11-09-2003, 11:12 PM
|
|
|
Snakes in the Garden - herpetology, philosophy lessons
(paghat) wrote in
news
The majority of really ancient snake mythology seems to shift around
the idea of the serpent as an emissary of a cthonic goddess, later in
antiquity sometimes also of a god, & this cthonic divine serpent has
rule over all diseases. This means serpents cause diseases, but also
that they cure diseases. Many Semitic goddesses were depicted wrapped
in a serpent, & the Greek maenads kept them as pets & "wore" them in
their hair as symbols of terror & of Cybele. The naga divinities
(cobras) of India cause & cure diseases, in service of such goddesses
as Sitala or Kali. The bronze serpent-idol of Moses did the same; it
was worshipped for a long while, into the time of kings even within
the Temple, being a personfication both of poison & of the antidote.
Asclepios's serpent is of that kind & Mose's rod-serpent & Asclepios's
caduceus probably have a common origin; Christians have said this
serpent was a precursor to Jesus on the cross, but I have to admit
I've never entirely got that one; I bet the association of Jesus as
Serpent came about because Jesus as a deity resembles Attis the
adopted son of Cybele (& son of the virgin nymph Nana, impregnated by
an almond), Cybele having been one of the greatest of the mothers of
snakes in antiquity.
It's easy enough to imagine how this came about, if you take 'snake'
semantically to be 'limbless creature'. After all, maggots and various
worms are easily associated with death and the idea of 'returning things
to the earth'. A genuine ophidian, being the pinnacle of limblessness,
despite not really having the same death associations of worms and
maggots, would make a suitable herald or emissary for any chthonic diety.
Perhaps the notion of the snake as a healer can be explained by the use
of venom medicinally. If you take that and the notion of sin as disease,
then the cross-Jesus:caduceus-snake analogy fits well, at least
superficially. (I've read some pendants arguing about the true nature of
a caduceus, but I don't really recall the arguemnts; here I mean the
physician's symbol, a winged staff interwined with two serpents).
In China the royal lineage was represented by a five-direction dragon
which is mainly a long snake-body with tiny legs & whiskery goat-head,
& most of its mythology is positive, but in an awesome way intended to
frighten & instil subserviance to the royal family. A similar serpent
The traditional Chinese royal symbols are the dragon ('long-2' in
Mandarin) for males and phoenix ('feng-4') for females. The Chinese
dragon may superficially resemble a snake, but the written character for
dragon is absolutely distinct from the character for 'snake' ('she-2')
[the character for 'snake' contains the morpheme/radical for 'limbless
wriggly creature' (now referred to as "insect") while the character for
'dragon' occurs as it's own morpheme (still "dragon")] and the associated
semantics should be as old as the writing system. There's no confusing
the two, unless something got lost in translation. It's not the same as
in English, where although both 'snake' and 'dragon' can occur as
distinct ideas, both can use 'serpent' synonymously. There is no such
metonymy in the Chinese.
was tamed by Kwannon (who as Benten in Japan is commonly depicted as
riding on this serpent). It ofen represented storm & chaos in the sea
or in the heavens, but was a powerful ally when it submitted to a
divine power. Some "legged" serpents are presumed to predate Eden when
the legs were lost because the serpent was so sneaky & had finally to
go upon his belly. The serpent Tiamat represented chaos, & is still
around in Greek myth when Zeus wrestles with it; in the book of Job,
God tames this very Leviathon & puts her on a thread for little girls
I guess here is where the Western idea of 'snake' as agent of death and
by extension 'dragon/uber-snake' (primordial snake that has not lost it's
legs) as agent of destruction differs from the Chinese idea. Chinese
dragons are masters of destruction, but also agents of creation, e.g.
controlling the rain, bringing forth life when adequate, but flooding and
destruction when too much. Normal "Chinese" snakes, (being regarded
highly but also listed as one of the "five noxious creatures") have
nothing to do with that (and don't normally have supernatural status).
to play with. Innana possessed a serpent that lived in the roots of
the haloopa tree, probably the same tree that had the Golden Apples of
the Sun guarded by a great serpent in its roots, & again the same as
the serpent/labyrinth that represented Gaea as source of all life &
source of all death.
There's also the Norse Midgard serpent being only the final source of
death. I always thought he lived in the "World Tree" gnawing at it, but
apparently Odin just chucked him into the ocean and dispensed with the
tree.
- S
|