PYTHON

PYTHON

"In golden show'rs, that mercifully rend 

The Python chill of Winter, whose dread pow'r

So lately coil'd about the the budding bow'r."

H.P. Lovecraft, Ver Rusticum

"Python was a monstrous serpent which Gaia (Mother Earth) appointed to guard the oracle at Delphoi. The beast was sometimes said to have been born from the rotting slime left behind after the great Deluge."

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology

 "When the serpent Python, which guarded the oracle, moved to prevent Apollon from approaching the oracular opening, he slew it and thus took command of the oracle."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca

 
"Where the wine-faced, bronze-scaled serpent, 
his back sparkling in the dark leafy laurels, 
The monstrous beast of earth, crawled
Around the oracle of the Gods of Earth."
Aeschylus, Eumenides

*thanks to Jeanne D'Angelo who started her painting of Python way before mine and gave me the heads up on this quote that points to the serpent's color scheme.