Serpent Symbolism

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:03 am

http://www.redicecreations.com/winterwo ... ntman.html

Pretty interesting look at serpent symbolism around the world.

Coincidence?

War Arrow · Post by **War Arrow** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:27 am

Yes and no, I'd say. It's a common theme sure enough. There was a thread around here about a year ago with some pretty interesting discussion of the 'human emerging from (or being devoured in) a serpent maw' imagery in Mexico and Colombia. Can't remember quite who posted it. Was it you AD?

kbs2244 · Post by **kbs2244** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:39 pm

That brings up the question of all the snake with egg in mouth effigies.
Is it swallowing it, or vomiting it?
Destruction or creation?

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:49 pm

Thanks for bringing that up KB. When I saw this article, the Great Serpent mound in Ohio was the first thing I thought of. This symbolism is world wide. I wish I had a clue as to it's origin and meaning.

Post by **Minimalist** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:44 pm

Wasn't there some find, fairly recently, in Southern Africa of what was being called the oldest snake-worshipping cult yet found....something 40,000 BC or so?

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:53 pm

Yeah, I remember that but I wouldn't have any idea where it's at though.

Post by **Minimalist** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:00 pm

Time to fire up Google, I guess.

Barracuda · Post by **Barracuda** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:28 pm

I have to admit to being fascinated by really large reptiles. I have seen large Anacondas, Caiman, and Alligators up close and personal. I have seen photos of some really huge Anacondas. Verified records of snakes well over 20 feet and 400#. Unverified modern claims of snakes over 60 feet.

Think maybe humans have some ancestral memory of co-existing with really huge snakes? Bigger than anything imagined by modern man? Like in the horror movie "Anaconda"?

Scientist say its possible even now. Much more likely before humans became so prevalent that they killed off large snakes before they had a chance to get really huge.

Caution: opening this link might give you nighmares.

http://search.live.com/images/results.a ... &mkt=en-US

daybrown · Post by **daybrown** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:23 pm

FWIW, A snake cannot disgorge an egg.

Back on the farm, & I've used the trick in later years, we usta blow an egg, then fill it with salt, seal the holes with glue or tape, and put the salted eggs back in the nest.

it encouraged birds to lay. But if a snake ate such an egg, he'd crack it inside against his own backbone, and die of salt poisoning. It killed snakes, and *only* snakes.

Post by **MichelleH** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:39 pm

Minimalist wrote:Time to fire up Google, I guess.

No need, here they are: (all still functioning links, from the Archaeologica.org archive)

Snake Cults Dominated Early Arabia
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/05/1 ... 0517120030

http://www.newsback.com/forums/news-831 ... -says.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 081347.htm

Post by **Minimalist** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:46 pm

This was the one I remembered, boss.

An archaeologist claims to have found evidence of what may have been mankind’s earliest rituals: worship of the python, 70,000 years ago in Africa.

Were there ever large constricting snakes in Europe?

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 7:24 pm

from the Archaeologica.org archive)

If that's the resource section, there is a lot of good reading there.

Min, I don't believe that pythons could live at that latitude. Ever.

Post by **MichelleH** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 5:44 am

Beagle wrote:
from the Archaeologica.org archive)
If that's the resource section, there is a lot of good reading there.

Sorry Beags, not the resource section. More like my backups. However there is some good stuff in resource, I just need to update it!

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:25 am

Gotcha. Thanks Michelle.

kbs2244 · Post by **kbs2244** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:04 pm

Beagle:

You are right, the serpent and egg seems to be one of those world wide, multi cultural things, even if, as DB says, it is not a physical possibility. (When has that stopped legends, myths, or Hollywood?)
The interesting thing to me is not so much the symbolism itself as much as how it got to be world wide.
What kind of mechanism was there that got these common beliefs, religions, legends, symbols, etc. spread around the globe?
In another instance, no one has, to my knowledge, explained the red ocher phenomena. It is world wide and covers multi 1000s of years. How did that happen?