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Dragon at Babylon.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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In the Sept. version of Daniel there occurs, as chap. xiv, an account entitled Bel and the Dragon (q.v.), which states that at Babylon, under Cyrus, an enormous dragon (δράκων μέγας ) was worshipped (? by lectisternia, i.e., by spreading viands on a couch as an offering). This serpent-worship, however, is certainly not of Babylonian origin (see Selden, De diis Syr. 2:17, page 365 sq.), since the two silver serpents mentioned by Diodorus Siculus (2:9) as being in the temple of Belus (q.v.) were not forms of divinities, but only emblems of the gods there represented; yet possibly the conception had reference to the Persian symbol of the serpent, which signified Ahriman (Zendavesta, by Kleuker, 1:6). Accordingly the serpent appears also in later Jewish representations as an evil daemon (Revelation 12, 13; comp. Genesis 3). (See SERPENT).