Last Update: 9 December 2003
Going Home Where Dragons Came From Myths, Tales, and More Legends The Many Dragon Types Chart of All Dragons Herein Contained Sources and Sites for more Amusement


Amphisbaena / Amphista / Amphivena
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Characteristics:
  • One head watches while the other head sleeps
  • If skin is nailed to a tree, the tree will be easy to cut
  • Is the scientific name for a legless worm lizard
  • Also called the "Mother of Ants"
  • Greek for "goes both ways"
Description:
  • Dragon with two heads (one on its tail) that can also roll its body into a hoop.
  • Also portrayed with scaled body, rooster feet, feathered wings.
  • Runs like lightning
  • Eats ants
  • Poisonous
  • The two halves can reunite if broken or cleaved in half.
Associations / Symbolism:
  • Aids pregnancy and arthritis
  • Skin used to remedy chilblains - swelling induced by cold - according to Pliny
Origins and Historocity:
  • Spawned of Medusa's Gorgan blood
  • Originated in Africa, and may have been inspired by a lizard with a long tail and eye markings on its tail.
Related Tales / Literature:
  • Stories say that the female will keep one head awake at all times while guarding her eggs. Other legends say that soon-to-be mothers should wear a live amphisbaena around their neck for safeguard and a dead amphisbaena can cure rheumatism.
Sources:

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