02-02-2009, 11:52 PM
Paul B. wrote:
.....I am a little surprised that you who are a Natural Scientist should give even a shred of credence to such stories as the Regulus encounter with a giant serpent.
Let us look at the facts:-
There are four species of 'giant' snakes in the world, all of the Boidae and Python families --- the green anaconda, the reticulated python, the African rock python and the Burmese python. All live in Tropical climates and are mostly confined there, largely because of their size which requires them to spend at least part of their lives supported by water. None grow to more than 8 metres or so (26 feet), though as pointed out, the skin can be stretched to as much as 140% ( 11m/36 ft) and more if skillfully done. Aside from references to Alexander and giant snakes in the East, there are only two references/anecdotes in our ancient sources to 'monster snakes' in the Mediterranean world - The Bagradas one, and a reference to Ptolemy II Philadelphus obtaining a Giant Snake 45 feet long from 'Ethiopia' ( read somewhere a long way south) above. The only realistic candidate for these creatures would be the African Rock Python which is generally around 5.5 m/18 ft, and the largest recorded example being 7.5 m/25 ft.
Can a Rock Python devour an adult human ? No! Despite being able to unlatch its jaws, it cannot get around an adult human's shoulders, though there is a single recorded instance of a Rock Python eating a very small child.
Being confined to sub-saharan Africa, it would not have been possible for an African Rock Python, then or now, to live in/be native to North Africa/Egypt ( even if conditions in North Africa were suitable, which they are not) because the species simply couldn't cross the Sahara.
So could Ptolemy have had a Giant Snake? - plausible, allowing for considerable exaggeration of size, and of the details of its capture ( doubtless to maximise the reward!).... a Rock Python captured way south could have been brought via Ethiopia/the Nile to Alexandria.
Could the Romans have fought a 36m/120 ft Python in Tunisia that ate soldiers and was impervious to spears, javelins and arrows? Absolutely not! Pure myth then, with the possible exception of the detail that a large snakeskin hung as a trophy in a temple until approximately 133 BC - but that could only realistically have come from the same source as Ptolemy's pet. Still, if that detail were true, it would provide the stimulus for the tale.......
Quote:I have seen this described as a creation of whole cloth and its symbolism conjectured, but it probably was based on a true encounter. Pythons do get very big, and it is easy to exaggerate the length of a snake that is as thick as a man's waist- moreso if you only see the stretched skin.
.....I am a little surprised that you who are a Natural Scientist should give even a shred of credence to such stories as the Regulus encounter with a giant serpent.
Let us look at the facts:-
There are four species of 'giant' snakes in the world, all of the Boidae and Python families --- the green anaconda, the reticulated python, the African rock python and the Burmese python. All live in Tropical climates and are mostly confined there, largely because of their size which requires them to spend at least part of their lives supported by water. None grow to more than 8 metres or so (26 feet), though as pointed out, the skin can be stretched to as much as 140% ( 11m/36 ft) and more if skillfully done. Aside from references to Alexander and giant snakes in the East, there are only two references/anecdotes in our ancient sources to 'monster snakes' in the Mediterranean world - The Bagradas one, and a reference to Ptolemy II Philadelphus obtaining a Giant Snake 45 feet long from 'Ethiopia' ( read somewhere a long way south) above. The only realistic candidate for these creatures would be the African Rock Python which is generally around 5.5 m/18 ft, and the largest recorded example being 7.5 m/25 ft.
Can a Rock Python devour an adult human ? No! Despite being able to unlatch its jaws, it cannot get around an adult human's shoulders, though there is a single recorded instance of a Rock Python eating a very small child.
Being confined to sub-saharan Africa, it would not have been possible for an African Rock Python, then or now, to live in/be native to North Africa/Egypt ( even if conditions in North Africa were suitable, which they are not) because the species simply couldn't cross the Sahara.
So could Ptolemy have had a Giant Snake? - plausible, allowing for considerable exaggeration of size, and of the details of its capture ( doubtless to maximise the reward!).... a Rock Python captured way south could have been brought via Ethiopia/the Nile to Alexandria.
Could the Romans have fought a 36m/120 ft Python in Tunisia that ate soldiers and was impervious to spears, javelins and arrows? Absolutely not! Pure myth then, with the possible exception of the detail that a large snakeskin hung as a trophy in a temple until approximately 133 BC - but that could only realistically have come from the same source as Ptolemy's pet. Still, if that detail were true, it would provide the stimulus for the tale.......
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
