Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 4.614-20

But Perseus, with the snake-haired monster's [Medusa's] head, 
That famous spoil, in triumph made his way
On rustling pinions through the balmy air
And, as he hovered over Libya's sands,
The blood-drops from the Gorgon's head dripped down.
The spattered desert gave them life as snakes, 
Smooth snakes of many kinds, and so that land
Still swarms with deadly serpents to this day.                                            

(Melville, A. D., tr. 1986. Ovid Metamorphoses. Oxford Univerity Press).