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Description
While we're on the topic of snakes, allow me to present my rendition of the Ismenian Dragon. This relatively obscure myth from Greek mythology comes to us courtesy of Apollodorus and his Bibliotheca, as well as other contemporary Greco-Roman authors such as the geographer Pausanias. It's actually one of the few myths which feature the war god Ares as a main character rather than just comic relief for the other gods to bully. The foundation myth of Thebes, the story starts with the hero Cadmus, who is in the process of just kinda… giving up on his quest to find his long lost sister Europa. Granted, she was abducted by Zeus (because of course she was), so she probably wasn't coming back anyways, but still. Cadmus just kinda drops the search like yesterday's laundry. Why then, you may ask, why abandon his beloved sister so? Well because the Oracle of Delphi told him to start following this random cow with a weird birthmark around until it fell down exhausted. Yeah that checks out.

Where the cow at last fell down, Cadmus was to build a new city, which he named Thebes. Intending to christen his snazzy new town by sacrificing the poor cow to Athena, Cadmus sent out a few of his homies to fetch water from the nearby Ismenian Spring. Unfortunately, it turns out that this spring was sacred to Ares, and guarded by the god's serpentine son. The Ismenian Dragon killed pretty much anyone Cadmus sent in, and this started really getting under Cadmus's nerves. After he finally comes to the shocking realization that humans are not giant-god-snake-proof, Cadmus eventually just goes up there himself and kills the dragon using that age-old cure-all: big rock. We love big rock here at Avapithecus. There will never be a time in all of human history where big rock is not an effective solution. Nonetheless, before Cadmus has the chance to think to himself hmm, maybe killing the son of the war god was a bit of a whoopsie, the goddess Athena shows up and instructs Cadmus to sow the dragon's teeth like seeds. Cadmus does so, and the teeth sprout a bunch of pissed off grown men who immediately get to work killing one another. Only five survive the altercation, and those five go on to be the founders of Thebes's five major aristocratic families. You're free to insert your own quip here.

Cadmus, meanwhile, is made Ares's slave for eight years as recompense for killing the dragon. Cadmus moans that ah man, this bites, I'd rather just be turned into a snake myself. Odd preference, but to each their own, and the gods are more than happy to take him as literally. Cadmus was thus condemned to slither as a snake for the rest of his days, as was his wife, who had… absolutely nothing to do with this. Meanwhile, some of the teeth he hadn't actually put in the ground were stored away by Cadmus's buddy Aeëtes. Jason (of Argonauts fame) would later swing by Aeëtes's place to claim a certain golden fleece that he had in his possession. Of course, nothing is ever that easy in these stories, and in order to win the fleece, Jason was first challenged to plant the remaining dragon teeth and survive the onslaught of rampaging angry men. If you needed inspiration for a shitpost video game, there ya go. Athena advises Jason to toss stones into a group of the hoard, as apparently they just can't resist killing one another over possession of the rocks. Understandable. Jason draws his sword on the distracted spawns, wins the minigame, and is allowed to progress to the final boss fight, ending the tale of the Ismenian Dragon once and for all.

Design notes, it seems this myth was actually quite popular in ancient Greece, or at least popular enough to show up in a few vases. The one I drew the most inspiration from was a Chalcidian black figure vase dated to the 6th century BCE, mostly just because I liked the colors. The dragon itself is never really given much description in the original sources outside of being a big ass snake with three rows of teeth and a three-forked tongue. In the vase paintings, the serpent is usually depicted as having all sorts of weird ornamentation on its head like a crest and a beard. As far as I'm aware, there's no such thing as a bearded snake, though I am more than happy to be proven wrong on that. So instead, I took inspiration from other squamates, i.e. the lizards. If I remember correctly, I mostly based the crest on the common basilisk, otherwise known as the Jesus lizard for its ability to run on water. The structure seemed to most closely match the crest of the dragon in the paintings. I also decided to give it some gross bulbous venom sacs running down its belly, just to highlight its capacity for a deadly bite. I used the Ismenian Dragon as a boss fight in my D&D game, and well nothing screams boss fight like big glowing targetable sacs.

Description
While we're on the topic of snakes, allow me to present my rendition of the Ismenian Dragon. This relatively obscure myth from Greek mythology comes to us courtesy of Apollodorus and his Bibliotheca, as well as other contemporary Greco-Roman authors such as the geographer Pausanias. It's actually one of the few myths which feature the war god Ares as a main character rather than just comic relief for the other gods to bully. The foundation myth of Thebes, the story starts with the hero Cadmus, who is in the process of just kinda… giving up on his quest to find his long lost sister Europa. Granted, she was abducted by Zeus (because of course she was), so she probably wasn't coming back anyways, but still. Cadmus just kinda drops the search like yesterday's laundry. Why then, you may ask, why abandon his beloved sister so? Well because the Oracle of Delphi told him to start following this random cow with a weird birthmark around until it fell down exhausted. Yeah that checks out.

Where the cow at last fell down, Cadmus was to build a new city, which he named Thebes. Intending to christen his snazzy new town by sacrificing the poor cow to Athena, Cadmus sent out a few of his homies to fetch water from the nearby Ismenian Spring. Unfortunately, it turns out that this spring was sacred to Ares, and guarded by the god's serpentine son. The Ismenian Dragon killed pretty much anyone Cadmus sent in, and this started really getting under Cadmus's nerves. After he finally comes to the shocking realization that humans are not giant-god-snake-proof, Cadmus eventually just goes up there himself and kills the dragon using that age-old cure-all: big rock. We love big rock here at Avapithecus. There will never be a time in all of human history where big rock is not an effective solution. Nonetheless, before Cadmus has the chance to think to himself hmm, maybe killing the son of the war god was a bit of a whoopsie, the goddess Athena shows up and instructs Cadmus to sow the dragon's teeth like seeds. Cadmus does so, and the teeth sprout a bunch of pissed off grown men who immediately get to work killing one another. Only five survive the altercation, and those five go on to be the founders of Thebes's five major aristocratic families. You're free to insert your own quip here.

Cadmus, meanwhile, is made Ares's slave for eight years as recompense for killing the dragon. Cadmus moans that ah man, this bites, I'd rather just be turned into a snake myself. Odd preference, but to each their own, and the gods are more than happy to take him as literally. Cadmus was thus condemned to slither as a snake for the rest of his days, as was his wife, who had… absolutely nothing to do with this. Meanwhile, some of the teeth he hadn't actually put in the ground were stored away by Cadmus's buddy Aeëtes. Jason (of Argonauts fame) would later swing by Aeëtes's place to claim a certain golden fleece that he had in his possession. Of course, nothing is ever that easy in these stories, and in order to win the fleece, Jason was first challenged to plant the remaining dragon teeth and survive the onslaught of rampaging angry men. If you needed inspiration for a shitpost video game, there ya go. Athena advises Jason to toss stones into a group of the hoard, as apparently they just can't resist killing one another over possession of the rocks. Understandable. Jason draws his sword on the distracted spawns, wins the minigame, and is allowed to progress to the final boss fight, ending the tale of the Ismenian Dragon once and for all.

Design notes, it seems this myth was actually quite popular in ancient Greece, or at least popular enough to show up in a few vases. The one I drew the most inspiration from was a Chalcidian black figure vase dated to the 6th century BCE, mostly just because I liked the colors. The dragon itself is never really given much description in the original sources outside of being a big ass snake with three rows of teeth and a three-forked tongue. In the vase paintings, the serpent is usually depicted as having all sorts of weird ornamentation on its head like a crest and a beard. As far as I'm aware, there's no such thing as a bearded snake, though I am more than happy to be proven wrong on that. So instead, I took inspiration from other squamates, i.e. the lizards. If I remember correctly, I mostly based the crest on the common basilisk, otherwise known as the Jesus lizard for its ability to run on water. The structure seemed to most closely match the crest of the dragon in the paintings. I also decided to give it some gross bulbous venom sacs running down its belly, just to highlight its capacity for a deadly bite. I used the Ismenian Dragon as a boss fight in my D&D game, and well nothing screams boss fight like big glowing targetable sacs.