The Good and Evil Serpent (155 page)

10
. I am grateful to Dan Cohen for drawing my attention to the snake reliefs at this Neolithic site.

11
. Most experts have rightly followed R. Merhav’s argument that Albright’s suggestion (in
BASOR
31 [1928]) that a stele found at Tell Beit Mirsim shows a serpent coming out of the ground is misleading. See Merhav, “The Stele of the ‘Serpent Goddess’ from Tell Beit Mirsim and the Plaque from Shechem Reconsidered,”
IMJ
4 (1985) 27–42.

12
. For pictures, see Garfinkel,
Sha’ar Hagolan
, pp. 70 and 83.

13
. For pictures, see Garfinkel,
Sha’ar Hagolan
, pp. 163–65.

14
. G. Zuntz rightly argues: “Anyone drawing or carving a line—any line … therewith gives expression to some motive within himself; it may be superficial and momentary (especially if he is mechanically copying a model) or significantly expressive (especially if he is decorating a temple).” Zuntz,
Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia
(Oxford, 1971) p. 26.

15
.
The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols
, trans. J. Buchanan-Brown (London, New York, 1996) p. 844.

16
. See the reflections on these categories and the search for a symbol’s meaning (or the confusion of a decoration with a symbol) by R. W. Bagley in “Meaning and Explanation,” in
The Problem of Meaning in Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes
, ed. R. Whitfield (London, 1993) pp. 34–55.

17
. I can agree with Jung that the little girl had “very little religious background” (p. 61), but she lived in our culture in which snakes are dreaded both metaphorically and actually. Also his too literal interpretation of “four corners” leads him into the precarious thought that she must have had unconscious access to the quaternity myth that was once familiar in Hermetic philosophy but disappeared well over two hundred years ago. Jung,
Man and His Symbols
, p. 62.

18
.“The images and ideas that dreams contain cannot possibly be explained solely in terms of memory.” Jung,
Man and His Symbols
, p. 26.

19
. Jung,
Man and His Symbols
, p. 25.

20
. Jung,
Man and His Symbols
, pp. 56–57.

21
. Jung,
Man and His Symbols
, p. 57.

22
. Yet I am drawn, I hope not uncritically, to Jung’s insight that the human does not come into this world with “a psyche that is empty,” and that we should not “assume” that the human “is the only living being deprived of specific instincts, or that his psyche is devoid of all traces” of over three million years of evolution. Jung,
Man and His Symbols
, p. 64. My own experiences reveal hidden fears that cannot easily be attributed to what has occurred in my life during my sixty years. Of course, I am convinced that human experience is open to other dimensions, and that “God” (whatever that concept means in its full sense) is the Creator who actively interacts and breaks into my little world. If we all inherit DNA, then do we not inherit memories and thought patterns from our ancestors?

23
. L. Boltin, D. Newton, et al.,
Masterpieces of Primitive Art
(New York, 1978) p. 198. Also see the double-headed serpent shown in highly stylized form in embroidery that comes from Peru, and around the turn of the era (100 BCE to 200 CE), in color on p. 198.

24
. J. Fergusson,
Tree and Serpent Worship; or, Illustrations of Mythology and Art in India in the First and Fourth Centuries After Christ
(London, 1868) p. 3.

25
. G. E. Smith,
The Migrations of Early Culture
(Manchester, 1916); Smith,
The Influence of Ancient Egyptian Civilization in the East and in America
(London, 1916). Even MacCulloch, with whom I share many perspectives, was misled by Smith to think his analysis was “fruitful.”
ERE
(1920) 11.399.

26
. See D. Wildung and J. Liepe,
Die Pharaonen des Goldlandes: Antike Königreiche im Sudan
(Mannheim, 1998). Note, in particular, the following: p. 266 (see Illus. 43) the lion god Apelemuk has a body of a serpent; p. 349 (= no. 410) first or second century CE; a serpent on a pottery flask; no. 140, a serpent stele in black granite c. 1360 BCE; no. 168, Sphinx figure (670–660 BCE) with uraeus chiseled off; no. 368, a gold bracelet with serpents’ heads on each end—the eyes are clear; in the mouth of each is a small hole, probably for a gold tongue; no. 32, Mercury with an ornate caduceus, one of the most detailed I have found. The caduceus has a serpent clearly depicted (the other one is off the frieze and worn away). Very interesting is no. 41. It shows a Mithra relief of about 250 CE, beneath and to the left of a bull being slain by two men brandishing weapons. The iconography is unique for Mithra shrines, and since the large serpent is drinking out of a large bowl, it is conceivable, even probable, that Mithra iconography has been influenced by Asclepius iconography. No. 21 is a gravestone in gray sandstone, from Mainz and the second century CE. It contains the figure of a male with two hands descending to his pelvic area. There a large hole, descending downward, has been chiseled. This person, Elima, the son of Solimutus, may have been commemorated with an upraised phallus and with two hands holding it. One is reminded of the mural to the right of the entrance to the House of the Vetti in Pompeii.

27
. As indicated previously, the faience Minoan goddesses may be priestesses. The sensationalism of the Minoan excavations made goddesses more attractive. A. Evans opined that the “Snake Goddess” may be “an actual votary of priestess, whose ‘possession’ is thus indicated.” Evans,
The Palace of Minos
(London, 1921) vol. 1.1, p. 233. The picture of the faience serpent goddesses shown earlier is of professionally prepared models, as was indicated. The smaller serpent goddess was found headless and everything from her left elbow outward is a restoration. See the object before restoration in Evans,
The Palace of Minos
, vol. 1, 3, Fig. 360, a and b on p. 502. The restoration of a serpent in her left hand is speculative; it is based on the serpent held in her right hand. Evans reported that the larger woman (34.2 cm. [13.5 in.] high) has three coiled and spotted snakes on her body. The snakes have greenish bodies that are spotted with purple-brown. Evans,
The Palace of Minos
, vol. 1,3, pp. 500–501. I am grateful to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens for permission to work on Evans’ publications and note in the Blegen Library.

28
. On a visit to Hazor and the museum there in July 2002, I was impressed by the massive Canaanite palace discovered during the past eleven years by Professor A. Ben Tor and the serpent with dots for skin found in Locus 226.30 Area A, dating from MB2 that was found (Canaanite period; see photograph in Yadin’s volumes, photograph CCCXIII
¹³
).

29
. See the attractive drawings and photographs on pp. 146–50 in H.-G. Buchholz, “Furcht vor Schlangen und Umgang mit Schlangen in Altsyrien, Altkypros und dem Umfeld,”
UF
32 (2000) 37–168.

30
. For a drawing, see L. Keimer,
Histoires de Serpents dans I’Egypte ancienne et moderne
(Cairo, 1947) p. 2.

31
. Here I disagree with Plato and lean toward Aristotle; in fact, I am a phenom-enologist influenced by Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

32
. Eusebius,
PG
II.9 (101C); the translation is by E. H. Gifford in Eusebius,
Preparation for the Gospel
(Grand Rapids, 1981 [original is by Clarendon Press, 1903]) p. 110.

33
. Hercules was celebrated throughout Magna Graecia and elsewhere in Italy; see the discussion of the serpent in the Hesperides in A. Pontrandolfo,
Le tombe dipinte di Paestum
, ed. M. Cipriani (Paestum [n.d.; 2003?]) esp. p. 27 (drawing).

34
. See esp. M. Pagano,
Herculaneum
, trans. A. Pesce (Torre del Greco, 2000) pp. 76, 82–83.

35
. Eusebius,
PG
(112b); Gifford in Eusebius,
Preparation for the Gospel
, p. 123. Also see Eusebius
PG
III.13 (119b-c); Gifford in Eusebius,
Preparation for the Gospel
, p. 131.

36
. Eusebius,
PG
(112b); Gifford in Eusebius,
Preparation for the Gospel
, p. 123.

37
. Porphyry’s own views of the alleged powers of Asclepius and Jesus are clear in Fragment 80; see W. Den Boer,
Scriptorum paganorum I-IVsaec. de christianis testimonia
(Leiden, 1965) p. 32.

38
. For Latin and Greek texts see R. Hercher, ed.,
Aeliani De Natura Animalium
(Paris, 1858); for the Greek and English translations cited, see A. F. Scholfield, trans. and ed.,
Aelian: On Animals
, 3 vols. (LCL; London, Cambridge, Mass., 1958, 1959).

39
. My translation. Pliny (x.c.66) had written,
“Anguem ex medulla hominis sinae gigni accepimus a multis.”

40
. In Appendix II, I have named this snake “Asian viper.”

41
. Quite surprisingly, J. F. Nunn casually refers to the “dread with which the ancient Egyptians regarded snakes.” See his
Ancient Egyptian Medicine
(London, 1996) p. 107.

42
. See J. Mann,
Murder, Magic, and Medicine
(Oxford, 1992) p. 39.

43
. M. Eliade,
Patterns in Comparative Religion
(New York, 1958) p. 164.

44
. W. von Soden, “Verschlüsselte Kritik an Salomo in der Urgeschichte des Jah-wisten?”
WO
7 (1974) 2 2 8–40.

45
. M. Görg, “Die ‘Sünde’ Salomos: Zeitkritische Aspekte der jahwistischen Sün-denfallerzählung,”
BN
16 (1981) 42–59; Görg, “Weisheit als Provokation: Religionsgeschichtliche und theologische Aspekte der Sünderfallerzählung,” in
Die Kraft der Hoffnung [Festschrift J. Schneider]
(Bamberg, 1982) pp. 19–34.

46
. See K. Holter, “The Serpent in Eden as a Symbol of Israel’s Political Enemies: A Yahwistic Criticism of the Solomonic Foreign Policy?”
SJOT
1 (1990) 106–12.

47
. Laubscher, “Der Schlangenwürgende Herakles: Seine Bedeutung in der Herrscherikonologie,”
Jdl
112 (1997) 149–66.

48
. Consult A. Barash and J. H. Hoofien,
Reptiles of Israel
(Tel Aviv, 1966 [Hebrew]). Also see the manual on the taxonomy and distribution of venomous snakes in the Near and Middle East published by U. Joger:
The Venomous Snakes of the Near and Middle East
(Wiesbaden, 1984). The attractiveness of snakes may be due to the fact that the mouths of many snakes form an alluring and inviting smile (see esp. the drawings on pp. 89–95).

49
. F. S. Bodenheimer,
Animal Life in Palestine
(Jerusalem, 1935) p. 181. Also, see Bodenheimer,
Animal and Man in Bible Lands
, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1960, 1972). For images of the serpent, see esp. vol. 2, Figures 19, 37.

50
. I cannot now present and discuss the many serpent images collected by Shlomo Moussaieff. I hope to publish his collection in the near future, and am most grateful to him for his kindness and generosity in showing me his many serpent images. Here is a preliminary selection: (1) a clay image with a serpent raised up facing a woman (Eve?). It is perhaps between 5,000 and 8,000 years old and was found near Lake Van; (2) a ceramic piece similar to no. 1 but the serpent is facing away from the woman; (3) a ceramic piece similar to nos. 1 and 2; it has two serpents raised up and facing a woman; (4) a clay image similar to nos. 1, 2, and 3 with three serpents that are upraised; (5) a clay idol with two serpents on the head; it is perhaps between 5,000 and 8,000 years old; (6) a large bronze snake (84.4 cm long and about 10.5 cm wide) from Ptolemaic or Roman times. It was found in Israel. (7) a small iron snake (base is 1617 cm and height is 10.8 cm.). It dates from Iron II, probably, and was allegedly found in Wadi Masri in the southern Negev.

51
. On discontinuity and continuity in ancient symbolism, with a stress on the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, see M. Torelli,
Il rango, il rito e l’immagine
(Milan, 1997) esp. pp. 8 and 194.

52
. It is now unnecessary to demonstrate that iconography is essential for exegesis. See esp. the numerous publications by Keel already cited and B. A. Strawn, “Psalm 22:17b: More Guessing,”
JBL
119 (2000) 439–51.

53
. Much later even Maimonides recognized the importance of art for relaxing and refreshing the mind. See Maimonides,
The Commandments
, 2 vols., trans. C. B. Chavel (London, New York, 1967) vol. 2, p. 4.

54
. J. Maringer, “Die Schlange in Kunst und Kult der vorgeschichtlichen Menschen,”
Anthropos
72 (1977) 881–920; esp. p. 913.

55
. I have transliterated the Ugaritic so nonspecialists might obtain some insight into how the words might sound. Consult Dillmann’s
Lexicon;
for texts, see Whitaker,
A Concordance of the Ugaritic Literature
, pp. 159 and 446–47.

56
. They are
KTU
1.100 (= RS 1992.2014),
KTU
1.107, RS 24.251 +, and RS 24.244. See B. A. Levine and J.-M. de Tarragon, “ ‘Shapshu Cries out in Heaven’: Dealing with Snake-Bites at Ugarit
(KTU
1.100, 1.107),”
RB
94–95 (1988) 481–518; also consult D. Pardee in
Context
1.295–98. The Ugaritic
nhs ‘qsr
(e.g. in 1.100 4, line 7) seems to denote some type of snake; see Levine and Tarragon, op. cit., p. 495. For further discussion, see J. N. Ford “The Ugaritic Incantations Against Sorcery” (PhD diss., Jerusalem, 2002); see esp. p. 142. Much of this dissertation is to appear in
UF
.