragoness Delphyne, to guard over them. The (2nd-century AD?) geographical poet Dionysius Periegetes mentions a coil of the serpent Delphyne leaning against Apollo's sacrificial tripod. Delphyne"
"of the dead, often appearing as a uraeus snake to drive off intruders and those who would harm the deceased (in this form she is represented in the tomb of Tutankhamun). She also is shown as the protectress of one of the Four sons of Horus, specifically, of Duamutef, the deification of the canopic jar storing the stomach, since the abdomen (often mistakenly associated as the stomach) was the most vulnerable portion of the body and a prime target during battle. In some creation myths, she was identified as the mother of Ra and Apep. When she was identified as"
"those surrounding Python. Although the Delphic monster killed by Apollo is usually said to be the male serpent Python, in the ""Homeric Hymn to Apollo"", the earliest account of this story, the god kills a nameless she-serpent (""drakaina""), subsequently called Delphyne, who had been Typhon's foster-mother. Delphyne and Echidna, besides both being intimately connected to Typhon—one as mother, the other as mate—share other similarities. Both were half-maid and half-snake, a plague to men, and associated with the Corycian cave in Cilicia. Python was also perhaps connected with a different Corycian Cave than the one in Cilicia, this one on the"
"is a continuation of the older Indo-European dragon-slayer motif. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1913) pointed out that the serpent as an attribute of both Hermes and Asclepius is a variant of the ""pre-historic semi-chthonic serpent hero known at Delphi as Python"", who in classical mythology is slain by Apollo. One Greek myth of origin of the caduceus is part of the story of Tiresias, who found two snakes copulating and killed the female with his staff. Tiresias was immediately turned into a woman, and so remained until he was able to repeat the act with the male snake seven years later."
"by the rays of the sun (the arrows of Apollo). Python (mythology) In Greek mythology, Python (; ""gen"". Πύθωνος) was the serpent, sometimes represented as a medieval-style dragon, living at the center of the earth, believed by the ancient Greeks to be at Delphi. Python, sometimes written Phython, presided at the Delphic oracle, which existed in the cult center for its mother, Gaia, ""Earth,"" Pytho being the place name that was substituted for the earlier ""Krisa"". Greeks considered the site to be the center of the earth, represented by a stone, the ""omphalos"" or navel, which Python guarded. Python became"
"Delphyne In Greek mythology, Delphyne () 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. The ""Homeric Hymn"" describes the serpentess as ""the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked sheep;"
"of these two men. The common name ""goblin shark"" is a translation of its old Japanese name ""tenguzame"", a ""tengu"" being a Japanese mythical creature often depicted with a long nose and red face. Another name for this species is elfin shark. Shortly after Jordan's description was published, several scientists noted the similarity between ""Mitsukurina"" and the extinct Mesozoic shark ""Scapanorhynchus"". For a time, the prevailing view was to treat ""Mitsukurina"" as a junior synonym of ""Scapanorhynchus"". Eventually, more complete fossils revealed many anatomical differences between ""Scapanorhynchus"" and ""Mitsukurina"", leading modern authors to again regard them as distinct genera. Several"
"with the girl. The Draco is another example of star lore. In Roman mythology, the constellation is representative of Ladon, the dragon that guarded the golden apples inside the garden, Hesperides. The tree was a wedding gift to Hera when she and Zeus were married, and she planted it on Mount Atlas. Hera tasked the Hesperides to guard the tree and put Ladon around the tree as well to ensure that the Hesperides would not steal the apples. In some sources, Ladon is called the child of Typhon and Echidna, who was half woman and half viper, and had hundreds"
"with Isis as well as with many other deities. In the relief shown to the right, which is on the wall of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Luxor, there are two images of Wadjet: one of her as the uraeus with her head through an ankh and another where she precedes a Horus hawk wearing the Pschent, representing the pharaoh whom she protects. As the patron goddess, she was associated with the land and depicted as a snake-headed woman or a snake—usually an Egyptian cobra, a venomous snake common to the region; sometimes she was depicted as a woman"
"serpent deity who guarded the entrance to the underworld. He is often seen as the son of the snake goddess Renenutet. She often was confused with (and later was absorbed by) their primal snake goddess Wadjet, the Egyptian cobra, who from the earliest of records was the patron and protector of the country, all other deities, and the pharaohs. Hers is the first known oracle. She was depicted as the crown of Egypt, entwined around the staff of papyrus and the pole that indicated the status of all other deities, as well as having the all-seeing eye of wisdom and"
"Python (mythology) In Greek mythology, Python (; ""gen"". Πύθωνος) was the serpent, sometimes represented as a medieval-style dragon, living at the center of the earth, believed by the ancient Greeks to be at Delphi. Python, sometimes written Phython, presided at the Delphic oracle, which existed in the cult center for its mother, Gaia, ""Earth,"" Pytho being the place name that was substituted for the earlier ""Krisa"". Greeks considered the site to be the center of the earth, represented by a stone, the ""omphalos"" or navel, which Python guarded. Python became the chthonic enemy of the later Olympian deity Apollo, who"
"""Life of Apollonius"" the female ""empousa-lamia"" is also called ""a snake"", which may seem to the modern reader to be just a metaphorical expression, but which Daniel Ogden insists is a literal snake. Philostratus's tale was reworked by Keats in his poem ""Lamia"", where it is made clear she bears the guise of a snake, which she wants to relinquish in return for human appearance. Modern commentators have also tried to establish that she may have originally as a dragoness, by inference. David Ogden argues that one of her possible reincarnations, the monster of Argos killed by Coroebus had a"
"Campe In Greek mythology, Campe or Kampe ( ""crooked""; confer καμπή ""a twist, a bend"") is the name of a fearsome chthonic drakaina (she-dragon). 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. She was killed by the eldest gods led by Zeus when he freed the Cyclopes to help him in the battle with the Titans. Campe was a half-dragon with a beautiful woman's head and upper body and a scorpion-like tail. Nonnus (""Dionysiaca"" 18.23–264) gives the most elaborated description of"
"founded the city of Parnassus. (Pausanias 10.6.13). Melaina was loved by Apollo, bearing him Delphos (although another tradition names Thyia as the mother of Delphos). Her name, meaning ""the black,"" suggests that she presided over subterranean nymphs. Thriae The Thriae (; ""Thriaí"") were nymphs, three virginal sisters, one of a number of such triads (called ""maiden trinities"" by Jane Ellen Harrison) in Greek mythology. They were named ""Melaina"" (""The Black""), ""Kleodora"" (""Famed for her Gift""), and ""Daphnis"" (""Laurel"") or ""Corycia"". They were the three Naiads (nymphs) of the sacred springs of the Corycian Cave of Mount Parnassus in Phocis. It"
"or entrance to the guarded places, usually three dragons, with scales of iron, silver and respectively gold, or silver, gold and respectively diamond, each stronger than the previous one, the number of their heads increasing with the difficulty. Some motifs developed in the folk tradition that defines the snake as protective of the household correspond, to some extent, to the interpretation of a protective Dacian ""Dragon"" symbol. Dacian Draco The Dacian Draco was the standard ensign of troops of the ancient Dacian people, which can be seen in the hands of the soldiers of Decebalus in several scenes depicted on"
"a snake-headed tail) with Typhon then being the father. While mentioning Cerberus and ""other monsters"" as being the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, the mythographer Acusilaus (6th century BC) adds the Caucasian Eagle that ate the liver of Prometheus. The mythographer Pherecydes of Leros (5th century BC) also names Prometheus' eagle, and adds Ladon (though Pherecydes does not use this name), the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides (according to Hesiod, the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys). The lyric poet Lasus of Hermione (6th century BC) adds the Sphinx. Later authors mostly retain these"
"A snake's hood covers her head, and she sits on a lotus flower. Often a small image of the Lord Parshvanatha is placed in her crown. She may be depicted as four-armed, carrying noose and rosary (japa mala), elephant goad, lotus and a fruit. Padmavati (Jainism) Padmāvatī is the protective goddess or śāsana devī (शासनदेवी) of Pārśvanātha (phonetic: Parshwanath), the twenty-third Jain tīrthāṅkara, complimenting Parshwa yaksha, the shasan deva. There is another pair of souls of a nāga and nāginī who were saved by Parshwanath while being burnt alive in a log of wood by the tapas kamath, and who"
"the use of 13 species of reptiles (crocodilians and snakes) in Brazil for magic religious purposes such as magic spells, attracting sexual partners, and as amulets to protect against the evil eye. A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with snake-like or reptilian traits, in the myths of both European and Chinese cultures, with counterparts in Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries. The (genuine) plesiosaur ""Woolungasaurus"" is named after the Woolunga, a mythical reptile of Australia. In Greek mythology snakes are associated with deadly antagonists, as a chthonic symbol, roughly translated as 'earthbound'. The nine-headed Lernaean Hydra that Hercules"
"Mount Parnassus to celebrate the Dionysiac orgies with the Delphian Thyiades, received themselves the name of Thyades or Thyiades (synonymous with Maenads). She was said to have loved Apollo and bore him a son, Delphos, the eponymous founder of town Delphi, beside the oracular shrine. She was also closely associated with the prophetic Castalian Spring, from which she was sometimes said to have been born (Pausanias follows a tradition that made her daughter of the autochthon Castalius). Thyia was also related to Castalia, the nymph of the spring; Melaena, an alternative mother for Delphos; and the Corycian nymphs, Naiades of"
"(only) two-thirds Apkallu, who drove the ""ušumgallu""-dragon from É-ninkarnunna, the temple of Ištar of Šulgi."" Aššur-nāṣir-apli II placed golden icons of ušumgallu at the pedestal of Ninurta. Its name became a royal and divine epithet, for example: ""ušumgal kališ parakkī"", ""unrivaled ruler of all the sanctuaries"". Marduk is called ""the ""ušumgallu""-dragon of the great heavens"". Ušumgallu Ušumgallu or Ushumgallu (Sumerian: ""ušum.gal"", ""Great Dragon"") was one of the three horned snakes in Akkadian mythology, along with the Bašmu and Mušmaḫḫū. Usually described as a lion-dragon demon, it has been somewhat speculatively identified with the four-legged, winged dragon of the late 3rd"
"were said to have been the continuation of the tradition begun with the worship of the Egyptian cobra goddess, Wadjet. We learn from Herodotus of a great serpent which defended the citadel of Athens. The Minoan Snake Goddess brandished a serpent in either hand, perhaps evoking her role as source of wisdom, rather than her role as Mistress of the Animals (""Potnia Theron""), with a leopard under each arm. It is not by accident that later the infant Herakles, a liminal hero on the threshold between the old ways and the new Olympian world, also brandished the two serpents that"
"versicolore"" in French. It is thought in China, that Iris anguifuga has the ability to keep snakes from entering the garden. It grows all winter, keeping snakes out, but then goes dormant in the spring, allowing the snakes back into the garden. In the autumn, the iris re-appears and can stop the snakes again. In the ""Homeric Hymn to Demeter"", the goddess Persephone and her companion nymphs (the Oceanids along with Artemis and Athena) were gathering flowers such as rose, crocus, violet, iris (also called 'agallis' or ἀγαλλίς (in Greek script), lily, larkspur, and hyacinth in a springtime meadow before"
"Bašmu Bašmu or Bashmu (cuneiform: or , ""Venomous Snake"") was an ancient Mesopotamian mythological creature, a horned snake with two forelegs and wings. It was also the Akkadian name of the Babylonian constellation () equivalent to the Greek Hydra. The Sumerian terms ""ušum"" (portrayed with feet, see Ninurta's Dragon) and ""muš-šà-tùr"" (""birth goddess snake"", portrayed without feet) may represent differing iconographic types or different demons. It is first attested by a 22nd-century cylinder inscription at Gudea. In the Angim, or ""Ninurta's return to Nippur"", it was identified as one of the eleven ""warriors"" (""ur-sag"") defeated by Ninurta. Bašmu was created"