the asp
animal · 2 works · 3 mentions · 5 anchored passages
asps · bear · bull · it · serpent · the reptile
spoken of as
1 expressionAsps1 mention
Ad Martyras (Latin)
A woman willingly sought out the beasts—and indeed asps more dreadful than any serpent, more dreadful than bull or bear—which Cleopatra let loose upon herself, that she might not fall into the hands of her enemy.
in the texts
Antony
A venomous snake whose bite Cleopatra determined, through systematic testing, to cause the most painless death.
Moreover, Cleopatra was getting together collections of all sorts of deadly poisons, and she tested the painless working of each of them by giving them to prisoners under sentence of death.
and she found that the bite of the asp alone induced a sleepy torpor and sinking, where there was no spasm or groan, but a gentle perspiration on the face, while the perceptive faculties were easily relaxed and dimmed, and resisted all attempts to rouse and restore them, as is the case with those who are soundly asleep.
It is said that the asp was brought with those figs and leaves and lay hidden beneath them, for thus Cleopatra had given orders, that the reptile might fasten itself upon her body without her being aware of it.
Ad Martyras
Venomous snakes invoked as the means of Cleopatra's death and as an example of dreadful creatures.
A woman willingly sought out the beasts—and indeed asps more dreadful than any serpent, more dreadful than bull or bear—which Cleopatra let loose upon herself, that she might not fall into the hands of her enemy.