From: UC525655@mizzou1.missouri.edu (Mark Eaton)
Subject: re: OPHIOLATRY/re:serpent
Organization: University of Missouri
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 16:31:24 CDT

In article <Bvznns.GEy@ddsw1.mcs.com>
eshin@ddsw1.mcs.com (Eshin-Fun) writes:
 
>
>
>                   "dixit auatem serpens ad mulierem
>                      `nequamquam morte moriemini
>                   scit enim Deus quod in quocumque
>                         die comederitis ex eo
>                aperientur oculi vestri et eritis sicut
>                   dii scientes bonum et malum.'..."
>[translation:]
>                 "And the serpent said unto the woman
>                       `Surely ye shall not die
>                           for God doth know
>                    that in the day you eat thereof
>          then, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as
>                  gods, knowing good and evil.'....."
>[biblia sacra VULGATA, gen3,v4,5]
>
>
>                      OPHIOLATRY/serpent worship
>
>It would be futile to pretend a full discourse on Ophiolatry on the
>net, as the subject sustains so many references, and evidences of
>this universal phenomena found so diversely throughout the world
>that it could easily monopolize the thread ad nauseam.
>
>So my efforts, shall vaguely scan the subject in an effort to
>inspire that Ophiolatric student into further research of his/her
>own.
>
>The question posed is, what does the serpent mean? Why is it that
>this symbol haunts us apparently in *every* religion? What
>significance is there in its multiform of guises? Why does it
>sometimes is it described to be large, others small, sometimes
>fiery, plumed, grotesque etc.? This serpentine divinity, is all too
>familiar to us and reaches out of our subconscious to plague
>humanity in a myriad of diversified emotions.
>
>Indeed, to this day from remote prehistory, the serpent has been
>found by both men and women as provocative, sensuous, horrifying
>and repulsive. It can be found profusely as part of divine statuary
>either in the hands, arms or at the feet of gods or just lurking
>behind, in front or even wrapped around the god themselves. It is
>indisputable that it *is* an universal symbol that raises the
>curiosity of >why<?
>
>When Cleopatra VII [the famous last monarch of Egypt] poisoned
>herself with an asp, this small viper represented Egypt itself.
>The Nile river runs in an apparent serpentine linear direction,
>emptying into its delta in north eastern Africa where the Egyptians
>called "lower Egypt". Cleopatra VII fancied herself the embodiment
>of Isis, a mother goddess. In mimicry of this maternity she was the
>divine mother of Egypt and by breast feeding the viper she gave
>that last possession he had left. Her life, so Egypt could live!
>
>Yet in Thebes, in the clandestine halls of the "Chosen of Places"
>[Ipet-isut] now more popularly called Karnak, priests daily went
>through a ritual in which the destruction of the serpent Apep was
>eminent. In effigy Apep was dismembered, stomped upon, spat and
>burned to assure the safe passage of the god of light.[Ra]. The
>difference being that Apep, and the uraeus were two different kinds
>of serpent.
>
>The Israelites wrote of the serpent as the "most subtle than any
>beast of the field", seductive, and cursed. Yet only three books
>later [Numbers chap 21,v6,8,9] the image of a brazen serpent is
>hung up by Moses at God's direction, to *heal* the afflicted
>Israelites of the infectious bites of "fiery serpents."
>
>In the same tone, the Sumerians, the Babylonian and Assyrian held
>this creature in a duality of both "good and evil" aspects.
>The Greeks, the Phoenicians etc. borrowed the dual aspect in
>opposing directions from the goddess Tanit's symbol that preceded
>a caduceus.
>
>At the foot of Athena was a large python coiled ready to strike?
>The Delphic temple of Apollo housed a priestess called the
>pythoness whose sole purpose was to interpret the divine oracles
>by smelling soporific fumes from a hole in the ground.
>Zeus, Hera, and a number of others had their serpent too.
Just a note, most archaeologists and classicists believe that the
Pythian Priestess was a remnant of the mother earth deities that
existed in Greece before the Indo-European complex spread through
Greece. (some even believe that *all* the goddesess of Greece are
remnants of such... The IE arent always accompanied by female deities
... shrug)
 
An interesting direction to take this would be to study how many
cultures have a snake deity that dont have direct contact with
snakes (because of climate, geography, etc) At the very least it
would tell us something about movement patterns...
 
>
>Eshin-Fun
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Eaton                    | Opinions? We're not allowed to have
UC525655@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU | opinions at Mizzou... get back to me
                              | in 2 years when I graduate... ;)
Xref: sparky alt.religion.sabaean:48 alt.pagan:11030 alt.mythology:1901 alt.magick:5191