1600ca. Ovid's Metamorphoses - etching - Washington DC, NGA

Two men struggle against a massive, coiled serpent emerging from a rocky grove near a stone fountain. One figure attempts to strike the beast with a spear, while the serpent's immense body loops through the landscape, signifying the danger encountered by the Tyrian seekers. This engraving captures the moment of terror as the dragon defends the sacred spring from those sent to fetch water for a sacrifice to Jupiter.

This scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses represents the 'Dragon of the Spring,' which in Renaissance alchemical allegory often symbolizes the raw, volatile prima materia that must be 'slain' or fixed by the philosophical hero. Hendrick Goltzius and his circle in Haarlem were deeply immersed in the hermetic and Neoplatonic culture of the late 16th century, frequently using mythological narratives to encode natural philosophical truths.