Editing Python (mythology) (section)

==Versions and interpretations==
[[Image: Pietro Francavilla - Apollo Victorious over the Python - Walters 27302.jpg|thumb|left|Sculpture by Pietro Francavilla of Apollo's first triumph, when he slew with his bow and arrows the serpent Python, which lies dead at his feet.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= [[The Walters Art Museum]]
 |url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/7866
 |title= Apollo Victorious over the Python}}</ref> The Walters Art Museum]]
There are various versions of Python's birth and death at the hands of Apollo. In the ''[[Homeric Hymn|Homeric Hymn to Apollo]]'', now thought to have been composed in 522 BC when the archaic period in Greek history was giving way to the Classical period,<ref>[[Walter Burkert]], "Kynaithos, Polycrates and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo" in ''Arktouros: Hellenic studies presented to B. M. W. Knox'' ed. G. W. Bowersock, W. Burkert, M. C. J. Putnam (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1979) pp. 53-62.</ref>  a small detail is provided regarding Apollo's combat with the serpent, in some sections identified as the deadly [[Drakaina (mythology)|drakaina]], or her parent. The god searching for a place to establish his shrine, reached Delphi and saw the Python, who was a bane to the people. He slew the serpent and declared himself as the owner of the Oracular shrine.

The version related by [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]]<ref>'' Fabulae'' 140.</ref> holds that when [[Zeus]] lay with the goddess [[Leto]], and she became pregnant with [[Artemis]] and Apollo, [[Hera]] was jealous and sent Python to pursue Leto throughout the lands, to prevent her from giving birth to the twin gods. Thus, when Apollo was born and was four days old he pursued Python, making his way straight for [[Mount Parnassus]] where the serpent dwelled and chased it to the oracle of Gaia at Delphi; there he dared to penetrate the sacred precinct and kill it with his arrows beside the rock cleft where the priestess sat on her tripod. [[Robert Graves]], who habitually read into primitive myths a retelling of archaic political and social turmoil, saw in this the capture by [[Greeks|Hellenes]] of a pre-Hellenic shrine. "To placate local opinion at Delphi," he wrote in ''The Greek Myths'', "regular funeral games were instituted in honor of the dead hero Python, and her priestess was retained in office."

According to an epigram from 159 BC, it seems that Python in particular meant to rape Leto.{{sfn|Ogden|2013|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA47 47]}}{{efn|The ambiguity here lies in the use of the verb chosen, {{lang|grc|σκυλάω}} (''skuláō''), alternative form of {{lang|grc|σκυλεύω}} (''skuleúō''), meaning το strip or despoil a slain enemy of his arms and gear,{{sfn|Ogden|2013|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA47 47]}}<ref>''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]'' s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*s111%3Aentry+group%3D47%3Aentry%3Dskuleu%2Fw {{lang|grc|σκυλεύω}}]</ref> not entirely applicable to the myth of a mother fleeing from danger. Compare also {{lang|grc|σκυλλώ}} (''skullṓ''), meaning "to maltreat, to molest."<ref>''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]'' s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*s111%3Aentry+group%3D47%3Aentry%3Dsku%2Fllw {{lang|grc|σκυλλώ}}]</ref>}} [[Clearchus of Soli]] wrote that while Python was pursuing them, Leto stepped on a stone and, holding Apollo in her hands, cried {{lang|grc|ἵε παῖ}} (''híe paî'', meaning "shoot, child") to him, who was holding a bow and arrows.{{sfn|Mayhew|Mirhady|Dorandi|White|2022|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=oiVmEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 68]}} 

[[File:Leto with Artemis & Apollo Escaping from Python, Greek, 4-3rd Cent BC (10451424666).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Relief of Leto and her children running away from Python, 4th-3rd century BC, [[Michael C. Carlos Museum]].]]

The politics are conjectural, but the myth reports that Zeus ordered Apollo to purify himself for the [[sacrilege]] and instituted the [[Pythian Games]], over which Apollo was to preside, as penance for his act.

[[Erwin Rohde]] wrote that the Python was an earth spirit, who was conquered by Apollo, and buried under the ''omphalos'' and that it is a case of one god setting up his temple on the grave of another.<ref>cf. Rohde, ''Psyche'', p.97.</ref>

The priestess of the oracle at [[Delphi]] became known as the Pythia, after the place-name Pytho, which Greeks explained as named after the rotting (πύθειν) of the slain serpent's corpse in the strength of [[Hyperion (mythology)|Hyperion]] (day) or [[Helios]] (the sun).<ref>''Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo'', 363-369.</ref>

[[Karl Kerenyi]] notes that the older tales mentioned two dragons who were perhaps intentionally conflated.<ref>Kerenyi ''The Gods of the Greeks'' 1951:136.</ref> A female dragon named [[Delphyne]] ({{lang|grc|Δελφύνη}}; cf. {{lang|grc|δελφύς}}, "womb"),<ref>{{LSJ|delfu/s|δελφύς|shortref}}.</ref> and a male serpent [[Typhon]] ({{lang|grc|Τυφῶν}}; from {{lang|grc|τύφειν}}, "to smoke"), the adversary of Zeus in the [[Titanomachy]], who the narrators confused with Python.<ref>"Many pictures show the serpent Python living in amity with Apollo and guarding the Omphalos. Karl Kerenyi (1951). ed. 1980: ''The gods of the Greeks'', pp. 36–37</ref><ref>"In a Pompeian fresco Python is lying peacefully on the ground and the priests with the sacred double axe in their hand bring the bull (''bouphronion''). Jane. H. Harisson (1912): ''Themis. A study of the social origins of the Greek religion''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 423–424</ref> Python was the good [[Daemon (classical mythology)|daemon]] (ἀγαθὸς δαίμων) of the temple as it appears in [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] religion,<ref>In Minoan religion the serpent is the protector of the household (underground stored corn). Also in Greek religion, "snake of the house" ({{lang|grc|οἰκουρὸς ὄφις}}) in the temple of [[Athena]] at Acropolis, etc., and in Greek folklore. Martin Nilsson, Vol.I, pp. 213–214</ref> but she was represented as a dragon, as often happens in Northern European folklore as well as in the East.<ref>Nordig sagas. [[Hittites|Hittite]] myth of [[Illuyankas]]. Also in the Bible: [[Leviathan]]. W. Porzig (1930).'' Illuyankas and Typhon. Kleinasiatische Forschung'', pp. 379–386</ref>

This myth has been described as an allegory for the dispersal of the fogs and clouds of vapor that arise from ponds and marshes (Python) by the rays of the Sun (the arrows of Apollo).<ref>{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Python (mythology)|display=Python, in Greek mythology}}</ref>