Part two of the fourth chapter of historian Frederick William Hackwood's study of dragonlore.
FULL ILLUSTRATED TEXT
http://www.justgenealogy.plus.com/fwhdd04.htm
The classical god Mercury is always depicted with a peculiar kind of wand in his hand. This wand, called his Caduceus, is composed of two dragons, the one male and the other female, strangled at the middle. Now, Mercury was said to be the inventor of Astronomy, and the solstices (that is, Midsummer-day and Midwinter-day) were anciently called "the head and the tail of the dragon" ; so that the emblem of the Caduceus would appear to have some hidden meaning in allusion to the two solstices.
Among the strange monsters of classical legend we have the Gorgon, the Chimaera, and the Minotaur.
Under the title of The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales, Charles Kingsley wrote a book for the pleasure and instruction of his own children, in which are included the stories of Perseus and of Theseus, the first of whom slew the Gorgon, and the other killed the Minotaur.
To Perseus appeared one day in a wood the beautiful goddess, Pallas Athené, who knows the hearts of men and discerns their manhood or their baseness, who to souls of fire gives more fire, so that they may become heroes, the blest sons of the Immortals.
To Perseus she offered the choice of fighting the Titans and the monsters, the enemies of the gods and me ; to go through doubt and danger, through need and through battle, ready to die in the flower of youth ; or to win a noble name for a fair and green old age. It was to be a seven years' journey in which he could not repent or turn back or escape ; but if at any moment his heart failed him, he would die in the Unshapen Land where no man would even find his bones.
To this offer Perseus boldly answered, "Better to die in the flower of youth on the chance of noble name, than to live at ease like the sheep, and die unloved and unrenowned."
At this Athené smiled, and then instructed him to go northward to the Country of the Hyperboreans, where the cold north wind lurks, and there to inquire of the Three Grey Sisters, who have but one eye and one tooth between them, who would tell him the way to the Nymphs, the Daughters of the Evening Star, who dance about the Golden Tree in the Atlantic Island of the west. Said Athené, "They will tell you the way to the Gorgon, that you must slay her, my enemy, the mother of monstrous beasts."
Now, the Gorgon was once a beautiful maiden till in her pride she sinned, and from that day her hair was turned into vipers, and her hands to eagle's claws ; her heart was filled with shame and her lips with bitter venom. Her eyes became so terrible that whosoever looked upon them was frozen into stone. So she became the sister of the Swinish Gorgons and was called Medusa. "Touch them not," said Athené, "for they are immortals. Bring me only Medusa's head." Then she gave him a polished brazen shield and a goat's skin, with this caution - "Look not on Medusa's face or her glance will turn you to stone. When you come near her, look only at her image on the face of the shield, and then you may strike at her with safety. And when you have struck off her head, wrap it, with your face turned away, in the folds of the goatskin. Bring it thus safely to me and win for yourself a place among the Immortals."
And so he set forth on his adventures. After passing through many dangers and looking on many frightful sights, he came upon three sleeping Gorgons as huge as elephants, very terrible to look at. One who tossed to and fro restlessly in her sleep while the others slumbered heavily, he recognised as Medusa, who was as a beautiful woman, though her cheeks were pale as death, her brows knit with everlasting shame, and her lips thin and bitter as a snake's ; about her temples instead of hair wreathed vipers that shot out their forked tongues ; round her head were folded eagle-like wings of rainbow plumage, and folded upon her bosom were claws of brass.
The beauty of her face made it seem hard to strike her, but as he looked the vipers of her tresses awoke, displayed their fangs and hissed menacingly as they peeped through their wicked eyes ; and when she threw back her wings and showed her brazen claws Perseus perceived that for all her beauty she was as venomous and deadly as the rest. So covering up his eyes and gazing steadily into the mirror of his shield, he stepped boldly to the attack, and struck so stoutly that he needed not to strike again. Medusa's head was stricken right off, and as she fell dead her fearsome wings and talons rattled on the rocks. Turning away his eyes, he wrapped the head of the beautiful horror in the goatskin, as he had been carefully instructed.
Pursuing his journey, many more adventures of a strange and surprising nature were encountered by the heroic Perseus. Once when opposed by a troop of armed soldiers he unveiled the Gorgon's head to them and, behold,
Loading...
6:37
CH 4 (5/6) - Dragon Slayers of Mythologyby HackwoodHistory583 views
Link to this comment:
Video Responses
All Comments (0)