A Torchbearer essay by Diana van den Branden
A relatively unknown epithet of the goddess Hekate and often overlooked is Drakaina. The Dragon is seen and recognized as one of her many animals and animal forms, including the form of the snake, which is connected to the Dragon. Drakaina can even be seen as a sea dragon, linked to Hekate's epiteths Charopos (χαροπός) and Einalian, and Buthios ,meaning “of the depth” Interesting enough, Hekate Einalian has her own temple and she is also referred to as “she snake” within The Chaldean Oracles. Another epithet that could be linked to dragon / snake like features is: Puripon (fire-breather) But for now, I am going to focus on the term Drakaina in connection with Hekate.
Drakaina, has its origins in the Greek word δράκαινα and in Latin dracaena which means female snake or dragon, sometimes with half-human features.
(1) Iphimedeia was one of the heroines whose spirits Odysseus encountered at the entrance of the Underworld. According to Pietro Scarpi, Iphimedeia should be placed in the chthonic realm as a double of Hekate.
Iphimedeai, source: Google
(2) Because although the word Drakaina literally has the meaning of feminine dragon, we can find many forms that are half human half dragon, for example Lamia, Campe, Echidna, the Erinyes (linked to Hekate), many forms of Ceto, Scylla, Delphyne who has the head and torso of a woman, Medusa is also seen as Drakaina although there is dispute as to whether she is really a Drakaina or whether she has merged with a dragon.
Picture: The Erinyes 360 BC-320 BC, source British Museum
(3). There is an interesting parallel with the Minoan snake Goddesses from around 1500 BCE, and a tablet found in the city of Pylos, dating to around 1200 BCE contains the name Iphimedia, which could be an alternative name for Hekate (who was called Iphimede in the eigth century BCE work Catalogue of Women which was atributed to Hesiod, who referred to Hekate in his Theogony at 8th BCE. )Picture: Hekate Her Secret Fires by Sorita D’este
(4) The word drakaina and its masculine form drakon can be found in many stories. Apollon is responsible for slaying several of them. Python, the drakon at Delphi, appears in several stories. Hera sends Python to torment Leto, and in one version, Python hoped to rape the Titaness. And it is Apollon who shoots the Drakaina (female serpent/dragon) dead in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. Both were killed by the arrows of Phoebus.Ares had his own drakon, and it was slain by Cadmus, the Illyrian king and husband to the goddess Harmonia (and daughter of Ares). In Hekate’s case, we have surviving images and descriptions of her as being ‘anguidede,’ of having serpents for legs. For example, Lucian shares the following description in his Philopseudes:
(5) I saw a fearsome woman approaching me, almost half a stadium’s length high. In
her left hand she held a torch and in her right a sword twenty cubits long. Below
the waist she was snake-footed [ophiopous]; above it she resembled a Gorgon, so
far as concerns the look in her eyes and her terrible appearance, I mean. Instead
of hair, writhing snakes fell down in curls around her neck, and some of them
coiled over her shoulders . . . . [The goddess’ dogs] were taller than Indian elephants
.
. . similarly black and shaggy, with dirty, matted hair. Anyway, when I saw her, I came to a halt and at the same time turned back the seal-ring that the Arab had given me to the inside of my finger. Hecate stamped on the ground with her dragon foot [drakonteiōi podi] and created a huge chasm, as deep as Tartarus. Presently she jumped into it and was gone. I steeled myself and bent over it, after taking hold of a tree that was growing near the hole, to stop myself falling into it headlong from vertigo. Then I saw everything in Hades, Pyriphlegethon, the lake, Cerberus and the dead, whom I could see so clearly
that I even recognized some of them. I got a good view of my father, still dressed
in the clothes in which we had buried him. Lucian Philopseudes 2246
The hair aside, this Hecate is a perfect match for the lekythos. But as to the hair, a
Sophocles fragment had previously spoken of Hecate as ‘garlanded with oak and
the twisted coils of savage drakontes’.Sophocles may already be speaking of
Gorgonian snaky hair, as found in Lucian’s words here; alternatively, he may have
been thinking literally in terms of a head-band made from snakes (as sported by
certain versions of the Erinyes). Hecate could be associated
with snakes in other configurations too. A first-century ad curse tablet of the
prayers-for- justice variety includes a confusing image seemingly of a three-bodied
Hecate. One of her three pairs of arms consists simply of serpents. Imperial-period
statuettes show the three-bodied Hecate in the round, and in these one or two of her figures brandish (separate) snakes. So far so good, but what of Hecate as a drakaina? In the Hymn to Hecate-Selene in the Great Magical Papyrus in Paris (iv ad), the goddess is given the epithet drakaina amongst a blizzard of others, in immediate context ‘horse, maiden
Anguipede Hekate, source Daniel Ogden Drakon
Elsewhere the Orphic Argonautika describes Hekate as having three heads, one of a horse, one a dog, and the middle being that of a snake. Apollonius Rhodius also gives Hekate serpentine hair. Without a doubt, Hekate is associated closely with snakes. She has them coiling on her head, about her person, and even manifests with serpents for limbs and head. Snakes are chthonic beings, associated with the earth and home. Zeus Meilichos, the Kindly One, has the form of a snake. There are stories of snakes adopting abandoned children. Snakes lived in the sanctuaries of Asclepius. The heroic dead appear in the form of snakes.
Khaire Hekate! You whose hair is coiled with snakes, You who is dressed with flaming serpents, You whose whip lashes forth in fury, Oh Drakaina! You who, like the Furies, brings justice, You who, glides on serpent scales, You who are known as the Oroboros, I lift up your names, I sing your praise, and offer you my devotions. Let your kindness warm the hearts of children, Let your wisdom guide those who follow your light, Let your grace bless the homes of your devotees.
Hecate, Hecate Ereschigal, Artemis
In her earliest identifiable portrait, that of an Attic black-figure lekythos of c.470
bc, Hecate is shown as an anguipede with, additionally, a pair of dogs projecting
forth from her midriff, winningly engaged in the tearing apart of a human soul
between them. [korē], drakaina, torch, lightning-bolt, star, lion [leōn], she-wolf
Similarly in the magical recipe detailed in another of the Greek Magical Papyri (iii–iv ad) the spell-maker is told to address Hecate-Ereschigal in the following terms:
‘Ereschigal, virgin, drakaina, garland, key, herald-staff, golden sandal of the Tartarus-holder In both cases the latter part of the list becomes a little surreal,
but the first two terms of virgin and drakaina fit Hecate(-Ereschigal) well enough.
Michael Italicus (xii ad) discusses a piece of Chaldaean obscurantism in correspondingly
obscure terms: at least it can be said that in the course of it he
appropriately associates Hecate with a drakaina (and again we have the Sophoclean-Lucianian conceit that Hecate also sports snaky hair, à la Gorgon) The short
Encomium on St John pseudonymously attributed to John Chrysostom reminds
the saint that he ‘shattered the drakaina Artemis, fighting in single combat, with
the trophy of the cross’. The author may have had Artemis in her aspect of Hecate
in mind here, but this was not necessarily the case: the term may be deployed in a
more generalized way simply to demonize the pagan goddess
Erinyes (Furies)
The term drakaina is applied at a much earlier stage to Hecate’s close associates,
the Erinyes or Furies. In Aeschylus’ Eumenides (458 bc) the ghost of Clytemnestra
observes that the work of the Furies pursuing Orestes has been undermined by
weariness: ‘sleep and labour . . . have exhausted the might of the dread drakaina.
The ghost also notes that they resemble Gorgons and that their cry resembles that
of hunting dogs.55 These details evoke an image similar to that of the early anguipede
Hecate of the lekythos (in which, as it happens, the Erinyes appear alongside
her, albeit in fully humanoid form, in what is also their first appearance in the
iconographic record), and more particularly the Lucianian Hecate, who also sports
50 PGM IV 2242–347 = Magical Hymns 17 Preisendanz (= 11 Bortolani) line 58; cf.Bortolani
2016 ad loc.
PGM LXX.10–12.
Michael Italicus Letters 28 p. 190 Gautier: Τί δ᾽ εἰ λέγοιμι περὶ τῶν τῆς Ἑκάτης χαιτῶν καὶ τῶν κροτάφων καὶ τῶν λαγόνων αὐτῆς καὶ τῶν περικρανίων πηγῶν καὶ ζωστήρων, εἰς ἀλλόκοτα γὰρ ὡς εἰκὸς ἐξαγάγω τὸν λόγον καὶ πράγματα καὶ νοήματα, λέγω δὴ τὴν πυριπλῆτιν πηγὴν καὶ τὴν μετ᾽ ἐκείνην δράκαιναν καὶ δρακοντόζωνον, ᾓν καὶ σπειροδρακοντόζωνον ἄλλοι παρασυνθέτως προσαγορεύουσι, καὶ τὴν ἐπ᾽ αὐταῖς λεοντοῦχον.
‘What am I to say of the locks and temples of Hecate, and her flanks and
the “founts” and “girdles” that surround her head, to bring the discussion to matters and notions that are weird? I speak of the fiery fount and the one after it, the drakaina and the drakōn-girt one, to which others apply the compound term “coil-of-drakōn-girt”,and after them the lion-holdingone.’ Cf. Gautier 1972:189–90, ad loc.
[John Chrysostom] Encomium on St John, PG 61,719: τὴν μονομάχον δράκαιναν Ἄρτεμιν τῷ τροπαίῳ τοῦ σταυροῦ κατήραξας.
(7)Serpents
Hekate was frequently described and depicted either wearing or in the presence of serpents. Among these is Sophocles’ description in his play The Root Cutters: “She who is crowned with oak leaves and the coils of wild serpents.” Likewise, as she appeared to Jason in the Argonautica, there are serpents in her presence: “…round her horrible serpents twined themselves among the oak boughs” The Chaldean Oracles also describe Hekate as “the snake-girdled and the three-headed” and “the She-serpent, and the snake-girdled”.
The association of serpents with Hekate refers to her chthonian powers as well as highlighting the fearsome nature of her manifestations. Hekate is also sometimes described as having the head of a serpent or snake.
( 8) Epithets: Drakaina
Serpent, dragon
PGM IV 2241-2385
Mare, Kore, dragoness, lamp, lightning flash,Star, lion, she-wolf, AEO EE.-PGM IV 2241-2385, lines 2301-2302, trans. Betz.
PGM IV. 2800-2806 (Betz, p. 91).
PGM IV. 2861-68 (Betz, p. 92)
PGM IV.2301 (Betz, p 79)
(9) What was the significance of the term drakaina, the female-denoting reflex of the term drakōn? (The plural is Drakainai) It is contended that, whilst the term could be applied merely to a creature that resembled a pure-serpent drakōn in all respects, save for being female, the concept it more typically evoked was that of a female anguipede, a creature with the lower half of a serpent and the upper half of a woman. These female anguipedes, for all their numbers and their continuity, never seem to have occupied the centre-ground of Greek mythology, but ever to have been somewhat occluded. The greatest occlusion is in the visual realm: they have left very little impact on the iconographic record.
(10)The term drakaina is relatively rare: the standard database of ancient and medieval
Greek texts (TLG) knows of only 103 uses prior to the fall of Constantinople, and that too with a certain amount of double-counting for book fragments. An indication of the word’s obscurity is the fact that the context in which it is most commonly found is the works of the grammarians. From the second century ad onwards, at least, scholars took an interest in its morphological relationship with its masculine counterpart drak-ōn, and in the analogy of this relationship with relationships between a list of further pairs of masculine/feminine, male-denoting/ female-denoting nouns, especially le-ōn/ le-aina (‘lion’, ‘lioness’),
therap-ōn/ therap-aina (‘servant’, ‘servant-woman’) and Lak-ōn/ Lak-aina (‘Spartan man’,‘Spartan woman’) .3 The drakaina~leaina jangle was a compelling one for Greek
authors, with a number of them bringing the terms together in various contexts.4
The term was also taken up into Latin in the expected transcription dracaena, but
in this language it appears exclusively (and therefore fruitlessly for us) in the
works of its grammarians. From the fourth century ad onwards these Latin
grammarians incorporate it into similar lists of pairs, albeit with Greek and Latin
words now side by side (as e.g. in Donatus: draco/dracaena, leo/leaena, gallus/gallina,
rex/regina). As in the Greek grammarians, the dragon-pair example remains
strongly yoked to that of the lion-pair.
The Drakaina as a Female Anguipede
In a substantial group of the references to drakainai, a pure-form drakaina is seemingly invoked, but the context is ever one in which the creature is adduced specifically to serve as a comparison, association, or elucidation for a human (or humanoid) female:
• A ruinous courtesan, who is also compared to a slew of distinctively female
monsters, the fire-breathing
Chimaera, Charybdis, Scylla of the three heads,
a female ‘sea dog’ (pontia kuōn), the Sphinx, the Hydra, the Lioness (Leaina),
the Echidna, and the winged race of the Harpies (Anaxilas, mid-iv
bc).14
• Circe, the archetypal witch, she of the herbal poisons (Lycophron Alexandra,
c.200 bc),15 and thereafter witches more generally (Psellus, xi ad;16
Constantine Manasses, xii ad).17
• The wicked Clytemnestra, described specifically as a drakaina-dipsad
(Lycophron Alexandra, c.200 bc;18 a poem of the Greek Anthology undated).19
• The goddess Rhea-Demeter
(Athenagoras, ad 176–80, reporting an
Orphic myth).20
• The goddess Athena (Orphic hymn, ii–iii ad?).21
• A human mother threatened with the loss of her child (Oppian of Apamea,
early iii ad).22
• A human mother searching for her lost child (Sophronius, vi–vii ad).23
• Wives, all too likely as they are to destroy their husbands ([Basil of Caesarea],
iv ad?).24
• The wicked Delilah (Ephraem Syrus, iv ad; [John Chrysostom], v or vi ad;
John Damascene, vii–viii ad).25
• The wicked Salome (Chrysippus of Jerusalem, v ad).26
• The young woman Chrysorrhoe, mistakenly believed to be the daughter of a
wicked drakōn (Callimachus and Chrysorrhoe, xiv ad or before).27
Otherwise the term drakaina appears to be applied to entities that combine
drakōn and humanoid female in a more direct and physical way, that is, to female
anguipedes.
Draikaina is a term / title, not just given to Hekate but to a lot of creatures that are connected with snakes or dragons. Contradictional in some way it is rare, and the Hekatean epithet is lesser named than could be expected, on the other hand the term/ title as could be read above is more often used. The snake part of Hekate is also very interesting and worth a deeper investigation.
Sources:
1. Wikipedia pagina Drakaina Mytologi
2. Daniel Ogden: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, pag 3
3. Hekate her Sacred Fires pg 32 (picture pg 44)
5.Daniel Ogden : The Dragon in the West
7. Covenant of Hekate
8. PGM
10, Daniel Ogden Dragon in the West, She Dragon Chapter
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