As we have seen some great characters with serpent body yesterday, today I would like to share two villains also related to snake with you.
Xiangliu is a nine-headed snake monster encountered in old Chinese mythology, which is an ancient demon, eating countless people wherever it went, and always to make flood. Water spit out from its mouth is more harmful than flood, which is bitter and spicy, anyone would be killed if drink it, so there is no other beasts can survive around its habitat.
According to the Shan Hai Jing, Xiangliu was a minister of Gong Gong (a water god in Chinese legend). Later Xiangliu was killed by Yu the Great (a real character in ancient China). Xiangliu's blood stank and no grasses would grow where it spolled. An oral version of the Xiangliu myth was collected as late from Sichuan as late as 1983, in which Xiangliu is depicted as a nine-headed dragon, responsible for floods and other harm.
Another one is Hydra, which is an ancient Greek mythical beast that was mentioned in the tale of the twelve labors of Hercules (also called Heracles). The hydra has many heads (possibly 7, 8 or 9), the number of head varies from different versions of the legend, however, more accounts agree on nine. It was said that the middle one was immortal and it has very poisonous venom and breath.
If the heads are cut off, the heads would grow back. One head cut-off would result to two heads growing back in its place. The Hydra was believed to have lived in the Lernean marsh which is located near Argolis, the region around Argos, Greece. Others say that the Hydra lived in Cave in the Swamp of Lerna.
The serpent-woman Echidna and the hundred headed Typhon are the Hydra’s parents. His siblings include the Nemean lion, Cerberus, Chimera and Ladon. The Hydra guards the entrance to the Underworld and from the murky swamps of the Lake of Lerna the monstrous serpent would rise and terrorize the city. The Hydra was finally killed by Hercules during his second labor.
(Ἔχιδνα)
Reference:
没有评论:
发表评论