[32.1] V. Bettei, in xiii. Archivio, 543, translating the story. The incident of binding the dragon, whether by an oath or a more substantial bond, is of extreme rarity in märchen, but is by no means uncommon in sagas, as we shall find in the next chapter. See, however, the Greek märchen cited suprà, [p. 3]; and a Russian tale, viii. Rev. Trad. Pop., 69.
[33.1] Dorsey, Cegiha, 114. The other version follows it.
[35.1] Leland, Etr. Rom., 109.
CHAPTER XVII NOTES
[37.1] Pausanias, ix. 26. Nor are the cases of Herakles and Kleostratos the only cases in antiquity of what I may call combat with a dragon from the inside. In the Vatican Museum is a beautiful Attic vase found at Caere, and probably imported into Etruria in the fifth century before Christ, which contains a representation of Jason vomited forth from the dragon’s maw. The hero is identified by name; and the Golden Fleece hangs on a tree in the background; while Athene, with owl and spear and Gorgon’s head, superintends the operation. The scene is reproduced by Roscher, Lexikon, s.v. Jason. This version of the story does not seem to have found its way into literature: a sample of the endless number of variants of the classical stories which have perished, or only lived on in tradition to give us at the end of the nineteenth century the chance of recovering them as märchen from the mouths of the peasantry, ere they be finally swept away by the deluge of modern civilisation.
[38.1] Budge, Saint George, xxxii. Yet the very arm that slew the dragon is preserved at Venice (Graf, ii. Roma, 30 note), and the cave which was the dragon’s lair is shown at Beyrout! Bérenger-Féraud, Superstitions, 216, citing Thévenot.
[40.1] Leg. Aur., lviii.
[41.1] Rudder, 461 note, prints the notice from a MS. of the time of Henry VI. I have reproduced it verbatim et literatim in County F.L., Gloucestershire, 48.
[43.1] Dr. Krauss, in ix. Archivio, 484, translating a Bosnian ballad obtained by him from the mouth of an orthodox peasant at Vukasovci.
[43.2] Denton, 309; Ralston, Russian F.T., 347.