M/M: Alligators in the Sewers: Conon, Narrationes XXI

ΔΙΗΓΗΣΙΣ κβ Μειρακία Κρητι γέννημα δράκοντος ό εραστής δωρείται. ό δε έτρεφέ τε και επεμελείτο έως ηυξήθη και φόβον ενεπoίει ο δράκων τοϊς επιχωρίοις ούτοι γαρ τότε ηνάγκασαν το μειράκιον έκθεϊναι το θηρίον επί της ερημίας και πολλά κλαίον εξέθετο. Υστερον δε επι θήραν έξελθόντος του μειρακίου και λησταϊς περιπεσόντος και ανακαλουμένου τους βοηθήσαντας αναγνωρίσας ο δράκων την φωνήν τους μεν ληστας διέφθειρεν εκάστω περιειληθείς σημεία δε τώ παιδί παλαιάς αισθήσεως ένδειξάμενος απαλλάσσει της επιβουλής

Cretensi puero tanquam pro amasio datus est draconis foetus. Hunc eo usque educavit ille, studioseque curavit, dum grandior factus metum etiam incolis iniiceret. Coegerunt itaque puerum in solitudinem draconem deferre. Et paruit ille, multum plorans. Tandem vero cum ad venationem aliquando adolescens egressus in latrones incididsset, opemque inclamasset: agnita voce draco, et corporibus sese implicans, praedones occidit, atque adolescentem, veteris signa necessitudinis ostendens, periculo eripuit.

* A μειράκιον [meirakion] is no longer an ἔφηβος [ephēbos], but not yet an ἀνήρ [anēr]; i.e., a person in their late teens to early twenties

--Conon Narratio xxi, Translated into Latin by Thomas Gale [1675]

A lover once gave a baby snake to his Cretan boyfriend. The young man raised the snake and took care of it until it grew up. The town’s inhabitants grew afraid of it and forced him to return the snake to the wild, and although he was upset about it, he complied. Later when the youth was out hunting and ran into some bandits, he shouted for help. The snake recognized its old owner, and in a show of affection, freed him from danger by curling itself around the bandits and killing them. 

CONON	MAP:
Name:  Conon Date:  1st c. BCE – 1st c. CE Works:  Διηγήσεις / Narrationes	REGION  5
BIO:	Timeline:
Conon was a Greek mythographer who lived during the reign of Augustus. Although his work, the Narrations, is lost, a summary of it was preserved by the Greek author Photius.	ROMAN GREECE