Re: Pits of Python?
Posted by:
Platypus (IP Logged)
Date: 4 June, 2020 05:52PM
Cathbad Wrote:
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> Ovid's Metamorphosis describes a great flood very
> similar to the biblical version, and instigated by
> the gods for the same reasons. Only with no ark.
> In the flood's aftermath, man is recreated - the
> new, improved version - but everything else
> evolves out of the mud and slime left in the
> flood's wake, helped by the sunshine. The
> creatures are both good and bad, and the worst is
> Python. Milton references this (specifically where
> Python came into existence) in Paradise Lost -
> Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on slime.
>
> Sure it's a bit of a stretch, but a vale is just
> another word for 'valley', which in turn could be
> construed as 'pit'. Especially if it was full of
> slime!
It's a nice find. However, Milton's "vale", if it is analogous to a "pit", is surely analogous to an open pit, on the surface of the Earth, since the sun has access to it. CAS seems to have in mind, based on his other references in context, a subterranean pit or pits. Maybe something analogous to the pool and grotto of Abhoth, in "The Seven Geases".