XI. THE PLACE OF DRAGONS 379

was also a “Crocodile-town” a short distance north of Joppa. In Thebes, too, the greater Diospolis, there was a shrine of Perseus, and near it another Krokodeilwn PoliV. This persistent recurrence of the name Diospolis probably points to Perseus’ original identity with the sun-noblest birth of the Father of Lights. In its Greek form that name was, of course, of comparatively late imposition, but we may well conceive it to have had reference* to a local terminology and worship much more ancient. It is not unreasonable to connect too the Diospolis of Cappadocia, a region so frequently and mysteriously referred to as that of St. George’s birth.

218. Further, the stories both of Perseus and of St. George are curiously connected with the Persians; but this matter, together with the saint’s Cappadocian nationality, will fall to be considered in relation to a figure in the last of Carpaccio’s three pictures, which will open up to us the earliest history and deepest meaning of the myth.¹

219. The stories of the fight given by Greeks and Christians are almost identical. There is scarcely an incident in it told by one set of writers but occurs in the account given by some member or members of the other set, even to the crowd of distant spectators Carpaccio has so dwelt upon, and to the votive altars raised above the body of the monster, with the stream of healing that flowed beside them. And while both accounts say how the saved nations rendered thanks to the Father in heaven, we are told that the heathen placed, beside His altar, altars to the Maiden Wisdom and to Hermes, while the Christians placed altars dedicated to the Maiden Mother and to George. Even Medusa’s head did not come amiss to the mediæval artist, but set in the saint’s hand became his own, fit indication

* Compare the name Heliopolis given both to Baalbeck and On.

¹ [A reference to the intended, but unwritten, sequel. The figure in question is that of the youth carrying a vase in the picture of St. George baptizing the Sultan. Mr. Anderson meant to connect this with Greek pictures, in which a youth carrying a vase is represented behind St. George on the same horse, and to suggest mythological analogies.]

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