* I cannot understand this swift forward motion of serpents.  The seizure of prey by the constrictor, though invisibly swift, is quite simple in mechanism; it is simply the return to its coil of an opened watch-spring, and is just as instantaneous.  But the steady and continuous motion, without a visible fulcrum (for the whole body moves at the same instant, and I have often seen even small snakes glide as fast as I could walk), seems to involve a vibration of the scales quite too rapid to be conceived.  The motion of the crest and dorsal fin of the hippocampus, which is one of the intermediate types between serpent and fish, perhaps gives some resemblance of it, dimly visible, for the quivering turns the fin into a mere mist.  The entrance of the two barbs of a bee’s sting by alternate motion, “the teeth of one barb acting as a fulcrum for the other,” must be something like the serpent motion on a small scale. ** Richard Owen.

69.  Hence the continual change in the interpretation put upon it in various religions.  As the worm of corruption, it is the mightiest of all adversaries of the gods—­the special adversary of their light and creative power—­Python against Apollo.  As the power of the earth against the air, the giants are serpent-bodied in the Gigantomachia; but as the power of the earth upon the seed—­consuming it into new life ("that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die")—­serpents sustain the chariot of the spirit of agriculture.

70.  Yet on the other hand, there is a power in the earth to take away corruption, and to purify (hence the very fact of burial, and many uses of earth, only lately known):  and in this sense the serpent is a healing spirit,—­the representative of AEsculapius, and of Hygieia; and is a sacred earth-type in the temple of the native earth of Athens; so that its departure from the temple was a sign to the Athenians that they were to leave their homes.  And then, lastly, as there is a strength and healing in the earth, no less than the strength of air, so there is conceived to be a wisdom of earth no less than a wisdom of the spirit; and when its deadly power is killed, its guiding power becomes true; so that the Python serpent is killed at Delphi, where yet the oracle is from the breath of the earth.

71.  You must remember, however, that in this, as in every other instance, I take the myth at its central time.  This is only the meaning of the serpent to the Greek mind which could conceive an Athena.  Its first meaning to the nascent eyes of men, and its continued influence over degraded races, are subjects of the most fearful mystery.  Mr. Fergusson has just collected the principal evidence bearing on the matter in a work of very great value, and if you read his opening chapters, they will put you in possession of the circumstances needing chiefly to be considered.  I cannot touch upon any of them here, except only to point out that, though the doctrine of the so-called