This black and white photograph depicts a tapestry with a mythological scene designed by the French artists, Nicolas Bertin (1668-1736) and Robert Bonnart (1652-1729+). Their artwork portrays the god, Apollo, slaying a draconic or serpentine monster named Python. Chronological timelines of such mythological tales can vary from storyteller to storyteller, but this particular feat of monster slaying was usually placed after ancient Greece’s great flood myth, and before Apollo’s claiming of Delphi as his territory. Following the flood, so the story goes, humans began to rebuild their communities, but their progress was hindered by an entity named Python, which was usually described as a serpent or a dragon. Python’s lair was in the Delphi region, naturally leading to a confrontation with Apollo, who also had his eye on the famous oracle site. The myth of Apollo’s slaying of Python was mentioned by many ancient sources, including the so-called Homeric Hymns, Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Strabo and Ovid to name a few. As Ovid (c. 43 BCE-17 CE) was often the favorite literary source for artists, we will quote him here:
“Amongst these forms was an unknown serpent, the monstrous Python,
also brought forth by the Earth at the time, though she cannot have wished for it.
Sprawling over Parnassus, it horribly frightened the new-born
peoples, until it was killed by the deadly shafts of Apollo,
whose only targets before were the timid gazelles and the roe deer.
The snake was transfixed by a thousand arrows (the quiver was almost
emptied) and out of its wounds there spewed black gushes of venom.
In order that time should never destroy the fame of this exploit,
Apollo established the sacred games, attended by huge crowds,
the Pythian Games, called after the serpent he vanquished, Python.”
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.438-447)
It is this scene of Apollo piercing the dragon with his arrows that Nicolas Bertin, Robert Bonnart, and the tapestry weavers re-created in their artwork. Like other artists who tackled this subject, the creators of the design and tapestry had to deliberate whether to portray Python as more of a serpent or as predominantly a dragon. In this artwork, they went the dragon route, as the title, “Apollo and the Dragon Python,” clearly illustrates. Yet, they also kept strong allusions to Python’s serpent characteristics. Besides the monster’s front claws and wings, much of the beast’s appearance remains largely serpentine.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- Metamorphoses by Ovid. Translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics; Revised Edition, 2004.
- https://primo.getty.edu/permalink/f/nf2bk5/GETTY_OCPFL636096
- http://hdl.handle.net/10020/97p7_308939
