The Quiet Moon by Kevin Parr

Author:Kevin Parr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press

Such an unlikely course of events would be beyond the abilities, and common sense, of mortal beings of course. After all, no one in their right mind is likely to grab a ball of writhing snakes, throw it skyward and then attempt to catch it again. Ensuring, therefore, that the mythical nature of an adder stone endured.

Snakes were also revered by the Romans, and it is possible that a fourth species of snake was brought here by them to slither alongside the native adder, grass snake and smooth snake.

The Aesculapian snake is found across much of mainland Europe, including France, southern Germany, northern and central Italy, and through the Balkans, and its distribution can be largely attributed to the Romans.

A plague had decimated part of the Roman Empire, and in desperation they sent a ship to Greece in order to seek the aid of Aesculapius, the god of healing.

Aesculapius came on to their boat in the form of a snake and returned with them to Rome where he took up residence on an island in the Tiber estuary, the plague subsequently abating. To thank him for his help, the Romans built a temple in his honour, and subsequently took Aesculapian snakes in earthenware pots to temples and baths where they were released in the belief that they were representatives of Aesculapius himself, and therefore carried his powers of healing. They also kept rodent numbers down, the rat being their most favoured food, and this in turn would have checked the spread of disease and justified the belief in the snake’s healing quality.

The rod of Aesculapius, a staff with a snake entwined around the shaft, became a symbol of healing and medicine, and is still used by organisations around the world today, most familiarly on the Star of Life, which can be seen on the ambulances of the NHS. Today, there are two feral colonies of Aesculapian snakes in the British Isles. One beside the Welsh Mountain Zoo at Colwyn Bay in North Wales (the origin of which seems fairly apparent) and a second in London, with a well-established population living alongside the Grand Union Canal in Camden and Regent’s Park. There is greater uncertainty surrounding the origin of the London snakes, although one of the best sites to spot one is within the grounds of London Zoo. An escape from there seems rather more likely than a survival since the Roman occupation.

It is amazing how easily a lazy Sunday morning disappears into a dreamy Sunday afternoon, my efforts to counter the notion of Equos adventure having become even more acute. I’m not even likely to make it back out of the gate to study today’s flight of butterflies and in many ways I have no need to. As I sat and drank my coffee I watched the soft flutter of two cinnabar moths working the patio and showing me which of the green sprouts will later bear the yellow flowers of ragwort. The flight of a moth seems even softer in daylight, the scarlet hind wings as delicate as silk.

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