122 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



from the East. As a matter of fact, the Greek word 

 " drakon " actually meant plainly and simply a large 



snake, and is so used 

 by Aristotle and 

 other writers. There 

 is a beautiful Greek 

 vase - painting (Fig. 

 23) showing the dra- 

 gon which guarded 

 the golden apples of 

 the Hesperides as 

 nothing more than a 

 gigantic snake (with- 

 out legs or wings), 

 coiled round the 

 trunk of the tree on 

 which the apples are 

 growing (like the 

 later pictures of the 

 serpent on the apple 

 tree in the Garden 

 of Eden), whilst the 

 ladylike Hesperides 

 are politely welcom- 

 ing the robust Her- 

 FIG. 23. The dragon guarding the tree in cu j es to t h e i r garden. 



rp, 



* ne worship and 



the garden of the Hesperides on which grew 

 the golden apples, in quest of which, according 

 to Greek legend, the hero Hercules went, propitiation of the 

 The drawing is copied from an ancient Greek serpent is an im- 

 vase, and the original includes figures of the i i j r r 



Hesperides and of Hercules, not reproduced Densely old form of 

 here. religion (antecedent 



to Judaism), and 



exists, or has existed, in both the old world and the 

 new. The Egyptians revered a great serpent-god called 

 " Ha-her," or " great Lord of fear and terror " ; to him 



