[153]. Atlas Geog. Anatolia, p. 43, -4. From Tavernier and Du Mont.
GOZON, who, after several dangerous Onsets escaped with his Life, resolved to make another Trial by Stratagem; perceiving it was no where vulnerable but in the Eyes and Belly, contrived the Resemblance of a Dragon by a Machine of Pastboard, of equal Bulk with the Dragon, and by certain Springs made it leap like a true Dragon: Having trained up a Couple of fierce Dogs to attack it at the Belly, he went out privately one Morning, well-armed on a managed Horse with his Dogs, and rode up to the Den, from whence the Dragon leaped furiously at him: In the Encounter, the Dogs laid hold on his Belly, and forced him to lie down; upon which the valiant Knight alighted, thrust his great Sword several times into his Throat, and soon killed him: Upon which the Spectators drew near, and with great difficulty sever’d the Head from the Body, and lugged it into the Town in Triumph.
The Conqueror was degraded for the sake of Form, because he had violated the Grand-Master’s Order; but was immediately restored, and soon after was elected Grand-Master himself; he died in the Year 1335, and on his Tomb were engraven these Words, Draconis Extinctor; The Destroyer of the Dragon.
In the Life of Attilius Regulus (the Roman General in the War against the Carthaginians) is described a Dragon of prodigious Bulk near the River Bagrada, that annoyed all the Country round, without Remedy. Several Devices were formed to destroy it, but without effect, till the Military Possé was called in, who discharged the Engines of War against it with Success: And so great was this Deliverance, that an Ovation, or a small Triumph, was publickly made at Rome for the Victory.
XI. The Pythian Dragon, so called from its being the Guardian of the Delphick Oracle: Its Eyes are large and sharp, and the Body painted with Variety of Colours, as red, yellow, green and blue, and furnished with Scales that are resplendent, well compacted and hard. It has been called Deucalionæus, because in the Language of Ignorance, it was produced from the Mud left by the Deucalionian Deluge: a Serpent of prodigious Bulk.[[154]]
[154]. Jonstonus.
PYTHON is also taken for a prophetick Demon, by St. Luke[[155]].—As we went to Prayer, a certain Damsel possest with a Spirit of Divination, (having the Spirit of Pytho, according to the Greek) which brought her Masters much Gain by Sooth-saying, that is, by Predictions, telling of Fortunes. Python of the Greeks is supposed the Typhon of the Phenicians, and the Phœnician Typhon to be Ogg King of Bashan, and Apollo that slew it, to be Joshua. Apollo is called Pythius from this Serpent, or from some notorious Tyrant of that Name, slain by him, as the antient Geographer observes. So Gesner from Pausanias. The Priestess of Apollo, that delivered the Sacred Oracles, was called Pythia and Pythonissa. This Pythonick Spirit among the Gentiles, was esteemed as a God, and by Juvenal is styled Vates, a Prophet.
[155]. Act. xvi. 16.—Πνευμα Πυθωνος.
The Priestess that delivered the Sacred Oracles, was called Pythia, from Apollo Pythius, and must be a pure Virgin. Most of the Fathers of the Church were of opinion, that it was the Devil gave the Answers, which were generally dubious, a Sign of his Ignorance about Futurity.
One Œnomaus, a certain Pagan Philosopher, highly resenting it, that he had been so often befooled by the Oracles, speaks to Apollo thus—