πυρρός, Vergil's serpents which attack Laokoon have blood-red crests, and Homer's dragon has a blood-red back, but here the trait (cf. above) is reproduced from the red colour of Typhon, the Egyptian dragon who persecuted Osiris (Plut. de Iside, 30 33). The seven heads are taken from the seven-headed hydra or mušmaḥḥu of Babylonian mythology. The devil's deputy in Revelation 13:1 (= the composite mušruššu of Babylonia) has the same equipment of horns and heads, but the diadems adorn his horns. Here, to John's mind at any rate (cf. Revelation 12:9), the dragon is not equivalent to any contemporary pagan power like Pompey (Ps. Sol. 2:29) or the king of Babylon.

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Old Testament