Amphisbaena
This exceedingly poisonous species of serpent, reputed to be the progeny of Medusa, is said to have venomous heads at either end of its elongated, worm-like body . . . with eyes that are said to “glow like candles.”
This name of “worm lizard” begs comparison to modern Amphisbaenidae, which (while decidedly single-headed) look distinctly like reptilian earthworms and are found in most of the Western Hemisphere, some Caribbean islands and sub-Saharan Africa. There is even one primordial and rather unusual genus, Blanus, which is native to Europe, and may represent the original inspiration for the legends.
Tales of these ancient creatures come to us originally from Greek Mythology, where it is said that the Amphisbaena was spawned from the blood that dripped from the severed head of the gorgon known as Medusa, as the legendary Perseus flew over the Libyan Desert with his prize. It has also been chronicled that Cato’s army encountered the poisonous serpents on their renowned march.
Unlike other multiple headed beasts (such as the hydra), this reptile’s torso does not split into separate necks; rather the animal is purported to have a head at each end of its body. In fact, its name — when translated from Greek — means “goes both ways.” Pliny the Elder, who first chronicled the creature sometime before A.D. 79, described the snake-like creature thusly:
“The amphisbaena has a twin head, that is one at the tail end as well, as though it were not enough for poison to be poured out of one mouth.”
The Amphisbaena is also reputed to have incredible regenerative capacities, which include the ability to weld itself back together if its two sections are severed. This may indicated that the animal is not a reptile at all, but perhaps more in line with parasitic worms (helminthes) of some variety.
The Amphisbaena is also reportedly capable of an extraordinary form of locomotion, whereby its two heads clamp onto one another enabling it to roll like a bicycle wheel. This trait, as many investigators have indicated in the past, bears an incredible likeness to the North American hoop snake.
English author and physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) further described the Amphisbaena’s bizarre attributes in his PseudodoxiaEpidemica:
“(The Amphisbaena is) a smaller kind of Serpent, which moveth forward and backward, hath two heads… Which double formations do often happen unto multiparous generations, more especially that of Serpents; whose productions being numerous, and their Eggs in chains or links together (which sometime conjoin and inoculate into each other) they may unite into various shapes and come out in mixed formations.”
Bestiaries(books containing pictures and moralizing stories about real and imaginary animals) from the Medieval era also chronicle the Amphisbaena, but there it is more often described as a two-headed lizard, or even a multi-headed serpent, with elements of a fowl – a description which closely resembles the notoriously toxic basilisk. The creature has been referred to as the “mother of ants,” because its particular fondness for the insect delicacy.
The medical properties of the Amphisbaena were also recorded. According to Pliny, the wearing of a live Amphisbaena is a supposed safeguard in pregnancy, and draping a dead one across your neck is an alleged remedy for rheumatism (stiffness in joints or muscles). Those who ate the meat of this creature were said to become irresistible to the opposite gender, and anyone of pure heart who had the fortune of slaying an Amphisbaena during a full moon would allegedly gain remarkable powers.
(Storrs, Marc. “Amphisbaena: (Greece).” American Monsters.n.p. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. Accessed March 8, 2014)
Amphisbaena
The Amphisbaena is a reptile in European legends and heraldry, commonly described as a snake with a head at both ends. Its name stems from a Greek word that means 'to go both ways,' which Amphisbaena earned because it was believed that it could move backward or forward with equal ease.
Amphisbaena is described as a two-headed serpent, one above the neck and one at the end of its prehensile tail, sometimes depicted with the claws and legs of a bird and the pointed wings of a bat.
In bestiaries and manuscripts, depictions of the amphisbaena have its jaws wrap around its own tail/neck, creating a hoop that can either roll or move like a cartwheel. When both heads try to move forward, the dragon forms a circle.
The Amphisbaenae live in the deserts of North Africa. They are widespread throughout the desert, and they lie in wait for unwary animals or travelers in the desert.
Amphisbaenaeare formidable adversaries. They can run at spectacular speeds in either direction and can change direction with ease to surprise prey or elude capture. On top of its speed, they secrete a dangerous and excruciating position that kills quickly. No one is safe from an Amphisbaena, even at night, because its glowing eyes penetrate the darkness.
After an Amphisbaena lays its eggs in the warm sands, the parents keep watch. While one of its head sleeps, the other keeps watch, with eyes as bright as fire.
In Greek myth, the blood of the Gorgon Medusa spawned many deadly serpents as Perseus carried the head of the Gorgon over the Libyan Desert. Among those serpents was the first Amphisbaena. When Cato's army marched across the desert, amphisbaena fed upon the fallen soldiers.
Classical writer Pliny the Elder describes the Amphisbaena, and Lucan makes an account of one in Pharsalia.
Despite its dangerous venom, capturing an Amphisbaena can prove its worth. Its dried skin can cure rheumatism and remedy chilblains because it reduces the swelling of the hands and feet when inflamed by the cold.
A living Amphisbaena is an excellent talisman for any pregnant woman. In fact, prophetesses and women of prestige or high rank wore golden bracelets carved in the resemblance of an amphisbaena, as this signified power and protection.
In the Libyan Desert there is a reptile that has the name Amphisbaena, although its nature is far less fantastical than the dragon species described here.
Amphisbaena is the scientific name for a genus of legless worm lizards capable of moving both ways with camouflaged tails. When one raises its tail, it appears as if there is an additional head, and, with this clever camouflage, the lizard protects its eggs and eludes predators.
These are quotations from people of the past who are describing this strange creature.
A smaller kind of serpent, which moveth forward and backward, hath two heads...Which double formations do often happen unto multiparous generations, more especially that of Serpents; whose productions being numerous, and their Eggs in chains or links together (which sometime conjoyn and inoculate into each other) they may unite into various shapes and come out in mixed formations.
-- Sir Thomas Browne PseudodoxiaEpidemica
(McCormick, Kylie. “Dragon Species: Amphisbaena/Amfisibena/Amphista/Amphivena.” Circle of the Dragon. n.p. Web. 18. Nov. 2012. Accessed 8 March, 2014.)
Antaeus
A son of Poseidon and Gaea, a mighty giant and wrestler in Libya, whose strength was invincible so long as he remained in contact with his mother earth. The strangers who came to his country were compelled to wrestle with him; the conquered were slain, and out of their skulls he built a house to Poseidon. Heracles discovered the source of his strength, lifted him up from the earth, and crushed him in the air. The tomb of Antaeus (Antaeicollis), which formed a moderate hill in the shape of a man stretched out at full length, was shewn near the town of Tingis in Mauretania down to a late period, and it was believed that whenever a portion of the earth covering it was taken away, it rained until the hole was filled up again. Sertorius is said to have opened the grave, but when he found the skeleton of sixty cubits in length, he was struck with horror and had it covered again immediately.
(Atsma, Aaron. “Antaois.” Theoi Project. n.p. n.d.Web. Accessed 8 March 2014.)
Antaeus
Heracles did not return to Mycenae by a direct route. He first traversed Libya, whose King Antaeus, son of Poseidon and Mother Earth, was in the habit of forcing strangers to wrestle with him until they were exhausted, whereupon he killed them; for not only was he a strong and skillful athlete, but whenever he touched the earth, his strength revived. He saved the skulls of his victims to roof a temple of Poseidon. It is not known whether Heracles, who was determined to end this barbarous practice, challenged Antaeus, or was challenged by him.
Antaeus, however, proved no easy victim, being a giant who lived in a cave beneath a towering cliff, where he feasted on the flesh of lions, and slept on the bare ground in order to conserve and increase his already colossal strength. Mother Earth, not yet sterile after her birth of the Giants, had conceived Antaeus in a Libyan cave, and found more reason to boast of him than even of her monstrous elder children, Typhon, Tityus, and Briareus. It would have gone ill with the Olympians if he had fought against them on the Plains of Phlegra.
"In preparation for the wrestling match, both combatants cast off their lion pelts, but while Heracles rubbed himself with oil in the Olympic fashion, Antaeus poured hot sand over his limbs lest contact with the earth through the soles of his feet alone should prove insufficient.
Heracles planned to preserve his strength and wear Antaeus down, but after tossing him full length on the ground, he was amazed to see the giant's muscles swell and a healthy flush suffuse his limbs as Mother Earth revived him.
The combatants grappled again, and presently Antaeus flung himself down of his own accord, not waiting to be thrown; upon which, Heracles, realizing what he was at, lifted him high into the air, then cracked his ribs and, despite the hollow groans of Mother Earth, held him aloft until he died.
(Graves, Robert. “The Myth of Antaeus.”The Greek Myths.Penguin Books, 1955.Web. Accessed 8 March 2014.)
Argus
Argus (or Argos) was a monster in Greek mythology. He was famous in legend for having many eyes. With his multiple sets of eyes, he could see nearly everything in his vicinity. And indeed, with his keen vision, Argus was regarded as an almost perfect mythological guard creature. Why only almost perfect? Read on to see the answer to this question, and to learn more about the story of Argus.
There are several legends in which Argus plays a part. Two of these tales involve creatures that terrorized the area in and around Arcadia (incidentally, Arcadia is located in the Peloponnese, a peninsula in Greece). Argus set about ridding Arcadia of its troublesome pests. His first task was to subdue a wild bull that was destroying the Arcadian countryside. Then, Argus eliminated a malicious cattle-stealing satyr.
The other important legend in which Argus appears features some famous characters from myth, including Hermes, Zeus, Hera, and Io. According to the story, Hera, the Queen of the Olympian gods and goddesses, commanded Argus to watch over Io. Io was a woman with whom Zeus - the ruler of the Olympians - had conducted a passionate love affair. However, in order to protect his mistress from the wrath of his wife, Zeus had transformed Io into a heifer. So Hera, who was quite clever, had Argus guard her rival, the heifer Io. Zeus was not pleased. He sent the god Hermes to dispatch the monster. Hermes managed to subdue Argus, and here the details differ depending on the source of the myth. Some sources suggest that Hermes lulled Argus to sleep, while others state that Hermes killed the monster.
So in the end, the nearly perfect guard creature was defeated by the wit and cunning of Hermes. Hera paid tribute to Argus by placing his eyes into the tail of the peacock, her favorite bird. In this way, Argus was immortalized, his eyes adorning the feathers of Hera’s peacock.
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Argus
Homer's Odyssey (c. 800 BCE) alludes to the story of Argus by referring to Hermes as 'the guide, the slayer of Argus' (8.332). Similar references to Argus appear in Hesiod's Works and Days (c. 750-700 BCE) and many of the Homeric Hymns, including those to Aphrodite, Apollo, Hermes, and Demeter (c. 700-500 BCE). Hermes's epithet 'Argeiphontes' (ar-jee-fon-teez) means 'slayer of Argus.'
The myth's outline is that Zeus had seduced Io when Hera arrived on the scene. Zeus transformed Io into a cow to hide his infidelity, but Hera was not deceived. When Hera asked, Zeus was obliged to give her the cow. Hera appointed her servant Argus to guard the cow, and Hermes, at Zeus' command, killed Argus. The detail omitted in this summary varies depending on which source is referenced. Two prominent sources of the myth of Argus's death are Aeschylus's play Prometheus Bound (c. 500 BCE) and Ovid's Metamorphoses (c. 8 CE).
In Prometheus Bound Io, as a cow, has been wandering all over Greece desperately fleeing from a stinging gadfly ever since Hermes killed Argus. She comes upon Prometheus and relates her story in exchange for a prophecy. According to Aeschylus, the ghost of "Argus --that evil thing-- / The hundred-eyed- / Earth born herdsmen" (617-9) was the gadfly sent by "Hera's curse... [to pursue Io] ever on [her] endless round" (657-8). Little else is revealed about Argus in the play, as Io focuses on her wanderings. The play presents the myth in a manner that suggests it should be familiar to the audience, revealing only the details that are pertinent to the themes of the play.
Unlike Aeschylus, who assumes knowledge of the myth and omits details such as Argus' death at the hand of Hermes, Ovid tells a complete narrative of one version of this myth in the Metamorphoses. According to Ovid, Argus had "the hundred eyes / All watching and on duty round his head, / Save two which took in turn their sleep and rest" (I.625-7). The following lines tell that Zeus dispatched Hermes to slay Argus and set Io free. Hermes sang Argus to sleep, used his magic wand to seal Argus's eyes shut, and decapitated Argus. Hera was furious about the death of her servant Argus, and "Juno [Hera] retrieved those eyes to set in place / among the feathers of her bird and filled / his tail with starry jewels" (I.721-3), creating the eyes of the peacock. Furthermore, Hera, "before her rival's [Io's] eyes and in her mind... set a frightful Fury" (I.725-6).
Sources with different details for the same myth are characteristic of Greek myth, which is rooted in oral transmissions. Notice that in Ovid's tale Hera does not dispatch the ghost of Argus to torment Io as a gadfly. Hera calls upon a Fury as she does in an episode in Virgil's Aeneid that recounts Hera enlisting a Fury to torture the wife of Latinus. In Prometheus Bound, Argus is the child of Gaia, but Ovid is silent on the issue of Argus's lineage. While Ovid and Aeschylus give Argus one hundred eyes, other traditions, according to Pierre Grimal, attribute one eye or four eyes to the monster Argus. Just as there are differences in the literary preservation of this myth, representations of Argus in the plastic arts may differ. For example, Ovid describes Argus with one hundred eyes in his head, but an Attic vase (c. 490 BCE) depicts Argus with eyes all over his body (Powell 375).
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Argus
JUNO, queen of the gods, had the fairest cow that any one ever saw. She was creamy white, and her eyes were of as soft and bright a blue as those of any maiden in the world. Juno and the king of the gods often played tricks on each other, and Juno knew well that the king would try to get her cow. There was a watchman named Argus, and one would think that he could see all that was going on in the world, for he had a hundred eyes, and no one had ever seen them all asleep at once, so Queen Juno gave to Argus the work of watching the white cow.
The king of the gods knew what she had done, and he laughed to himself and said, "I will play a trick on Juno, and I will have the white cow." He sent for Mercury and whispered in his ear, "Mercury, go to the green field where Argus watches the cream-white cow and get her for me."
Mercury was always happy when he could play a trick on any one, and he set out gladly for the field where Argus watched the cream-white cow with every one of his hundred eyes.
Now Mercury could tell merry stories of all that was done in the world. He could sing, too, and the music of his voice had lulled many a god to sleep. Argus knew that, but he had been alone a long time, and he thought, "What harm is there in listening to his merry chatter? I have a hundred eyes, and even if half of them were asleep, the others could easily keep watch of one cow." So he gladly hailed Mercury and said, "I have been alone in this field a long, long time, but you have roamed about as you would. Will you not sing to me, and tell me what has happened in the world? You would be glad to hear stories and music if you had nothing to do but watch a cow, even if it was the cow of a queen."