The Good and Evil Serpent (156 page)

57
. See esp. the
Einblattdruck
by Hans Hauser (Ulm, 1495).

58
. In Midrash Ecclesiastes this verse is interpreted to refer to anyone who “breaks down a fence erected by the Sages.” Such a person will “eventually suffer penalties,” either in this age or in the coming one. See H. Freedman and M. Simon, trans.,
Midrash Rabbah
(London, 1939) p. 28.

59
. See J. A. Fitzmyer in
Context
2.213–17. Also see W. Beyerlin,
Near Eastern Religious Texts Relating to the Old Testament
, trans. J. Bowden (London, 1978) p. 259.

60
. Diodorus Siculus,
Library of History
4.9.1–10. The date of this work is sometime in the first century BCE.

61
. See M. Albertoni et al.,
The Capitoline Museums
, trans. D. A. Arya and S. Mari (Rome, 2000); the picture is on p. 52.

62
. See the image in D. Stillwell, ed.,
Antioch On-the-Orontes: III—The Excavations 1937–1939
(Princeton, London, The Hague, 1941) p. 182 (discussion and description), and Plate 56 (black-and-white photograph). Also see D. Levi,
Antioch Mosaic Pavements
(Princeton, London, The Hague, 1947) vol. 2, Plate IV.

63
. See the depiction of Laocoon’s wife on a fragment of a vase on p. 144 in Buchholz, “Furcht vor Schlangen und Umgang mit Schlangen in Altsyrien, Altkypros und dem Umfeld.”

64
.
LivPro
2.3–4; translated by D. R. A. Hare in
OTP
2.286–87.

65
. Also see John Chrysostom,
Homily
2.4: “For as the physicians taking serpents and cutting off their destructive members, prepare medicines for antidotes.” Trans. T. P. Brandram, “Homilies II and III: On the Power of Man to Resist the Devil,”
NPNF1
9, p. 189.

66
. For the English translation and Latin text, see Celsus,
De Medicina
, trans. W. G. Spencer (LCL; London, Cambridge, Mass., 1971) vol. 2.

67
. TAb 19, Recension A; translated by E. P. Sanders in
OTP
1.895.

68
. J. Preuss,
Biblical and Talmudic Medicine
, ed. and trans. F. Rosner (New York, 1978) chap. 5 and p. 569.

69
. See G. M. Parässoglou, “A Christian Amulet Against Snakebite,”
SPap
13 (1974) 107–10. (P. Yale inv. 1792).

70
. R. L’Estrange,
The Life and Fables of EEsop
, ed. S. Stern (New York, 1970) p. 156.

71
. Scene 5; 1051–54; S. Wells and G. Taylor et al., eds.,
William Shakespeare: The Complete Works—Original-Spelling Edition
(Oxford, 1986) p. 363.

72
. For further discussion, see H. Egli, “Der Drachenkampf,”
Das Schlangensymbol
(Freiburg im Breisgau, 1982) pp. 194–56.

73
. Professor Dr. Shimeon Gitter informed me of this fact. He is one of the founders of the medical school at Tel Aviv University. He also informed me that decades ago he discovered that the venom of a cobra has more copper than zinc.

74
. See, e.g., H. Brunner, “Seth und Apophis—Gegengötter im ägyptischen Pantheon?” in
Das Hörende Herz
(Freiburg Schweiz, 1988) pp. 121–29. Also see Sauneron,
Papyrus Brooklyn;
Esna III, 32 §15; Esna V, 265 §14 and D. Kurth,
“SUUM CUIQUE:
Zum Verhältnis von Dämon and Göttern im alten Ägypten,” in
Die Dämonen
, ed. A. Lange, H. Lichtenberger, and K. F. D. Römheld (Tübingen, 2003) pp. 45–60; esp. p. 57.

75
. See W. Robertson Smith,
The Religion of the Semites
(New York, 1956) pp. 118–33.

76
. For the Hebrew text and translation, see N. Slifkin,
Nature’s Song
(Southfield, Mich., 2001) p. 35.

77
.
3 Bar
5:3 (Greek and Slavonic); see
OTP
1.668 and the trans. H. E. Gaylord.

78
.
Beshallah
, Exodus 4. J. T. Townsend, trans.,
Midrash Tanhuma (S. Buber Recension)
(Hoboken, N. J., 1997) vol. 2, p. 77.

79
. E. A. Phillips points to the complexity of the “pre-texts” and “inter-texts” in which the serpent appears; see her “Serpent Intertexts: Tantalizing Twists in the Tales,”
BBR 10
(2000) 233–45.

80
. See the photographs and discussion in Y. Meshorer,
Ancient Means of Exchange: Weights and Coins
(Haifa, 1998) pp. 76, 79, 95. Also see L. Mildenberg, ed.,
The Abraham Bromberg Collection of Jewish Coins
, 2 parts (Zürich, 1991–1992); see esp. vol. 1, pp. 12 (Herod the Great’s bronze coin with winged caduceus), 14 (Herod Archelaus’ bronze coin with caduceus); vol. 2, p. 9 (Herod the Great’s bronze with winged caduceus [superb example]).

81
. G. St. Clair, “The Subtle Serpent,”
JTS
7 (1960) 40–50; the quotation is from p. 40.

82
. A. Luyster, “The
Femme-aux-Serpents
at Moissac: Luxuria (Lust) or Bad Mother,” in
Between Magic and Religion
, ed. S. R. Asirvatham et al. (Lanham, Md., Oxford, 2001) pp. 165–91.

83
.“Draconibus et igne et serpentibus atque viperis circa colla eorum.” The Latin text and English translation presented are by Luyster, in
Between Magic and Religion
, pp. 176–77.

84
. See the photographs and discussion in J. Charlesworth, ed.,
Jews and Christians
(New York, 1990).

85
. Mary Douglas,
Purity and Danger
(London, 1966).

86
. G. Beckman in
Context
1.150.

87
. See J. W. van Henten, “Python,” in
DDD
²
669–71.

88
. See the brilliant reflections by J. Z. Smith in “Towards Interpreting Demonic Powers in Hellenistic and Roman Antiquity,”
ANRW
II.16.1 (1978) 425–39.

89
. Instrumenta Patristica 29; Turnhout, 1996.

90
. Borsje,
From Chaos to Enemy;
for Apophis see pp. 118, 292, 297, for Behemoth pp. 30, 32, 117, 127, 191, 266, 304, for Cerberus pp. 151, 302, and for Leviathan pp. 12, 30–39 esp. (et passim).

91
. Beyerlin,
Near Eastern Religious Texts Relating to the Old Testament
, p. 198.

92
. C. M. Brown, “A Natural History of the Gloucester Sea Serpent: Knowledge, Power, and the Culture of Science in Antebellum America,”
American Quarterly
(September 1990) 402–36; M. Meurger and C. Gagnon,
Lake Monster Traditions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis
(London, 1988).

93
. J. P. O’Neill,
The Great New England Sea Serpent: An Account of Unknown Creatures Sighted by Many Respectable Persons Between 1638 and the Present Day
(Camden, Maine, 1999).

94
. The snake is the lawless one, Satan. See
Vita
33:3,
LivPro
12:13, and
ApMos
16:5.

95
. J. Chevalier and A. Gheerbrant,
The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols
(London, New York, 1996) p. 846.

96
. See Wittkower,
JWI
2 (1938–1939) 296. He draws attention to S. Reinach, “Aetos Prometheus,”
RAr
2 (1907) 65ff.

97
. Aristotle thought that the forked tongue of a snake doubled the pleasure of taste; cf.
Part. an
. 2.17 (660b); A. L. Peck,
Aristotle: Parts of Animals
(LCL; London, Cambridge, Mass., 1961) pp. 202–3.

98
. See D. Pardee in
Context
1.327–28.

99
. As cited by Chevalier and Gheerbrant in
The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols
, p. 856.

100
. Philo,
QG
1.33.

101
. E. Williams-Forte, “The Snake and the Tree in the Iconography and Texts of Syria During the Bronze Age,” in
Ancient Seals and the Bible
, ed. L. Gorelick and E. Williams-Forte (Malibu, Calif., 1983) 18–43.

102
. See S. Samek-Ludovici and H. Ravenna,
Dante Göttliche Komödie nach einer Handscrift aus dem 15. Jahrhundert
, trans. P. Aschner (Fribourg, Geneva, 1979) pp. 32–33.

103
. Peter of Alexandria,
The Genuine Acts of Peter;
trans. J. B. H. Hawkins, “Peter of Alexandria: The Genuine Acts of Peter,”
ANF
6, p. 262.

104
. Athanasius,
To the Bishops of Egypt
1.19; trans. A. Robertson, “On the Incarnation of the Word,”
NPNF2
4, p. 233.

105
.
ApEl
5:33; trans. O. S. Wintermute in
OTP
1.752.

106
. The use of serpent imagery to illustrate base behavior is often used in poetry. For example, Friedrich Hölderlin denounces one who castigates his brother’s failure with “the loose mockery of the serpent’s tongue
[Schlangenzunge].”
F. Hölderlin,
Sämtliche Werke
, p. 304.

107
. Lane,
An Arabic-English Lexicon
, Book I, Part 1 (1863) p. 681.

108
. Paul Ricoeur,
Finitude et culpabilité
(Paris, 1960) esp. pp. 236–43. Also see A. Wénin, “Satan ou l’adversaire de l’alliance: Le serpent, père du mensonge,”
Graphe
9 (2000) 23–43.

109
. Act 1, line 191. Also see Act 3, line 1234 for the reference to the poison of a viper. For the Greek, see A. S. Owen, ed.,
Euripides Ion
(Oxford, 1939, 1957). I am grateful to Dr. Kevin Glowacki of Indiana University (who was at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens when I was working on ophidian iconography); he drew my attention to
Ion
.

110
. See H. Goedicke, “The Snake in the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor,”
Göttinger Miszellen
39 (1980) 27–31.

111
. The eagle and serpent are sometimes used to complement each other, bringing together the tension between good and evil. See Ye. V. Antonova, “The ‘Serpent’ and the ‘Eagle’ in the Glyptics of the Oxus Civilization,”
Journal of Ancient History
2 (2000 [Moscow]) 46–52 (Russian).

112
. In this passage, the “dragon” is most likely the river crocodile.

113
. A use of language found in J. D. Ray, “Egyptian Wisdom Literature,” in
Wisdom in Ancient Israel: Essays in Honour of J. A. Emerton
, ed. J. Day, R. P. Gordon, and H. G. M. Williamson (Cambridge, 1995) p. 17. Also see F. V. Greifenhagen,
Egypt on the Pentateuch’s Ideological Map
(London, New York, 2002).

114
. A. Perrot, “L’homme aux serpents,”
Syria
28 (1951) 57–61.

115
. See E. Porada, “A Man with Serpents,” in
Von Uruk nach Tuttul [Festschrift E. Strommenger]
, ed. B. Hrouda et al. (Munich, Vienna, 1992) pp. 171–75 and Plates 72–78. Also see Porada,
Man and Images in the Ancient Near East
(Wakefield, R.I., London, 1995) esp. pp. 39–47.

116
. L’Estrange,
The Life and Fables of EEsop
, p. 112 (with original italics, punctuations, and capitalizations).

117
. See Foster in
Context
1.390–402.

118
. H. Leclercq, “Serpent,”
DACL
15 (1950) 1353.

119
. See R. Schulz and K. Sabri Kolta, “Schlangen, Skorpione und feindliche Mächte: Ein koptisch-arabische Schutzspruch,”
BN
93 (1998) 89–104.

120
. See ibid.

121
. See the summary by R. S. J. Typwhitt, “Serpent,”
DCA
vol. 2, 1889.

122
. See Typwhitt, “Dragon,”
DCA
vol. 1, pp. 579–80. In this publication and the one mentioned previously, Typwhitt errs in drawing a too rigid distinction between serpent and dragon; as we have seen, the two terms are interchangeable in texts and iconography (beginning in the second millennium BCE).

123
. I. J. Gelb et al., eds.,
The Assyrian Dictionary
(Chicago, 1962) pp. 148–50.

124
. B. Meissner and W. von Soden,
Akkadisches Handwörterbuch
(Wiesbaden, 1981) vol. 3, p. 1093.

125
. I am grateful to A. Biran for discussing the discoveries with me and clarifying that the three pithoi have now been found at Dan. See Biran,
Biblical Dan
, pp. 152–53, 165–77.

126
. Act 1, line 191. For the Greek, see Owen,
Euripides Ion
, ad loc.

127
. See J. G. Frazer, ed.,
Apollodorus
(LCL; London, New York, 1921) pp. 84–85.

128
. F. Hvidberg, “The Canaanite Background of Gen I-III,”
VT
10 (1960) 285–94.

129
. See, inter alia, T. M. Probatake,
The Devil in Byzantine Culture
(Thessaloniki, 1980 [in modern Greek]).

130
.
LivPro
12:13; trans. D. R. A. Hare in
OTP
2.394.

131
.
Vita
33:1–3; trans. M. D. Johnson in
OTP
2.272.

132
.
ApMos
16:1–5; trans. M. D. Johnson in
OTP
2.277.

133
. For mature reflections on symbology and ontology and the language of symbols in terms of an intentionality that is intelligent, rational, and moral, see S. Muratore, “Simbolo, mistero e mito: Il quadro epistemologico,” in
La conoscenza simbolica
, ed. C. Greco and S. Muratore (Milan, 1998) pp. 9–39.

134
. Except for haplography, or removal of supposed redundancies, the scribes have offered us no verbal variants. They well knew what had been written.

135
. See, notably, C. Sailer’s
Der Feldzug der Schlange und das Wirken der Taube: Die Gottesprophetie der Zeitenwende
(Würzburg, 1998).