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© Κωνσταντίνος Βακουφτσής
ἴδιον δὲ καὶ τοῦτο, νεκρῶν τινων τοῦ μυελοῦ σαπέντος ἐκ τῆς ῥάχεως ὀφίδια γίνεσθαι, ἐὰν πρὸ τοῦ τελευτᾶν ὄφεως τεθνηκότος ἑλκύσωσι τὴν ὀσμήν. καί τινι καὶ ἐπιγραμματίῳ περιπεπτώκαμεν Ἀρχελάου, οὗ καὶ πρότερον ἐμνήσθημεν, ὃς περὶ τῶν θαυμασίων καὶ τοῦτο καταγράφει, καί φησι·
πάντα
δι’ ἀλλήλων ὁ πολὺς σφραγίζεται αἰών·
ἀνδρὸς γὰρ κοίλης ἐκ μυελοῦ ῥάχεως
δεινὸς γίνετ’ ὄφις, νέκυος δειλοῖο σαπέντος,
ὃς νέον ἐκ τούτου πνεῦμα λάβῃ τέραος,
τεθνεότος
ζωὴν ἕλκων φύσιν·
εἰ δὲ τόδ’ ἐστίν,
οὐ θαῦμα βλαστεῖν τὸν διφυῆ Κέκροπα.
And
this is also strange: little snakes are born out of the rotten spinal marrow of
dead men if they breathe in the stench of a dead snake before death. And I have
encountered an epigram on this theme by Archelaus, whom I mentioned before, who
writes on marvels and says this:
Long
life puts its own stamp on each thing, marking one by another,
for
from the marrow of the hollow spine of a man
a
terrible snake is born, from a wretched corpse that has rotted away,
a
snake which draws new breath from this prodigy,
dragging
a living nature from a dead man: and if this is the case,
it
is no wonder that the bi-formed Cecrops blossomed forth.
Antigonus of Carystus, Collection of Marvellous Investigations 89.
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