biblical king Solomon took the place of the great
knowledge by touching the boy’s tongue with his
serpent(s) and could understand and speak the
own; the boy then became the physician known
language of animals as wel as teach their language
also in the Turkish-speaking world as Luqmān
to others 129 However, in spite of this assimila-
al-ḥakīm 133 In another Armenian story, the grate-
tion the connection of the serpent with the lan-
ful serpent-prince licks a dead person back to
guage of animals remained widespread in folktales
life 134
throughout Asia and the Near East 130 One of the
According to a further tradition the grateful
oldest recorded versions is a third-century Bud-
serpent passes on the ability to understand the
dhist tale, in which a king rescues the daughter
language of all animals through the power of
of a dragon-king who thereupon grants him a
its breath 135 Similarly in antiquity the ability to
wish The king says that he has already many pre-
confer supernatural knowledge of the language
cious objects but that he wishes to understand the
of animals, that is to say, the art of divination,
language of the animals The dragon-king grants
on human beings was most commonly attrib-
him this request on condition that he will keep
uted to the serpent 136 These scattered references
his ability a secret 131
to human mastery of the language of the animals
In Armenian folktales serpents can speak and
functioned as metaphors for the extraordinary
the touching of a serpent’s tongue serves as a
lucidity of prophets, saints and sages
source of knowledge 132 Vestiges of such myths
Other widespread views held that the eating of
may be discerned in Armenian popular traditions,
serpent’s flesh transmitted supernatural wisdom
which similarly record that a grateful serpent
to the consumer,137 and that knowledge of the
king gave the knowledge to cure all diseases to a
language of animals was given to Arabs 138 This
boy who had saved his son He transmitted this
mantic art they are supposed to have acquired by
129 In interpretation of 1 Kings 5 13 See Ginzberg, 1909–
and of his breath is mentioned in the romance Wīs u Rāmīn
38, repr 1946 and 1955, vol 4, pp 138–40, 287–8, n 34 In
(tr and ed Davis, 2008, p 364 and 83, respectively) See
later Jewish folk tales, Leviathan replaces the great serpent
also the related metaphorical imagery used by Matthew of
(Noy, 1971, p 177), for instance, in the Jewish variant of the
Edessa, p 9, n 61
“Story of the Dutiful Son” ( idem, p 196): “He (Leviathan)
136 References to such phenomena are preserved in
said to him: “Open your mouth!” He opened his mouth
Greek tradition The Hellenistic/Roman author Apollodorus
and Leviathan spat into it three times At once, the spirit of
relates that Melampus acquired the gift of prophecy after
wisdom and cleverness rested upon him, and he knew and
he had performed funeral rites for some serpents which
understood the language of animals and birds, and he spoke
had been killed by his servants and thence reared the young
seventy languages ”
serpents ( Bibliotheca I 9 11–2, p 87; Scholiast on Apollo-
130 For a comprehensive bibliography, see Noy, 1971,
nius Rhodius, Argonautica I 118 Cf Eustathius on Homer,
pp 171–208
Odyssey XI 292, p 1685; Pliny, Naturalis Historia, X 137 See
131 Chavannes, 1910, vol 1, pp 382–3 A comparable
also Frazer, 1888, p 166) When these were fully grown, they
Jātaka story speaks of a king saving the life of a dragon-king
crept onto each of his shoulders as he slept and cleansed his
who thereupon rewards him with a charm “giving knowl-
ears with their tongues When he woke up he understood
edge of all sounds”; Cowell, ed , 1897, repr 2000, vol 3,
the voices of the birds and other animals, and thus acquired
pp 174–7; see also Vogel, 1926, p 22
the gift of foretelling the future Cassandra and her brother
132 Hoogasian-Villa, 1966, p 67
Helenus are said to have acquired their prophetic gift in the
133 Eadem, pp 426–9 and 531–2
same manner When young they were placed one night in
134 Surmelian, 1968, p 232 Cf the parallel to the Arme-
the temple of Apollo and in the morning were found with
nian mythical dogs, called Arlez (Arm aralez or yaralez),
serpents wreathed around their bodies, licking their ears (cf
one of which is black, the other white, who live with invis-
Scholiast on Homer, Iliad, VII 44; Tzetzes, Scholiast in Lyco-
ible powers, and who are said to have licked the bodies of
phron, Introd. I, pp 266–8, ed Müller, C G ; Scholiast on
wounded war heroes back to life See Eznik, Elc alandocʿ, tr
Euripides, Hecuba, V 86) Likewise Porphyrios is recorded
and ed Mariès and Mercier, 1959, ch 122; cf Karamanlian,
as saying that perhaps all men might understand the lan-
P A , Die Aralezen bei Eznik (German Resumé, pp 705–7), as
guage of all the animals if a serpent had washed their ears
cited in Schlerath, 1954/58, p 39
( De Abstinentia, III 4)
135 Hoogasian-Villa, 1966, pp 401 and 528 The motif
137 “The reason why the serpent has the capacity to
occurs in the Shāh-nāma recounting how Buzurjmihr, the
understand the language of the birds and the animals is
later minister of Khusraw Anūshirwān, was breathed on by a
according to Pliny (after a saying of Democritus) that they
black snake which was interpreted by his companion who wit-
are generated from the mixed blood of diverse birds, hence
nessed the scene as indicating that Buzurjmihr would attain a
anyone who eats a serpent will understand the bird language”
position of great power (tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 6,
( Naturalis Historia, X 70; see also XXIX 22), as cited in Frazer,
pp 247–9, ll 1037–1045) See also p 61 At the same time
1888, p 180
the Iranian national epic repeatedly invokes the metaphor of
138 Cicero, De divinatione 1 92 and 94 Cf Appian’s
the dragon’s breath to allude to an impending and potentially
account of his successful escape from the Jewish revolt in
fatal calamity (tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 1, p 153, ll
Egypt ( c 116 ad) near Pelusium thanks to an Arab guide
450–3; vol 3, p 183, l 510; vol 5, p 519, l 1897) In like
who correctly interpreted the three screeches of a crow
manner the potentially fatal power of the “slavering dragon”
Appian, Roman History 24,19
the dragon in relation to royal or heroic figures
129
eating the heart or the liver of large serpents 139
Keys of Destiny, tells of a place that harbours
The lasting popularity of this type of account is
the secret of transforming base metal into gold
evidenced in its appearance in the frame tale of
and ultimately of gaining immortality Access to
the Alf layla wa-layla in the story of the Queen
it can only be gained by killing a serpent in a
of the Serpents Here the queen consents to be
black valley and preparing an ointment from the
slain and sacrifices her flesh, which when boiled
reptile’s heart mixed with other ingredients 141
and eaten has healing properties 140 Moreover,
In folk tales the imbibing, ingesting or applica-
the drinking of the elixir is said to give access
tion by any means of elixirs prepared from the
to the fountains of knowledge, in other words
heart or the flesh of a serpent initiates into hidden
knowledge of all sciences Another story, the
secrets 142
139 See Flavius Philostratus, who at the beginning of the
50 In a Syrian tale a dervish is said to have drunk serpent
third century ad, wrote a biography of the wandering phi-
water, following which the serpents cannot bite him and
losopher Apollonius of Tyana in Cappadocia ( Vita Apol onii
he is able to talk with serpents and birds in their respec-
1 20, 2 vols , tr Conybeare, F C , London, 1980, p 57; also
tive languages; Syrische Sagen und Märchen, tr Prym and
3 9, p 249), who became master of the beasts by acquiring
Socin, 1881, pp 150–1
an understanding of the language and ideas of animals from
141 Marzolph and van Leeuwen, 2004, p 251
the Arab tribes “by feeding either on the heart or the liver
142 This has certain parallels to passages in the Old Tes-
of the dragon ” The mantic significance attributed in antiq-
tament Whereas Isaiah (6 6–8) and Jeremiah (1–9) are
uity to (serpent-)dragons in revelations and oracles can
touched by God or an angel, Ezekiel (3 1–3) is ordered to
still be gleaned from the writings of the fifth-century Greek
eat a scroll with writing on it that tastes as sweet as honey
poet Nonnos ( Dionysiaca XLI 340–1) when he reports that
This intake is reminiscent of ancient initiation rituals that
ophion has recorded the sayings of the gods about the world
similarly involve the touching of the mouth, that is to say,
(thesphata kosmou) The second-century Greek traveller and
the tongue, with a liquid substance which is then swal-
geographer Pausanias ( Graeciae Descriptio IV 10 5–6) even
lowed Van Lint, 2005, p 374 In the early Turkish Anatolian
called a seer outright Ophioneus It may not be irrelevant to
epic, the Baṭṭāl-nāma (“Book of Baṭṭāl”), the angel Gabriel/
note that in the Scandinavian version of the epic of Siegfried,
Jibrāʾīl instructs the Prophet Muḥammad to place a drop
the hero roasted the dragon’s heart, whereby some dragon
of saliva in the mouth of the early Muslim frontier warrior
blood dropped onto his tongue, which led to his acquisition
ʿAbd al-Wahhāb The warrior swallows it but it rests in his
of an understanding of the bird language; see Schirmunski,
throat “to be held in trust ” He then passes the drop on to
1961, p 55
Jaʿfar, later named Sayyid Baṭṭāl Ghāzī, who on swallow-
140 535th Night [1830 Calcutta ed count] The Book of
ing it “acquired perfect knowledge of seventy two different
the Thousand Nights and a Night, tr Burton, 1885, vol 5,
languages and of twelve sciences ” Dedes, 1996, pp 100,
pp 407–9 Cf Marzolph and van Leeuwen, 2004, pp 349–
117–8
130