Family.

Parents.

Pepi was the son of Teti and queen Iput, The latter is directly attested by a relief on a decree uncovered in Koptos, which mentions Iput as Pepi's mother, as well as by inscriptions in her pyramid to

Consorts.

At least eight consorts of Pepi I have been identified. Queens Meritites IV, Nubwenet and Inenek-Inti have been proposed as they are buried in pyramids adjacent to that of Pepi. The case of Meritites remains debated however as she could also be an Eighth Dynasty queen, buried here to indicate her filiation to Pepi I. Three more queens were Mehaa, who is

Children.

Pepi fathered at least three sons and a daughter. Ankhesenpepi I in all likelihood bore him the future pharaoh Merenre Nemtyemsaf I. In an alternative hypothesis, Hans Goedicke has proposed that Merenre's mother was the queen Were-Yamtes, responsible for the harem conspiracy against Pepi I. In this hypothesis, Ankhesenpepi I was claimed to be Merenre's mother to safeguard Merenre's claim to the throne. Ankhesenpepi II was the mother of Pepi II Neferkare, who was likely born at the

Chronology.

Relative chronology.

The relative chronology of Pepi I's reign is well established by historical records, contemporary artifacts and archeological evidences, which agree that he succeeded Userkare and was in turn succeeded by Merenre I Nemtyemsaf. For example, the near-contemporary South Saqqara Stone, a royal annal inscribed during the reign of Pepi II, gives the succession "Teti → Userkare → Pepi I → Merenre I", making Pepi the third king of the Sixth Dynasty. Two more historical sources agree with this chronology: the Abydos king list, written under Seti I and which gives Pepi I's cartouche on the 36th entry between those of Userkare and Merenre, and the Turin canon, a list of kings on papyrus dating to the reign of Ramses II which records Pepi I on the fourth column, third row.  Historical

Length of Reign.

Pepi I's length of reign remains somewhat uncertain, although the consensus is that he ruled over Egypt for around five decades.  During the Old Kingdom period, the Egyptians did not record time as we do today. Rather, they counted years since the beginning of the reign of the current king. Furthermore these years were referred to by the number of cattle counts which had taken place since the start of the reign. The cattle count was an important event

Reign.

Political situation.

Acending the throne.

Pepi's accession to the throne might have occurred in times of discord, as his father Teti is said by Manetho to have been assassinated by his own bodyguards. The Egyptologist Naguib Kanawati has argued in support of Manetho's claim, noting for example that Teti's reign saw an important increase in the number of guards at the Egyptian court, with these becoming responsible for the everyday care of the king. At the same time, the figures and names of several contemporary palace officials as represented in their tombs have been purposefully erased. This seems to be an attempt at a damnatio memoriae targeting three men in particular, the vizier Hezi, the overseer of weapons Mereri and chief physician Seankhuiptah who could

Policies and power play.

In a long trend that started earlier in the Fifth Dynasty, the Old Kingdom Egyptian state was the subject of increasing decentralization and regionalization. Provincial families played an increasingly important role, marrying in the royal family, accessing the highest offices of the state administration and keeping a strong influence at the court while also consolidating their hold over regional power bases by creating true local dynasties. These processes, well under way during Pepi I's reign, progressively weakened the king's primacy and ascendancy over his own administration and would ultimately result in the princedoms of the First Intermediate Period. Pepi seems to have developed several policies to counteract this, notably with the constructions of royal Ka chapels throughout Egypt, to strengthen the royal presence in the provinces. These expensive policies suggest that Egypt was prosperous during Pepi's reign. The concurrent rise of small provincial centers in areas historically associated with the crown may prove that pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty tried to diminish the power of predominant regional dynasties by recruiting senior officials outside of them. Some of these new officials have no known background, indicated that they were not

Conspiracies.

At some point in his reign, either early or late, around his 44th year on the throne, Pepi faced a conspiracy hatched by one of his harem consort, only known from her queenly tile "Weret-Yamtes". Although the precise nature of her crime is not reported by Weni who served as a judge during the subsequent trial, this at least shows that the person of the king was not untouchable anymore. According to Hans Goedicke, who read Weret-Yamtes as proper name, she could have been the mother of Merenre. Nicolas Grimal and Baud see this as highly unlikely and outright extravagant respectively, as this queen's son would have been punished together her. Perhaps in response to these events, late in his reign Pepi married two daughters of Khui, nomarch of Abydos. This may also have served to counteract the weakening of the king's authority over Middle and Upper Egypt by securing the allegiance of a powerful family.  The political importance of this marriage is suggested by the fact that, for the first and last time until the 26th Dynasty some 1800 years later, Khui's wife Nebet, a woman, bore the title of vizier of

Trade, mining and military activities.

Trade and mining.

Much of the trade with settlements along the Levantine coast which had existed during the earlier Fifth Dynasty not only continued but seem to have peaked under Pepi I and Pepi II. The chief trade partner there might have been Byblos, where dozens of inscriptions showing Pepi's cartouches have been found, as well as a large alabaster vessel bearing Pepi's titulary and commemorating his jubilee from the Temple of Baalat Gebal. Through Byblos, Egypt had indirect contacts took place with the city of Ebla in modern-day Syria. The latter is established by alabaster vessels bearing Pepi's name found near Ebla's royal palace G, destroyed in the 23rd century

Military campaigns.

Militarily, Pepi I's reign was marked by aggressive expansion into Nubia. This is reported on the walls of the tombs of the contemporary nomarchs of Elephantine, by alabaster vessels bearing Pepi's cartouche found in Kerma and by inscriptions in Tumas. To the north-east of Egypt, Pepi launched at least five military expeditions against the "sand dwellers" of Sinai and southern Palestine. These campaigns are recounted on the walls of the tomb of Weni, then officially a palace superintendent but given the task of a general. Weni tells how he ordered nomarchs in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta region to "call up the levies

Building activities.

Pepi I built extensively throughout Egypt, so much so that the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie considered in 1900 that "this king has left more monuments, large and small, than any other ruler before the Twelfth Dynasty". A similar conclusion is reached by the Egyptologist Jean Leclant who sees Pepi's rule as marking the apogee of the Old Kingdom period owing to the flurry of building activities, administrative reforms, trade and military campaigns at the time. Pepi's building efforts were mostly devoted to local cults and royal Ka chapels, seemingly with the objective of affirming the king's stature and presence in the provinces.

Ka chapels.

Ka-chapels comprised one or more chambers for the bringing of offerings dedicated to the cult of the Ka of a deceased or, in this case, of the king. Such chapels dedicated to Pepi I were uncovered or are known from comtemporary sources to have stood in Hierakonpolis, in Abydos, in Bubastis and in the central Nile Delta region, in Memphis, Zawyet el-Meytin, Assiut, Qus and beyond the Nile Valley in Balat, a settlement of the Dakhla Oasis. A further chapel might have existed in Elkab where rock inscriptions refer to his funerary cult. All of these were likely peripheral to or inside larger temples hosting extensive cult activities, for example that at Abydos was likely next to the temple of Khenti-Amentiu. Beneath the floor of Hierakonpolis Ka-chapel of Pepi, in an underground store, James Quibell uncovered a statue of king Khasekhemwy of the

Temples.

The close association between Ka-chapels and temples might have spurred building activities for the latter as well. For example, the Bubastis ensemble of Pepi I comprised a enclosure wall and, near its north corner, the small Ka-chapel made of rectangular building housing 8 pillars. This ensemble was peripheral to the main Old Kingdom temple dedicated to the goddess Bastet. In Dendera, where a fragmentary statue of a seated Pepi I has been uncovered, Pepi restored the temple complex to the goddess Hathor. In Abydos, he built a small rock cut chapel dedicated to the local god Khenti-Amentiu, where he is referred to as "Pepi, Son of Hathor of Dendera". Pepi also referred to himself as the son of Atum of Heliopolis, a direct evidence of the consolidation of the Heliopolitan cults

Other projects.

Further building activities may be inferred from the inscriptions in the tomb of Nekhebu, a high official belonging to

Pyramid complex.

Pepi I had a pyramid built for himself in South Saqqara, which he named "Men-nefer-Pepi" variously translated as "Pepi's splendor is enduring", "The perfection of Pepi is established" "The beauty of Pepi endures", and "The perfection of Pepi endures". The diminutive name "Mennefer" for the pyramid complex gave rise to a novel designation for the nearby capital of Egypt originally called "Ineb-hedj", designation which ultimately gave Memphis in Greek.  Pepi's main pyramid was constructed in the same fashion as others since Djedkare Isesi: a core built six steps high from small roughly dressed blocks of limestone bound together using clay mortar encased with fine limestone blocks. The pyramid, now destroyed, had a base length of converging to the apex at ~ 53° and once stood tall. Its remains now form a mound a meagre, containing a pit in its centre dug by stone thieves.  The substructure of the pyramid was accessed from the north chapel which has since disappeared. From the entrance, a descending corridor gives way to a vestibule leading into the horizontal passage. Halfway along the passage three granite

Legacy.

Pepi I was the object of a funerary cult after his death with ritual activities taking place in his funerary complex. Archaeological evidence show that these activities continued throughout the end of the third millenium BC until the early Middle Kingdom period, covering the First Intermediate Period, a period during which the Egyptian state likely collapsed.  The consequences of the long lasting cults of Old Kingdom pharaohs during the New Kingdom period is apparent in the Karnak king list dating to Thutmosis III's reign. Several pharaohs of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty including Nyuserre Ini, Djedkare Isesi, Teti and Pepi I are mentioned on the list by their birth name, rather than throne name. For the Egyptologist Antonio Morales, this is because of popular cults for these kings which existed well into the New Kingdom and which referred to these kings using their birth name.

Pepi I Meryre (also Pepy I) was the third king of the Sixth dynasty of Egypt, ruling for over 40 years during the second half of the 24th Century BC, toward the end of the Old Kingdom period. Pepi I was the son of his second predecessor Teti, ascending the throne only after the brief and enigmatic reign of the shadowy Userkare. Pepi's mother was queen Iput, who may have been a daughter of Unas, final ruler of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt.

佩皮一世(Pepy I),拉名是麦雷拉(Meryre,意为被拉所喜爱的),埃及第六王朝第三位法老,在位49年(公元前2332年—公元前2283年在位)。他可能是第六王朝的第一位法老特提与王后伊普特一世(Iput I)的儿子。然而种种迹象表明,在他继承父位之前有另一个人统治着埃及,在一些王表中称这个人为乌瑟卡拉,而此人的荷鲁斯名没有留下任何记载。一些文物显示,在佩皮一世使用麦雷拉这个拉名之前,他曾以另一个王衔内弗扎霍统治。


Early life and career.

Duvalier was born in Port-au-Prince in 1907, the son of Duval Duvalier, a justice of the peace, and baker His aunt, Madame Florestal, raised him. He completed a degree in medicine from the University of Haiti in 1934, and served as staff physician at several local hospitals. He spent a year at the University of Michigan studying public health and in 1943, became active in a United States-sponsored campaign to control the spread of contagious tropical diseases, helping the poor to fight typhus, yaws, malaria and other tropical diseases that had ravaged Haiti for years. His patients affectionately called him "Papa Doc", a moniker that he used throughout his life.  The United States occupation of Haiti, which began in 1915, left a powerful impression on the young Duvalier. He was also aware of the latent political power of the poor black majority and their resentment against the tiny mulatto (black and white mixed-race) elite. Duvalier supported Pan-African ideals, and became involved in the "" movement of Haitian author, both of which led to his advocacy of Haitian Vodou, an ethnological study of which later paid enormous political dividends for him. In 1938, Duvalier co-founded the journal "Les Griots". On 27 December 1939, he married, with whom he had four children: Marie‐Denise, Nicole, Simone, and Jean‐Claude.

Political rise.

In 1946, Duvalier aligned himself with President Dumarsais Estimé and was appointed Director General of the National Public Health Service. In 1949, he served as Minister of Health and Labor, but when Duvalier opposed Paul Magloire's 1950 coup d'état, he left the government and resumed practicing medicine. His practice included taking part in campaigns to prevent yaws and other diseases. In 1954, Duvalier abandoned medicine, hiding out in Haiti's countryside from the Magloire regime. In 1956, the Magloire government was failing, and although still in hiding, Duvalier announced his candidacy to replace him as president. By December 1956, an amnesty was issued and Duvalier emerged from hiding, and on 12 December 1956, Magloire conceded defeat.  The two frontrunners in the 1957 campaign for the presidency were Duvalier and Louis Déjoie, a landowner and industrialist from the north. During their campaigning, Haiti was ruled by five temporary administrations, none lasting longer than a few months. Duvalier promised to rebuild and renew the country and rural Haiti solidly supported him as did the military. He resorted to " populism, stoking the majority irritation at being governed by the few mulatto elite, which is how he described his opponent, Déjoie.  François Duvalier was elected president on 22 September 1957. Duvalier received 679,884 votes to Déjoie's 266,992. Even in this election, however, there are multiple first-person accounts of voter fraud and voter

Presidency.

Consolidation of power.

After being elected president in 1957, Duvalier exiled most of the major supporters of Déjoie. He had a new constitution adopted that year.  Duvalier promoted and installed members of the black majority in the civil service and the army. In July 1958, three exiled Haitian army officers and five American mercenaries landed in Haiti and tried to overthrow Duvalier; all were killed. Although the army and its leaders had quashed the coup attempt, the incident deepened Duvalier's distrust of the army, an important Haitian institution over which he did not have firm control. He replaced the chief-of-staff with a more reliable officer and then proceeded to create his own power base within the army by turning the Presidential Guard into an elite corps aimed at maintaining his power. After this, Duvalier dismissed the entire general staff and replaced it with officers who owed their positions, and their loyalty, to him.  In 1959, Duvalier created a rural militia, the " (, )—commonly referred to as the after a bogeyman—to extend and bolster support for the regime in the countryside. The "Macoute", which by 1961 was twice as big as the army, never developed into a real military force but was more than just a secret police.  In the early years of his rule, Duvalier was able to take advantage of the strategic weaknesses of his powerful opponents, mostly from the mulatto elite. These weaknesses included their inability to coordinate their actions against the regime, whose power had grown increasingly stronger.  In the name of nationalism, Duvalier expelled almost all of Haiti's foreign-born bishops, an act that earned him excommunication from the Catholic Church. In 1966, he persuaded the Holy See to allow him permission to nominate the Catholic hierarchy for Haiti. No longer was Haiti under the grip of the minority rich mulattoes, protected by the military and supported by the church; Duvalier now exercised more power in Haiti than ever.

Heart attack and Barbot affair.

On 24 May 1959, Duvalier suffered a massive heart attack, possibly due to an insulin overdose; he had been a diabetic since early adulthood and also suffered from heart disease and associated circulatory problems. During the heart attack, he was comatose for His physician believed that he had suffered neurological damage during these events, harming his mental health and perhaps explaining his subsequent actions.  While recovering, Duvalier left power in the hands of Clément Barbot, leader of the. Upon his return to work, Duvalier accused Barbot of trying to supplant him as president and had him imprisoned. In April 1963, Barbot was released and began plotting to remove Duvalier from office by kidnapping his children. The plot failed and Duvalier then ordered a nationwide search for Barbot and his fellow conspirators. During the search, Duvalier was told that Barbot had transformed himself into a black dog, which prompted Duvalier to order that all black dogs in Haiti be put to death. The captured and killed Barbot in July 1963. In other incidents, Duvalier ordered the head of an executed rebel packed in ice and brought to him so he could commune with the dead man's spirit. Peepholes were carved into the walls of the interrogation chambers, through which Duvalier watched Haitian detainees being tortured and submerged in baths of sulfuric acid; sometimes, he was in the room during the tortures.

Constitutional changes.

In 1961, Duvalier began violating the provisions of the 1957 constitution. First, he replaced the bicameral legislature with a unicameral body. Then he called a new presidential election in which he was the sole candidate, though his term was to expire in 1963 and the constitution prohibited re-election. The election was flagrantly rigged; the official tally showed a total of 1,320,748 "yes" votes for another term for Duvalier, with none opposed. Upon hearing the results, he proclaimed, "I accept the people's will.... As a revolutionary, I have no right to disregard the will of the "The New York Times" commented, "Latin America has witnessed many fraudulent elections throughout its history but none has been more outrageous than the one which has just taken place in Haiti". On 14 June 1964, a constitutional referendum made Duvalier "", a title previously held by seven Haitian presidents. This referendum was also blatantly rigged; an implausible 99.9% voted in favor, which should have come as no surprise since all the ballots were premarked "yes". The new document granted Duvalier—or "", as he was called—absolute powers as well as the right to name his successor.

Foreign relations.

His relationship with the United States proved difficult. In his early years, Duvalier rebuked the United States for its friendly relations with Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo (assassinated in 1961) while ignoring Haiti. The Kennedy administration (1961–1963) was particularly disturbed by Duvalier's repressive and totalitarian rule and allegations that he misappropriated aid money—at the time a substantial part of the Haitian budget—and a U.S. Marine Corps mission to train the. The U.S. thus halted most of its economic assistance in mid-1962, pending stricter accounting procedures, with which Duvalier refused to comply. Duvalier publicly renounced all aid from Washington on nationalist grounds, portraying himself as a "principled and lonely opponent of domination by a  Duvalier misappropriated millions of dollars of international aid, including US$15 million annually from the United States. He transferred this money to personal accounts. Another of Duvalier's methods of obtaining foreign money was to gain foreign loans, including US$4 million from  After the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, which Duvalier later claimed resulted from a curse that he had placed on Kennedy, the U.S. eased its pressure on Duvalier, grudgingly accepting him as a bulwark against communism. Duvalier attempted to exploit tensions between the U.S. and Cuba, emphasizing his anti-communist credentials and Haiti's strategic location as a means of winning U.S. support: After Fulgencio Batista (a friend of Duvalier) was overthrown in the Cuban Revolution, Duvalier worried that new Cuban leader Fidel Castro would provide a safe haven for Haitian dissidents. Duvalier attempted to win Cuba over by recognizing Castro's government by sending medicine and pardoning several political prisoners, but to no avail; from the very start of his regime, Castro gave anti-Duvalier dissidents his full support.  Duvalier enraged Castro by voting against the country in an Organization of American States () meeting and subsequently at the United Nations, where a trade embargo was imposed on Cuba. Cuba answered by breaking off diplomatic relations and Duvalier subsequently instituted a campaign to rid Haiti of communists. This move severed Haitian relations with Cuba for 38 years until the two countries re-established relations in 1997.  Duvalier's relationship with the neighboring Dominican Republic was always tense: in his early years, Duvalier emphasized the differences between the two countries. In April 1963, relations were brought to the edge of war by the political enmity between Duvalier and Dominican president Juan Bosch. Bosch, a leftist, provided asylum and support to Haitian exiles who had plotted against the Duvalier regime. Duvalier ordered his Presidential Guard to occupy the Dominican Embassy in Pétion-Ville, with the goal of arresting a Haitian army officer believed to have been involved in Barbot's plot to kidnap Duvalier's children. The Dominican president reacted with outrage, publicly threatened to invade Haiti, and ordered army units to the border. However, as Dominican military commanders expressed little support for an invasion of Haiti, Bosch refrained from the invasion and sought mediation through  In 1966, Duvalier hosted the emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, in what would be the only visit of a foreign head of state to Haiti under Duvalier. During the visit, Duvalier awarded Haile Selassie the Necklace of the Order of Jean-Jacques Dessalines the Great, and the emperor, in turn, bestowed upon Duvalier the Great Necklace of the Order of the Queen of Sheba.

Internal policies.

Repression.

Duvalier's government was one of the most repressive in the hemisphere. Within the country he murdered and exiled his opponents; estimates of those killed are as high as 60,000. Attacks on Duvalier from within the military were treated as especially serious. When bombs were detonated near the Presidential Palace in 1967, Duvalier had nineteen officers of the Presidential Guard executed in Fort Dimanche. A few days later Duvalier had a public speech during which he read the attendance sheet with names of all 19 officers killed. After each name, he said "absent". After reading the whole list, Duvalier remarked that "all were shot".  Haitian communists and even suspected communists bore the brunt of the government's repression. Duvalier targeted them as a means to secure U.S. support in addition to the principle: Duvalier was exposed to communist and leftist ideas early in his life and rejected them. On 28 April 1969, Duvalier instituted a campaign to rid Haiti of all communists. A new law declared that "Communist activities, no matter what their form, are hereby declared crimes against the security of the State." Those convicted of Communist activity were subject to execution, and faced having their property confiscated.

Social and economic policies.

Duvalier employed intimidation, repression, and patronage to supplant the old mulatto elites with a new elite of his own making. Corruption—in the form of government rake-offs of industries, bribery, extortion of domestic businesses, and stolen government funds—enriched the dictator's closest supporters. Most of them held sufficient power to intimidate the members of the old elite, who were gradually co-opted or eliminated.  Many educated professionals fled Haiti for New York City, Miami, Montreal, Paris and several French-speaking African countries, exacerbating an already serious lack of doctors and teachers. Some of the highly skilled professionals joined the ranks of several agencies to work in development in newly independent nations such as Ivory Coast, and Congo.  The government confiscated peasant landholdings and allotted them to members of the militia, who had no official salary and made their living through crime and The dispossessed fled to the slums of the capital where they would find only meager incomes to feed themselves. Malnutrition and famine became endemic.  Nonetheless, Duvalier enjoyed significant support among Haiti's majority black rural population, who saw in him a champion of their claims against the historically dominant mulatto elite. During his 14 years in power, he created a substantial black middle class, chiefly through government patronage. Duvalier also initiated the development of, now known as Toussaint Louverture International Airport.

Personality cult and Vodou.

Duvalier fostered his cult of personality and claimed that he was the physical embodiment of the island nation. He also revived the traditions of "Vodou", later using them to consolidate his power with his claim of being a "Vodou" priest, himself. In an effort to make himself even more imposing, Duvalier deliberately modeled his image on that of Baron Samedi, one of the "loa", or spirits, of Haitian Vodou. He often donned sunglasses in order to hide his eyes and talked with the strong nasal tone associated with the "loa". The regime's propaganda stated that "Papa Doc was one with the "loa", Jesus Christ and God himself". The most celebrated image from the time shows a standing Jesus Christ with a hand on the shoulder of a seated Papa Doc, captioned, "I have chosen him". Duvalier declared himself an "immaterial being" as well as "the Haitian flag" soon after his first election. In 1964, he published a catechism in which the Lord's Prayer was reworded to pay tribute to Duvalier instead of God.  Duvalier also held in his closet the head of former opponent Blucher Philogenes, who tried to overthrow him in 1963. He believed another political enemy, Clément Barbot, was able to change into a black dog at will and had the militia begin killing black dogs on sight in the capital.

Death and succession.

François Duvalier died of heart disease and diabetes on 21 April 1971, seven days after his 64th birthday. His 19-year-old son, nicknamed "Baby Doc", succeeded him as president.

Books and films.

Many books have been written about the Francois Duvalier era in Haiti, the best known of which is Graham Greene's novel "The Comedians". Duvalier, however, dismissed the piece and referred to its author as "a cretin, a stool pigeon, sadistic, unbalanced, perverted, a perfect, lying to his heart's content, the shame of proud and noble England, a spy, a drug addict, and a torturer". The book was later made into a movie. Greene himself was declared "" and barred from entering Haiti.  Alan Whicker featured Duvalier in a 1969 episode of "Whicker's World", which includes an interview with the president. Made by Yorkshire Television, part of Britain's ITV commercial network, the documentary is deeply revealing of Duvalier's character as well as being deeply revealing of the state of Haiti in 1969.  The first authoritative book on the subject was "Papa Doc: Haiti and its Dictator" by Al Burt and Bernard Diederich, published in 1969, though several others by Haitian scholars and historians have appeared since Duvalier's death in 1971. One of the most informative, Patrick Lemoine's "Fort‐Dimanche: Dungeon of Death", dealt specifically with victims of Fort-Dimanche, the prison which Duvalier used for the torture and murder of his political opponents.  In 2007, British newspaper editor John Marquis published "Papa Doc: Portrait of a Haitian Tyrant", which relied in part on records from a 1968 espionage trial in Haiti to detail numerous attempts on Duvalier's life. The trial's defendant, David Knox, was a Bahamian director of information. Knox lost and was sentenced to death, but he was later granted amnesty.

François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d'état in 1958, his regime rapidly became totalitarian and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute (), indiscriminately killed Duvalier's opponents; the Tonton Macoute was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became highly fearful of expressing any form of dissent, even in private. Duvalier further sought to solidify his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult.

弗朗索瓦·杜瓦利埃(François Duvalier,1907年-4月14日-1971年-4月21日),绰号 "Papa Doc"(“爸爸医生”),海地总统兼独裁者。


Medical uses.

It is a potent anesthetic with a MAC of 0.74%. Its blood/gas partition coefficient of 2.4 makes it an agent with moderate induction and recovery time. It is not a good analgesic and its muscle relaxation effect is moderate.

Side effects.

Side effects include irregular heartbeat, decreased effort to breathe, and liver problems. It appears to be safe in porphyria. It is unclear whether use during pregnancy is harmful to the baby, and it is not generally recommended for use during a C-section. Halothane is a chiral molecule that is used as a racemic mixture. In rare cases, repeated exposure to halothane in adults was noted to result in severe liver injury. This occurred in about one in 10,000 exposures. The resulting syndrome was referred to as halothane hepatitis, and is thought to result from the metabolism of halothane to trifluoroacetic acid via oxidative reactions in the liver. About 20% of inhaled halothane is metabolized by the liver and these products are excreted in the urine. The hepatitis syndrome had a mortality rate of 30% to 70%. Concern for hepatitis resulted in a dramatic reduction in the use of halothane for adults and it was replaced in the 1980s by enflurane and isoflurane. By 2005, the most common volatile anesthetics used were isoflurane, sevoflurane, and desflurane. Since the risk of halothane hepatitis in children was substantially lower than in adults, halothane continued to be used in pediatrics in the 1990s as it was especially useful for inhalation induction of anaesthesia. However, by 2000, sevoflurane, excellent for inhalation induction, had largely replaced the use of halothane in children.  Halothane sensitises the heart to catecholamines, so it is liable to cause cardiac arrhythmia, occasionally fatal, particularly if hypercapnia has been allowed to develop. This seems to be especially problematic in dental anaesthesia.  Like all the potent inhalational anaesthetic agents, it is a potent trigger for malignant hyperthermia. Similarly, in common with the other potent inhalational agents, it relaxes uterine smooth muscle and this may increase blood loss during delivery or termination of pregnancy.

Occupational safety.

People can be exposed to halothane in the workplace by breathing it in as waste anaesthetic gas, skin contact, eye contact, or swallowing it. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 2 ppm (16.2 mg/m) over 60 minutes.

Pharmacology.

Halothane activates GABA and glycine receptors. It also acts as an NMDA receptor antagonist, inhibits nACh and voltage-gated sodium channels, and activates 5-HT and twin-pore K channels. It does not affect the AMPA or kainate receptors.

Chemical and physical properties.

Chemically, halothane is an alkyl halide (not an ether like many other anesthetics). The structure has one stereocenter, so ("R")- and ("S")-optical isomers occur.

Synthesis.

The commercial synthesis of halothane starts from trichloroethylene, which is reacted with hydrogen fluoride in the presence of antimony trichloride at 130 °C to form 2-chloro-1,1,1-trifluoroethane. This is then reacted with bromine at 450 °C to produce halothane.

Related substances.

Attempts to find anesthetics with less metabolism led to halogenated ethers such as enflurane and isoflurane. The incidence of hepatic reactions with these agents is lower. The exact degree of hepatotoxic potential of enflurane is debated, although it is minimally metabolized. Isoflurane is essentially not metabolized and reports of associated liver injury are quite rare. Small amounts of trifluoroacetic acid can be formed from both halothane and isoflurane metabolism and possibly accounts for cross sensitization of patients between these agents.  The main advantage of the more modern agents is lower blood solubility, resulting in faster induction of and recovery from anaesthesia.

History.

Halothane was first synthesized by C. W. Suckling of Imperial Chemical Industries in 1951 in Widnes and was first used clinically by M. Johnstone in Manchester in 1956. It became popular as a nonflammable general anesthetic replacing other volatile anesthetics such as trichloroethylene, diethyl ether and cyclopropane. In many parts of the world it has been largely replaced by newer agents since the 1980s but is still widely used in developing countries because of its lower cost.  Halothane was given to many millions of adult and pediatric patients worldwide from its introduction in 1956 through the 1980s. Its properties include cardiac depression at high levels, cardiac sensitization to catecholamines such as norepinephrine, and potent bronchial relaxation. Its lack of airway irritation made it a common inhalation induction agent in pediatric anesthesia. Its use in developed countries has been mostly replaced by newer anesthetic agents such as sevoflurane. It is no longer commercially available in the United States.

Society and culture.

Availability.

It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system. As of 2014, the wholesale cost in the developing world was 22 to 52 USD for a 250 mL bottle. It is available as a volatile liquid, at 30, 50, 200, and 250 ml per container but in many developed nations is not available having been displaced by newer agents. It is the only inhalational anesthetic containing bromine, which makes it radiopaque. It is colorless and pleasant-smelling, but unstable in light. It is packaged in dark-colored bottles and contains 0.01% thymol as a stabilizing agent.

Ozone depletion.

Halothane is an ozone depleting substance with an ODP of 1.56 and it is calculated to be responsible for 1% of total stratospheric ozone layer depletion.

Halothane sold under the brand name Fluothane among others, is a general anesthetic. It can be used to start or maintain anaesthesia. One of its benefits is that it does not increase the production of saliva, which can be particularly useful in those who are difficult to intubate. It is given by inhalation. Side effects include an irregular heartbeat, decreased effort to breathe, and liver problems. Like all volatile anesthetics, it should not be used in people with a personal or family history of malignant hyperthermia. It appears to be safe in porphyria. It is unclear whether use during pregnancy is harmful to the baby, and it is not generally recommended for use during a C-section. Halothane is a chiral molecule that is used as a racemic mixture. Halothane was discovered in 1955. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. As of 2014, the wholesale cost in the developing world is about 22 to 52 USD for a 250 mL bottle. Its use in developed countries has been mostly replaced by newer anesthetic agents such as sevoflurane. It is no longer commercially available in the United States. Halothane also contributes to ozone depletion.

氟烷,IUPAC命名法命名为2-溴-2-氯-1,1,1-三氟乙烷(英语名:Halothane,英语商品名:Fluothane),分子式为CHBrClF,唯一一种含有溴原子的吸入性全身麻醉剂。它是一种无色的、有令人愉快气味的液体,在光照的环境下不稳定,需在深色瓶中储存并加入0.01%的百里酚作为稳定剂。氟烷已被列入世界卫生组织基本药物标准清单。


History.

The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) was founded in 1968. The centre was to be the core of the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO). Its responsibilities included the engineering and testing of satellites and their payloads, the integration of scientific instruments in these payloads, and making arrangements for their launch. In some cases member states were to produce the scientific instruments for ESRO or produce them as part of their own national effort and compensate ESTEC for its service. In practice, national organisations simply used ESTEC as a service organisation and left it to pay for their efforts from the ESRO budget. After the Bannier Report the facility gained overall executive authority for spacecraft development and was merged with ESLAB. The satellite control centre was also moved to ESOC. ESTEC was originally to be located in Delft (South Holland) but because of unforeseen difficulties, Noordwijk was chosen instead.

ESA Test Centre.

In 1964 the ESRO decided to create an independent test centre that would be part of ESTEC. The first building with vibration and thermal vacuum facilities (named F-building) was completed in 1966 and the first satellite to be tested was the ESRO-1 satellite in 1968. From the 1970s to the late 1980s the test centre was enlarged by following facilities: The Dynamic Test Chamber (DTC) in 1975, The Multishaker in 1983, The EMC facility in 1985, The Large Space simulator (by extending the DTC) in 1986, The Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) in 1989 and the Compact Payload Test Range (CPTR) in 1990.  In the 1990s and 2000s the following major facilities have been added: The hydraulic shaker system (HYDRA), The Fr building with additional clean rooms (2000), The Large EMC facility (Maxwell) and the QUAD Shaker in 2008.  In 1997 the test operations and facilities maintenance activities were subcontracted to the COMET consortium and in the year 2000 the test management, maintenance, operations and marketing of the test centre has been taken over by European Test Services B.V. (a subsidiary of IABG mbH and Intespace SA); The facilities are still belonging to ESA which is responsible for the facility development, test methodologies, test related engineering and subcontractor control.  Since the year 2000 not only tests for space industry have been performed but the facilities are also used for aerospace-, railway-, transport-, marine- and power- testing for customers like ABB, ALSTOM, Airbus, Bombardier and many more.

Space Expo.

The Space Expo is the permanent exhibition about space exploration at the ESTEC compound in Noordwijk. It was opened in 1990 by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau. The exhibition has more than 100,000 visitors annually.

The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, although several kilometers off the village but immediately linked to the most Northern district of the nearby town Katwijk.

欧洲空间研究与技术中心(英语:European Space Research and Technology Centre,缩写:英语:ESTEC)是欧洲空间局的航天和空间技术的主要技术发展与测试中心。它位于荷兰西部南荷兰省诺德韦克。


Forms.

Many types of payments or favors may be fairly or unfairly labeled as bribes: tip, gift, sop, perk, skim, favor, discount, waived fee/ticket, free food, free ad, free trip, free tickets, sweetheart deal, kickback/payback, funding, inflated sale of an object or property, lucrative contract, donation, campaign contribution, fundraiser, sponsorship/backing, higher paying job, stock options, secret commission, or promotion (rise of position/rank).  One must be careful of differing social and cultural norms when examining bribery. Expectations of when a monetary transaction is appropriate can differ from place to place. Political campaign contributions in the form of cash, for example, are considered criminal acts of bribery in some countries, while in the United States, provided they adhere to election law, are legal. Tipping, for example, is considered bribery in some societies, while in others the two concepts may not be interchangeable.  In some Spanish-speaking countries, bribes are referred to as "mordida" (literally, "bite"). In Arab countries, bribes may be called baksheesh (a tip, gift, or gratuity) or "shay" (literally, "tea"). French-speaking countries often use the expressions "dessous-de-table" ("under-the-table" commissions), "pot-de-vin" (literally, "wine-pot"), or "commission occulte" ("secret commission" or "kickback"). While the last two expressions contain inherently a negative connotation, the expression "dessous-de-table" can be often understood as a commonly accepted business practice. In German, the common term is "Schmiergeld" ("smoothing money").  The offence may be divided into two great classes: the one, where a person invested with power is induced by payment to use it unjustly; the other, where power is obtained by purchasing the suffrages of those who can impart it. Likewise, the briber might hold a powerful role and control the transaction; or in other cases, a bribe may be effectively extracted from the person paying it, although this is better known as extortion.  The forms that bribery take are numerous. For example, a motorist might bribe a police officer not to issue a ticket for speeding, a citizen seeking paperwork or utility line connections might bribe a functionary for faster service.  Bribery may also take the form of a secret commission, a profit made by an agent, in the course of his employment, without the knowledge of his principal. Euphemisms abound for this (commission, sweetener, kick-back etc.) Bribers and recipients of bribery are likewise numerous although bribers have one common denominator and that is the financial ability to bribe.  Overall, bribery is thought to be around one trillion dollars worldwide according to BBC news UK.  As indicated on the pages devoted to political corruption, efforts have been made in recent years by the international community to encourage countries to dissociate and incriminate as separate offences, active and passive bribery. From a legal point of view, active bribery can be defined for instance as "the promising, offering or giving by any person, directly or indirectly, of any undue advantage [to any public official], for himself or herself or for anyone else, for him or her to act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions." (article 2 of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) of the Council of Europe). Passive bribery can be defined as "the request or receipt [by any public official], directly or indirectly, of any undue advantage, for himself or herself or for anyone else, or the acceptance of an offer or a promise of such an advantage, to act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions" (article 3 of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173)).  The reason for this dissociation is to make the early steps (offering, promising, requesting an advantage) of a corrupt deal already an offence and, thus, to give a clear signal (from a criminal policy point of view) that bribery is not acceptable. Besides, such a dissociation makes the prosecution of bribery offences easier since it can be very difficult to prove that two parties (the bribe-giver and the bribe-taker) have formally agreed upon a corrupt deal. Besides, there is often no such formal deal but only a mutual understanding, for instance when it is common knowledge in a municipality that to obtain a building permit one has to pay a "fee" to the decision maker to obtain a favourable decision.  When examining the fact of bribe taking, we primarily need to understand that any action is affected by various elements; in addition, all these elements are interrelated. For instance, it would be wrong to indicate that the bribe-taker's motive is greediness as such, without examining causes of appearance of greediness in the personality of the particular bribe-taker. Largely, it is possible to confine oneself to the motive of greediness only in case if a bribe-taker tries to satisfy the primary (physical) needs. Yet, if money serves to satisfy secondary – psychological – needs, we should search for deeper motives of bribe taking.

Government.

A grey area may exist when payments to smooth transactions are made. United States law is particularly strict in limiting the ability of businesses to pay for the awarding of contracts by foreign governments; however, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act contains an exception for "grease payments"; very basically, this allows payments to officials in order to obtain the performance of ministerial acts which they are legally required to do, but may delay in the absence of such payment. In some countries, this practice is the norm, often resulting from a developing nation not having the tax structure to pay civil servants an adequate salary. Nevertheless, most economists regard bribery as a bad thing because it encourages rent seeking behaviour. A state where bribery has become a way of life is a kleptocracy.  Recent evidence suggests that the act of bribery can have political consequences- with citizens being asked for bribes becoming less likely to identify with their country, region and/or tribal unit.

Tax treatment.

The tax status of bribes is an issue for governments since the bribery of government officials impedes the democratic process and may interfere with good government. In some countries, such bribes are considered tax-deductible payments. However, in 1996, in an effort to discourage bribery, the OECD Council recommended that member countries cease to allow the tax-deductibility of bribes to foreign officials. This was followed by the signing of the Anti-Bribery Convention. Since that time, the majority of the OECD countries which are signatories of the convention have revised their tax policies according to this recommendation and some have extended the measures to bribes paid to any official, sending the message that bribery will no longer be tolerated in the operations of the government.  As any monetary benefit received from an illegal activity such as bribery is generally considered part of one's taxable income, however, as it is criminal, some governments may refuse to accept it as income as it may mean they are a party to the activity.

Medicine.

Pharmaceutical corporations may seek to entice doctors to favor prescribing their drugs over others of comparable effectiveness. If the medicine is prescribed heavily, they may seek to reward the individual through gifts. The American Medical Association has published ethical guidelines for gifts from industry which include the tenet that physicians should not accept gifts if they are given in relation to the physician's prescribing practices. Doubtful cases include grants for traveling to medical conventions that double as tourist trips.  Dentists often receive samples of home dental care products such as toothpaste, which are of negligible value; somewhat ironically, dentists in a television commercial will often state that they get these samples but pay to use the sponsor's product.  In countries offering state-subsidized or nationally funded healthcare where medical professionals are underpaid, patients may use bribery to solicit the standard expected level of medical care. For example, in many formerly Communist countries from what used to be the Eastern Bloc it may be customary to offer expensive gifts to doctors and nurses for the delivery of service at any level of medical care in the non-private health sector.

Politics.

Politicians receive campaign contributions and other payoffs from powerful corporations, organizations or individuals in return for making choices in the interests of those parties, or in anticipation of favorable policy, also referred to as lobbying. This is not illegal in the United States and forms a major part of campaign finance, though it is sometimes referred to as the money loop. However, in many European countries, a politician accepting money from a corporation whose activities fall under the sector they currently (or are campaigning to be elected to) regulate would be considered a criminal offence, for instance the "Cash-for-questions affair" and "Cash for Honours" in the United Kingdom.  A grey area in these democracies is the so-called "revolving door" in which politicians are offered highly-paid, often consultancy jobs upon their retirement from politics by the corporations they regulate while in office, in return for enacting legislation favourable to the corporation whil they are in office, a conflict of interest. Convictions for this form of bribery are easier to obtain with hard evidence, a specific amount of money linked to a specific action by the recipient of the bribe. Such evidence is frequently obtained using undercover agents, since evidence of a quid pro quo relation can often be difficult to prove. See also influence peddling and political corruption.  Recent evidence suggests that demands for bribes can adversely impact citizen level of trust and engagement with the political process.

Business.

Employees, managers, or salespeople of a business may offer money or gifts to a potential client in exchange for business.  For example, in 2006, German prosecutors conducted a wide-ranging investigation of Siemens AG to determine if Siemens employees paid bribes in exchange for business.  In some cases where the system of law is not well-implemented, bribes may be a way for companies to continue their businesses. In the case, for example, custom officials may harass a certain firm or production plant, officially stating they are checking for irregularities, halting production or stalling other normal activities of a firm. The disruption may cause losses to the firm that exceed the amount of money to pay off the official. Bribing the officials is a common way to deal with this issue in countries where there exists no firm system of reporting these semi-illegal activities. A third party, known as a White Glove, may be involved to act as a clean middleman.  Specialist consultancies have been set up to help multinational companies and small and medium enterprises with a commitment to anti-corruption to trade more ethically and benefit from compliance with the law.  Contracts based on or involving the payment or transfer of bribes ("corruption money", "secret commissions", "pots-de-vin", "kickbacks") are void.  In 2012, "The Economist" noted:  In addition, a survey conducted by auditing firm Ernst & Young (EY) in 2012 found that 15 percent of top financial executives are willing to pay bribes in order to keep or win business. Another 4 percent said they would be willing to misstate financial performance. This alarming indifference represents a huge risk to their business, given their responsibility.

Sport corruption.

Referees and scoring judges may be offered money, gifts, or other compensation to guarantee a specific outcome in an athletic or other sports competition. A well-known example of this manner of bribery in the sport would be the 2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal, where the French judge in the pairs competition voted for the Russian skaters in order to secure an advantage for the French skaters in the ice dancing competition.  Additionally, bribes may be offered by cities in order to secure athletic franchises, or even competitions, as happened with the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is common practice for cities to "bid" against each other with stadiums, tax benefits, and licensing deals.

Prevention.

Legislation.

The U.S. introduced the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in 1977 to address bribery of foreign officials. FCPA criminalized the influencing of foreign officials by companies through rewards or payments. This legislation dominated international anti-corruption enforcement until around 2010 when other countries began introducing broader and more robust legislation, notably the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010. The International Organization for Standardization introduced an international anti-bribery management system standard in 2016. In recent years, cooperation in enforcement action between countries has increased.  Under 18 U.S. Code § 201 – Bribery of public officials and witnesses, the law strictly prohibits any type of promising, giving, or offering of value to a public official. A public official is further defined as anyone who holds public or elected office. Another stipulation of the law in place condemns the same kind of offering, giving, or coercing a witness in a legal case to changing their story. Under the U.S Code § 1503, influencing or injuring officer or juror generally, it clearly states that any offense under the section means you can be imprisoned for the maximum of 10 years and/or fined.

Businesses.

Programs of prevention need to be properly designed and meet with international standards of best practice. To ensure respect for a program, whether it be on the part of employees or business partners, external verification is necessary. International best practices such as the Council for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, Annex 2; the ISO 26000 norm (section 6.6.3) or TI Business Principles for Countering Bribery are used in external verification processes to measure and ensure that a program of bribery prevention works and is consistent with international standards. Another reason for businesses to undergo external verification of their bribery prevention programs is that it means evidence can be provided to assert that all that was possible was done to prevent corruption. Companies are unable to guarantee corruption has never occurred; what they can do is provide evidence that they did their best to prevent it.  There is no federal statute under the U.S Law that prohibits or regulates any type of private or commercial bribery. There is a way for prosecutors to try people for bribery by using existing laws. Section 1346 of Title 18 can be used by prosecutors, to try people for ‘a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right to honest services,’ under the mail and wire fraud statutes. Prosecutors have always successfully prosecuted private company employees for breaching a fiduciary duty and taking bribes, under Honest services fraud.  There are also cases of successful prosecution of bribery in the case of international business. The DOJ has used the Travel Act, 18 USC Section 1952 to prosecute bribery. Under the Travel Act, it is against the law, domestically and internationally, to utilize‘the mail or any facility in interstate or foreign commerce’ with intent to ‘promote, manage, establish, carry on, or facilitate the promotion, management, establishment or carrying on, of any unlawful activity’.

Bribery is defined by "Black's Law Dictionary" as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corrupt solicitation, acceptance, or transfer of value in exchange for official action." Gifts of money or other items of value which are otherwise available to everyone on an equivalent basis, and not for dishonest purposes, is not bribery. Offering a discount or a refund to all purchasers is a legal rebate and is not bribery. For example, it is legal for an employee of a Public Utilities Commission involved in electric rate regulation to accept a rebate on electric service that reduces their cost for electricity, when the rebate is available to other residential electric customers. However, giving a discount specifically to that employee to influence them to look favorably on the electric utility's rate increase applications would be considered bribery.

贿赂、受贿罪是指个人利用职务上的便利,索取他人财物,或者非法收受他人财物,为他人谋取利益的行为。而这些利益并不能从正常的合法途径中得到。此为贪污犯罪之一。


Etymology.

The Latin word "hippopotamus" is derived from the ancient Greek, "hippopótamos", from, "híppos", "horse", and, "potamós", "river", meaning "horse of the river". In English, the plural is "hippopotamuses", but "hippopotami" is also used; "hippos" can be used as a short plural. Hippos are gregarious, living in groups of up to thirty animals. A group is called a pod, herd, dale, or bloat.

Taxonomy and origins.

Classification.

Hippopotamus is the type genus of the family Hippopotamidae. The pygmy hippopotamus belongs to a different genus in Hippopotamidae, either "Choeropsis" or "Hexaprotodon." Hippopotamidae are sometimes known as hippopotamids. Sometimes, the subfamily Hippopotaminae is used. Further, some taxonomists group hippos and anthracotheres in the superfamily Anthracotheroidea. Hippopotamidae are classified along with other even-toed ungulates in the order Artiodactyla. Other artiodactyls include camels, cattle, deer and pigs, although hippos are not closely related to these groups.  Five subspecies of hippos have been described based on morphological differences in their skulls and geographical differences: The suggested subspecies were never widely used or validated by field biologists; the described morphological differences were small enough that they could have resulted from simple variation in nonrepresentative samples. Genetic analyses have tested the existence of three of these putative subspecies. A study examining mitochondrial DNA from skin biopsies taken from 13 sampling locations, considered genetic diversity and structure among hippo populations across the continent. The authors found low, but significant, genetic differentiation among "H. a. amphibius", "H. a. capensis", and "H. a. kiboko". Neither "H. a. tschadensis" nor "H. a. constrictus" has been tested.

Evolution.

Until 1909, naturalists grouped hippos with pigs, based on molar patterns. Several lines of evidence, first from blood proteins, then from molecular systematics and DNA  The most recent theory of the origins of Hippopotamidae suggests that hippos and whales shared a common semiaquatic ancestor that branched off from other artiodactyls around. This hypothesised ancestral group likely split into two branches around.  One branch would evolve into cetaceans, possibly beginning about, with the protowhale "Pakicetus" and other early whale ancestors collectively known as Archaeoceti, which eventually underwent aquatic adaptation into the completely aquatic cetaceans. The other branch became the anthracotheres, a large family of four-legged beasts, the earliest of which in the late Eocene would have resembled skinny hippos with comparatively small and narrow heads. All branches of the anthracotheres, except that which evolved into Hippopotamidae, became extinct during the Pliocene without leaving any descendants.  A rough evolutionary lineage can be traced from Eocene and Oligocene species: "Anthracotherium" and "Elomeryx" to the Miocene species "Merycopotamus" and "Libycosaurus" and the very latest anthracotheres in the Pliocene. "Merycopotamus", "Libycosaurus" and Hippopotamidae can be considered to form a clade, with "Libycosaurus" being more closely related to hippos. Their common ancestor would have lived in the Miocene, about. Hippopotamidae are therefore deeply nested within the family Anthracotheriidae.  Hippopotamidae are believed to have evolved in Africa; the oldest known hippopotamid is the genus "Kenyapotamus", which lived in Africa from 16 to. While hippopotamid species spread across Asia and Europe, no hippos have ever been discovered in the Americas, although various anthracothere genera emigrated into North America during the early Oligocene. From 7.5 to, an ancestor to the modern hippo, "Archaeopotamus", lived in Africa and the Middle East.  While the fossil record of hippos is still poorly understood, the two modern genera, "Hippopotamus" and "Choeropsis" (sometimes "Hexaprotodon"), may have diverged as far back as. Taxonomists disagree whether or not the modern pygmy hippopotamus is a member of "Hexaprotodon" – an apparently paraphyletic genus, also embracing many extinct Asian hippopotamuses, that is more closely related to "Hippopotamus" – or of "Choeropsis", an older and basal genus.

Extinct species.

Three species of Malagasy hippopotamus became extinct during the Holocene on Madagascar, one of them within the past 1,000 years. The Malagasy hippos were smaller than the modern hippo, likely through the process of insular dwarfism. Fossil evidence indicates many Malagasy hippos were hunted by humans, a likely factor in their eventual extinction. Isolated members of Malagasy hippos may have survived in remote pockets; in 1976, villagers described a living animal called the "kilopilopitsofy", which may have been a Malagasy hippo.  Three species of hippopotamus, the European hippopotamus ("Hippopotamus antiquus"), "Hippopotamus major" and "Hippopotamus gorgops", ranged throughout continental Europe and the British Isles. All three species became extinct before the last glaciation. Ancestors of European hippos found their way to many islands of the Mediterranean Sea during the Pleistocene. The Pleistocene also saw a number of dwarf species evolve on several Mediterranean islands, including Crete ("Hippopotamus creutzburgi"), Cyprus (the Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus, "Hippopotamus minor"), Malta ("Hippopotamus melitensis"), and Sicily ("Hippopotamus pentlandi"). Of these, the Cyprus dwarf hippo survived until the end of the Pleistocene or early Holocene. Evidence from an archaeological site, Aetokremnos, continues to cause debate on whether or not the species was encountered, and was driven to extinction, by man.

Physical attributes.

Hippos are among the largest living land mammals, being only smaller than elephants and some rhinoceroses. Among the extant African megafauna, behind the two African elephant species, they average smaller than the white rhinoceros but are larger by body mass than the black rhinoceros and the giraffe. Mean adult weight is around and for males and females respectively, very large males can reach and exceptional males weighing, and (in captivity) have been reported. Male hippos appear to continue growing throughout their lives while females reach maximum weight at around age 25.  Hippos have barrel-shaped bodies with short legs and long muzzles. Their skeletal structures are graviportal, adapted to carrying their enormous weight, and their specific gravity allows them to sink and move along the bottom of a river. Hippopotamuses have small legs (relative to other megafauna) because the water in which they live reduces the weight burden. Though they are bulky animals, hippos can gallop at on land but normally trot. They are incapable of jumping but do climb up steep banks. Despite being semiaquatic and having webbed feet, an adult hippo is not a particularly good swimmer nor can it float. It is rarely found in deep water; when it is, the animal moves by porpoise-like leaps from the bottom. The eyes, ears, and nostrils of hippos are placed high on the roof of their skulls. This allows these organs to remain above the surface while the rest of the body submerges. The testes of the males descend only partially and a scrotum is not present. In addition, the penis retracts into the body when not erect. The genitals of the female hippos are unusual in that the vagina is ridged and two large diverticula protrude from the vulval vestibule. The function of these is unknown.  The hippo's jaw is powered by a large masseter and a well-developed digastric; the latter loops up behind the former to the hyoid. The jaw hinge is located far back enough to allow the animal to open its mouth at almost 180°. A moderate folding of the orbicularis oris muscle allows the hippo to achieve such a gape without tearing any tissue. The bite force of an adult female hippo has been measured as. Hippo teeth sharpen themselves as they grind together. The lower canines and lower incisors are enlarged, especially in males, and grow continuously. The incisors can reach, while the canines reach up to. The canines and incisors are used for combat and play no role in feeding. Hippos rely on their broad horny lips to grasp and pull grasses which are then ground by the molars. The hippo is considered to be a pseudoruminant; it has a complex three-chambered stomach but does not "chew cud".  Unlike most other semiaquatic animals, hippos have very little hair. The skin is thick, providing it great protection against conspecifics and predators. By contrast, its subcutaneous fat layer is thin. The animals' upper parts are purplish-grey to blue-black, while the under parts and areas around the eyes and ears can be brownish-pink. Their skin secretes a natural sunscreen substance which is red-coloured. The secretion is sometimes referred to as "blood sweat", but is neither blood nor sweat. This secretion is initially colourless and turns red-orange within minutes, eventually becoming brown. Two distinct pigments have been identified in the secretions, one red (hipposudoric acid) and one orange (norhipposudoric acid). The two pigments are highly acidic compounds. They inhibit the growth of disease-causing bacteria, and their light absorption peaks in the ultraviolet range, creating a sunscreen effect. All hippos, even those with different diets, secrete the pigments, so it does not appear that food is the source of the pigments. Instead, the animals may synthesise the pigments from precursors such as the amino acid tyrosine. Nevertheless, this natural sunscreen cannot prevent the animal's skin from cracking if it stays out of water too long. The secretion does help regulate the body temperature of the hippo and acts an antibiotic source.  A hippo's lifespan is typically 40–50 years. Donna the Hippo was the oldest living hippo in captivity. She lived at the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville, Indiana in the US until her death in 2012 at the age of 61.

Distribution and status.

"Hippopotamus amphibius" was widespread in North Africa and Europe during the Eemian and late Pleistocene until about 30,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence exists of its presence in the Levant, dating to less than 3,000 years ago. The species was common in Egypt's Nile region during antiquity, but has since been extirpated. Pliny the Elder writes that, in his time, the best location in Egypt for capturing this animal was in the Saite nome; the animal could still be found along the Damietta branch after the Arab Conquest in 639. Reports of the slaughter of the last hippo in Natal Province were made at the end of the 19th century. Hippos are still found in the rivers and lakes of the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, north through to Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, west to The Gambia, and south to South Africa.  Genetic evidence suggests that common hippos in Africa experienced a marked population expansion during or after the Pleistocene, attributed to an increase in water bodies at the end of the era. These findings have important conservation implications as hippo populations across the continent are currently threatened by loss of access to fresh water. Hippos are also subject to unregulated hunting and poaching. In May 2006, the hippo was identified as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with an estimated population of between 125,000 and 150,000 hippos, a decline of between 7% and 20% since the IUCN's 1996 study. Zambia (40,000) and Tanzania (20,000–30,000) possess the largest populations.  The hippo population declined most dramatically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By 2005, the population in Virunga National Park had dropped to 800 or 900 from around 29,000 in the mid-1970s. The decline is attributed to the disruptions caused by the Second Congo War. The poachers are believed to be Mai-Mai rebels, poorly paid Congolese soldiers, and local militia groups. Reasons for poaching include the belief that hippos are harmful to society, as well as financial gain. However, as of 2016, the Virunga hippo population appears to have increased, possibly due to greater enforcement and cooperation between fishermen and park authorities. The sale of hippo meat is illegal, but black-market sales are difficult for Virunga National Park officers to track. Hippo meat is considered a delicacy in some areas of central Africa and the teeth have become a valued substitute for elephant ivory.

As an introduced species.

In the late 1980s, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar kept four hippos in a private menagerie at his residence in Hacienda Nápoles, east of Medellín, Colombia. They were deemed too difficult to seize and move after Escobar's death, and hence left on the untended estate. By 2007, the animals had multiplied to 16 and had taken to roaming the area for food in the nearby Magdalena River. In 2013, the National Geographic Channel produced a documentary about them titled "Cocaine Hippos". As of early 2014, 40 hippos were reported to exist in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia from the original four belonging to Escobar, and in 2018 the growing population was estimated at 50–70. In December 2019, it was estimated that there were 65–80 individuals with their range covering almost in Antioquia, Bolívar, Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Santander; it is expected that the population will increase to 150 individuals within a decade and that the range eventually could cover more than. Population projections estimate that there could be thousands within a few decades.  Being non-native introductions, most conservationists considered them problematic and invasive in Colombia, as they have the potential to change the ecosystems, feeding heavily on plants and displacing native species like the West Indian manatee, Neotropical otter, spectacled caiman and turtles. The critically endangered Dahl's toad-headed turtle and Magdalena River turtle are largely restricted to the Magdalena River basin, as are many threatened fish. In 2020, a study showed that there was an increase in the nutrient levels and cyanobacteria in Colombian lakes inhabited by hippos. Cyanobacteria can cause toxic algae blooms and die-offs of aquatic fauna. Despite the limited magnitude of the observed change, it was noticeable since the species' population was still quite small. Additionally, they can represent a serious threat to fishers and other locals. There have been attacks on humans, but as of 2017 nobody had been killed or seriously injured by the Colombian hippos.  In contrast to the opposition by most conservationists, some ecologists have argued that they should remain and might even have a positive effect on the local environment. It has been suggested that the nutrients they introduce to the water and the occasional fish kills caused by them are overall positive, but this was based on a study in their native Africa. Alternatively, the introduced hippos could be a form of Pleistocene rewilding project, replacing species like "Toxodon" that became extinct in prehistoric times, but Pleistocene rewilding itself is highly controversial. Others have argued that the Colombian hippos should be regarded as a safe population, isolated from the threats faced by African hippos, and that they could be benefitial to the local ecotourism industry.  In 2009, two adults and one calf left their herd and, after attacking humans and killing cattle, one of the adults (called "Pepe") was killed by hunters under authorisation of the local authorities. When a photo of the dead hippo became public, it caused considerable controversy among animal rights groups both within the country and abroad, and further plans of culling ceased. Alternative methods have been considered, but they are unproven, or difficult and expensive. A wild male hippo was caught, castrated and released again, but it cost about US$50,000. As of 2020, there were no plans by the local government on managing the population, but further studies on their effect on the habitat have been initiated. Because of the fast-growing population, conservationists have recommended that a management plan needs to be rapidly developed.

Behaviour and life history.

Hippos differ from all other large land mammals, being of semiaquatic habits, and spending their days in lakes and rivers. They can be found in both savannah and forest areas. Proper habitat requires enough water to submerge in and grass nearby. Larger densities of the animals inhabit quiet waters with mostly firm, smooth sloping beaches. Male hippos may be found in very small numbers in rapid waters in rocky gorges. Hippos mostly live in freshwater habitats, however populations in West Africa mostly inhabit estuarine waters and may even be found at sea. With the exception of eating, most of a hippo's life occurs in the water. Hippos leave the water at dusk and travel inland, sometimes up to, to graze on short grasses, their main source of food. They spend four to five hours grazing and can consume of grass each night.  Like most herbivores, hippos consume other plants if presented with them, but their diet in nature consists almost entirely of grass, with only minimal consumption of aquatic plants. Hippos are born with sterile intestines, and require bacteria obtained from their mothers' feces to digest vegetation. On occasion, hippos have been filmed eating carrion, usually near the water. There are other reports of meat-eating, and even cannibalism and predation. The stomach anatomy of a hippo is not suited to carnivory, and meat-eating is likely caused by aberrant behaviour or nutritional stress. Hippo defecation creates allochthonous deposits of organic matter along the river beds. These deposits have an unclear ecological function. A 2015 study concluded that hippo dung provides nutrients from terrestrial material for fish and aquatic invertebrates, while a 2018 study found that their dung can be toxic to aquatic life in large quantities, due to absorption of dissolved oxygen in water bodies. Because of their size and their habit of taking the same paths to feed, hippos can have a significant impact on the land across which they walk, both by keeping the land clear of vegetation and depressing the ground. Over prolonged periods, hippos can divert the paths of swamps and channels.  Adult hippos move at speeds up to in water; typically resurfacing to breathe every three to five minutes. The young have to breathe every two to three minutes. The process of surfacing and breathing is subconscious: a hippo sleeping underwater will rise and breathe without waking up. A hippo closes its nostrils when it submerges into the water. As with fish and turtles on a coral reef, hippos occasionally visit cleaning stations and signal, by opening their mouths wide, their readiness for being cleaned of parasites by certain species of fishes. This is an example of mutualism, in which the hippo benefits from the cleaning while the fish receive food. The hippos spend up to 16 hours a day in water as a way to stay cool. Hippos coexist with a variety of large predators. Nile crocodiles, lions and spotted hyenas are known to prey on young hippos. However, due to their aggression and size, adult hippos are not usually preyed upon by other animals. Cases where large lion prides have successfully preyed on adult hippos have been reported; however, this predation is generally rare. Lions occasionally prey on adults at Gorongosa National Park and calves are sometimes taken at Virunga. Crocodiles are frequent targets of hippo aggression, probably because they often inhabit the same riparian habitats; crocodiles may be either aggressively displaced or killed by hippos. In turn, beyond cases of killing the seldom unguarded hippo calf, very large Nile crocodiles have been verified to occasionally prey on "half-grown" hippos and anecdotally perhaps adult female hippos. Aggregations of crocodiles have also been seen to dispatch still-living male hippos that have been previously injured in mating battles with other males.

Social spacing.

Studying the interaction of males and females has long been complicated because hippos are not sexually dimorphic; thus females and young males are almost indistinguishable in the field. Although hippos lie close to each other, they do not seem to form social bonds except between mothers and daughters, and they are not social animals. The reason they huddle close together is unknown. Hippos are territorial only in water, where a male presides over a small stretch of river, on average in length, and containing 10 females. The largest pods can contain over 100 hippos. Younger bachelors are allowed in a male's stretch, as long as they behave submissively toward the male. The territories of hippos exist to establish mating rights. Within the pods, the hippos tend to segregate by gender. Bachelors lounge near other bachelors, females with other females, and the male on his own. When hippos emerge from the water to graze, they do so individually. Hippos mark their territory by defecation. While depositing the faeces, hippos spin their tails to distribute their excrement over a greater area. "Yawning" serves as a threat display. When fighting, males use their incisors to block each other's attacks and their large canines to inflict injuries. When hippos become over-populated or a habitat is reduced, males sometimes attempt infanticide, but this behaviour is not common under normal conditions. Incidents of hippo cannibalism have been documented, but this is believed to be the behaviour of distressed or sick hippos.  Hippos appear to communicate vocally, through grunts and bellows, and they may practice echolocation, but the purpose of these vocalisations is currently unknown. Hippos have the unique ability to hold their heads partially above the water and send out a cry that travels through both water and air; individuals respond above and under water. Hippos will also express threat and alarm with exhalations.

Reproduction.

Female hippos reach sexual maturity at five to six years and have a gestation period of eight months. A study of endocrine systems revealed that female hippos may begin puberty as early as three or four years. Males reach maturity at around 7.5 years. A study of hippo reproductive behaviour in Uganda showed that peak conceptions occurred during the end of the wet season in the summer, and peak births occurred toward the beginning of the wet season in late winter. This is because of the female's oestrous cycle; as with most large mammals, male hippo spermatozoa is active year-round. Studies of hippos in Zambia and South Africa also showed evidence of births occurring at the start of the wet season. After becoming pregnant, a female hippo will typically not begin ovulation again for 17 months. Mating occurs in the water, with the female submerged for most of the encounter, her head emerging periodically to draw breath. Female hippos isolate themselves to give birth and return within 10–14 days. Calves are born underwater at a weight between and an average length of around, and must swim to the surface to take their first breaths. A mother typically gives birth to only one calf, although twins also occur. The young often rest on their mothers' backs when the water is too deep for them, and they swim under water to suckle. They suckle on land when the mother leaves the water.  Mother hippos are very protective of their young and may keep others at a distance. However, calves are occasionally left in nurseries which are guarded by one or a few adults. Calves in nurseries engage in playfights. Weaning starts between six and eight months after birth, and most calves are fully weaned after a year. Like many other large mammals, hippos are described as K-strategists, in this case typically producing just one large, well-developed infant every couple of years (rather than many small, poorly developed young several times per year as is common among small mammals such as rodents).

Hippos and humans.

The earliest evidence of human interaction with hippos comes from butchery cut marks on hippo bones at Bouri Formation dated around 160,000 years ago. Later rock paintings and engravings showing hippos being hunted have been found in the mountains of the central Sahara dated 4,000–5,000 years ago near Djanet in the Tassili n'Ajjer Mountains. The ancient Egyptians recognised the hippo as a ferocious denizen of the Nile and representations on the tombs of nobles show that the animals were hunted.  The hippo was also known to the Greeks and Romans. The Greek historian Herodotus described the hippo in "The Histories" (written "circa" 440 BC) and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder wrote about the hippo in his encyclopedia "Naturalis Historia" (written "circa" 77 AD). The Yoruba people called the hippo "erinmi", which means "elephant of the water". Zulu warriors preferred to be as brave as a hippo, since even lions were not considered to match its courage. They would chant their chief: ""Een-gonyama Gonyama! Invooboo! Yah-bo! Yah-bo! Invooboo!"" which translates as "He is a lion. Yes, he is better than a lion – he is a hippopotamus."

Attacks on humans.

The hippo is considered to be extremely aggressive and has frequently been reported charging and attacking boats. Small boats can easily be capsized by hippos and passengers can be injured or killed by the animals or drown. In one 2014 case in Niger, a boat was capsized by a hippo and 13 people were killed. As hippos will often engage in raiding nearby crops if the opportunity arises, humans may also come in conflict with them on these occasions, with potential for fatalities on both sides.

In zoos.

Hippos have long been popular zoo animals. The first zoo hippo in modern history was Obaysch, who arrived at the London Zoo on 25 May 1850, where he attracted up to 10,000 visitors a day and inspired a popular song, the "Hippopotamus Polka". Hippos generally breed well in captivity; birth rates are lower than in the wild, but this is attributed to zoos wanting to limit births, since hippos are relatively expensive to maintain.  Like many zoo animals, hippos were traditionally displayed in concrete exhibits. In the case of hippos, they usually had a pool of water and patch of grass. In the 1980s, zoo exhibits increasingly reflected native habitats. For example, the Toledo Zoo Hippoquarium features a pool. In 1987, the Toledo Zoo saw the first underwater birth by a captive hippo. The exhibit was so popular, the hippos became the logo of the Toledo Zoo.

Cultural depictions.

A red hippo represented the Ancient Egyptian god Set; the thigh is the "phallic leg of Set", symbolising virility. Set's consort Tawaret was also seen as part hippo and was a goddess of protection in pregnancy and childbirth, because ancient Egyptians recognised the protective nature of a female hippo toward her young. The Ijaw people of the Niger Delta wore masks of aquatic animals like the hippo when practicing their water spirit cults and hippo ivory was used in the divination rituals of the Yoruba. The Behemoth from the Book of Job, 40:15–24 is thought to be based on a hippo.  Hippos have been the subjects of various African folktales. According to a San story; when the Creator assigned each animal its place in nature, the hippos wanted to live in the water, but were refused out of fear that they might eat all the fish. After begging and pleading, the hippos were finally allowed to live in the water on the conditions that they would eat grass instead of fish and would fling their dung so that it can be inspected for fish bones. In a Ndebele tale, the hippo originally had long, beautiful hair, but was set on fire by a jealous hare and had to jump into a nearby pool. The hippo lost most of his hair and was too embarrassed to leave the water.  Ever since Obaysch inspired the "Hippopotamus Polka", hippos have been popular animals in Western culture for their rotund appearance that many consider comical. Stories of hippos such as Huberta, which became a celebrity in South Africa in the 1930s for trekking across the country; or the tale of Owen and Mzee, a hippo and tortoise which developed an intimate bond; have amused people who have bought hippo books, merchandise, and many stuffed hippo toys. Hippos were mentioned in the novelty Christmas song "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" that became a hit for child star Gayla Peevey in 1953. They also feature in the songs "The Hippopotamus" and "Hippo Encore" by Flanders and Swann, with the famous refrain "Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud". They even inspired a popular board game, Hungry Hungry Hippos.  Hippos have also been popular cartoon characters, where their rotund frames are used for humorous effect. For example, the Disney film "Fantasia" featured a ballerina hippo dancing to the opera "La Gioconda", and Hanna-Barbera created Peter Potamus.  The "Happy Hippos" characters were created in 1987 by the French designer André Roche to be hidden in the "Kinder Surprise egg" of the Italian chocolate company Ferrero SpA.

The hippopotamus ( ; "Hippopotamus amphibius"), also called the common hippopotamus or river hippopotamus, is a large, mostly herbivorous, semiaquatic mammal and ungulate native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus ("Choeropsis liberiensis" or "Hexaprotodon liberiensis"). The name comes from the ancient Greek for "river horse" (). After the elephant and rhinoceros, both of which are found in Africa, the hippopotamus is the third-largest type of land mammal and the heaviest extant artiodactyl. Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, the closest living relatives of the Hippopotamidae are cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises, etc.) from which they diverged about 55 million years ago.

河马(学名:)是偶蹄目、河马科下的一种大型杂食性半水生哺乳动物,河马属现存的唯一物种,产自撒哈拉以南非洲,栖息于热带草原地区的河湖池沼。河马尽管外形似猪,但实际与鲸豚类的亲缘关系更近。在非海洋动物中,河马的平均体型仅次于3种大象、白犀和印度犀,也是除鲸类以外现存最大的偶蹄目。成年雄性体重平均约1.5吨,成年雌性体重平均约1.3吨。看似身躯笨重,但能以30km/h的速度进行冲刺。


Mythology.

Python, sometimes written Phython, presided at the Delphic oracle, which existed in the cult center for its mother, Gaia, "Earth," Pytho being the place name that was substituted for the earlier "Krisa". Greeks considered the site to be the center of the earth, represented by a stone, the "omphalos" or navel, which Python guarded.  Python became the chthonic enemy of the later Olympian deity Apollo, who slew it and took over Python's former home and oracle. These were the most famous and revered in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Like many monsters, Python was known as Gaia's son and prophesied as Gaia's son. Therefore, Apollo had to eliminate this opponent before establishing his temple in Delphoi.

Versions and interpretations.

There are various versions of Python's birth and death at the hands of Apollo. In the "Homeric Hymn to Apollo", now thought to have been composed in 522 BCE when the archaic period in Greek history was giving way to the Classical period, a small detail is provided regarding Apollo's combat with the serpent, in some sections identified as the deadly drakaina, or her parent.  The version related by Hyginus holds that when Zeus lay with the goddess Leto, and she became pregnant with Artemis and Apollo, Hera was jealous and sent Python to pursue Leto throughout the lands, to prevent her from giving birth to the twin gods. Thus when Apollo was grown he wanted to avenge his mother's plight and pursued Python, making his way straight for Mount Parnassus where the serpent dwelled, and chased it to the oracle of Gaia at Delphi; there he dared to penetrate the sacred precinct and kill it with his arrows beside the rock cleft where the priestess sat on her tripod. Robert Graves, who habitually read into primitive myths a retelling of archaic political and social turmoil, saw in this the capturing by Hellenes of a pre-Hellenic shrine. "To placate local opinion at Delphi," he wrote in "The Greek Myths", "regular funeral games were instituted in honour of the dead hero Python, and her priestess was retained in office."  The politics are conjectural, but the myth reports that Zeus ordered Apollo to purify himself for the sacrilege and instituted the Pythian Games, over which Apollo was to preside, as penance for his act.  Erwin Rohde wrote that the Python was an earth spirit, who was conquered by Apollo, and buried under the Omphalos, and that it is a case of one god setting up his temple on the grave of another.  The priestess of the oracle at Delphi became known as the Pythia, after the place-name Pytho, which Greeks explained as named after the rotting (πύθειν) of the slain serpent's corpse in the strength of Hyperion (day) or Helios (the sun).  Karl Kerenyi pointed out that the older tales mentioned two dragons, who were perhaps intentionally conflated; the other was a female dragon ("drakaina") named Delphyne in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, with whom dwelt a male serpent named Typhon: "The narrators seem to have confused the dragon of Delphi, Python, with Typhon or Typhoeus, the adversary of Zeus". The enemy dragoness "... actually became an Apollonian serpent, and Pythia, the priestess who gave oracles at Delphi, was named after him. Many pictures show the serpent Python living in amity with Apollo and guarding the Omphalos, the sacred navel stone and midpoint of the earth, which stood in Apollo's temple" (Kerenyi 1951:136).  This myth has been described as an allegory for the dispersal of the fogs and clouds of vapor which arise from ponds and marshes (Python) by the rays of the sun (the arrows of Apollo).

In Greek mythology, Python (; "gen". Πύθωνος) was the serpent, sometimes represented as a medieval-style dragon, living at the center of the earth, believed by the ancient Greeks to be at Delphi.

皮同(古希腊语:),希腊神话中住于德尔斐地区的巨蟒。