Reptile or the fantastic, as in the monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s. The snake or serpent has played a powerful symbolic role in different cultures. In Egyptian history, the Nile cobra adorned the crown of the pharaoh. It was worshipped as one of the gods and was also used for sinister purposes: murder of an adversary and ritual suicide (Cleopatra). In Greek mythology snakes are associated with deadly antagonists, as a chthonic symbol, roughly translated as "earthbound". The nine-headed Lernaean Hydra that Hercules defeated and the three Gorgon sisters are children of Gaia, the earth. Medusa was one of
The Seven-headed Serpent The sword was the only one that could kill the serpent; it would regrow a new blade for every head, if it broke. He was to stuff the bells with cotton and then wound it in the tail. It would put its heads up, one at a time, and he should cut each one off. He obeyed her and killed it. The animals of the island chased him, but be escaped. The Seven-headed Serpent "The Seven-headed Serpent" is a Greek fairy tale collected, as "Die Siebenkopfige Schlange," in Bernhard Schmidt's "Griechische Mahrchen". Andrew Lang included it in "The Yellow Fairy