The Good and Evil Serpent (33 page)

As we imagined when studying the serpent images found on Crete and in ancient Palestine, so it is clear now that no other creature represents so pervasively the underworld. This fact becomes evident as we study the literature from Greek culture and the myths of the serpent. I am convinced that this symbolism did not originate with the Greeks; it was inherited from the East, perhaps ultimately from India since other ideas from there flowed into the fertile imagination of the Greek mind, particularly into Plato’s philosophy.
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The ancient Greeks and Romans saw the serpent slither away and disappear perhaps deep into the earth.
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For them this chthonic region was mysterious and the source of life; after all, plants were seen to spring up out of the earth, especially in the spring, when Persephone returned to the surface of the earth. The cosmos in ancient cosmology was usually conceived to be twofold (cf. Gen 1);
¹⁴³
above the earth are the heavens, then the earth, and finally the world beneath the surface of the earth. There was no three-tiered universe with the heaven above, the earth beneath, and a separate underworld far below the earth. While there is some debate on this issue, I am convinced that the underworld was part of the earth; “beneath” it meant beneath the earth’s surface.

The underworld was not a world devoid of life. It was assumed to be a place to which persons went after death. There were gods of the underworld, and they were important for those living on the earth. Note the following inscription that dates near the century in which the Fourth Gospel received its edited form:

The opening,
DM
, is an abbreviation for D(is) M(anibus), which means “To the gods (or Pluto) of the underworld.” The Latin inscription was found near Ulm; it is on display in the Lapidarium in Stuttgart (no. 35). The underworld seems to be part of the earth.

Thus, the serpent, when it disappears mysteriously into the earth, has entered into the region in which the dead reside, not only literally when they are buried in the earth, but also symbolically where they reside forever after death. It is easy to imagine why the ancient Greeks, and possibly those living in or near the Johannine community, thought about and portrayed Hermes with a staff topped by two entwined serpents (the caduceus).

Agathadaimon

Agathadaimon was a snake; the Greek word means “good god (spirit or genius).”
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According to the
Alexander Romance
, the beneficial deity was killed during the construction of the city. Alexander the Great thus sought to mollify the god by building him a sanctuary in Alexandria. From the time of Alexander III of Macedonia (“the Great” [356–323
BCE
]), an annual feast celebrated the sacred snake deity.
¹⁴⁹
The serpents that eventually lived in the temple were given a type of porridge made from Egyptian wheat. The anti-Greek
Potter’s Oracle
is an Egyptian polemical reply: the snake god has left Alexandria and migrated to Memphis.

As we saw earlier, when studying the gods at Pompeii, Agathadaimon was known elsewhere besides Alexandria.
¹⁵⁰
In Athens he seems to have been a minor household god. He was revered throughout most of Greece.
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Families had snakes not as house pets but as house gods. The snakes were often fed by the family after their main meal. The family left food behind for the serpents such as a mixture of barley and wine. Associated with the fate of cities, as indicated by the
Potter’s Oracle
, Agathadaimon became assimilated and indistinguishable in many cities and on many altars with Agatha Tyche. As Fraser indicated, Agathadaimon most likely originated within Greece, perhaps Macedonia, and was brought to Egypt by the Greeks.
¹⁵²
The earliest indisputable representation of Agathadaimon is from the fourth century
BCE
.

Following the time of Alexander, the power and importance of Agathadaimon increased. The most important god in the pantheon at Alexandria was Serapis. He is depicted as a snake, but with the head recognizable as Serapis. Scholars have shown that Serapis in this image is clearly Agatha-daimon. The identification is confirmed by coins, monuments, figurines, reliefs, lamps, and other realia.
¹⁵³
For Alexandrians, the three most important gods seemed to have been Serapis, often associated with Isis, Isis herself, and Harpocrates. Each of them is depicted as a serpent.

Agathadaimon is iconographically a serpent. Besides the mural in the House of the Veti at Pompei, shown earlier, the serpent appears in Pompeii in the Temple of Isis.
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Sometimes he is depicted like an old philosopher,
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and sometimes apparently as a raised and coiled serpent, as on a slab of white marble found in a private house in Delos and in a mural in the Pistrinum in Pompeii.
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Numerous reliefs from the Greco-Roman Period, and virtually all from Alexandria, depict an upraised cobra and a large upright serpent; the former is Isis-Thermouthis, the latter Agathadaimon.
¹⁵⁷
The deity, Agathadaimon, appears on coins, especially from the second century
CE;
on one he is with Isis-Thermouthis, and on another he is on a horse and has the head of Serapis.
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It is notable—especially for a better grasp of the symbolism found in the Fourth Gospel—that the double representation of Isis and Agathadaimon appears for the first time on coins during Hadrian’s reign (117–38
CE)
. A statue from the Roman Period and from Kasr Daoud in Egypt—and now on display in the Louvre (collection Fouquet)—depicts Serapis as Agathadaimon with a human face.
¹⁵⁹

Dunand concluded that Agathadaimon symbolized the protection of the house or home, the grantee of the fertility of the soil, and perhaps as “un génie funéraire”
¹⁶⁰
—the one who conducts the corpse to another life or merely protects it.

Focusing on Serapis, Agathadaimon, and Isis-Thermouthis, each of whom is depicted as a serpent, Dunand helped clarify the symbolic meaning of serpent iconography. He perceived three dominant themes of serpent iconography in Alexandria: concern for the fertility of Egyptian soil, an es-chatological dimension especially in the use of the caduceus, and the idea of kingship.
¹⁶¹
The serpent thus assured prosperity in this life and in the next. Fraser was dubious that Agathadaimon had any chthonic or eschatological overtones or meaning.
¹⁶²
Pietrzykowski admits that Fraser is correct for the Hellenistic Period,
¹⁶³
but that in the Roman Period, especially in the early second century
CE
, during the reign of Hadrian, Agathadaimon, Serapis, and Isis-Thermouthis were assimilated, portrayed as serpents, and had obtained chthonic and eschatological symbolic meaning.

Giants (and the Monstrous Size of Snakes)

During the Hellenic and Hellenistic periods a myth developed that influenced many;
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it even influenced Palestinian Jews, who composed a book titled
The Book of the Giants
. The myth relates how in primordial times Giants (which are sometimes similar to the Titans)
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fought on earth against the gods.
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The most impressive depiction of this battle is found on the frieze in the Pergamum Temple,
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which is exceptionally ornate because of the great natural wealth and silver mines found there. Pergamum developed into one of the most majestic and beautiful of the Greek cities. Her library was second only to the incomparable one in Alexandria. The Pergamum frieze featuring the Giants is now prominently and attractively displayed in Berlin in the Humboldt Museum.
¹⁶⁸
Not all the Giants were evil; some were good, namely Atlas.

The Greek name for these Giants is instructive, as are the words derived from it. Note the following:
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    Titan, Giant (usually in plural)

    Giant-killer (Dionysus and Apollo esp.)

    Titanomachia, battle between the gods and Giants

While the etymology of the Greek word for “Giants” is uncertain, the connection with “Gaia,” the Greek word for earth, is possible. According to Hesiod (c. 700
BCE
), who along with Homer represent the early Greek epic, the Giants were born from Gaia and the blood of heaven (Ouranos).
¹⁷⁰
Also, evidence in favor of some etymological connection between the Giants and Gaia, the Earth, is found in the earliest compendium of this mythology. It is by Pseudo-Apollodorus, who is a mythographer who wrote perhaps shortly before or after the time of the Fourth Evangelist. Apollodorus’ account is very long (comprising all of
The Library
1.6); here is a selection:

But Earth
, vexed on account of the Titans
, brought forth the Giants, whom she had by Sky
. These were matchless in their bodies’ bulk and invincible in their might … and with the scales of dragon-serpents
for feet…. Surpassing all the rest were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even immortal so long as he fought in the land of his birth…. Now the gods
had an oracle that none of the Giants
could perish at the hand of gods, but that with the help of a mortal they would be terminated.
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