Talk:Python (mythology)

Comments

"In Greek mythology Python was the oracular serpent of Delphi." Too bad to lose this, replaced with "monstrous snake". --Wetman 04:31, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

"monstrous snake" is definitely less snappy, but that's the price you pay for accuracy. Mythology would be much more exciting if we could just make it all up. --Akhilleus (talk) 05:40, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Pity we have lost the hot-link to Serpent which is an important one for cross referencing divinities who kill snakes in mythology. I propose it be restored - serpents and snakes are clearly identical, why quibble. John D. Croft 23:46, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Restored. I have moved here the following, Pytho was the offspring of Gaia and the mud that was left over after the flood of Deucalion. I can't find a source for this assertion. --Wetman 01:21, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Serpent, snake, what's the difference? (Piped) links are good, though.

Are we reading the same Homeric Hymn? The Homeric Hymn to Apollo actually doesn't say whose child Python was; the parthenogenetic child of Hera was Typhon, whom Hera gave to Typhon to nurse. Here's the relevant passage (lines 349-354):

But when the months and the days reached their destined goal,

and the seasons arrived as the year revolved,

she bore dreadful and baneful Typhaon, a scourge to mortals,

whose aspect resembled neither god's nor man's.

Forthwith cow-eyed mighty Hera took him, and, piling evil

upon evil, she commended him to the care of the she-dragon.

By the way, the Hymn to Apollo is now generally considered a unified work, so we don't need to separate it into Delian and Pythian hymns.

Finally, who ever says that Python gave oracles? Guarding an oracular shrine doesn't make you an oracular snake. --Akhilleus (talk) 05:50, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Additions

• The name in Greek characters please.--Connection 22:02, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• Does it have a relation to the The Witch of Endor, translated in some versions as "Pythoness woman" in the book of Samuel (1 Samuel 28:3-25)? Is it only a spurious expression as being (the woman) in the business of using oracles, or there is a deeper historical relationship?--Connection 22:02, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• In the title area the following doesn't make sense.

... who slew her and remade her former home his own oracle ...

Does the word oracle refer to home or to prophetic ability? 59.189.84.174 (talk) 06:11, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

It menas that Apollo made the former home of the Python into his oracle (place of prophesying). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.199.17.94 (talk) 14:25, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Recent IP edits

If anyone else can check the sources and see if they confirm this edit (and comment generally on it), I'd appreciate it. I'm suspicious of any edit that doesn't have the full book title or page number if it is at all controversial. I'd love to know what Eller is being used for, she's not a supporter of some of the extreme matriarchy stuff, Dougweller (talk) 14:59, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

It´s not at stake if she´s a supporter of matriarchy --she mentions Tiamat´s and Python´s death and scholar´s views´s of it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.21.128.77 (talk) 15:33, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

You've cited her for the bit about two halves. If that's not what you are citing her for, then you need to change it. I've given you a link so you can cite correctly. If you've read her, on what page does she mention their deaths? What does she say about scholars' views? Dougweller (talk) 10:36, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Pythons and The Anaconda in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, The Anaconda was a snake/Python so huge that it encircled the world at the Equator ! Call it what you may, but the points to the tale are as follows:
A. It was a completely mythological creature, and it was like a python, which the Ancient Greeks knew of.
B. The Ancient Greeks had contacts, via travelers, in India, Burma, Ceylon, etc. Later on, the Romans even exchanged ambassadors with China. See the map of the world that was drawn by Ptolemy, a Greek in Egypt.24.156.78.205 (talk) 07:36, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

The ancient Greeks probably did not know about the kind of snakes we now call "pythons." Especially during the Greek Archaic Era, the time when this myth is first attested, there was very little contact between the Greeks and India. It was not until the Hellenistic Era, after the conquests of Alexander the Great, that there was much cultural contact between the Greeks and India, but, even then, the Greeks did not know Burma existed at all; India was the furthest east they knew of. You cannot claim that the Greeks knew much about India or Indochina during the Archaic Era because they knew about them in the later Roman Era, because the Roman Era was around 600 years later. That is called an anachronism. The kind of snake we now call "pythons" were given that name by modern travelers and the ancient Greeks by no means would have called them by such a name if they knew of them at all. Once again, your claim that actual pythons inspired the myth of Python is another anachronism. In fact, it was the name of Python that let people to call the snakes pythons. --Katolophyromai (talk) 14:29, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

By the way, anacondas are only found in South America, so there is absolutely no way the Greeks could have possibly known about them. --Katolophyromai (talk) 14:30, 30 May 2018 (UTC)