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Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University

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CHAPTER 2: THE SERPENT<br />

The serpent has always stood for two diametrically opposed ideas, namely as the<br />

foe of mankind and the symbol of evil on the one hand, and as man’s protector<br />

and saviour in disease and distress on the other. 100<br />

Serpent imagery is common in the myths and folk tales of cultures around the world.<br />

Apep, the great night-serpent, harried the solar god Ra during his journey through the<br />

underworld from the sun’s setting in the west to its rising in the east. 101 The Norsemen believed<br />

that the god Thor would one day die in battle with the world-serpent Jormungand. 102 The Greek<br />

god Apollo acquired his most famous and prestigious oracle, Delphi, by slaying the great Python<br />

who originally inhabited the site. The Babylonian god Marduk was forced to fight the primeval<br />

goddess, Tiamat, who could take the form of a serpent, in order to re-establish order in the<br />

universe. 103 Thus, the serpent, often in monstrous and/or draconic form, played the roles of the<br />

“other” and enemy to both gods and heroes. In a classical context, this seems to be the role of<br />

the serpent in mythic narrative, but the cultic associations of this animal were not solely<br />

negative. In fact, snakes were more often healers or benevolent guardians of hearth and home 104<br />

and represented the procreative power of man and the gods. Rumors of gods taking the form of<br />

serpents in order to impregnate women were associated with Augustus’ mother, Atia, 105 and<br />

Alexander the Great’s mother, Olympias. 106 Thus, a wide array of meanings is attached to the<br />

symbol of the serpent.<br />

I shall begin with hybrids associated with the more fearsome aspects of snakes before<br />

moving to benevolent serpent deities that offered boons to mankind. The most prominent<br />

classical expression of ophidian imagery as a danger to the order of the cosmos can be found in<br />

100<br />

Schouten 1967, 1.<br />

101<br />

Spence 1990, 131.<br />

102<br />

Sturluson 1954, 88.<br />

103<br />

Dalley 2000, 251-3.<br />

104<br />

Bevan (1986, 261) states that the snake served as a guardian for both mortal and divine property. This assertion<br />

is born out by the roles of the deities discussed in this chapter.<br />

105<br />

Suet. Aug. 94. In this passage, Suetonius records the story that Atia conceived Augustus by Apollo disguised in<br />

serpent form.<br />

106<br />

Plut. Vit. Alex. II.9. Plutarch records that Philip found Olympias in bed with a snake after participating in the<br />

rites of Sabazius and that this incident may have alienated Philip from her company. See also Turcan 1999, 291.<br />

28

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