Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art Part 7

The terrible dragon, with one hundred heads, that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides, slain by Hercules, was celebrated in cla.s.sic mythology; so was the Lernean hydra, a monster of the marshes that ravaged the country of Lerna in Argolis, destroying both men and beasts. The number of its heads varies with the poets, though ancient gems usually represent it with seven or nine. Hercules was sent to kill it as one of his twelve labours. After driving the monster from its lair with arrows he attacked it with his sword, and in place of each head he struck off two sprang up. Setting fire to a neighbouring wood with the firebrands he seared the throat of the Hydra until he at length succeeded in slaying it.

The fable is usually referred to in ill.u.s.tration of a difficulty which goes on increasing as it is combated. (_See_ page 63.)

"Whereon this Hydra son of war is born Whose dangerous eyes may well be charmed asleep."

_Henry IV._ part ii. sc. 2.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Hydra.]

The Lernean hydra, the watchful dragon of the garden of the Hesperides, the many-headed Naga or snake of the Hindu religion, are, say learned writers, only some of the many forms under which the relics of the ancient serpent-worship exhibited itself.

_A hydra, wings endorsed vert, scaled or_, is the crest of _Barret_ of Avely, Ess.e.x. It is also borne by the names _Crespine_ and _Downes_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Wyvern holding a fleur-de-lis.]

The Wyvern

(SAXON, _Wivere_, a serpent) said to represent a flying serpent, an imaginary creature resembling the dragon, but having only two legs, which are like an eagle's, and a serpent-like tail, barbed, sometimes represented nowed after the manner of serpents. It is figured on one of the standards in the Bayeux tapestry (_see_ Dragon, p. 86). It is erroneously termed a dragon by some writers, though perhaps they may both be cla.s.sed together. Old heralds say of these imaginary monsters that they are emblems of pestilence, and are represented as strong and fierce animals covered with invulnerable mail, and fitly typify viciousness and envy. In armory they are properly applied to tyranny or the overthrow of a vicious enemy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Wyrvern, wings endorsed, tail nowed.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wyvern from the Garter plate of Sir John Gray, 1436 A.D.]

Occasionally a wyvern is borne with the tail nowed and without wings.

_Lindworm._--It is not usual to say a wyvern "without wings" or "without legs," but _sans wings_ or _sans legs_, as the case may be. A dragon or wyvern sans wings is termed a lindworm. (_See_ page 80.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wyvern, or Lindworm. (German version.)]

_Argent, a wyvern, wings endorsed gules_, are the arms of _Drake_, of Ashe, Devon (Bart.), 1600.

The town of Leicester has for crest a _wyvern, wings expanded, sans legs, strewed with wounds, gules_.

_Argent on a bend sable, between two lions rampant of the last, a wyvern volant in bend of the field, langued gules, Ruddings._

_Two wyverns, wings endorsed and emitting flames_, are the supporters of Viscount _Arbuthnot_.

The arms of the King of Portugal are supported by _two wyverns erect on their tails or_, each holding a banner, the crest is a _demi-wyvern_ out of a ducal coronet.

_Guivre._--The wyvern or serpent in the arms of the Visconti, Lords of Milan, _argent a guivre d'azure couronnee d'or, issante de gules_ (GUIVRE is represented as a serpent or wingless dragon sans feet, with a child's body issuing from its mouth), is said to commemorate the victory of a lord of that house over a fiery dragon or guivre which inhabited a cavern under the church of St. Denis in that place. "It is hardly possible," says Miss Millington, "not to think that the story of the dragon as well as its adoption in the coat-of-arms bears allusion rather to the dragon of paganism, expelled from the city, as it might seem, by the church built upon the site of the cave, in which too, by the rite of Holy Baptism, _children_ especially were delivered from the power of Satan. Indeed, the innumerable legends of saints who have fought and overcome dragons sufficiently prove the symbolic light in which that creature was anciently viewed." (_See_ also Serpent Biscia, p. 117.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wyvern, wings displayed. (Early example.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wyvern, wings depressed.]

The Chimera

An imaginary fire-breathing monster of great swiftness and strength, invented by the ancient Greek poets. Though mentioned by heraldic authorities, it is not met with in British coat armour; it is described as having the head, mane and legs of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. From this creature the term "chimerical" is applied to all such figures as have no other existence but in the imagination. It is represented upon the coins of Sycion during the Achaean League.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chimera, from a Greek coin.]

The origin of the story of the chimera is ascribed to a mountain in Lycia which had a volcano on its top and nourished lions; the middle part afforded pasture for goats, and the bottom was infested with serpents; according to Hesiod it had three heads, that of a lion, a goat, and a dragon. Bellerophon destroyed the monster by raising himself in the air on his winged steed Pegasus, and shooting it with his arrows.

"Amid the troops, and like the leading G.o.d, High o'er the rest in arms the graceful Turnus rode; A triple pile of plumes his crest adorned, On which with belching flames chimera burned: The more the kindled combat rises higher, The more with fury burns the blazing fire."

VIRGIL, _aeneid_, Book vii.

Phillip II. of Spain, after his marriage with Queen Mary of England, a.s.sumed as a device, Bellerophon fighting with the chimera, and the motto, "Hinc vigilo," the monster being intended by him for a type of England's heresies which he waited his time to destroy.

The family of _Fada_ of Verona have for arms: Gules a winged chimera argent, the head and b.r.e.a.s.t.s carnation (or proper), and the wings and feet of an eagle. The ill.u.s.tration, however, has the head and b.r.e.a.s.t.s of a woman, and eagle's wings and feet, and makes it a different creature entirely, and should more properly be blazoned _harpy_.

The Lion-Dragon

is compounded of the forepart of a lion conjoined to the hinder part of a dragon.

_Or, a lion-dragon gules armed, langued and crowned of the first_, is the _Bretigni_ family.

_Party per chevron gules and or, three lion-dragons ducally crowned and countercharged._--_Easton._

The Gorgon

Reference has already been made to the gorgon in a quotation from Milton.

The name now denotes anything unusually hideous. In cla.s.sic story there were three gorgons, with serpents on their heads instead of hair. Medusa was the chief of the three, and the only one that was mortal. So hideous was her face that whoever set eyes on it was instantly turned to stone.

She was slain by Perseus, and her head placed upon _the shield of Minerva_ (termed the aegis of Minerva). Homer, in the "Odyssey," Book xi. thus alludes to the dread creature:

"Lest Gorgon rising from the infernal lakes With horrors armed, and curls of hissing snakes, Should fix me stiffened at the monstrous sight, A stony image in eternal night."

And Shakespeare, in _Macbeth_, Act ii. sc. 3, uses the name to picture, in a word, the horrible discovery of the murdered Duncan:

"Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new gorgon."

The c.o.c.katrice

This chimerical creature was said to be produced from a c.o.c.k's egg hatched by a serpent; hence its name. It differs from the wyvern of heraldry only in having a head like that of a dunghill c.o.c.k. "This monster is of that nature," says an old writer, "that its look or breath is said to be deadly poison"; and this, in addition to the ordinary weapons of offence, would const.i.tute it rather a difficult creature to be interfered with.

[Ill.u.s.tration: c.o.c.katrice.]

The c.o.c.katrice is frequently referred to in the Scriptures as the type of something evil. "The weaned child shall put his hand on the c.o.c.katrice's den" (Isaiah xi. 8), meaning that the most noxious animal shall not hurt the most feeble of G.o.d's creatures.

And Jeremiah viii. 17: "For behold, I will send serpents, c.o.c.katrices, among you which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord."

The c.o.c.katrice is a frequent emblem in heraldry, borne as a charge upon the shield and also as a supporter. To the mailed draconic form of the wyvern it had the hideous crested head with livid dangling wattles similar to the dunghill c.o.c.k, its round glittering eyes dealing death; its barbed tongue and serpentine tail, with deadly sting, would no doubt render it a fearful object to behold, and terrific to its enemies. It is always borne in profile, the wings endorsed, or back to back, unless directed otherwise. The tail is frequently _nowed_, _i.e._, knotted.

_Sable, a c.o.c.katrice or, combed and wattled gules._--_Bothe._

_Sable, a c.o.c.katrice, displayed argent, crested, membered and jelloped gules._--_Baggine._