Fig. 18.—Hercules destroying the hydra (copied from an ancient Greek vase).
Such is the creature called “the” dragon. But heraldry recognises some other terrible beasts allied to the dragon; in fact, what zoologists would call “allied species.” The griffin, for instance ([Fig. 17]), is a four-legged beast like the dragon, but has the beak and wings and forefeet of an eagle, and the hind-legs and tail of a lion. The heraldic hydra is a dragon, such as I have above described, but with seven heads and necks. The ancient Greek representation of the hydra destroyed by Hercules (as painted on vases) was, on the contrary, based upon the octopus, or eight-armed cuttle-fish, each arm carrying a snake-like head ([Fig. 18]). The wyvern is an important variety of the dragon tribe, well known to heralds, but not to be seen every day. It so far conforms to natural laws that it has only two legs, the fore-limbs being the wings ([Fig. 19]). The true dragon and the griffin, like the angel of ecclesiastical art, have actually six limbs—namely, a pair of fore-legs or arms, a pair of hind-legs, and, in addition, a pair of wings. Occasionally an artist (even in ancient Egyptian works of art) has attempted to avoid this redundance of limbs by representing an angel as having the arms themselves provided with an expanse of quill feathers. This is certainly a less extraordinary arrangement than the outgrowth of wings (which in birds, bats, and pterodactyles actually are the modified arms or fore-limbs), as an extra pair of limbs rooted in the back. The wyvern and the cockatrice and the basilisk ([Fig. 20]) (which, like the Gorgon Medusa, can strike a man dead by the mere glance of the eye) are remarkable for conforming to the invariable vertebrate standard of no more than two pairs of limbs, whether legs, wings, or fins. The name “lind-worm” is given to a wyvern without wings (hence the Linton Worm and the Laidley Worm of Lambton), and appears in various heraldic devices and in legendary art; whilst in the arms of the Visconti of Milan we climb down to a quite simple serpent-like creature without legs or wings, known as the “guivre.”
Fig. 19.—The heraldic wyvern.
Fig. 20.—The heraldic basilisk, also called the Amphysian Cockatrice. Observe the second head at the end of its tail—a feature due to perversion of the observation that there are some snake-like creatures (Amphisbena) with so simple a head that it is at first sight difficult to say which end of the creature is the head and which is the tail.