[736] Soph. Trach. 10 ff.
[737] Formed from the ancient δράκων as Χάρος and Χάροντας from Χάρων. Cf. above, p. [98]. There is a feminine δρακόντισσα or δράκισσα.
[738] Cf. Philostr. Vit. Apollon. III. 8. Aelian, de natur. anim. XVI. 39. Bern. Schmidt, Das Volksleben, p. 191.
[739] Only one variety of dragon, the χαμοδράκι or ‘ground-dragon,’ is often harmless. It is of pastoral tastes and consorts with the ewes and she-goats, and is more noted among the shepherds for its lasciviousness than for any other quality.
[740] Artem. Oneirocr. II. 13 (p. 101). Cf. Festus, 67, 13.
[741] Lucian, Philopseudes, cap. XXXII. Zenobius, Cent. II. 1. The same punishment is in one story inflicted by a Callicantzaros on a midwife who had deceived him into believing that his newborn child was male. After sending her away with a sackful of gold, he discovered her deceit, and on her arrival at home the gold had turned to ashes. See above, p. [199].
[742] Ἀδαμάντιος Ἰ. Ἀδαμαντίου, Τηνιακά (published first in Δελτίον τῆς Ἱστορ. καὶ Ἐθνολ. Ἑταιρίας τῆς Ἑλλάδος, Vol. V. pp. 277 sqq.).
[743] For the first half of this story, see above, p. [183].
[744] ἀθάνατο νερό, op. cit. pp. 299 and 315.
[745] e.g. ἀθάνατα μῆλα, ‘immortal apples,’ op. cit. pp. 311 and 316. ἀθάνατο καρποῦζι, ‘immortal water-melon,’ pp. 297 and 315. ἀθάνατο γαροῦφαλο, ‘immortal gilly-flower,’ p. 317. The translation of this last is correctly that which I have given, but the peasants all over Greece will call almost any bright and scented flower by this same name.