THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

FABULA XL
REPARATIO ANIMALIUM: PYTHON SERPENS.
After the waters of the Deluge have subsided, the different animals are pro.
duced from the mud and slime that have been deposited, and among them
Python, a serpent of huge magnitude. Apollo destroys him with his arrows,
and institutes the Pythian games in commemoration of the deed.
EXPLICATIO.
THE fable of the serpent Python is coincident with Egyptian mythology,
wherein an account* is given of the monster Typhon, which, in Coptic,
signifies a serpent, and typifies the Evil being. In Arabic, Tuphan
means a deluge. Egyptian mythology represents Horus, (who is the
Apollo of the Greeks,) as in a boat piercing Typhon, the Evil being, who,
in the form of a great serpent, is lying in the water. The Egyptian
account seems to represent, by sensible signs, the power of the Mediator,
at the Flood, by means of the salvation of a righteous stock to repeople
the earth, as bruising the head of the serpent, who, as the spirit of destruc
tion, has overwhelmed the earth by water; for Horus, the second person
of the Triad, and a Mediator and Preserver, corresponds to the Saviour.
It is almost a literal representation of Isaiah, chap. xxvi. 20, 21, and
xxvii. 1, which refer to the ark and the deluge, " Come, my people, enter
thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it
were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For behold
the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth
for their iniquity. In that day the Lord, with his sore, and great, and
strong sword, shall punish leviathan, the piercing serpent, even leviathan,
that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."
Although Typhon .may relate to the poisonous vapors of the deluge,
we think the idea which the Egyptian myth conveys is rather a metaphy
sical one, while the Grecian fable, from which that of our poet is derived,
and which was suggested by the Egyptian, is rather of a physical charac
ter. The clouds and darkness which obscured the heavens, and the light
of the sun, during the flood, and the poisonous vapors and exhalations
that afterwards arose, are to be regarded as the Python which was slain
by the arrows of Apollo, that is, by the rays of the sun. An obscure and
confused reference, however, would seem to be made to the serpent in
Eden, and to the fall of man, in consequence of eating the forbidden fruit;
for, at the early institution of the Pythian games, commemorative of the
death of Python, the rewards distributed to the victors were consecrated
apples, having a mystic signification.
Again, as the Ark was fabled to have rested on Parnassus, (Larnassus,)
it is probable that in commemoration of the flood, stone pillars were set
up, forming a serpentine temple devoted to the worship of the serpent,
and of the sun, and hence in time the real object of it becoming unknown
it was thought to represent a serpent slain by Apollo.
diversis tellus animalia formis
Sponte sua peperit, postquam vetus humor ab igne
Percaluit Solis ; ccenumque, udseque paludes
Intumuerc ajstu : fcccundaque semina rerum
V[\ aci nutrita solo, ceu matris in alvo, o
Creverunt, faciemque aliquam cepere morando.
Sic ubi dcseruit madidos septemfluus agros
NOTJE.
1. Ctstera animalia: the other animals. The poet had described
the reproduction of men; he now proceeds to speak of the manner in
which the other animals were restored.
1. Diversis formis: of various forms.
2. Feperit: brought forth spontaneously. The metaphor employed
here is very forcible. How like the first creation of animals!
God said.
Let the earth oring forth soul living in her kind,
Cattle, and creeping things, and beasl of the earth,
Each mliis kind. MILTON.
2. Vet us launor : ihe former moisture, viz. the watery vapor of the
deluge.
4. Intumuere: swelled; became big.
The metaphor of maternity is still main
tained.
4. Fcecunda semina: the fruitful, fecun
dated seed.
5. Vitaci solo: in the living soil.
Meanwhile the Irpid caves, and fens, and chores,
Tlieir brood as numerous hatch. MILTON.
5. Matris in aha: as in the womb of a
mother.
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The earth obeyed, and straight
Opening her fertile womb, teemed at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limbed and full-grown. MILTON.
6. Fnciem aliqtiam: some form.
6. Morando: by delaying ; in process ot
time.
7. Septenrfluus Nilus: the seven-chan
nelled Nile. It rises in Abyssinia, runs
through Abex, Nubia, and t, and
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