Siren snake, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230

In the mystic deserts of Arabia, legends speak of an extraordinary creature known as the siren snake—a mesmerizing and deadly serpent unlike any other. These serpents are described as white snakes with wings, blending the features of a snake and a bird in a way that defies nature. While traditional snakes slither on the ground, the sirens are said to both fly and run, moving with a speed so great that they can outrun the swiftest horses.

The most fearsome aspect of these winged serpents is their venom, which is unlike anything seen in ordinary snakes. According to ancient lore, their venom is so potent that death comes faster than pain—a terrifying testament to this snake’s lethal nature. Victims fall almost instantly, succumbing to the venom before they even register the pain of the bite.

Siren snakes embody the mysterious and perilous beauty of the Arabian landscape, a place where the boundaries of myth and reality blur. They serve as a powerful reminder of the dangers that lie hidden in the sands, combining speed, flight, and deadly toxicity into a single, haunting figure of ancient myth. The siren snake is not only a creature of legend but also symbolic of swift, silent and inevitable danger—a perfect embodiment of the ancient world’s fascination with the strange and the deadly.

In arabia autem serpentes albi sunt cum alis que si-
rene vocantur. que etiam plus currunt ab equis
sed etiam et volare dicuntur. Quorum virus tan-
tum est; ut mors ante morsum insequatur; quam dolor;

In Arabia, however, there are white snakes with wings called sirens. They fly and are said to run faster than horses. Their venom is so powerful that death ensues before pain even occurs.

Further Reading

David Badke, The Bestiary Blog: Animals in the Middle Ages, Siren Snake, November 6 2023, https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast101408.htm

Josh Goldenberg (BA 2012) and Matt Shanahan (BA 2014, Logeion, November 2022, https://logeion.uchicago.edu/

Castiglioni, L. and Mariotti, S. (1996). Vocabolario della Lingua Latina: Latino-Italiano Italiano-Latino. Terza Edizione. Loescher Torino

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Wikipedia: The Elephant, 28 November 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant

Matthews, J. and Matthews C., (2010), The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, HarperCollins UK, London

Curley, M. J., Physiologus: A Medieval Book of Nature Lore (University of Chicago edition 2009)

Rackham, H., M.A., Pliny Natural History Volume III, Libri VIII-XI (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1949)

Collins, A. H., M.A., Symbolism of Animals and Birds (New York: McBride, Nast & Company, 1913)

Henderson, C., The Book of Barely Imagined Beings (London: University of Chicago Press, 2013)

White, T. H., The Bestiary: A Book of Beasts (New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons, 1960)

Barney, S. A., Lewis, W. J., Beach A., Berghof O., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006)