The Good and Evil Serpent (36 page)

Why did Medusa have serpents in her hair? Again, an answer is provided by Ovid. Note especially the explanation, by a guest to one of the princes with Perseus:

She was once most beautiful in form, and the jealous hope of many suitors. Of all her beauties, her hair was the most beautiful—for so I learned from one who said he had seen her. ’Tis said that in Minerva’s temple Neptune, lord of the Ocean, ravished her. Jove’s daughter turned away and hid her chaste eyes behind her aegis. And, that the deed might be punished as was due, she changed the Gorgon’s locks to ugly snakes [
turpes mutavit in hydros
]. And now to frighten her fear-numbed foes, she still wears upon her breast the snakes [
angues
] which she has made.
²⁰⁹

Ovid seems to supply answers to questions that would have arisen in antiquity.

The land of Libya is plagued by snakes. A myth explains why. Libya is full of deadly serpents
(angues)
because as the head of Gorgon was carried over Libya some blood fell to the earth and immediately turned into serpents (
Metam.
4.615#x2013;20).

According to Lucan (39#x2013;65
CE
), the ancients—at least some of them, probably the masses—believed the following about Medusa:
²¹⁰

In her body malignant Nature first bred these cruel plagues; from her throat were born the snakes [
e faucibus angues
] that poured forth shrill hissings with their forked tongues. It pleased Medusa [
Medusae
], when snakes dangled close against her neck; in the way that women dress their hair, the vipers hang loose over her back but rear erect over her brow in front; and their poison wells out when the tresses are combed. These snakes are the only part of ill-fated Medusa that all men look upon and live. For who ever felt fear of the monster’s face and open mouth? Who that looked her straight in the face was suffered by Medusa to die? … No living creature could endure to look on her, and even her serpents bent backward to escape her face. She turned to stone Atlas, the Titan who supports the Pillars of the West.
²¹¹

Thus, the accomplishment of Perseus, in beheading her, was something astoundingly remarkable. According to Lucan, it was Medusa’s look, not the serpents, that killed.

More women than the Gorgons had serpents in their hair. For example, Tisiphone, with snakes covering her face, puts on as a girdle “a writhing snake.” Then she, aided by the Furies, hinders the retreat of both Ino (the daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia) and Athamas (king of Thebes and son of Aeolus). Ovid’s account is remarkable:

And stretching her arms, wreathed with vipers [
vipereis
], she shook out her locks: disturbed, the serpents hissed horribly. A part lay on her shoulders, part twined round her breast, hissing, vomiting venomous gore, and darting out their tongues. Then she tears away two serpents
[duos … angues
] from the midst of her tresses, and with deadly aim hurls them at her victims. The snakes go gliding over the breasts of Ino and of Athamas and breathe upon them their pestilential breath. No wounds their bodies suffer; ’tis their minds that feel the deadly stroke.
²¹²

What could be the symbolism or function of depictions of Gorgon heads, especially the head of Medusa? They could symbolize power, magic, mystery, and fear of the gods. One of the main uses of the image of the head of Medusa, or another Gorgon, with its horrifying serpents was for protection, especially of one’s home. Thus, someone put numerous faces of Medusa on the iron fence of the Southern Palace of the Hermitage to keep unwanted people out and to protect those inside.

This symbolic meaning goes back to the early days of Greek mythology since Agamemnon had a Gorgon on his shield,
²¹³
and vases often depict a Gorgon on a shield.
²¹⁴
Only two examples must suffice here. One is the bronze relief from Olympia, which dates from around 600
BCE
.
²¹⁵
Another is a floor mosaic showing the head of a Gorgon with ten menacing serpents squirming from her head. It was found in Domus delle Gorgoni at Ostia Antici and dates from the third or fourth century
CE
.
²¹⁶
Under the sad face appear the words
Gorgoni Bita
, perhaps “flee from the Gorgon.”
²¹⁷
The mosaic is reminiscent of one almost all tourists see at the entrance to a house in Pompeii:
cave canem
, “Beware of the dog.”

Ladon

Ladon
denotes the name of two rivers, one in Bithynia that is often personified, and the other in Daphne near Antioch. The noun, spelled the same, also denotes a serpent (called in Greek
and
and in Latin
draco
). The animal is usually much larger than a human. It frequently has a goatee and more than one head, but in the Imperial Period it has usually only one head. I have found no iconography to support the claim by Pherekydes of Athens (fifth cent.
BCE
) that Ladon had one hundred heads
.
²¹⁸

Ladon is the mythological sleepless serpent
(insopiti quondam tutela draconis)
²¹⁹
that guards the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides. It is the creation of Keto and Phorkys, Typhon and Echidna, or Ge; and, according to many sources, was killed by Hercules.
²²⁰

Ladon is depicted as a large serpent entwined around a tree and protecting the golden apples (see
Fig. 56
). It is shown sometimes drinking out of a bowl (a phial) held by a goddess (probably a Hesperid). Frequently it decorates vases, and sometimes appears on coins and in mosaics. It is shown in paintings preserved from Rome (fourth cent.
CE
) and Pompeii (first half of first cent.
CE
).

What could this serpent symbolize? That it was placed among the stars, after its fatal encounter with Hercules, would mean it could have astrologi cal and heavenly powers.
²²¹
Ladon was able to guard
(tutela draconis)
the golden apples because it never slept. It also emitted “all kind of sounds”
.
²²²
Hence, it could be seen positively as the ideal guardian; that was as important then as it is now. Its chthonic powers might also be elevated as important for one facing death or the meaning of life, since it derives from the earth
.
²²³

Aion

This Greek word denotes not only “an indefinitely long period of time” (“eternity” in Platonic thought) but also “life” and “lifetime” and even “age” and “generation.” It can denote also one’s entire life, one’s destiny. Thus, the god Aion is a personification, actually a hypostatization,
²²⁴
of all these interrelated concepts, especially “eternity” after Plato’s pervasive influence.
²²⁵
Note the poetic passage in Euripides’
The Children of Hercules
(898–99):

For many blessings Fate fleetingly engenders,
With which Aion, child of Chronos, gives final completeness.
²²⁶

For us the key words are “Aion, child of Chronos”
.
²²⁷
How should one render this noun? The poem signifies that Aion denotes one’s own lifetime, one’s own destiny, and especially the culmination of it: “eternity” in many post-Platonic circles.