They might be hieroglyphs, frenzied maenads or black serpents with men's heads and menacing tongues – for stinging, perhaps, for uttering untruths, for screaming fury.
But when the Illyrians later angered the gods and were punished, Cadmus and Harmonia were saved, being changed into black serpents and sent by Zeus to the Islands of the Blessed (Elysian Fields).
And in the lower plaza, next to the church La Señora de la Candelaria, he looms 20-feet high astride a black, serpent-tailed bull, presiding over his subjects with a great golden trident.
Amanda Smyth is the author of Black Rock (Serpent's Tail, £7.99) British Airways (ba.com) flies Gatwick to Port of Spain from £555 including taxes The Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts is cut through by the Connecticut River, in which one of my ancestors drowned in the 18th century.
"It's the silver water serpent coming from the air to beat the black snake," said Jake Damon, a member of the Navajo Nation from Albuquerque, New Mexico, referring to a prophecy of a black snake that many have interpreted to mean the pipeline.
I think holiday reading should be easy, as well as pleasurable, so I'd recommend Attica Locke's debut, Black Water Rising (Serpent's Tail).
"There's one," the younger Timaeus observed, indicating a black-and-yellow serpent coiled in the center of the pit.
Bank of the Black Sheep, by Robert Lewis (Serpent's Tail, £7.99) If Nesser's hero is dreaming of a peaceful retirement, Welsh author Lewis's protagonist, in the last book of the Robin Llywelyn trilogy, is concerned with the nightmare of his imminent demise.
In 2006 Mr. Fenton, 36, and Mr. Argott, 39, Philadelphians who also play in a Black Sabbath-inspired band called Serpent Throne and who have collaborated — with Mr. Argott as director and Mr. Fenton as editor — on previous documentaries like "Rock School" and "The Art of the Steal," heard "rumblings from the underground," Mr. Fenton said, about Mr. Liebling's condition.
Attica Locke's Orange Prize-shortlisted novel, 'Black Water Rising', is published by Serpent's Tail.
