authority of Abū Hurayrah according to which
‘ and to dust you shal return ’35 And to [the serpent
the Prophet Muḥammad said:
He said, ‘ Dust shall become your food ’36,37
Anyone who does not remit the obligatory alms
The close association of the mythical creature with
of the wealth which God has bestowed upon him,
the departure from life is underlined by its rep-
his wealth will appear to him on the Day of Res-
resentation in the thirteenth-century barrel-
urrection as an ancient male serpent, bald from
vaulted funerary chapel of Surb Grigor Part of
age and the accumulation of poison in its head,
the monastic complex of Noravankʿ in Vayots
and with two projections dangling from its fore-
Dzor in southern Armenia, it was added in 1275
head It shall coil itself around his neck and,
by prince Tarsayich Ōrbēlian, governor of Siunikʿ
grabbing him on both sides of the face, shall cry
province, at the north side of the church of Surb
out, ‘I am your wealth, I am your treasure!’29
Karapet as mausoleum of the Ōrbēlian princes
In the Jewish tradition it is also the serpent that
The point of juncture of the wall arch and vaulted
has power over life and death 30 In the Talmudic
ceiling, above the semi-circular altar, is entirely
tractate Bava Batra a serpent is said to be the
horizontally circumscribed by two pairs of con-
keeper of a miraculous stone that has power of
fronted dragons in low relief and highlighted with
life or death 31 In the same text the angel of death
white and red pigment The elongated serpentine
himself is cal ed Leviathan 32 In ancient Near East-
bodies, which are enlivened with a spotted pat-
ern33 and Greek34 lore the serpent is in the pos-
tern, are arranged in evenly spaced loops (fig 179)
session of a plant which can restore life
In Iranian poetry death is sometimes meta-
The Armenian commentary on the book of
phorically likened to the maleficent influence of
Genesis, attributed to the Syriac writer Ephrem,
the dragon, alluding to the belief that the moon,
gives further insight into contemporary Christian
in eclipse, is swallowed by the eclipse dragon (al-
understanding of the relation of the serpent with
jawzahar) In Niẓāmī’s Haft Paykar the officer
death:
who brings the false report of the execution of
the “bright-faced” luminous harp girl Fitnah to
Indeed, why did Justice, which interrogated
king Bahrām tells him that he has “given the
Adam and Eve, not interrogate the serpent? And
Moon to the Dragon,” that is to say, eclipsed her
if the nature [of the serpent] was bound, why
life 38
was it also condemned with those [Adam and
The extent of the geographical and chrono-
Eve] who had free will? And if it had free will,
logical dissemination of the dragon’s allegorical
why did [Justice] not interrogate it? [Justice] did
role in death is attested by the life stages of a par-
not interrogate [the serpent] for the reason that
able called the “Man in the Well” in which it fig-
It knew who It was with whom It was speaking
ures prominently It is of great interest since the
And that one who hears knows what he hears
And that the serpent was the first to receive pun-
parable’s sequence of transmission can be docu-
ishment was so that [Adam and Eve] might repent,
mented It was translated into Middle Persian
show compunction and make supplication to
(Pahlawī) from an early Sanskrit text, perhaps
[God] But when they were unwilling to turn [to
from the eleventh book of the great Indian epic
Him] in contrition, [God] set upon them the
Mahābhārata (chapters 5–6),39 together with
decree of death, and they became dust, fodder
other texts from the Mahābhārata and the Pan-
for the serpent ‘ From dust you are,’ [God] said,
chatantra, by Burzōe of Nīshāpūr, the personal
29 Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, vol II, pp 165–7, cited after
see Ovid, Fasti, VI 749–54, and Apollodorus, Bibliotheca
Ayoub, 1992, p 390
III 3 1–4 A similar story of a young dragon being raised
30 Cf Epstein, 1997, p 74
from the dead through the agency of a plant and the same
31 Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 74b, as cited in idem,
plant being used to resurrect the Lydian hero Tylon, who
p 74
had been killed by a dragon, is recorded by Pliny ( Naturalis
32 Idem.
Historia XXV 5)
33 The serpent appears as giver of life and possessor of the
35 Genesis 3,19
magic herb of life in Babylonian literature Searching for the
36 Genesis 3,14
secret of immortality Gilgamesh succeeds in harvesting the
37 Tr and comm , Mathews, 1998, pp 34–5
magic plant from the bottom of the sea ( Epic of Gilgamesh XI
38 Tr Meisami, 1995, 25:71 Cf eadem, 1987, p 218
287–9), only to have it stolen from him by the serpent
39 De Blois (1990, pp 34–5) shows that since the parable
34 For the story of Glaucos, a son of king Minos of Crete,
was recorded in several Indian texts, if it was not taken from
who was restored to life by a herb placed by a serpent onto
the Mahābhārata, it would have come from another contem-
a dead serpent which thereupon was brought back to life,
porary Indian source available to Burzōe
the dragon as symbol of transformation
199
physician of the sixth-century Sasanian king
how to find a way out of his misfortune In front
Khusraw I (Khusraw Anūshirwān, r 531–579)
of him was a beehive where he found a little
About two centuries later Burzōe’s Pahlawī ver-
honey and tasted some He became preoccupied
sion40 of the Indo-Iranian political fable was trans-
with its sweetness, neglecting his (proper) work
lated into Arabic prose by ʿAbd Allāh ibn
so that he did not think of his feet resting on the
al-Muqaffaʿ ( c 102/720 – executed c 139/756–7)
heads of the four snakes which might withdraw
as the celebrated Kalīla wa Dimna In the tenth
at any moment, or of the rats furiously nibbling
century the fables were translated into Persian
the branches with no sign of slackening, until
under the Samanid Naṣr ibn Aḥmad (302/914–
the branches broke and he fell into the maw of
331/943), but only sections of Rūdakī’s version
the dragon 43
survive in quotations 41 The text thus evolved to
Naṣr Allāh Munshī offers his own interpretation
include stories that originated from different cul-
of the parable which confirms the continuous
tures Less than two centuries later they were
contextual and conceptual validity of the dragon’s
again translated into a Persian text (which sur-
maw as metaphor for “inexorable death” in
vived) by Abu ’l-Maʿālī Naṣr Al āh ibn Muḥammad
twelfth-century Central Asia:
for his patron, the Ghaznawid Bahrām Shāh (r
c 511/1117–552/ 1157), attesting to their contin-
Thus I have compared the world to that well full
ued popularity 42 A chapter in the Kalīla wa
of misfortune and dread, and the incessantly
Dimna, entitled “The Perils of Life,” relates the
gnawing white and black rats to night and day
following story (fig 180):
whose succession works to curtail the living The
four snakes are the humours that are the basis
A man fled from an enraged camel and out of
of man’s nature which when disturbed become
necessity suspended himself in a well; his hands
deadly poison The tasting of the honey and its
fell on two branches which were growing above
sweetness corresponds to the pleasures of this
the well and his feet obtained a foothold Soon
world whose worth is little and brings grief and
he could see better that his two feet were on the
toil; the dragon is our inexorable death 44
heads of two snakes who had emerged from their
holes His glance fell to the bottom where he saw
Closely related to the ancient Indian parable of
a terrible dragon with its mouth open in expec-
the “Man in the Well,”45 this story was also
tation At the top of the well he noticed a white
included in the famous legend of Bilawhar wa
and a black rat incessantly gnawing away at the
Būdhāsaf,46 the Near Eastern version of the Bud-
roots of the branches Meanwhile he considered
dhist Jātaka stories of Gautama Buddha 47 The
40 Burzōe’s Pahlawī translation is lost but survives in a
see but a monstrous dragon with mouth open waiting
Syriac version of about 570 by the Periodeut Būd The trans-
for him to fall He then examined the place where his
mission of the Kalīla wa Dimna from India is also described
feet were resting, and saw four serpents surrounding
in the Shāh-nāma (tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 6,
him Now he looked up at the tree he was holding,
pp 445–57); cf Brockelmann, “Kalila wa-Dīmna,” EI 2 IV,
and saw some honey dripping down from one of the
503a
branches Immediately, the unicorn, mice, dragon, and
41 Cf Brockelmann, “Kalila wa-Dīmna,” EI 2 IV, 503a .
serpents were forgotten, and his mind became intent
42 Idem.
only on securing the honey
43 Mīnuvī’s 1343/1964 compilation of Naṣr Allāh’s
The Indian interpretation of this parable is closely re-
Persian version of the Kalīla wa Dimna, p 56 l 17 to 57 l 13,
lated:
as cited in O’Kane, 2003
44 Idem The description of the greedy jaws of Hell occurs
the unicorn is death, the deep well is the world, the
in Mazdaist religious texts, such as the Ardā Wīrāz-nāmag
small tree is man’s life, gnawed at its roots by day
(“Book of Ardā Wīrāz”) (see Klíma, 1968, p 37); monstrous
and night (the white and black mice), the dragon is
wide-open jaws representing death and the netherworld
the jaws of hell, the four serpents are the four great
appear in several passages of the Old Testament (Isaiah 5 14;
elements that compose the body Surrounded by all
Proverbs 1 12)
these horrors and dangers, man forgets all and thinks
45 Cf de Blois, 1990, pp 34–5; Ch’en, 1968, pp 220–1
only of the pleasures of life
There are only minor discrepancies in the Indian version
according to which:
Cited after Ch’en, 1968, p 221
46 The versions of the parable in the Kalīla wa Dimna and
a man out hunting was pursued by a unicorn and
the book of Bilawhar wa Būdhāsaf are closely comparable; de
in trying to flee, fell into a well As he was falling, he
Blois, 1990, p 35 The name Būdhāsaf is a corruption of the
stretched out his arm and caught hold of a small tree
Sanskrit Bodhisattva, a title acquired by meritorious beings
growing on the side of the well He thought that he
who aspire for Enlightenment (bodhi)
was now safe, but upon closer scrutiny, he found that
47 Cf Lang, “Bilawhar wa Būdhāsaf,” EI² I, 1215b The
two mice, one white and one black, were gnawing at
Indian transmission has been complemented with folk-
the roots of the slender tree to which he was clinging
loristic parallels and put into an Indogermanic context by
He now looked down into the well and what did he
Vasil’kov, 1995
200