Horned Serpent

The Horned Serpent appears in the mythologies of many Native Americans.Horned serpent, feathered serpent Details vary among tribes, with many of the stories associating the mystical figure with water, rain, lightning and/or thunder. Horned Serpents were major components of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex of North American prehistory.
Horned serpents also appear in European and Near Eastern mythology.
== In Native American culture ==
The Horned Serpent was venerated, in various forms, by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek, just to name a few. Some myths say it is invisible, or that it brought rain and made a noise similar to (but not the same as) thunder.
Among the Eastern and Western Cherokee Indians, the horned serpent known as Uktena was venerated. Anthropologist James Mooney, describes it thus:
:"Those who know say the Uktena is a great snake, as large around as a tree trunk, with horns on its head, and a bright blazing crest like a diamond on its forehead, and scales glowing like sparks of fire. It has rings or spots of color along its whole length, and can not be wounded except by shooting in the seventh spot from the head, because under this spot are its heart and its life. The blazing diamond is called Ulun'suti -- "Transparent" -- and he who can win it may become the greatest wonder worker of the tribe. But it is worth a man's life to attempt it, for whoever is seen by the Uktena is so dazed by the bright light that he runs toward the snake instead of trying to escape. As if this were not enough, the breath of the Uktena is so pestilential, that no living creature can survive should they inhale the tiniest bit of the foul air expelled by the Uktena. Even to see the Uktena asleep is death, not to the hunter himself, but to his family."
According to Sioux belief, the Unktehila (Ųȟcéǧila) are dangerous reptilian water monsters that lived in old times. They were of various shapes. In the end the Thunderbirds destroyed them, except for small species like snakes and lizards. This belief may have been inspired by finds of dinosaur fossils in Sioux tribal territory. The Thunderbird may have been inspired partly by finds of pterosaur skeletons.National Geographic Magazine, December 2005, pages 74-75
=== Other known names ===
* Misi-kinepikw ("great snake") - Cree
* Msi-kinepikwa ("great snake") - Shawnee
* Misi-ginebig ("great snake") - Oji-Cree
* Mishi-ginebig ("great snake") - Ojibwe
* Pita-skog ("great snake") - Abenaki
* Sinti lapitta - Choctaw
* Unktehi or Unktehila - Dakota
==In European iconography==
The ram-horned serpent is a well-attested cult image of north-west Europe before and during the Roman period. It appears three times on the Gundestrup cauldron, and in Romano-Celtic Gaul was closely associated with the horned or antlered god Cernunnos, in whose company it is regularly depicted. This pairing is found as early as the fourth century BCE in Northern Italy, where a huge antlered figure with torcs and a serpent was carved on the rocks in Val Camonica.
Celtic Mars: carving at the curative sanctuary at Mavilly (Cote d'Ôr).
Celtic Mercury: carving at Beauvais (Oise) and Néris-les-Bains (Allier).
Association with the solar wheel: Gundestrup cauldron, altar at Lypiatt (Gloucestershire).
A bronze image at Étang-sur-Arroux and a stone sculpture at Sommerécourt depict Cernunnos' body encircled by two horned snakes that feed from bowls of fruit and corn-mash in the god's lap. Also at Sommerécourt is a sculpture of a goddess holding a cornucopia and a pomegranate, with a horned serpent eating from a bowl of food. At Yzeures-sur-Creuse a carved youth has a ram-horned snake twined around his legs, with its head at his stomach. At Cirencester, Gloucestershire, Cernunnos' legs are two snakes which rear up on each side of his head and are eating fruit or corn. According to Miranda Green, the snakes reflect the peaceful nature of the god, associated with nature and fruitfulness, and perhaps accentuate his association with regeneration.
Other deities occasionally accompanied by ram-horned serpents include "Celtic Mars", "Celtic Mercury", and the horned snake, and also conventional snakes, appears together with the solar wheel, apparently as attributes of the sun or sky god.
The description of Unktehi or Unktena is, however, more similar to that of a Lindorm in Northern Europe, especially in Southern Scandinavia, and most of all as described in folklore in Eastern Denmark (including the provinces lost to Sweden in 1658). There, too, it is a water creature of huge dimensions, while in Southern Sweden it is a huge snake, the sight of which was deadly. This latter characteristic is reminiscent of the basilisk.
==In Mesopotamian iconography==
In Mesopotamian mythology Ningishzida, a prototype of the Biblical serpent in the Garden of Eden, is sometimes depicted as a serpent with horns. In other depictions he is shown as human, but is accompanied by bashmu, horned serpents. Ningishzida shares the epithet Ushumgal, "great serpent", with several other Mesopotamian gods.
== In popular culture ==
In the role-playing game Rifts, Uktena is not only a monstrous spirit of godlike stature but a rival to the Ondi Thunderbird and the Native Americans.
In the role-playing game Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Uktena is a godlike tribal totem to the Uktena tribe of werewolves.
American Space Rock band U.S. Christmas have a song entitled "Uktena" on their Neurot Recordings debut, Eat the Low Dogs.
In the analog horror/political thriller The Monument Mythos, the main antagonist is the Horned Serpent, who is a heavily mutated George Washington. Its horns, known as Special Trees, stick out of the ground and can send people to an alternate dimension, and one was even ironically encased in the Washington Monument. It eventually destroys the Earth.
== See also ==
* Feathered Serpent (deity)
* Quetzalcoatl
== References ==
* Willoughby, Charles C. (1936). "The Cincinnati Tablet: An Interpretation". The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 45:257-264.
* Native American Mythology
* Glossary of Alternate Religions
* Serpents in Mythology
== External links ==
* Horned serpent, feathered serpent.
* Lakota creation myth involving Unktehi
*The Uktena And The Ulûñsû'tï
Category:Native American mythology
Category:Deities