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For other meanings of the word serpent, see Serpent (disambiguation).
The serpent is an Ancient Near Eastern and Aegean god of wisdom, who is always, quite naturally, an earth symbol. In Egypt, Ra and Atum ("he who completes or perfects") were the same god, Atum, the "counter-Ra," was associated with earth animals, including the serpent: Nehebkau ("he who harnesses the souls") was the serpent god who guarded the entrance to the underworld. As far away as Fiji, Ratu-mai-mbula is a serpent god who rules the underworld (and makes the sap run).
In the Louvre, there is a famous green steatite vase carved for king GudeaBritish Museum London Gudea was a ruler ensi of the city of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca. 2144 2124 BC. He probably came from outside, but had married Ninalla, daughter of the ruler Urbaba ( 2164 2144 BC) of Lagash, which gained him entranc of LagashLagash or Sirpurla was one of the oldest cities of Sumer and later Babylonia. It is represented by a rather low, long line of ruin mounds, now known as Tell al-Hiba in Iraq, northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk. (dated variously 2200– 2025 BCE), dedicated by its inscription to Ningizzida, "Lord of the Tree of Truth" which bears a relief of serpents twined round a staff, exactly like the caduceusA caduceus ( kerykeion in Greek) staff with two snakes wrapped around it. The caduceus is a symbol of commerce and is associated with the Greek god Hermes. It was originally a herald's staff, sometimes with wings, with two white ribbons attached. The ribb of Hermes.
At the far western end of the world of AntiquityAntiquity means "ancient times", and may be used of any period before the Middle Ages. Most commonly it means the classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, but may also be used of ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia or other early civilizations of the Near E, in the Garden of the HesperidesIn Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far west corner of the world, located, according to various sources, in the Arcadian Mountains in Greece, near the Atlas mountains in Libya, or on a distant island at the edge o, another serpent tree-guardian, LadonLadon is the hundred-headed dragon that guarded the garden of the Hesperides in Greek mythology. He is variously described as the offspring of Phorcys or of Typhon and Echidna. It was said that his heads spoke with a multitude of voices in many languages., protects the golden fruit.
Under yet another Tree of Enlightenment, the Buddha sat in ecstatic mediation. When a storm arose, the mighty serpent king rose up from his place beneath the earth and enveloped the Buddha in seven coils for seven days, not to break his ecstatic state.
The Minoan Great Goddess may brandish a serpent in either hand, perhaps evoking her role as source of wisdom, rather than her role as Mistress of the Animals (Potnia theron), with a leopard under each arm. It is not by accident that later the infant Heracles, a liminal hero on the threshold between the old ways and the new Olympian world, also brandishes the two serpents that "threatened" him in his cradle. Classical Greeks did not perceive that the threat was merely the threat of wisdom. But the gesture is the same as that of the Cretan goddess. The rod that Moses bears is a serpent. When he throws it to the ground, at Yahweh's command, it takes its serpent form. If the identity might not yet be clear enough, when Moses picks up the serpent, it is transformed to a rod once more.
Serpents figure prominently in archaic Greek myths too: the myth-element of Laocoon, the ancient Hydra that was battled by Heracles, the serpent of the oldest Delphic oracle.
The image of the serpent as the embodiment of the wisdom transmitted by Sophia is an emblem used by gnosticism, especially those sects that the more orthodox characterized as " Ophites", ("Serpent People"). The chthonic serpent is one of the earth-animals associated with the cult of Mithras. The Basilisk, the venomous "king of serpents" with the glance that kills, was hatched by a serpent, Pliny and others thought, from the egg of a cock. Such fantasies filled the medieval bestiary.
In Norse mythology, Jormungand, the Midgard serpent, encircles the world in the ocean's abyss. In Dahomey mythology of West Africa, the serpent that supports everything on its many coils is named Dan. Vishnu is said to sleep in Yoga Nidra, floating on the cosmic waters on the serpent Shesha.
Because a snake sheds its skin and comes forth from the lifeless husk glistening and fresh, it is a universal symbol of renewal, and the regeneration that may lead to immortality. In the Epic of Gilgamesh (of Sumerian origin), Gilgamesh dove to the bottom of the waters to retrieve the plant of life. But while he rested from his labor, the Serpent came and ate the plant. The snake became immortal, and Gilgamesh was destined to die Outside Europe, in Yoruba mythology, Oshunmare is such a mythic regenerating serpent. The Vision Serpent is also a symbol of rebirth in Mayan mythology, fuelling some cross-Atlantic cultural contexts favored in pseudoarchaeology. Mayan Gukumatz, the Feathered Serpent is most familiar under his Aztec name, Quetzalcoatl.
Sea Serpents are giant cryptozoology creatures once believed to live in water, whether sea monsters such as the Leviathan or lake monsters such as the Loch Ness Monster. If they are referred to as " Sea snakes", they are understood to be the actual snakes that live in Indo-Pacific waters (Family Hydrophiidae).
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