The Good and Evil Serpent (158 page)

186
. See K. Kerenyi,
Dioniso: Archetipo della vita indistruttibile
, ed. M. Kerenyi (Milan, 1992); see esp. pp. 69–82. Dionysus symbolized for the Greeks wine, the bull, women, and the serpent (see p. 69).

187
. See A. Dieterich,
Eine Mithrasliturgie
(Leipzig, 1903) pp. 125–26 and Küster,
Die Schlange in der griechischen Kunst und Religion
, p. 147.

188
. See the coin with Antony and Octavian (obv) and the
cysta mystica
(rev) that is flanked by two large serpents (No. 608), and Antony (obv) and
cysta mystica
(rev) that is with two serpents (No. 607). For the photographs, see R. E. Levy and P. C. V. Bas-tien,
Roman Coins in the Princeton University Library
(Wetteren, Belgium, 1985).

189
. Consult Küster,
Die Schlange in der griechischen Kunst und Religion
, p. 149. For a superb summary of the various meanings of ophidian symbols to which I am indebted, see J. A. MacCulloch,
ERE
(1920) 11.399–411.

190
. Eusebius,
PG
II.3 (67a-b); see Gifford, trans., Eusebius,
Preparation for the Gospel
, p. 73.

191
. Ibid.

192
. Clement of Alexandria,
Exhortation to the Heathen
2; trans. Coxe in
ANF
2, p. 175. See G. W. Butterworth,
Clement of Alexandria
(LCL; Cambridge, Mass., 1919).

193
. In Greece and Egypt, Bes and in Babylon Nergal are portrayed with a phallus that is a serpent.

194
. See A. Esser, “Asklepios und Schlange,”
FF
24 (1948) 196–98.

195
. I am influenced by the interpretation of Frazer; see J. G. Frazer,
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
, 12 vols. (London, 1911–1915 [3rd ed.]) vol. 5, p. 81.

196
. On Artemis, see G. Mussies, “Artemis,” in
DDD
²
91–97.

197
. The image appears in many books; see, e.g., G. P. Carratelli, ed.,
I Greci in Occidente
(Milan, 1996) p. 61.

198
. See the Archeologico Regionale Cat. 362; Agrigento Museo. For a photograph, see Carratelli,
I Greci in Occidente
, p. 426.

199
. A. M. Hocquenghem, “Les ‘crocs’ et les ‘serpents’: L’autorité absolue des ancêtres mythiques,” in
Representations of Gods
, ed. H. G. Kippenberg (Leiden, 1983) pp. 58–74.

200
. This is a point made by M. Hutter in “Schlange,” in
LTK
(Freiburg, 2000) vol. 9, col. 153.

201
. Küster,
Die Schlange in der griechischen Kunst und Religion
, pp. 137–53.

202
. The ceramic pot is 21.5 cm wide (including handles), 12.5 cm high; the diameter, inside, of the opening is 14.4 cm.

203
. See M.-L. and H. Erlenmeyer, “Über Schlangen-Darstellungen in der frühen Bildkunst des Alten Orients,”
AfO
23 (1970) 52–62.

204
. Cf. Aristotle’s use of “footless” (àreouç); esp. see
Parts of Animals
4.1 [676a], 4.11 [690b], and 4.13 [697a] and
Progression of Animals
4 [705b], 8 [708a]; A. L. Peck,
Aristotle: Parts of Animals, Movements of Animals, Progression of Animals
(LCL; London, Cambridge, Mass., 1961) pp. 302–3, 392–93, 426–27, and 492–93, 504–7.

205
. Egli,
Das Schlangensymbol
, pp. 31–58.

206
. See esp. W. R. Halliday,
Greek Divination
(London, 1913) p. 90.

207
. W. Foerster, “őφις,”
TDNT
5 (1967) 571. I shall later discuss Foerster’s misrepresentation of snakes and serpent symbolism.

208
. See J. Feliks, “Snake,” in
EncJud
15 (1971) cols. 14–15.

209
. Also, one should not forget the serpent images on coins minted at Pergamon in the second and first centuries BCE. See, e.g., P. R. Franke, “Die Münzsammlung der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg,”
AA
82 (1967) 67–92; esp. see the images on p. 83. For the Pergamon altar see esp. M. Kunze,
The Pergamon Altar
(Mainz, 1991) and E. Rohde,
Pergamon: Burgberg und Altar
(Berlin, 1976).

210
. Agrippa was the son-in-law of Augustus; the Odeion was erected in about 15 BCE. Today one can see three of the original six huge Giants with anguipedes.

211
.[Anonymous], “Fiery Serpents,”
PEF
(January 1929) 58.

212
. See Angier, “Venomous and Sublime,”
www.nytimes.com/2002/12/10/science/life/10VIPE
.

213
. See P. Chantraine,
Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Grecque: Histoire des Mots
(Paris, 1968) p. 842.

214
. See the comments in
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia
, vol. 26, p. 692.

215
. Another example appears to come from the beginning of third-century CE Ephesus; see H. Vetters, “Der Schlangengott,” in
Studien zur Religion und Kultur Kleinasiens [Festschrift F. K. Dörner]
(Leiden, 1978) pp. 967–79.

216
. The well-preserved Greek sculpture is on display in the Naples Archaeological Museum; see the photograph in F. P. Maulucci,
The National Archaeological Museum of Naples
(Naples, [2000?; no date]) p. 12. I am grateful to Professor Marcello del Verme for obtaining permission for me to work in the Naples Archaeological Museum.

217
. G. Degeorge,
Palmyre
(Paris, 2001). See the color photograph on p. 195.

218
. In
The Epitome of the Divine Institutes
27, Lactantius calls the serpent “one of the servants of God.”

219
. I refer to a section of
b. Sanh
. 59b that is a Baraita.

220
. R. Gersht in
Illness and Healing in Ancient Times
, trans. M. Rosovsky (Haifa, 1997 [2nd ed.]) p. 10.

221
. Plutarch,
Demosthenes
845; for the Greek and English translation, see H. N. Fowler,
Plutarch’s Moralia
(LCL; Cambridge, Mass., London, 1936) pp. 418–19.

222
. The noun oiipaîoç, “chieftain,” is a loanword from Egypt; it is not related etymologically to oiipct, “tail.”

223
. See esp. S. B. Johnson,
The Cobra Goddess of Ancient Egypt: Predynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom Periods
(London, New York, 1990) pp. 3–33.

224
. W. A. Ward, “The Four-winged Serpent on Hebrew Seals,”
RSO
42 (1968) 135–43; see esp. p. 143.

225
. Egli,
Das Schlangensymbol
, pp. 119–43.

226
.
aqys aywjd
in 13; cf. 58. The Greek recension has “the ravenous serpent” in 13 and “the fearful serpent” in 58. See J. Ferreira,
The Hymn of the Pearl
(Sydney, 2002).

227
. I am influenced by T. H. Gaster’s “The Serpent as Guardian,”
Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament
(New York, 1969) p. 35.

228
. See the color photograph in S. Shifra and J. Klein,
In Those Distant Days: Anthology of Mesopotamian Literature in Hebrew
(Tel Aviv, 1996 [in Hebrew]) in the color section following p. 504.

229
. For text and translation, see D. R. Frayne’s article in
JAOS
102 (1982) 511–13.

230
. See the sources cited by L. W. King in
A History of Babylon
(New York, 1914) p. 72.

231
. M. Lichtheim in
Context
1.77.

232
. Lichtheim in
Context
1.82.

233
. See the photograph in R. Hachlili and Y. Meshorer,
Highlights from the Collection of the Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum
(Haifa, 1986, 1990) p. 55.

234
. The limestone capital is on display in the Limassol Museum. For photographs, see P. Aupert,
Guide to Amathus
, trans. D. Buitron-Oliver and A. Oliver (Nicosia, 2000) p. 29 and back cover.

235
. Plutarch,
Demosthenes
26.6–7 (4–5); as cited by Robbins in
Ancient Quotes and Anecdotes
, p. 411.

236
. See Cook,
Zeus
, vol. 2, part 2, pp. 1060–61 and Fig. 914 on p. 1061.

237
. See L. Bodson, “Nature et fonctions des serpents d’Athéna,” in
Mélanges Pierre Lévêque
, edited by M.-M. Mactoux and E. Geny (Paris, 1990) pp. 45–62.

238
. Museo Archeologico di Pithecusae; Case 34, no. 1 (Inv. 166442).

239
. See M. L. Robert, “Dans une maison d’Éphèse: Un serpent et un chiffre,”
CRAI
, 126–32; esp. see p. 129.

240
. I. Malkin devotes two of his four paragraphs on the “snake” to stress only the guardian aspect of ophidian symbolism in Greece, as if it were more important or dominant than others, such as healing in the Asclepian cult (which he mentions in one sentence). See “snakes,” in
OCD
, pp. 1417–18.

241
. See the photograph of Bernini’s masterpiece in
The Capitoline Museums
(p. 112); it emphasizes the menacing snakes.

242
. See, e.g., D. Leeming with M. Leeming,
A Dictionary of Creation Myths
(New York, Oxford, 1995); see esp. pp. 5, 7, 21, 39, et passim.

243
. See Winter,
Frau und Göttin;
esp. see Illus. 37, 42, 123, 124, 355, 359, 379, and 469.

244
. See B. L. Goff,
Symbols of Prehistoric Mesopotamia
(New Haven, London, 1963). Also, consult K. G. Stevens,
De iconografie van de slang in Mesopotamia vanaf het vijfde millennium voor Christus tot het einde van de Akkadische periode, Magisterarbeit
, 2 vols. [unpublished dissertation, 1984; see the following entry]; and Stevens, “Eine Ikonographische Untersuchung der Schlange im Vorgeschichtlichen Mesopotamien,” in
Archaeologia Iranica et Orientalis: Miscellanea in Honorem Louis Vanden Berghe
, ed. L. De Meyer and E. Haerninck (Leuven, 1989) 1–32.

245
. A. Falkenstein, W. von Soden,
Sumerische und akkadische Hymnen und Gebete
(Stuttgart, 1953).

246
. See esp. C. Hentze, “Die Zerstückelte Schlange,”
Antaios
9 (1968) 253–61.

247
. I have avoided the use of words like oviparity (egg laying) and ovoviviparity (egg hatching) because the terms seem onerous in the present work and because such distinctions prove to be misleading and arbitrary.

248
. Beyerlin,
Near Eastern Religious Texts Relating to the Old Testament
, p. 7.

249
. Beyerlin, ibid., p. 12.

250
. See, e.g., G. Infusino, “La creazione del mondo,”
Storia, miti e leggende dei Campi Flegrei
(Naples, 1995) pp. 70–77. See esp. the modern depiction of Eurinome embraced by the great serpent Ofione on p. 73.

251
. Cairo Museum no. 1321.

252
. See A. Piankoff,
The Shrines of Tut-ankh-amon
, ed. N. Rambova (New York, 1955) vol. 2, p. 120 (italics removed); for the exterior left panel, see Fig. 41. Also see the Ouroboros in the papyrus of Her-Uben A; see Fig. 3 in Piankoff, trans.,
Mythological Papyri: Texts
, ed. N. Rambova (New York, 1957) vol. 1, p. 22.

253
. Eusebius
PG
40c; ibid.

254
. See Keel,
The Symbolism of the Biblical World
, p. 188.

255
. See the comments about the Menorah by C. Meyers,
The Tabernacle Menorah
(Missoula, Mont., 1976) and “Lampstand,”
AYBD
4.141–43.

256
. For a discussion of the base and the controversial use of images, see M. Haran and H. Strauss, “Menorah,”
EncJud
(1971) 11.1363–66. One cannot be certain that the base is original; conceivably, it was added by a Roman artist as it traveled to Rome or in Rome. Yet it is equally conceivable that Herod had the base added, perhaps to repair it.

257
. See Haran and Strauss, “Menorah,”
EncJud
(1971) 11.1355–70; esp. Fig. 1 beneath cols. 1355–56.

258
. See the menorah with an apparent snake beneath and to the left of it on a stone from the catacomb Vigna Randanini. See E. R. Goodenough, “The Menorah Among Jews of the Roman World,”
HUCA
23 (1950–1951) vol. 2, pp. 449–92; esp. Fig. 7.

259
. Shiva is also one of the gods who achieve life in dying. Serpent iconography and symbology help the devotee to symbolize Shiva. See D. Shulman, “The Serpent and the Sacrifice: An Anthill Myth from Tiruvärür,”
HR
18 (1978) 107–37.

260
. On the power of the serpent, see L. Silburn, “Il serpente del profondo,”
La kundalinl o l’energia del profondo
, trans. F. Sferra (Milan, 1997) pp. 39–52, 401.

261
. See the reflections by G. Krishna in
Kundalini: L’Energia evolutiva nell’uomo
(Rome, 1971 p. 57.

262
. The word “bradisismo” (etymologically Greek) denote the rise and fall of the land due to seismic and volcanic forces (“le oscillazioni alternanti della costa terrestre”) in and near Pozzuoli, which is a northwestern suburb of Naples. See M. Sirpettino,
Il bradisismo di Pozzuoli
(Naples, 1983). The Italian is from this book, p. 19. The Greeks called the area Campi Flegrei, “burning fields.” It was a special area for the early Romans, especially Nero and the Flavians. See G. Infusino,
Storia, miti e leggende dei Campi Flegrei
(Naples, 1995). The serpent symbol is grounded in myths and legends of this area, which is so charming that Horace could write,
nullus in orbis sinus Bais praelucit amoenis:
“Nowhere on earth is a gulf as lovely as the pleasant Baiae.”