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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileafter Hendrick Goltzius
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.
HG. inv. Rob. de Baudous exc, 2 Abstrusum ut Tyrij Iovis in libamina fontem Infausto tetigere gradu, ferus exilit Anguis, Invaditq. viros, atq. atra tabe trementes Occupat, et longo miseros sinuamine perdit. G. Ryckius
Translation
As they approached with ill-omened step the hidden spring, Like the libations of Tyrian Jove, a fierce Serpent leaps out, And attacks the men, and seizes those trembling with black decay, And destroys the wretches with a long coiling.
Ovid's Metamorphoses
The primary literary source for the narrative of Cadmus and the dragon of Mars.
Michael Maier
Maier frequently utilized the Cadmus myth and the slaying of the dragon as alchemical allegories in works like Atalanta Fugiens.
Object
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Engraving
mythological
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
National Gallery Of Art
Public domain
3000 × 2085 px
56068a74e1e08b832331f3758b69eeb5b1dc64cb
December 12, 2014
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.