Snakes in Tradition. 7 r 



More tender touch'd, with varied art, his sons 



All the soft rage of younger passions show, 



In a boy's helpless fate one sinks oppress'd ; 



While, yet unpierc'd, the frighted other tries 



His foot to steal out of the horrid twine." Thomson. 



Then the "dread snakes," who "at Juno's vengeful nod, 

 climbed round the cradle of the sleeping god." But the 

 baby happens to be Hercules, and 



" Waked by the shrilling hiss and rustling sound, 

 And shrieks of fair attendants fainting round, 

 Their gasping throats with clenching hands he holds, 

 And death entwists their convoluted folds." 



Of Cadmus, " how with the serpent's teeth he sowed the 

 soil, and reaped an iron harvest of his toil ! " from which 

 Coleridge draws the moral : 



"Who sows the serpent's teeth, let him not hope 

 To reap a joyous harvest. Every crime 

 Has, in the moment of its preparation, 

 Its own avenging angel, dark misgiving, 

 An ominous sinking at the inmost heart." 



Of lapetus, whom Keats sees grasping 



"A serpent's plashy neck, its barbed tongue 

 Squeezed from the gorge, and all its uncurl'd length 

 Dead : and because the creature could not spit 

 Its poison in the eyes of conquering Jove." 



The living bolts of the warring Titans, of Apollo's prowess, 

 " Latona's bane " 



" Who slew Phiton the serpent where he lay 

 Sleeping against the sun upon a day." 



Of the Egyptian Cleopatra, "regal dressed, with the aspic 

 at her breast " 



" I am the worm the weary prize, 

 The Nile's soft asp, 

 One that a Queen has loved to clasp." 



