• Compare this with Milton’s description of the serpent, Paradise Lost , IX 434, 496:⁠— “Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm; Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen, Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers Imbordered on each bank. ⋮ Not with indented wave, Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear, Circular base of rising folds, that towered Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes; With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape And lovely; never since of serpent-kind Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed Hermione and Cadmus, or the god In Epidaurus; nor to which transformed Ammonian Jove or Capitoline was seen⁠— He with Olympias, this with her who bore Scipio, the height of Rome. With tract oblique At first, as one who sought access, but feared To interrupt, sidelong he works his way. As when a ship, by skilful steersman wrought Nigh river’s mouth or foreland, where the wind Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail; So varied he, and of his tortuous train Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve. … Oft he bowed His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she trod.” ↩