THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT 123 



the wicked were handed over after death to be bitten 

 and tortured. The evil spirit in the Scandinavian 

 mythology was a huge snake and the connection, not to 

 say confusion, of the terrible snake with the dragon on 

 the part of the early Christians is shown by the words 

 in Revelation xx. I, 2, " the dragon, that old serpent, 

 which is the Devil, and Satan." The mediaeval devil 

 with goat's feet retained the dragon's tail with its curious 

 triangular termination. 



To the Greeks and Romans snakes were not such 

 very terrible creatures, since the kinds found in South 

 Europe are small and harmless only the viper being 

 poisonous and they regarded the serpent as a beneficent 

 creature, the familiar of Esculapius the god of medicine, 

 companion of the household gods (the Lares), and 

 guardian of sacred places, tombs, and concealed treasure 

 (Fig. 27). The snake was the special earth-god, sub- 

 terranean in habit, cunning, subtle, and gifted with 

 powers of divination. The conception of the serpent 

 as an avenging monster kept continually thrusting itself 

 from the East into the popular mythology of the Greeks, 

 and finally led to the building up of the dragon as a 

 winged and clawed creature distinct from the harmless 

 but cunning snake familiar to them. Even in India 

 there arose a sort of double attitude towards the snake 

 (as is not uncommon in regard to deities). On the 

 one hand he was regarded as all that was terrible, de- 

 structive, and evil, and on the other as amiable, kindly, 

 and wise. The services of the beautiful rat-snake in 

 destroying house rats rendered him and his kind welcome 

 and valued guests. In Egypt we find representations 

 of small winged snakes without legs, and the ancient 

 traveller, Herodotus, believed that they represented real 

 creatures, as did the Roman naturalist, Pliny. Very 

 probably the belief in winged snakes is due to the 



