The Good and Evil Serpent (56 page)

Guardian

Our ancestors perceived the snake as the one who kills animals harmful to humans, like rodents, mice, and rats (cf. 2.27); thus, it came to symbolize the Guardian. The snake has no eyelids, so it cannot close its eyes. This physiological characteristic has helped develop such symbols as the uraeus (the rearing cobra) that represents the Egyptian cobra
(Naja haje)
, which can grow to about 3 meters.
²²²
The uraeus is not only the symbol of the Egyptian cobra goddess who represented “life, order, and legitimate kingship,”
²²³
it is also the quintessential symbol of the divine guardian (cf. 2.4). As W. A. Ward has demonstrated, a four-winged uraeus of the first millennium
BCE
on Hebrew seals is clearly the Egyptian uraeus-snake. The uraeus symbolizes the protection of gods and kings and destruction of all enemies. Ward concludes: “Within its Hebrew context, the flying serpent was both a protector and destroyer.”
²²⁴
It is understandable, therefore, why Egli, in his
Das Schlangensymbol
, devoted a chapter to the serpent as guardian.
²²⁵

In world folklore and myth, the serpent indeed symbolizes the guardian. Ladon guards the golden apples in the Hesperides. A snake watches Apollo’s gold in Scythia. A snake is sentinel of the rowan tree of the Celts’ Fraoch. A “hissing serpent” (in Syriac)
²²⁶
guards the priceless pearl of the
Hymn of the Pearl;
and a serpent was guardian of Athena’s temple in Athens.
²²⁷
The Ishtar Gate was guarded by monsters with a dragon’s tongue and a serpent tail.
²²⁸
Fearsome serpents, according to a text in Old Babylonian, were placed on a temple gate bolt for apotropaic purposes.
²²⁹
The Babylonian temple in Neriglissar’s time boasted eight bronze serpents; two guarded each entrance.
²³⁰
Perhaps “the most accomplished piece of Middle Kingdom prose literature”
²³¹
is the narrative about the Egyptian attendant to Sesostris, named Sinuhe. He is in danger before the pharaoh because he is a nomad and “roamed foreign lands.” Notice how “the royal daughters” pleaded to the king for Sinuhe:

While the Cobra decks your brow,
You deliver the poor from harm.
²³²

The reference is to the uraeus and it is a serpent that symbolizes the protector of the poor.

The use of the uraeus to represent the serpent extended far beyond the borders of Egypt. A four-winged uraeus from the seventh century
BCE
has been found on a red jasper seal containing in Hebrew: “Belonging to De-layahu, son of Gamliyahu.”
²³³
The seal represents culture in ancient Palestine. One of the most remarkable works of art that heralded the beginning of the Classical Period in Amathus, on the southern coast of Cyprus, is a limestone polychrome Hathor capital with the image of two cobras above a small chapel. The two upraised snakes have prominent eyes and wings and face in opposite directions.
²³⁴
From Amathus, then, comes a uraeus with serpents facing in diametrically opposed ways. They are guardians.

We have examined and discussed the many serpents that appear on Canaanite pottery, especially during the second millennium
BCE
(
Figs. 29
-
33
). These serpents were placed on jars to protect the contents, especially wine, oil, and water. Long ago, in the seventh century
CE
, Topsell pointed out that serpents are the guardians of treasures.

Plutarch reports that Demosthenes became jaundiced about public service. He reputedly railed against Athena, the guardian of Athens who was symbolically related to serpents, as we have seen, and the owl, as illustrated on the many coins honoring her. Demosthenes, as he was leaving Athens, asked: “O potent Guardian of the City, Athena, how, pray, canst thou take delight in those three most intractable beasts, the owl, the serpent, and the people?”
²³⁵
Clearly, the guardian of Athens is not only Athena but also the serpents that are with her. Later, the Romans also put serpents on their coins to announce to the world the protection provided by Rome. For example, Nero put snakes on his coins.

A marble stele of about the third century
BCE
, now in the Thebes Museum, has the inscription:

	Zeus
	The Guardian 236

Many in antiquity probably perceived in this stele an allusion to the guardian serpent, and few readers of the present work will miss a possible link with the serpent Zeus Meilichios (
Fig. 11
).

We have frequently observed that serpents occupy a distinctive place in the iconography of Athena, who played the greatest role in public and private life in Greece. According to L. Bodson, among the symbolic meanings of the different snakes depicted on the sculptures of Athena were the protection of Greeks (the snake called
Elaphe quatuorlineata)
and the destruction of their enemies (the
Vipera ammodytes)
. Herodotus
(Hist
. 8.41.3–4) reported, with amazement, that Athenians continued to believe that a sacred snake dwelt in the Erecthium.
²³⁷

Serpents were often painted on warriors’ shields. Examples may be found in most archaeological museums that feature Roman and Greek antiquities, including the Vatican, the British Museum, the National Museum in Athens, the Hermitage, and the Museo Archeologico di Pithecusae on the Isle of Ischia at Lacco Ameno. In this museum are the earliest remains of Magna Graecia (the great expanse of Greek culture): ceramic cups and pitchers from about 700
BCE
contain wavy lines, either water or serpents, perhaps both. A fifth-century
BCE
painted krater shows a coiled serpent on a soldier’s shield.
²³⁸
No details highlight the snake; its head is raised and on a diagonal line with the head of the soldier. Most likely Greeks painted serpents on shields to symbolize the warrior’s guardian.

A bronze serpent, without its head, was found beside a bust of Tiberius and Livia in a Roman ruin at Ephesus. It has markings for scales, seven curves, rises up, and is approximately 7 meters long. According to M. L. Robert, this bronze serpent is an example of the domestic cult in which the serpent symbolized protection and prosperity.
²³⁹

The monstrous gorgons, especially Medusa, symbolized the protection offered by these deities (
Figs. 17
,
47
,
48
).
²⁴⁰
The Medusa is also found outside the Holy Land; a Medusa with serpent hair is chiseled on the basalt stone in the third-century synagogue at Chorazin. Many, including the famous Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), crafted a marvelous statue or replica of Medusa; most prominent are the serpents in her hair.
²⁴¹

The serpent has been seen as the perfect symbol of the guardian (cf. esp.
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles
4.4). He or she is placed on gates and fences. The Vikings carved a dragon-snake and put it on the prow of their ships to protect them from the dragon-serpent of the deep. Serpents and dragons interchange or are indistinguishable in iconography and sym-bology.

The Hebrew Bible seems to reflect the symbolism of the serpent as the quintessential guardian. The author of Ecclesiastes advises that one who “breaks through a wall” that protects another will “be bitten by a serpent (V)ro).” Dan is heralded, as we have seen, according to Genesis 49:17, as the guardian of Israel; he is like the adder that causes one on a horse to fall. Recall the passage:

Dan shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
Dan shall be a serpent
on the way,
An adder
on the path,
The one who bites the hoofs of the horse
So that its rider falls backward. [Gen 49:17]

Dan is here clearly portrayed as the serpent that guards the tribes of Israel.

Creation and Light

The snake goes into the earth from which new life was perceived to originate (cf. 2.18 and 2.24), and it disappears into the mysterious depths of the sea (cf. 2.16) that was frequently mythologized in creation accounts. Thus, the serpent became a symbol of creation in almost all the myths.
²⁴²
Many ancient thinkers and compilers of lore and myth imagined an earlier day in which primal floods and large serpents abounded (Leviathan especially). Winter’s work removes any doubt about the abundant evidence from antiquity of the relation between creator gods (and goddesses) and the serpent.
²⁴³

In southern Mesopotamia, millennia before the beginning of the Common Era, Akkadians used the serpent to signify birth, but our understanding of early Mesopotamian symbolism is far from clear since there is presently no comprehensive scientific study of serpent iconography and symbolism in Mesopotamia.
²⁴⁴
The emergence of a human or god from the mouth of a large serpent is depicted in an early Sumerian bowl now on display in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. The birth of a god from a serpent is featured also in early Akkadian and Sumerian narratives.
²⁴⁵

In many world cultures the serpent is seen as the source of creation. In some myths, it is often conquered and divided into the material world.
²⁴⁶
Thus, only after Marduk slays Tiamat can he shape heaven and earth out of her remains. According to the sagas of India, Vasuki, the world serpent, is pulled in diverse directions by not only gods but also demons; the result is the creation of the world. In ancient Mexico, according to Nahuatl mythology, creation is dramatically described as occurring after the slaying of a female monster by Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca; the latter are gods who became serpents. In Melanesia, some natives believe that their islands were created by Wonajo, who was formed like a serpent. The Aborigines of northwestern Australia attribute creation to the eggs of Ungud, the serpent.
²⁴⁷
A legend associated with New Guinea and the Admiralty Islands indicates that the first humans came from a serpent.