1.
Arthur Rackham
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Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator. Rackham was born in Lewisham, then part of Kent as one of 12 children. In 1884, at the age of 17, he was sent on a voyage to Australia to improve his fragile health. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office, in 1892, he left his job and started working for the Westminster Budget as a reporter and illustrator. Book illustrating then became Rackhams career for the rest of his life and this was developed further through the austere years of the Boer War with regular contributions to childrens periodicals such as Little Folks and Cassells Magazine. In 1901 he moved to Wychcombe Studios near Haverstock Hill, edith suffered a miscarriage in 1904, but the couple had one daughter, Barbara, in 1908. M. Barries Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, published by Hodder & Stoughton. Income from the books was greatly augmented by annual exhibitions of the artwork at the Leicester Galleries, Rackham won a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906 and another one at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912. His works were included in exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914. From 1906 the family lived in Chalcot Gardens, near Haverstock Hill, until moving from London to Houghton, in 1929 the family settled into a newly built property in Limpsfield, Surrey. Arthur Rackham died in 1939 of cancer at his home, during that period, there was a strong market for high quality illustrated books which typically were given as Christmas gifts. Many of Rackhams books were produced in a de luxe limited edition, often vellum bound and sometimes signed, as well as a larger and this was often followed by a more modestly presented octavo edition in subsequent years for particularly popular books. The onset of the war in 1914 curtailed the market for such quality books, arthur Rackhams works have become very popular since his death, both in North America and Britain. His images have been used by the greeting card industry. His original drawings and paintings are keenly sought at the international art auction houses. Rackhams illustrations were based on robust pen and India ink drawings. He would first lightly block in shapes and details of the drawing with a soft pencil, over this he would then carefully work in lines of pen and India ink, removing the pencil traces after the drawing had begun to take form. For colour pictures, he would begin painting by building up multiple thin washes of watercolour creating translucent tints. He would also go on to expand the use of cuts in illustration work, particularly in the period after the First World War, as exemplified by his Sleeping Beauty
2.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
3.
Siegfried (opera)
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Siegfried, WWV 86C, is the third of the four music dramas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen, by Richard Wagner. It premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring cycle, the musical composition was commenced in 1856, but not finally completed until 1871. Having grappled with his text for Siegfrieds Tod, and indeed having undertaken some musical sketches for it during 1851, at this point he conceived that the prefatory opera, Der junge Siegfried, could act as a comic foil to the tragedy of Siegfrieds Tod. Its all growing out of the ground as if it were wild, shortly afterwards he wrote to Uhlig that he was now planning to tell the Siegfried story in the form of three dramas, plus a prologue in three acts—a clear prefiguring of the Ring cycle. The composition of Acts 1 and 2 was completed by August 1857, Wagner then left off work on Siegfried to write the operas Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger. He did not resume work on Siegfried until 1869, when he composed the third act, the final revision of the score was undertaken in February 1871. Performance was withheld until the first complete production of the Ring cycle, elements of the plot of Siegfried come from a variety of sources. In a letter to Uhlig, Wagner recounted The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was and it concerns a boy so stupid he had never learned to be afraid. Wagner wrote that the boy and Siegfried are the same character, the boy is taught to fear by his wife, and Siegfried learns it when he discovers the sleeping Brünnhilde. Siegfrieds ability in Act Two to see through Mimes deceitful words seems to have derived from a 19th-century street theatre version of the story of Faust. Some elements of the story are derived from legends of Sigurd, notably the Völsunga saga, scene 1 of Act 3 has a parallel in the Eddic poem Baldrs draumar, in which Odin questions a völva about the future of the gods. A cave in rocks in the forest, as the curtain rises, Alberichs brother, the dwarf Mime, is forging a sword. Mime is plotting to obtain the ring of power created by his brother Alberich. Mime needs a sword for Siegfried to use, but the youth has contemptuously broken every sword Mime has made, Siegfried returns from his wanderings in the forest with a wild bear in tow, and immediately breaks the new sword. Mime is forced to explain how he took in Siegfrieds mother, Sieglinde and he shows Siegfried the broken pieces of the sword Nothung, which Mime had obtained from her. Siegfried orders him to reforge the sword, Mime, however, is unable to accomplish this, Siegfried departs, leaving Mime in despair. An old man arrives at the door and introduces himself as the Wanderer, in return for the hospitality due a guest, he wagers his head on answering any three questions of Mime. The dwarf asks the Wanderer to name the races that live beneath the ground, on the earth and these are the Nibelung, the Giants, and the Gods, as the Wanderer answers correctly
4.
Norse mythology
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The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central cosmological tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings, various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök, there the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world. Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century, by way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology. In the modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, the myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland and this occurred primarily in the 13th century. The Prose Edda was composed as a manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse, kennings, the Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and also frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, in comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned. Numerous further texts, such as the sagas, provide further information, the saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila the Hun. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology may also lend insight, wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths. Of the mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, the god Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed, wolf and raven-flanked, and spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds, Odin has a strong association with death, Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Valhalla, where valkyries carry half of those slain in battle. Odins wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his death, his death is engineered by Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel. Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess and she is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain, and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr, Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr, and seeks after him in far away lands
5.
Dragon
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A dragon is a legendary creature, typically scaled or fire-spewing and with serpentine, reptilian or avian traits, that features in the myths of many cultures around world. The two most well-known cultural traditions of dragon are The European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Balkans, most are depicted as reptilian creatures with animal-level intelligence, and are uniquely six-limbed. The Chinese dragon, with counterparts in Japan, Korea and other East Asian, most are depicted as serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence, and are quadrupeds. The two traditions may have evolved separately, but have influenced each other to a certain extent, the English word dragon and Latin word draco derives from Greek δράκων, dragon, serpent of huge size, water-snake. The Greek and Latin term referred to any great serpent, not necessarily mythological, a dragon is a mythological representation of a reptile. In antiquity, dragons were mostly envisaged as serpents, but since the Middle Ages, it has become common to them with legs. Dragons are usually shown in modern times with a body like a huge lizard, the European dragon has bat-like wings growing from its back. A dragon-like creature with wings but only a pair of legs is known as a wyvern. The association of the serpent with a monstrous opponent overcome by a deity has its roots in the mythology of the Ancient Near East, including Canaanite, Hittite. Humbaba, the fire-breathing dragon-fanged beast first described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, is described as a dragon with Gilgamesh playing the part of dragon-slayer. The folk-lore motif of the dragon guarding gold may have come from earlier Bronze Age customs of introducing serpents to village granaries to deter rats or mice. Although dragons occur in many legends around the world, different cultures have varying stories about monsters that have been grouped together under the dragon label, some dragons are said to breathe fire or to be poisonous, such as in the Old English poem Beowulf. They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and they are sometimes portrayed as hoarding treasure. Some myths portray them with a row of dorsal spines, European dragons are more often winged, while Chinese dragons resemble large snakes. Dragons can have a number of legs, none, two, four, or more when it comes to early European literature. Dragons are often held to have spiritual significance in various religions. In many Asian cultures, dragons were, and in some still are, revered as representative of the primal forces of nature, religion. They are associated with wisdom—often said to be wiser than humans—and longevity and they are commonly said to possess some form of magic or other supernatural power, and are often associated with wells, rain, and rivers
6.
Sigurd
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Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving. As Siegfried, he is one of the heroes in the German Nibelungenlied, as Sivard Snarensven he was the hero of several medieval Scandinavian ballads. The name Sigurðr is not the name as the German Siegfried. The Old Norse form of Siegfried would have been Sigfroðr, Sivard is a variant form of Sigurðr. These name forms all share the first element Sig-, which means victory, in the Völsunga saga, Sigurd is supposedly the posthumous son of Sigmund and his second wife, Hiordis. Sigmund dies in battle when he attacks Odin, and Odin shatters Sigmunds sword, dying, Sigmund tells Hiordis of her pregnancy and bequeaths the fragments of his sword to his unborn son. Hiordis marries King Alf, and then Alf decides to send Sigurd to Regin as a foster, Regin tempts Sigurd to greed and violence by first asking Sigurd if he has control over Sigmunds gold. When Sigurd says that Alf and his control the gold and will give him anything he desires. Sigurd replies that he is treated as an equal by the kings, then Regin asks Sigurd why he acts as stableboy to the kings and has no horse of his own. Sigurd then goes to get a horse, an old man advises Sigurd on choice of horse. In this way Sigurd acquires Grani, a directly descended from Odins own horse. Finally, Regin tries to tempt Sigurd by telling him the story of the Otters Gold, Regin explains to Sigurd that his father is Hreidmar, a powerful magician, and that his two brothers are Ótr and Fafnir. Regin explains that he is a master at smithing and he also describes how his brother, Ótr possesses many magical talents. Regin tells a story of how Ótr enjoys taking the form of an otter and swimming at a waterfall, Andvari often assumes the form of a pike and swims in the same pool as well. One day, the Æsir see Ótr in the form of an otter carrying a fish in his mouth on the banks, loki kills him for his pelt. They take the pelt to the home of Hreidmar to display their catch. Hreidmar, Fafnir, and Regin promptly seize the Æsir and demand compensation for the death of Ótr, loki acquires a net from the sea giantess, Rán
7.
Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese
8.
Odin
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In Germanic mythology, Odin is a widely revered god. In the modern period, Odin continued to be acknowledged in the folklore of Germanic Europe. Forms of his name appear frequently throughout the Germanic record, though narratives regarding Odin are mainly found in Old Norse works recorded in Iceland and these texts make up the bulk of modern understanding of Norse mythology. In Old Norse texts, Odin is depicted as one-eyed and long-bearded, frequently wielding a spear named Gungnir, and wearing a cloak, Odin is attested as having many sons, most famously the god Baldr with Frigg, and is known by hundreds of names. Odin has an association with Yule, and mankinds knowledge of both the runes and poetry is also attributed to him. In Old Norse texts, Odin is given primacy over female beings associated with the battlefield—the valkyries—and oversees Valhalla, where he receives half of those who die in battle, the other half are chosen by the goddess Freyja for her afterlife location, Fólkvangr. In later folklore, Odin appears as a leader of the Wild Hunt and he has also been associated with charms and other forms of magic, particularly in Old English and Old Norse texts. Odin has been a frequent subject of study in Germanic studies, in the modern period, Odin has inspired numerous works of poetry, music, and other forms of media. He is venerated in most forms of the new religious movement Heathenry, together with other gods venerated by the ancient Germanic peoples, some branches focus particularly on him. The Old Norse theonym Óðinn and its cognates, including Old English Wōden, Old Saxon Wōden, the masculine noun *wōđanaz developed from the Proto-Germanic adjective *wōđaz, related to Latin vātēs and Old Irish fáith, both meaning seer, prophet. Adjectives stemming from *wōđaz include Gothic woþs possessed, Old Norse óðr, mad, frantic, furious, additionally the Old Norse noun æði rage, fury and Old High German wuotī madness derive from the feminine noun *wōđīn, from *wōđaz. Over 170 names are recorded for the god Odin and these names are variously descriptive of attributes of the god, refer to myths involving him, or refer to religious practices associated with the god. This multitude of names makes Odin the god with the most names known among the Germanic peoples, the weekday name Wednesday derives from Old English wōdnesdæg. Cognate terms are found in other Germanic languages, such as Middle Low German wōdensdach, all of these terms derive from Proto-Germanic *Wodensdag, itself a Germanic interpretation of Latin Dies Mercurii. However, in Old High German, the derived from Odins was replaced by a translation of Church Latin media hebdomas. The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans and they regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind, in this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as Mercury, Thor as Hercules, and Týr as Mars, and the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. But their rankings in their respective religious spheres may have very different
9.
Loki
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In Norse mythology, Loki, Loptr, or Hveðrungr is a god or jötunn. Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi, by the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Narfi and/or Nari, by the stallion Svaðilfari, Loki is the mother—giving birth in the form of a mare—to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In addition, Loki is referred to as the father of Váli in Prose Edda, though this also refers to Odin as the father of Váli twice. Lokis relation with the gods varies by source, Loki sometimes assists the gods, Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon, a mare, a fly, and possibly an elderly woman named Þökk. Lokis positive relations with the end with his role in engineering the death of the god Baldr. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, the goddess Skaði is responsible for placing a serpent above him while he is bound, Loki may be depicted on the Snaptun Stone, the Kirkby Stephen Stone, and the Gosforth Cross. Lokis origins and role in Norse mythology, which scholars have described as that of a trickster god, have been much debated by scholars. Loki has been depicted in or is referenced in a variety of media in popular culture. The etymology of the name Loki has yet to be solved and it may be related to Old Norse luka, meaning close, shut. The name Hveðrungr is also used in reference to Loki, occurring in names for Hel, in the Poetic Edda, Loki appears in the poems Völuspá, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Reginsmál, Baldrs draumar, and Hyndluljóð. In stanza 35 of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, a völva tells Odin that, among other things, she sees Sigyn sitting very unhappily with her bound husband, Loki. In stanza 54, after consuming Odin and being killed by Odins son Víðarr, the poem Lokasenna centers around Loki flyting with other gods, Loki puts forth two stanzas of insults while the receiving figure responds with a single stanza, and then another figure chimes in. The poem begins with an introduction detailing that Ægir, a figure associated with the sea, is hosting a feast in his hall for a number of the gods. There, the gods praise Ægirs servers Fimafeng and Eldir, Loki could not bear to hear that, and kills the servant Fimafeng. In response, the gods grab their shields, shrieking at Loki, the gods then return to the hall, and continue drinking. Entrance and rejection Loki comes out of the woods, and meets Eldir outside of the hall, Loki greets Eldir with a demand that Eldir tell him what the gods are discussing over their ale inside the hall. Eldir responds that they discuss their weapons and their prowess in war, Loki says that he will go into the feast, and that, before the end of the feast, he will induce quarrelling among the gods, and mix their mead with malice
10.
Otter
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Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic or marine, with diets based on fish, Lutrinae is a branch of the weasel family Mustelidae, which also includes badgers, honey badgers, martens, minks, polecats, and wolverines. The word otter derives from the Old English word otor or oter and this, and cognate words in other Indo-European languages, ultimately stem from the Proto-Indo-European language root *wódr̥, which also gave rise to the English word water. An otters den is called a holt or couch, male otters are called dogs or boars, females are called bitches or sows, and their offspring are called pups. The collective nouns for otters are bevy, family, lodge, romp or, the feces of otters are typically identified by their distinctive aroma, the smell of which has been described as ranging from freshly mown hay to putrefied fish, these are known as spraints. The gestation period in otters is about 60 to 86 days, the newborn pup is cared for by the bitch, dog and older offspring. Bitch otters reach sexual maturity at two years of age and males at approximately three years. The holt is built under tree roots or a rocky cairn and it is lined with moss and grass. After one month, the pup can leave the holt and after two months, it is able to swim, the pup lives with its family for approximately one year. Otters live up to 16 years, they are by nature playful and its usual source of food is fish, and further downriver, eels, but it may sample frogs and birds. Otters have long, slim bodies and relatively short limbs and their most striking anatomical features are the powerful webbed feet used to swim, and their seal-like abilities holding breath underwater. Most have sharp claws on their feet and all except the sea otter have long, the 13 species range in adult size from 0.6 to 1.8 m in length and 1 to 45 kg in weight. The Oriental small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species and the giant otter and they have very soft, insulated underfur, which is protected by an outer layer of long guard hairs. This traps a layer of air which keeps them dry, warm, several otter species live in cold waters and have high metabolic rates to help keep them warm. European otters must eat 15% of their weight each day. In water as warm as 10 °C, an otter needs to catch 100 g of fish per hour to survive, most species hunt for three to five hours each day and nursing mothers up to eight hours each day. For most otters, fish is the staple of their diet and this is often supplemented by frogs, crayfish and crabs. Some otters are expert at opening shellfish, and others feed on available small mammals or birds
11.
Serpent (symbolism)
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The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin serpens, an animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to humankind and represent dual expression of good, in some cultures, snakes were fertility symbols. For example, the Hopi people of North America performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth and Snake Girl, during the dance, live snakes were handled and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee good crops. The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of the clouds, the thunder and the lightning, in other cultures, snakes symbolized the umbilical cord, joining all humans to Mother Earth. The Great Goddess often had snakes as her familiars—sometimes twining around her staff, as in ancient Crete—and they were worshiped as guardians of her mysteries of birth. Historically, serpents and snakes represent fertility or a life force. As snakes shed their skin through sloughing, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, the ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and continual renewal of life. In some Abrahamic traditions, the serpent represents sexual desire, according to some interpretations of the Midrash, the serpent represents sexual passion. In Hinduism, Kundalini is a serpent, the residual power of pure desire. Serpents are represented as potent guardians of temples and other sacred spaces, thus, they are natural guardians of treasures or sacred sites which cannot easily be moved out of harms way. At Angkor in Cambodia, numerous stone sculptures present hooded multi-headed nāgas as guardians of temples or other premises, the Gadsden flag of the American Revolution depicts a rattlesnake coiled up and poised to strike. Below the image of the snake is the legend, Dont tread on me, the snake symbolized the dangerousness of colonists willing to fight for their rights and homeland. The motif is repeated in the First Navy Jack of the US Navy, Serpents are connected with poison and medicine. The snakes venom is associated with the chemicals of plants and fungi that have the power to either heal, because of its herbal knowledge and entheogenic association the snake was often considered one of the wisest animals, being divine. Its divine aspect combined with its habitat in the earth between the roots of plants made it an animal with chthonic properties connected to the afterlife and immortality. Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing, carried a staff with one serpent wrapped around it, Moses also had a replica of a serpent on a pole, the Nehushtan, mentioned in Numbers 21,8. Serpents are connected with vengefulness and vindictiveness and this connection depends in part on the experience that venomous snakes often deliver deadly defensive bites without giving prior notice or warning to their unwitting victims
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European dragon
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European dragons are legendary creatures in folklore and mythology among the overlapping cultures of Europe. Some depictions show dragons with feathered wings, crests, ear frills, fiery manes, ivory spikes running down its spine, others have no legs or multiple heads. In folktales, dragons blood often contains magical properties, keeping them alive for longer or giving them magical power, for example, in the opera Siegfried, dragons blood allows Siegfried to understand the language of the Forest Bird. The typical dragon protects a cavern or castle filled with gold, an evil dragon is often associated with a great hero who tries to slay it, and a good one is said to give wise advice. Though a winged creature, the dragon is generally to be found in its underground lair, possibly, the dragons of European and Mid-Eastern mythology stem from the cult of snakes found in religions throughout the world. Dragon is derived from the Latin word draco, as in the constellation, Draco, roman dragons evolved from serpentine Greek ones, combined with the dragons of the Near East, in the mix that characterized the hybrid Greek/Eastern Hellenistic culture. From Babylon, the muš-ḫuššu was a representation of a Near Eastern dragon. Johns Book of Revelation—Greek literature, not Roman—describes Satan as a dragon, flaming red, with seven heads. Much of Johns literary inspiration is late Hebrew and Greek, with the jaws facing into the wind, the silken body inflated and rippled, resembling a windsock. Several vague incarnations of evil in the Old Testament were given the translation draco in Jeromes Vulgate, to changes in meaning. Dragons in Greek mythology often guard treasure such as Ladon, a hundred headed dragon which guarded the tree of Herdias until he was slain by Heracles, likewise Python guarded the oracle of Delphi until he was likewise slain by Apollo out of revenge for Python tormenting his mother. The Lerneaen Hydra, a multiple headed serpentine swamp monster is said to be a dragon, being killed by Heracles later, but the matter if hes a true dragon or not is still over controversy. Dragons are usually shown in modern times with a body like a huge lizard and this traces back to the continental dragon, commonly referred to as a fire-breathing dragon. The continental, like many other European dragons, has bat-like wings growing from its back and it has been speculated that accounts of spitting cobras may be the origin of the myths of continental dragons. In Western folklore, dragons are usually portrayed as evil, with the mainly in Asturian and Welsh folklore. This is in contrast to Asian dragons, who are depicted as more benevolent creatures. In the modern period, the European dragon is depicted as a huge fire-breathing, scaly and horned lizard-like creature, with wings. It is sometimes shown with feathered wings, crests, fiery manes, ivory spikes running down its spine, Dragons blood often has magical properties, for example, in the opera Siegfried it let Siegfried understand the language of the Forest Bird
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