5. The Scientific Creation Myth
This is the fifth article in the series From Particles to Angels. If you are interested in this article you should read the previous articles in the series in order, beginning with the first (On Happiness).
In the article On Happiness we learned that happiness required two things: (1) immortality, and (2) a universe with unlimited potential for fascination. But that article concluded with the statement that the first of these conditions appears not to be met by our universe, at least at present, and perhaps the second condition cannot be met either. Our goal then, in the pursuit of happiness, is to find a way to conclude that we do exist in a universe that meets these two conditions. ("Interstellar" spoiler alert.) Some human race of the far distant future may develop the technical means to satisfy both these conditions, but this can only be of benefit to us if that future race can travel back in time to deliver it to us, as in the movie "Interstellar". Or perhaps there are currently existing aliens with that ability who might take us away with them in their flying saucers. Or perhaps there are unseen dimensions where we can exist in this way.
In the two "Cosmic Conspiracy" articles we considered the religious solution, specifically in the context of why solid evidence for it is lacking. In Cosmic Conspiracy - Part 1 - Deus Absconditus we speculated on some conceivable reasons why, and in Cosmic Conspiracy - Part 2 - Strange Creatures we considered the specific form of the conspiracy, that is, how. In the article on The Origin of Religion we looked at the various means by which human beings have arrived at the religious hypothesis.
Putting aside the science fiction solutions and the "spiritual" solutions for now, let's continue looking at the religious solution. Let us imagine that, while we have no proof of the truth of religion, we accept that there is some evidence suggestive of its reality, but recognise that this evidence is all very dubious. Let's say we also recognise that we cannot get around the fact that the evidence is dubious because there appears to be a cosmic principle in place that prevents it being otherwise. We have some additional support provided by those considerations discussed in the article on the origin of religion, but we are rational people, and it would be nice to have some rational considerations lending support to this appealing wish fulfilment. What other means do we have of convincing ourselves of the reality of the religious hypothesis?
Perhaps there is some way of deducing the reality of religion. Perhaps if we think it through carefully enough, we will be led inescapably to the conclusion that religion must be true, if we are only earnest in our efforts and open to the truth. Perhaps you have already succeeded in this. For my own part, I have given up on such a solution. Philosophically deducing religion seems a dubious and futile exercise, and contrary to the principle of cosmic censorship that maintains agnostic freedom. Which is why I have adopted a "hope" solution instead, the: "It's what I choose to believe" solution. But still, it would be nice to be able to support the hope with some kind of reasoned justification, something to stand up against claims that science has removed the possibility and justification for religion, something to make the belief seem reasonable. Hope must have something to feed on, some meat, and some garments to wear. We do not want to have to insulate ourselves from reality by surrounding ourselves with other religious people so that our faith is not undermined or we are made to feel ridiculous. We will never be able to convince those who do not want to be convinced, but we want to be able to satisfy ourselves that we are not just being foolish, and we want to thoughtfully investigate the possibilities.
This is not a simple ask. If we cannot deduce that it is true, or is probably true, does that only leave establishing that it might be? The simple fact that no-one can prove that it is not true is some solace but not really satisfying. In what follows I hope to establish a way of viewing the world that is suggestive of the religious hypothesis. A number of things is meant by the word "suggestive". One is that the paradigm is internally coherent. Another is that it is a better story than materialism.
To say that the paradigm is internally coherent is to say that if we consider it in its own terms, it makes sense. This is not to say that it is entirely free of contradiction. Because reality is not entirely free of contradiction. But that it is reasonably free of contradiction, or can be made so by careful consideration. To consider the internal coherence of religion we must "suspend disbelief". We posit a "what if?" of religion being true, and then examine the implications of the hypothesis. We use the same method to enjoy a movie or novel. Placing ourselves within the reality being described. Not as a dispassionate observer, but engaged emotionally and invested within it.
The transition from one belief system to another is not a simple matter because belief systems (paradigms of thought) are just that, "systems". They consist of a set of interrelated parts that constitute a whole, in which each of the parts supports the whole and are in turn supported by it. That is why a religious person talking to an atheist are for the most part not really talking to each other. Each is rather drawing on concepts from their own belief system, concepts which either have no place, or have a different meaning in the context of the belief system of the person they are talking to. So that the religious person gives responses in terms of each idea's place within the religious framework, while the atheist gives responses in terms of a sceptical interpretation of each of these elements. So that each element in the other person's worldview, as it is presented, is immediately contradicted and declared invalid, having no proper place within the worldview being considered. The two cannot understand each other or each other's point of view until they attempt to adopt the other's worldview (Weltanschauung), and to assess what the other is saying from within that system. It requires each participant to simultaneously consider two views of the world. Their own, and that of the other person. That is what it is to stand in the other's shoes and to imagine: "What would it be like to believe that?". And to examine from the inside how all the parts of the worldview fit together, as if it were your own. In practice, despite the sheer difficulty of doing this, on the question of religion each participant is disinclined to do so. The religious person is disinclined to do it because they are afraid that if they truly embrace the atheistic hypothesis even as only a "what if?" they may lose their faith. The atheist is in turn afraid of making a fool of themselves. Opening the door to a what if, opens the door to the seduction of the alternative. Each would be mortified to be seen immersed in reading a book written for the other, worried that someone might think it is them.
Changing from one worldview to another, what is sometimes called a "paradigm shift", can be a dramatic event, and can have different causes. Sometimes it is caused by failures in the existing paradigm. Holes and inconsistencies that cause one to question the validity of the existing paradigm and causes one to look elsewhere, outside of the box, for an alternative explanation. There may be an accumulation of evidence that the current paradigm is not the final answer. The transition from Classical Physics to Quantum Physics was such a transition. But reality does not always force a paradigm shift in this way. Sometimes multiple contradictory worldviews can coexist and there is nothing to finally decide the matter. Worldviews also have a certain degree of resilience and can even continue in the face of a certain amount of contradictory evidence, or by simply avoiding looking at such evidence.
Sometimes dramatic events can cause a paradigm shift. Exposure to a supernatural event might transform an atheist into a religionist. A religionist who believes that God guarantees the physical and emotional safety of the righteous and their loved ones might question their worldview if a loved one dies prematurely or brutally. Or a person might seek out an alternative worldview simply because they are dissatisfied by the one they have now. But while the shift from one worldview to another might be inspired by a single event, it consists of much more than the change of a single element in the existing worldview. It means one system must be replaced with another. One system deconstructed and another constructed in its place.
By a "better story" I mean that the materialistic hypothesis is ultimately glib and unsatisfying, and provides less scope for the exercise of reason, and is less profound than the religious hypothesis, because there are "more things in heaven and earth" (Hamlet) offered by the religious hypothesis, and these knit together into a richer picture of reality. The profundity of materialism is a kind of tragic beauty. The preciousness of a life that is fleeting, of tenderness existing in a great and careless universal machine. But while this apocalyptic poetry does have a profundity derived from its emotional impact, it is ultimately unsatisfying. Ultimately glib in its intellectual potential. Ultimately a simple despair in which any intellectual pursuit is no more than examining the patterns on the wall while awaiting the executioner. Acceptable only because there appears to be no legitimate alternative. By better story I also mean that it sits well with the strangeness we find at edge of science, the border where reason can go no further, and where what reason can establish, is far from the ordinary. My assumption is that the better story is more likely to be the true one, that we do not inhabit a glib and purely banal universe. What exactly I mean by all this I hope will become somewhat clearer as we proceed. Seeking the most elegant explanations of phenomena is not inconsistent with this assumption.
The discussion has been becoming increasingly philosophical, consistent with the premise that if there is no external path to religion available, we must find an internal one. If we want to proceed, we must delve deeper in our understanding of matter and mind, science and philosophy. Our goal is to arrive at religion without doing any damage to our intelligence or integrity or good sense along the way. We do not want to pervert ourselves by trying to convince ourselves of the truth of things we know to be untrue, morally wrong, or just plain stupid. I will include the additional criterion that we do not want to deny anything that science has demonstrated to be true. We will not be suggesting that some malicious devil is laying down fake dinosaur bones within layers of bedrock to fool us into thinking the world is more than a few thousand years old, for the purpose of leading us away from God. Our motivation will not be an assumption that such a plot is impossible, because for the gods all things are possible. Instead our reason will be that it denies us the benefits of science and the wondrous reality it reveals to us. Science contributes to the story of reality, enhances it, improves it. We do not want to have to make a choice: "science or religion", but want to encompass both. We want to accept everything that there is in science, everything that is demonstrably part of reality, but we also want to add to that the magical universe offered by religion, so that rather than choosing one or the other subset of reality as all of reality, one box or the other, we have a religion that is a superset containing science within it. So that those without religion exist within a subset of reality, while those with religion have everything the unreligious have, plus more. That is our program. As a result, it is up to religion always to give way and revise itself in the face of scientific advances. Not to come into conflict with science. Fortunately, this should not be a serious problem for religion, because everything really essential to religion exists in the unknown, and there will always be unknowns within which and beyond which it can safely dwell.
What we will do then is make plain the place of science within the religious universe, not by seeking to impose restrictions upon it, but by showing that the boundaries that science imposes on itself will keep it permanently well out of the way of what is essential to religion, despite anyone's assertions otherwise. By clearly laying out the boundaries of science we will hopefully see that it is a small island of light, growing a little each day, in a large and limitless darkness of the unknown, like Newton's ocean of Truth, pregnant with possibility. Religion, like philosophy, is about the unknown. Science is about the known. The two are naturally distinct. Once something becomes known, it ceases to be a subject of religion or philosophy, and becomes a part of science. When science can deduce what is unknown from what is known, it brings something new into its domain. Science is not some exotic human endeavour, it is just a word we use for "what we know right now". Tomorrow we will know a little more. Those who want to believe the little island of light is all there is, that there is nothing beyond it, can do so. Those who want to dive into the unknown, can.
Having defined the limits of science, and indeed logic, we are then free to consider the various possibilities of what may currently lay beyond it. So then, let's first lay out the broad brush strokes of the universe science defines at present.
As the gas collapses it gets hot and then ignites in a nuclear fusion reaction, making a shining star. The pressure of the heat in the star stops it collapsing further under the gravity of its own mass. The furnace melts together the nuclei of hydrogen and helium atoms to form the other elements: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, silicon, iron, lead, plutonium and so on, so that the heavier chemical elements are formed in the heart of these stars. When large stars run out of fusible fuel they collapse and explode in what is called a "supernova" explosion, spraying the elements they have made, out into space.
The remaining hydrogen and helium, and these heavier elements, again collect under their own gravity, this time forming not just stars, but solar systems, with a star of mostly hydrogen and helium at the centre, and planets circling them, some mostly made from the heavier elements. The forming planets are molten, melting together the heavier elements to form rock. On some worlds hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water, first as steam, but as the surface cools, oceans form after a long primeval rain. The particular character of a planet depends upon the particular mix of chemical elements that make it up, its size, its distance from its sun, and the kind of sun it circles.
If the terrestrial surface has the right mix of the right chemicals, the environment and chemical reactions lead to the formation of complicated molecules. These are referred to as "organic molecules". Out of the many many millions of worlds created, only a few will have the right conditions for this. In the case of our planet, the Earth, these organic molecules are mostly complex combinations of carbon with some other elements mixed in. Initially, this process mostly takes place in the oceans. Smaller molecules serve as the building blocks for larger molecules.
Some molecules naturally pair up. Their molecular structure is such that one will "fit" well with another, like a key and a lock. They stick to each other and hold fast. Let's imagine some hypothetical molecules. Let's call them molecule: A, B, C, D, E, F. Let's assume that the oceans are teeming with these molecules. Let's say that their tendencies to combine with each other are as follows.
A combines strongly with D and moderately with B.
B combines strongly with E, and moderately with A and C.
C combines strongly with F and moderately with B.
D combines strongly with A and moderately with E.
E combines strongly with B, and moderately with D and F.
F combines strongly with C and moderately with E.
As these molecules float around in the ocean, they will naturally form the following pairings according to what they pair strongly with.
According to their moderate pairing tendencies, these molecules will naturally form the following even larger molecule.
Now let us imagine there is another kind of molecule, we will call it G, which has the special characteristic that it breaks the following strong bonds: AD, BE, CF, but leaves intact the moderate bonds: AB, DE, BC, EF. G will have the effect of splitting the big molecule down the middle.
Step 1 (G splits A and D):
Step 2 (G splits B and E):
Step 3 (G splits C and F):
Step 4 (G has split the large molecule into two thin strands):
The two resulting molecules: ABC and DEF will tend to pick up other stray molecules: A, B, C, D, E, F floating around in the ocean.
A
B
C
D
E
F
The A part of ABC will tend to pick up D molecules. The B part of ABC will tend to pick up E molecules, and the C part of ABC will tend to pick up F molecules. Similarly, the D part of DEF will tend to pick up A molecules, and so on. So that we now have two copies of the original large molecule.
AD
BE
CF
AD
BE
CF
Then G comes along and splits these two molecules down the middle, and the process repeats. The ABC and DEF molecules serve as templates for the creation of each other. So that in this rather schematic representation (the process in reality is somewhat more complicated) the oceans are now like great factories for the production of complicated organic molecules that in turn form larger congregations. We now have the beginnings of genetics and microscopic life. Over a long period of time, some combinations do better than others. The molecules do not have a desire to live or procreate. They reproduce themselves as a side effect of their chemical structure, and those that have the more durable structure endure the best, and those with the most common raw material are the most common. When larger molecules gather up smaller molecules to make them part of their own bodies, it is as if the smaller molecules are being eaten by the larger. Sometimes the smaller molecules are consumed whole, sometimes they are broken up in the process.
Anyway, eventually single celled organisms form, structures that can truly be called "alive", commencing the fierce competition of survival, and then multi-celled organisms form and the long story of biological evolution follows with plants and animals and then human beings.
So that's the story so far. That is the answer science gives us for the questions: "how did the universe come to be?" and "where did we come from?" Science does not yet have all the pieces, but is doing a very impressive job of solving this great mystery in a vast and disciplined detective enterprise. Some of science has the status of fact, some of convincing theory, some of theory that appear to be the best of the theories currently on offer. The Big Bang is a theory of the last kind.
There are however some things to note about this story of our little island of light in endless night.
What this means though, is that any creation story is not really a creation story, but is really an evolution story, a rearrangement story. Things only come into existence because some pre-existing thing or things change into it by means of some plausible process. The story of the Big Bang says that about 13 billion years ago the universe was hot and dense, but doesn't account for where that hot, dense universe came from. At that time 13 billion years ago, all the energy and all the matter that now exists, already existed in some form. It was just there. All that has happened since is that pre-existing energy and matter has gone through various changes in form to give us our familiar universe of today. So we don't really have an answer to our question "where did it come from?" More recently, a theory called "M Theory", which is an extension of String Theory, has speculated on the pre-Big Bang universe by means of objects called "branes" (derived from the notion of "membranes") whose interactions might lead to an event like the Big Bang. But if that idea catches on it just raises the further question: "where did the branes come from?"
It is sometimes said that using God as a means of answering the question "where did the universe come from?" with "God made it", only raises the further question "where did God come from?", and is therefore unsatisfactory. But this is true of any explanation. The more important problem with the "God made it" explanation is that it lacks detail, and is unsatisfying in that regard. It doesn't really tell us anything. How did God make it? We can always add God to whatever explanation science (that is: investigation) offers. "God decided there would be a Big Bang", "God decided there would be branes", "God decided the nature of atoms and physical laws". This satisfies the religionist without doing any damage to science or its pursuit. Because science cannot provide us with an answer regarding the first cause, or the overall design. It cannot answer or address the problem which is ultimately philosophical and metaphysical.
Antinomies will be playing a significant role in our discussion. An antinomy isn't just a case of not having an answer to our question. They seem to suggest that there is something wrong with the question itself. Antinomies suggest a shortcoming in logic. Not that logic is wrong anywhere within its domain, but that it has a domain out of which it is not able to penetrate.
Imagining an infinite future time is not too hard, you just start at the present and imagine moving forward "without end". Imagining an infinite past is more problematic. Here again we would usually start at the present and work backwards "without end". But time does not go backwards. It goes forward. So we need to start at the beginning and move forward. But an infinite past offers no beginning. If we simply choose a starting point an infinite distance away in infinite time, and then move forward "without end" we will never reach the present. It is impossible by the definition of an infinite time. That's what "without end" means.
In General Relativity with its curved space, it may be possible to conceive of the universe as closed and finite. Travel far enough in any direction and you will return to your starting point. You can imagine how this might happen by imagining any flat plane taken through the whole universe, and then imagining that plane is actually the surface of a sphere in some "higher dimension". The surface of the Earth seems flat, but travel far enough in any direction and one day you will miraculously arrive back at your starting point. We might even imagine something similar happening to the time component of spacetime. So that time curls back on itself to form an actual loop (like the Ouroboros). The universe ends where it began and starts over, over and over again.
However, both of these scenarios (the one for space and the one for time) have similar implications. If we think the universe is closed and finite we immediately ask then: "What is outside it?" We start to wonder about other bubble universes all existing independently and floating around in some higher dimensional "space".
Time looping back on itself so that the initial conditions and final conditions are identical would doom the universe to an endlessly repeating cycle. But in this situation it is not really "time" that is repeating, but only events, and the second cycle of the universe will double the elapsed time, and so on, as seen by an outside observer sitting in the higher dimensional spacetime watching the inhabitants of the loop go round and round. Such a condition might prompt us to wonder how we can break out of the repeating cycle.
We haven't evaded the problem of the antinomies because we have not really resolved the problem of the limits of "space" and "time". We have only described the limits of "some space" and "some time". The hypothesis has no real impact on time itself, and introducing an additional dimension of space, has also introduced a whole new infinity. It doesn't matter how many dimensions of space and time we work with, the problem remains unchanged.
One solution might be to suggest the universe is finite and then simply forbid thinking about what's outside it.
"To ask what happened before the universe began is like asking for a point on the Earth at 91 degrees north latitude; it just is not defined. Instead of talking about the universe being created, and maybe coming to an end, one should say: 'The universe is.'"
("300 Years of Gravitation", by Stephen Hawking, p.651)
The religionist might similarly suggest that though the universe is created, having a beginning (and possibly an end) in time, its Creator is eternal and "just is", so that the questioning should end there. The answers to ultimate questions are hidden in the mystery of God.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) in his book "The Critique of Pure Reason" (1781(1st Ed.)/1787(2nd Ed.)) famously discussed the antinomies, causing a revolution in philosophy. He had the following to say.
"Human reason, in one sphere of its cognition, is called upon to consider questions, which it cannot decline, as they are presented by its own nature, but which it cannot answer, as they transcend every faculty of the mind."
Kant concludes however that reason "falls into this difficulty without any fault of its own" (ibid), but rather due to a failure to determine the "rules and limits of its use" (ibid). He then points out that reason has the virtue of being able to do this for itself.
"For pure speculative reason has this peculiarity, that, in choosing the various objects of thought, it is able to define the limits of its own faculties ...."
Kant sought to extend the techniques of reason to resolve these difficulties, but there is not general agreement that he succeeded in doing so. His criticisms of reason however had far reaching consequences. It is sometimes suggested that "everything must have a rational explanation", but philosophy shows that there is no rational basis for this declaration of faith. More recently the philosopher/logician/mathematician Kurt Godel (1906 - 1978) demonstrated what have become known as "Godel's incompleteness theorems". They say in essence that no formal logical proof can entirely free itself of baseless assumptions. You always have to start out with some assumptions and work from there, without being able to circle back and prove those assumptions later in their turn. The assumptions chosen will typically seem reasonable. We just have no way to demonstrate that they are true. Logic is not a completely self-contained (closed) system but includes unavoidable "loose ends" leading we know not where. We will encounter other antinomies as we proceed.
You may be thinking that infinite space and time seem like reasonable hypotheses, and so there is no antinomy. Our discussion has found fault primarily with the finite hypotheses. Kant's criticisms of the infinite hypotheses are in any case rather technical and debatable. But consider that these solutions also render meaningless the question of where the universe came from, or any account that attempts to use causation as explanatory of how or why the universe is. So how do we apply logic to it? And so, how can we say that such a question is within logic's domain?
An eternally existing universe and infinite space do not answer our questions of how or why things came to be. In the absence of a first cause or an external cause, the question becomes one of accounting for the internal design. Not in a causal sense, since it just is what it is. Rather, we choose, more or less arbitrarily, some quality we think the universe should have and use that as our organising principle, in place of causation. For instance we might decide, in place of causation, to use elegance and simplicity as the guide for deciding what is. The fundamental physical quantities of the universe like the force of gravity are what they are because they all fit together in an elegant way. So that the measure of elegance takes the place of cause. Why does a universe exist in which intelligent life arises to experience joy and love, pain and remorse? Because it is somehow "better" than the alternative. So that our universe is designed according to some value judgment. It is not enough to say that it is "fitter", because the very structure of the universe has already decided from the beginning what will be fitter. It might just as easily have decided that something altogether different was fitter. So why did the universe "choose" this state of being in particular, for itself and everything in it?
Alternatively we can make a flat statement that why the universe is the way it is simply cannot be accounted for. We can describe how it all fits together into a whole, or as much of the whole as we are aware of. We may assert that the essence of the universe is randomness, and it is only by chance that some elements appear to have been designed according to some criterion of good.
Really, is a first or outside cause the kind of explanation we are seeking anyway, when we ask for ultimate answers to questions of "how?" or "why?" No such answer can be satisfactory. The answer might as well be "42". In any theistic explanation we must in any case include "Why is God the way He is?" An infinite universe makes more sense than a finite one. Eternity makes more sense than a beginning or end of time. But how do we think about eternity and infinity? When we ask "how?" or "why?" in this context we are more concerned with our place within the scheme of things. How do you and I and our lives fit into this universe? If causal explanation does not apply. What kind of explanation does apply? Are we merely fending for ourselves in a random and indifferent universe? Or is there a greater scheme to the universe that we are an integral part of, with a role to play?
For convenience, in what follows, I will be using the term "antinomy" rather loosely as a label for questions that are in principle unanswerable, without necessarily abiding by Kant's definition, because this is the name he gave to the classic examples of such questions.
This article is called "The Scientific Creation Myth", but we have now actually completed that part of the article. The rest of the article will deal instead with world mythology and its reaction to the antinomy resulting from any purely rational explanation of the universe.
How did we get here? Why are we here? How did this universe we inhabit come to be and why is it the way it is? These are not new questions. Human beings have been asking them since the stone age, and all of our science has had no impact on these questions. These are not questions of physics, chemistry or biology. The technical details offered by science do not help us. And we do not only inhabit a universe of matter. We also inhabit a universe of feeling, perception and consciousness. We have become distracted by the detail of our physical explanations. Dispassionate explanation. Stone Age man included perception and feeling in the universe he interrogated for its meaning and intent. The universe he sought to call to account. Why did the universe put him here in the midst of all this beauty and terror? His explanations were drawn from the environment around him. A carnivorous world of monsters and combat.
Recent Christian theology and science offer us a reality composed of neat categories of good and evil. A worldview that was originally a revelation, but which has developed into a product of how insulated we have become from nature. A sanitised reality of sipping coffee, wiping down benchtops with disposable paper towels, and hoping not to say anything foolish in public. While God is in His heaven with a finely shampooed beard and a fresh pressed linen gown, all aglow in purity, and ready to advise us on the details of a moral life. The deaths of the animals we eat are hidden from us in great factories of execution. Anyone who dies in public is whisked away, or if that is not possible a screen is put up around them while their parts and fluids are collected. We are more afraid of terrorists and serial killers than the much more likely and much more terrible car crash or illness.
For the primitive, reality was a monster he must learn to live alongside. It was a violent contest for existence in a world that was out to get you. This is the world in which he asked his metaphysical questions of meaning and his moral questions of good. In disease, pain, decay, adrenalin, dirt, sweat and blood. It was his god who put him there, and who was with him in it, more or less. Some primitives were stupid, and some were smart, each having brains genetically like our own. The smart ones sought to lead the rest as best they could. To provide plausible meaning amongst all that chaos. Those same concerns are buried deep within us, beneath the veneer of civilization that allows us to forget where we are.
We are not allowed to question the goodness of God. Since we are told: "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5) To do so is to question faith itself. So for some the Devil and Eve's sin become the explain-all of everything wrong with the universe.
"I dreamt about the river last night. Only it wasn't a river. It was a big snake. I couldn't find the head or the tail of it. It had me wrapped up so tight... I just couldn't breathe."
We might think of the material creation as a river of causation, the origin (or head) of which is hidden in an antinomy, and the destination (or tail) of which is hidden in an antinomy. Not only physically inaccessible, but conceptually inaccessible to the material mind. We spend our physical lives within the body of this stream as if consumed by it.
"And then the one named Agha ['the evil one'] appeared on the scene, a great demon who could not tolerate the sight of their happy pastimes.... Thus having decided he assumed the wondrous form of a very, very large python that extended for miles. Therewith he occupied, as high as a mountain and with a mouth spread wide open like a mountain cave, that moment most wickedly the road in order to swallow the picnickers. Keeping his mouth wide open, his lower lip rested on the earth and his upper lip touched the sky. His teeth were like mountain peaks, the inside was pitch dark, his tongue resembled a broad road, his breath was like a warm wind and his fiery look was like a fire.... Meanwhile, all the boys and their calves had entered the belly of the demon, but they were not devoured.... They who had no one but Him now helplessly had moved away from His control to burn as straws in the fire of the belly of Aghâsura, death personified.... Gathering His thoughts the Lord, the Unlimited Seer, knew what to do and entered the mouth.... Krishna, the Supreme Lord who is never vanquished, immediately expanded Himself within the throat of the demon who tried to crush the boys and the calves in his belly.... After all life air had left the body and Krishna saw that the boys and calves lay dead, He, Mukunda, the Supreme Lord, brought them back to life whereupon He reappeared from the mouth in their company. From the body a most wonderful bright light issued that all by itself illumined the ten directions."
It is a commonplace in mysticism that outside of this stream exists eternity. Not perhaps an eternity in the sense of an infinity of time, but rather something outside of time, a state that somehow transcends time. The loose-ends of the chain of cause and effect imbue the material world with an incompleteness which therefore contrasts with notions of completeness, wholeness and unity. The other antinomies have similar implications, particularly those leading to infinite recessions. In fact, any aspect of the material world that is unexplainable in principle suggests something outside of it that can resolve the paradoxes and provide a unified explanation. While science answers many questions, these are not the questions religion is preoccupied with. The title of this article is not intended to suggest that the scientific creation story is untrue or dubious or of a merely relative validity. It is only intended to suggest that it is one of a collection of speculative narratives created by the human race to explain the universe. While it is more detailed and more carefully worked out than many of its mythological cousins, its focus is also somewhat different. In this sense it can be seen as complementary to, rather than a replacement for the others. When human beings ask the question: "Why?", it is not always a purely mechanical explanation they are seeking.
The Ouroboros is an ancient mystical symbol showing a serpent eating its own tail. While often trivially interpreted as representing a "cycle", it can be interpreted instead as representing transcendence of linear progress. The beginning and the end and everything in between are encompassed in a single state. In the Judeo-Christian bible, God describes Himself in the following terms.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
Alpha (Α) and Omega (Ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet respectively. So the river of causation finds its unity in Him. The following image shows what is known as the "Orphic Egg". Orphism was an ancient Greek religion. The egg is a frequent symbol of "wholeness" and completeness, as exemplified by the egg's self-contained self-sufficiency, and therefore also representing the universe as whole. The circle or oval might be similarly used as symbols of wholeness. We are within the universe, but outside of the state of wholeness. Outside of the universe that transcends this universe. So that the egg represents the beyond. The serpent surrounds or circumnavigates the universe. Covering it from end to end. From our point of view the serpent stands between us and that universe. As one must pass the flashing sword to reach the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24), so one must pass the sting of the serpent to reach the egg and unity.
"I was come from abroad in order to take the pearl, and arouse the serpent against me."
("The Hymn of the Pearl", a Gnostic hymn from the apocryphal Acts of Thomas)
The association of the serpent and the mystical tree also extend beyond the Judeo-Christian Bible. In Greek mythology, a tree bearing golden apples in Hera's orchard in the west was guarded by a serpent.
"And Ceto [a primordial sea goddess] was joined in love to Phorcys [a primordial sea god] and bare her youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. This is the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys."
("The Theogony" of Hesiod, ll.333-336 (8th - 7th century BC))
In Norse mythology, the gods retained their youth by consuming magic apples from a special tree. The apples were supplied by the goddess Idunn (Iðunn or Ydun), wife of Bragi, the god of poetry ("The Prose Edda", by Snorri Sturlson, Gylfaginning, XXVI, c.1200 AD). By granting eternal youth, the tree conferred immortality, and was therefore an instance of the "tree of life". In Irish mythology "a silver branch of the sacred apple-tree" was required "to enter the Otherworld before the appointed hour".
In Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, the tree of life appears in the form of the wish-granting tree Parijata, also called Kalpavriksha (Kalpa tree) or Kalpataru.
"Parijata, the great wish-granting tree, which in Hindu mythology surfaced from the primeval waters during the churning of the cosmic ocean, is said to blossom at the summit of Mt Meru in the centremost of Indra's five paradise gardens. Each of these gardens possesses its own central wish-granting tree, which are known as harichandana, kalpa, parijata, mandara, and santana. It is on account of the wish-granting tree that the asuras wage a perpetual war with the devas or gods, as the heavenly gods freely partake of its divine flowers and fruit, whilst the jealous demigods dwell in comparative poverty at the lower level of its trunk and roots.... It is described as having golden roots, a silver trunk, lapis lazuli branches, coral leaves, pearl flowers, gemstone buds, and diamond fruit.... A small wish-granting tree may also be depicted crowning the long-life vase held by longevity deities, such as Amitayus and Ushnishavijaya. The goddess Shramana-devi holds a jeweled branch of this tree in her left hand."
("The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols", by Robert Beer, p. 193)
"The Parijata Tree is the Hindu tree of the universe. It is owned by Indrani, the wife of Indra, and is planted in Swarge, the celestial dwelling place on Indrani and Indra.... Swarga is located between heaven and earth on Mount Meru. If the elderly gaze upon the magic wishing tree, they are reinvigorated. The Parijata Tree is said to yield all objects of desire."
("Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities", by Charles Russell Coulter and Patricia Turner, p. 373)
Ladon was the serpent-like dragon that twisted around the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides (Hera's orchard in the west) and guarded the golden apples. He was overcome by Heracles. In Norse mythology the serpent-dragon Níðhöggr gnaws at a root of the world tree Yggdrasil.
The snake dwelling in the tree appears in a more ancient Babylonian myth of the goddess Inana (Inanna).
"At that time, there was a single tree, a single halub [Huluppu] tree, a single tree, growing on the bank of the pure Euphrates, being watered by the Euphrates. The force of the south wind uprooted it and stripped its branches, and the Euphrates picked it up and carried it away. A woman [Inana], respectful of An's words, was walking along; a woman, respectful of Enlil's words, was walking along, and took the tree and brought it into Unug [Uruk], into Inana's luxuriant garden.
"The woman planted the tree with her feet, but not with her hands. The woman watered it using her feet but not her hands. She said: 'When will this be a luxuriant chair on which I can take a seat?' She said: 'When this will be a luxuriant bed on which I can lie down?' Five years, ten years went by, the tree grew massive; its bark, however, did not split. At its roots, a snake immune to incantations made itself a nest. In its branches, the Anzud [Anzu] bird settled its young. In its trunk, the phantom maid [Lilitu (Lilith)] built herself a dwelling, the maid who laughs with a joyful heart. But holy Inana cried!"
("Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the nether world" (Old Babylonian Period (2000-1600 BC)))
Lilitu is a female Mesopotamian demon often compared to the Hebrew Lilith, who we will meet again in the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 1. Lilith sometimes appears as a female form of the serpent in the tree in the Garden of Eden.
In Roman religion, the serpent appears guarding or within the mysterious "cista mystica" (secret casket) of Isis, a cylindrical wicker basket containing a vase containing models of the remains of Osiris.
"[T]here is a story in the 'Táin Bó Fraich' of an enormous serpent which guards a fort containing treasure.... Another treasure-guarding snake is recorded in Pembrokeshire by Giraldus Cambrensis: he describes a well containing a precious torc or neckring which is protected by a snake who bites potential thieves. Interestingly, this story has its counterpart in Norse myth, where supernatural snakes protect treasure: one such animal was Fafnir, a serpent killed by Sigurd the Volsung in order to get at the guarded treasure."
("Animals in Celtic Life and Myth" by Miranda Green, p.182)
A torc (neck ring) is itself reminiscent of an ouroboros.
In Norse mythology, the Ouroboros takes the form of the World Serpent (Jormungandr) encircling Midgard (the world inhabited by humans) and Yggdrasil (the world tree), and bears some similarity to the biblical "Leviathan" (Job 41, Psalm 74:14, Isaiah 27:1, Revelation 13, The Book of Enoch (60:7)), the Babylonian "Tiamat", the Canaanite "Lotan" or "Tannin" ("אֶת-הַתַּנִּינִם" usually translated as "great creatures of the sea" or "great whales" in Genesis 1:21), the Hittite Hedammu, Hurrian Apse, the Egyptian "Apep" (or "Apophis"), Hindu "Shesha" (or "Sesa" ("the serpent Sesa ... who upholds the golden egg of the universe" ("The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India", by David Gordon White, p.215), "the female kundalini, who is explicitly identified with the serpent at the base of the cosmic egg, Sesa or, alternatively, Ananta, 'the endless one'" (ibid p.218), "In one myth Vishnu is sleeping on the primal serpent Ananata (Vasuki, Sesa) in the primal ocean of milk--beyond time and out of space" ("Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia - Volume 1", by David Adams Leeming, p.385))), also the "Naga Buddha" (Mucalinda protecting the Buddha), "Typhon" and "Python" of the Greeks, the "Rainbow Serpent" of Aboriginal Australia, and "Bakunawa" of the Philippines. In recent culture, the sacred tree appears at the end of the Alex Proyas movie "Knowing" (2009), and as symbol for universe and unity in the Darren Aronofsky movie "The Fountain" (2006). You can see Apophis in the movie "Gods of Egypt" (2016).
"[Odin] cast the serpent into the deep sea, where he lies about all the land; and this serpent grew so greatly that he lies in the midst of the ocean encompassing all the land, and bites upon his own tail."
("The Prose Edda", by Snorri Sturlson (c. 1200 AD), Gylfaginning, XXXIV)
The ancient Greeks imagined the ocean as a great circular river, personified as the god Oceanus, encircling all the land of the flat earth. So this circular river shades into the great Ouroboros sea-serpent.
A serpent or line represents linear progress, cause and effect. A serpent forming a ring represents eternity and transcendence. On the Gundestrup Cauldron "Cernunnos" holds the ring in one hand and a serpent in the other, but the Mesopotamian gods frequently held both the rod and ring in one hand, symbolising mastery over both heaven and Earth.
"A conjoined rod and ring appeared for millennia on cylinder seals, tablets, and stelae of ancient Mesopotamia. This unit evolved from a solitary depiction on a ca. 3000 b.c.e. cylinder seal to an emblem displayed by deities throughout the early first millennium b.c.e. Gods from the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2100 b.c.e.) held the rod and ring, as did deities of Old Babylon (ca. 1800 b.c.e.) and Neo-Assyria until about 700 b.c.e. Despite a long history and diverse applications throughout a large geographical region, the exact nature of the rod and ring remains a mystery. What did this motif mean to the ancients who sculpted it from stone? This article will review possible meanings presented by scholars and propose a new theory: the rod and ring, separate objects with distinct symbolisms, combine to represent life in its temporal and eternal aspects."
("A New Look at the Mesopotamian Rod and Ring: Emblems of Time and Eternity"
The thoughtful primitive recognised that one thing was caused by another, which immediately raises the question and puzzle of a first cause, and a cause of this. A thoughtful child can arrive at the same questions. The will of God as uncaused cause was the natural solution. The rod and ring parallels the Egyptian shen ring hieroglyph 𓍶 (Unicode character U+13376). We might compare the shen ring in turn with the Greek character omega Ω (Unicode character U+03A9).
The Hindu god Shiva's mastery over the great serpent extends as far as wearing Vasuki, king of serpents (nagaraja), as an ornament around his neck. We shall encounter Vasuki in the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 2, in the context of the samudra manthana ("churning of the ocean") to produce the nectar of immortality (Amrita, similar to the Greek ambrosia).
Varuna is one of the oldest of the Hindu gods. While originally a "king of the earth and sky", later he became the Hindu god of oceans ("Handbook of Hindu Mythology", by George Mason Williams). His ancient form is thought to be related to the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda. Varuna had a positive relationship with the water monster Makara. He is frequently represented as riding on Makara's back. Varuna's consort was Varuni, goddess of wine. As goddess of wine, Varuni has parallels with the Greek Dionysus. While Varuna was concerned with the enforcement of Ṛta (justice) and Satya (truth). Makara appears in a variety of forms, sometimes as a crocodile, sometimes as part fish, part mammal, sometimes with an elephant's trunk, the forepaws of a lion, or the tail of a peacock. Representations of Makara are found widely throughout Asia. The goddess Ganga (Ganges river) is also sometimes represented as riding on Makara. (See for instance the goddess Ganga rides on her makara vahana at the British Museum. For some other portrayals see Ganga by Shrestha Ramprakash (Nepal), or Ganga Maa descending on earth, or this, or this, or The Descent of Goddess Ganga (at Exotic India), or Ganga-Mayi Ki Jai by Yogeshvara.)
Like the Greek Oceanus, the ancient Hindus envisaged the ocean as comprising a great circle around all the land of a flat Earth. We therefore encounter ouroboros-like Makara in the form of jewellery. Instead of the head eating the tail, there is often a head at each end (the beginning and the end), facing each other. See for instance the following examples.
Bracelet with Makara Head Terminals, 19th century, Jaipur India, the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. Makara bracelets at the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac: bracelet 350416 (from Benares (Varanasi) India), bracelet 374670 (from Benares (Varanasi) India), bracelet 614139 (from Taiwan), bracelet 656393 (from Taiwan).
To see more examples, do an image search on "makara bracelet", or buy one on eBay. They are still quite popular. Torcs also sometimes had this motif of animal heads facing each other at each end, so that there is a "sameness" at the beginning and end, each a mirror image of the other.
While jewellery may be purely decorative, there is reason to think these motifs held meaning for the ancients.
"Immediately in the fair way of the course of AFU-RA is a group of eight gods, called FAIU-NETERU, who bear on their shoulders a long pole-like object, each end of which terminates in a bull's head. This object is, intended to represent the long tunnel in the earth, each end of which was guarded by a bull, through which, according to one tradition, the night-Sun passed on his journey from the place of sunset to the place of sunrise. At intervals on the tunnel are seated seven gods called NETERU-AMIU, i.e., the "gods who are within," and they are intended to represent the guardians of the seven portions into which the tunnel was divided; the name given to the tunnel is "UAATA," i.e., "Boat of the Earth," but there is no doubt that it originally represented a kind of Tuat [underworld] which was complete in itself, as the bulls' heads, one at each end of it, prove."
("The Egyptian Heaven and Hell", by E. A. Wallis Budge, Volume III, 1906, pp. 125-126)
At this time, heaven and hell were both conceived to exist under the Earth, so that the underworld was also the afterlife in general. The Sun passed through this same underworld each night, entering at one end and emerging from the other, because the Earth was conceived to be flat. Swallowed at one end in the evening after sinking into the sea, to be regurgitated at the other the following morning before rising again out of the sea.
The god Siva wears "a makara-kundala [Makara earring] in his right ear and a patra-kundala [Patra earring] in his left" (Catalogue of the South Indian Hindu Metal Images in the Madras Government Museum). Krishna and some other Hindu gods may also wear Makara earrings.
As a circle, the disk of the sun can also stand as a symbol of wholeness, and thus of the universe as a whole. The sun disk and the Uraeus (a cobra with its head raised) were a common part of the symbolic headdress of the Egyptian gods, sometimes as in the case of the goddess Hathor, placed between a pair of cow horns. A few images such as the one below of the sun god Ra (Ré), make it clear that the serpent encircles the sun disk.
The serpent represents variously: evil, chaos and time, power, sexuality, creation and death. It is the coils of sensuality and passion that grip the human condition. It has been used to embody the mixed emotions and forces of existence. Because it sheds its skin it is a symbol of renewal, and thus of resurrection, like the sun itself. The giant serpent is often represented as a sea serpent, reflective of its kinship with water, and so is reminiscent of another famous sea monster, Jonah's "huge fish", and possibly another parable of life in the belly of the material creation, out of the sight of heaven. A darkness akin to Plato's allegory of the cave ("The Republic", Book VII). The material existence is thus represented as a kind of journey through the underworld.
"Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: 'In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, "I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple." ...'"
The fish later "vomited Jonah onto dry land" (Jonah 2:10). The story of Jonah and the whale also appears in the Qur'an (37:139-145). The Hindu god Vishnu when in the form of the fish Matsya was often represented as if he was being swallowed by the fish. Matsya saves Manu (the Hindu Adam) from the deluge, instructing him beforehand to build a boat (so that Manu is also the Hindu Noah).
In the study of mythology, parallels are drawn between the story of Jonah and the "whale" and similar events involving gods in other religions. For instance, the Hindu god Indra (god of lightning, thunder and storms) is swallowed by Vritra, a serpent or dragon, but the other gods force Vritra to vomit him up. Indra eventually succeeds in killing Vritra ("first-born of the dragons").
The Roman god Saturn (Greek Cronus) had several children by Ops (Greek Rhea): Vesta (Greek Hestia), Ceres (Greek Demeter), Juno (Greek Hera), Pluto (Hades) and Neptune (Greek Poseidon), but devoured each as soon as they were born. Pregnant again, Rhea sought to protect her next son Jupiter (Greek Zeus) from the same fate, and hid him from Saturn. When Zeus (god of lighting, thunder and storms) grew to maturity he forced Saturn to disgorge his siblings, and then he imprisoned Saturn and the other Titans in the underworld (Tartarus). (See "The Theogony", by Hesiod (c. 750 - 650 BC), ll. 453-735.)
The ancient Greek story of Jason and the Argonauts (crew of the Argo) told of the quest to obtain the "golden fleece", fleece of the magical, flying ram: Crius Chrysomallus (literally: "golden-fleeced ram" (also called Aries Chrysomallus)). The ram had been a gift to the cloud nymph Nephele from the god Hermes (see Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2nd Century AD). It had been born from the union of Poseidon (Roman Neptune, god of the sea and water) and Theophane (human daughter of Bisaltes, who was the semi-divine son of the gods Helios (sun god) and Gaia (earth goddess)). Poseidon had turned himself into ram, and Theophane into a ewe at the time. The fleece of the ram had been turned to gold by Hermes (see Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3rd Century BC). After rescuing Nephele's children (Phrixos (Phrixus) and Helle) from being sacrificed and carrying them to Colchis (modern Georgia), where the ram was sacrificed (on the instruction of Hermes (see Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3rd Century BC)), its fleece hung in the branches of an oak tree, in a grove sacred to the god Ares (Roman Mars, god of war), where it was guarded by the dragon ("offspring of Gaia" (see Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3rd Century BC)). The ram itself became the constellation Aries (the ram).
The story of exactly how Jason overcame the dragon varies somewhat. According to Pythian Pindar (5th Century BC), Jason "slew that drakon". According to Apollonius Rhodius (Argonautica, 3rd Century BC) Jason was assisted by Medea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis who made a potion "putting the guardian snake to sleep". We do not have a version of the story in which Jason is swallowed and then regurgitated by the serpent. We only have the 5th Century BC Douris cup indicating that there was such a variation.
The Golden Fleece is a convoluted story of intrigue. Medea fell in love with Jason because Hera (Roman Juno, goddess of women and marriage and wife of Zeus) in conspiracy with Athena (Roman Minerva, goddess of wisdom) had convinced Aphrodite (Roman Venus, goddess of love) to convince her son Eros (Roman Cupid, god of desire) to make it so. King Pelias (son of Tyro (a human princess) and the god Poseidon) had usurped the throne of Iolcus and Jason was the rightful heir. Jason had been hidden by his mother Alcimede when young, sent away to be raised by the centaur Chiron, so that Pelias would not murder him. Pelias later sent Jason on the quest to obtain the golden fleece expecting it to be a suicide mission. Hera wanted Jason's mission to be a success to punish Pelias. In the end, Pelias was murdered by his own daughters. The details of the behind the scenes activity in the story are intriguing because Hermes and Eros have some prominence in what follows. The anger of disenfranchised goddesses also has a place.
The Aztecs of Central America had their serpent god Quetzalcoatl ("feathered serpent"), god of the wind; called Kukulkan or Ququmatz by the Maya.
The Mayan "Vision Serpent" served as a gateway to the spirit world, conjured as an apparition through a ritual. Ancestors or deities could emerge from the mouth of the serpent. Instead of interpreting the serpent as an intermediary, we might consider it to be the underworld itself, sometimes allowing one of its inhabitants to communicate briefly with the outside world. Like the Agathos Daimon serpent, the Aztec vision serpent typically has a beard.
The theme of regurgitation reappears vividly in the case of the sea monster Makara. Since life comes from water, and the ancient view was that all existence emerged from out of a primordial watery chaos, Makara as representative of the ocean, could spew forth living things and other objects and substances from his mouth.
A carved Makara head might be used for a fountain so that water issues from his mouth. Which may go some way toward explaining the origin of the peculiar fashion for fountains to have carved figures in them spewing water from their mouth.
A Makara head might be used as a decorative handle to some implement, so that the implement itself emerges from its mouth.
Makara is the tenth sign in the Indian zodiac. Capricorn is the equivalent in the Western zodiac. Like Makara, Capricorn is depicted as part fish and part mammal, but the animal part is consistently a goat. The goatfish symbol is very ancient. It represented the Mesopotamian god of underground water (i.e., the water that comes from freshwater springs) Enki/Ea.
The dragon and serpent are more or less interchangeable. In the book of Revelation we have the following.
"The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born."
(Revelation 12:4)
When the infant Zeus was being hidden from being consumed by Saturn, "Amalthea, the child's nurse, hung him in a cradle from a tree". Because Saturn ruled over sky, earth and sea, this was "so that he could be found neither in heaven nor on earth nor in the sea." (Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 139, 2nd Century AD). So the woman might try this tactic to conceal her child from the dragon, Satan. In the book of Revelation, the "enormous red dragon" appeared in heaven (Revelation 12:3), followed by the "beast coming out of the sea" (Revelation 13:1), followed by the "beast coming out of the earth" (Revelation 13:11). It was the dragon from out of heaven that had attempted to consume the child. There are more parallels in the description of protecting the unborn storm god Zeus from the consuming Saturn, and protecting the unborn child in Revelation from the consuming dragon.
"So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land of Crete, when she was ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her children. Him did vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete to nourish and to bring up." ("The Theogony", by Hesiod (c. 750 - 650 BC))
"The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.... the earth helped the woman" (Revelation 12:14-16 (c. 81 - 96 AD))
Eventually an angel "seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss...." (Revelation 20:2-3) So that Satan's fate parallels that of Saturn in Tartarus. If you look at the logo for Alfa Romeo, the automobile manufacturer, you will see a red cross on the left, and a serpent (wearing a crown) swallowing a person on the right. This image is taken from the coat of arms of the Visconti family who ruled Milan (where Alfa Romeo was founded) during the Middle Ages. In this context the serpent is referred to as the "biscione". The same emblem appears on the coat of arms of the Polish city Sanok and the seal of the Belarus town of Pruzhany. To be consumed by the serpent here appears to mean to go down into hell or death.
During a lunar eclipse, the following song was sung by Hiligaynon children of the Philippines.
"Our moon long ago, long ago was eaten by the bakunawa please have pity, return it, return it the crown of our king."
(From "Bakunawa" by the World Heritage Encyclopedia)
In Norse mythology during the apocalyptic end of the universe called "Ragnarok", the monstrous wolf Fenris swallows Odin, killing him, while Fenris' sons swallow the sun and moon. When the Hindu monkey god Hanuman attempts to swallow the sun, Indra strikes him with a thunderbolt to prevent it. In Hittite mythology, Illuyanka (a serpentine dragon) is vanquished by the weather-god Tarhunt, closely associated with the Hurrian god Teshub (god of sky and storm) who wields a thunderbolt. In the Mesopotamian creation epic called the "Enuma Elish" (the name means "when on high" which is the first few words of the text), the Babylonian storm-god Marduk conquers the dragon Tiamat (primordial goddess of the sea).
"Then advanced Tiamat and Marduk, the counselor of the gods; to the fight they came on, to the battle they drew nigh. The lord spread out his net and caught her, and the evil wind that was behind him he let loose in her face. As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent, he drove in the evil wind, while as yet she had not shut her lips. The terrible winds filled her belly, and her courage was taken from her, and her mouth she opened wide. He seized the spear and burst her belly, he severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart. He overcame her and cut off her life; He cast down her body and stood upon it.... He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; one half of her he stablished as a covering for heaven. He fixed a bolt, he stationed a watchman, and bade them not to let her waters come forth. He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions thereof, and over against the deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud (god of waters)."
The Hebrew prophets knew Tiamat as Rahab, and so we have Yahweh victorious: "By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent." (Job 26:12-13). The Canaanite god was "Baal" (Bel), a storm-god who likewise had a victory over the many-headed sea-dragon Lotan.
The three Japanese deities: Susanoo (the storm god who ruled the "Sea-Plain"), Amaterasu (the Sun goddess who ruled the "Plain-of-High-Heaven") and Tsukuyomi (the Moon god who ruled the dominion of "Night") were "born" from the god Izanagi. There was antagonism between Amaterasu and her brother Susanoo. When he came to visit her she said: "The reason of the ascent hither of His Augustness my elder brother is surely no good intent. It is only that he wishes to wrest my land from me" and promptly armed herself with bow and arrows. Her brother reassured her saying: "I have no evil intent", but then he "broke down the divisions of the rice-fields laid out by [Amaterasu], filled up the ditches, and moreover strewed excrements in the palace". Amaterasu reasons: "as to his breaking down the divisions of the rice-fields and filling up the ditches, it must be because he grudges the land [they occupy]". After which Susanoo "broke a hole in the top of the weaving hall, and through it let fall a heavenly piebald horse which he had flayed".
Later, after slaying the dragon Yamata no Orochi "at the head-waters of the River Hi", Susanoo finds a sword inside its body. "So he took this great sword, and, thinking it a strange thing, he respectfully informed [Amaterasu]. This is the Herb-Quelling Great Sword. So thereupon [Susanoo] sought in the land of Idzumo for a place where he might build a palace. Then he arrived at a place [called] Suga, and said: 'On coming to this place my august heart is pure,'--and in that place he built a palace to dwell in." ("KO-JI-KI : Records of Ancient Matters", translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan - Supplement to Volume X, pp.52-75)
Cadmus was the founder and first king of Thebes. Near the site of Thebes was the Ismenian spring sacred to Ares (Roman Mars, god of war), guarded by a giant serpent, sometimes described as Ares' child. Cadmus killed the serpent, and the removed teeth of the serpent reappear in the story of the golden fleece where they are given to Jason. Ares punished Cadmus for killing his serpent by turning both Cadmus and his wife Harmonia (Roman Concordia, goddess of harmony and daughter of Aphrodite (Roman Venus) and Ares) into serpents themselves. Cadmus and Harmonia were the grandparents of Dionysus (Roman Bacchus, god of wine) by their daughter Semele.
The transformation of Cadmus and Harmonia into serpents is described in the Roman poet Ovid's "Metamorphoses".
"Then shriek'd Harmonia, Stay, my Cadmus, stay, glide not in such a monstrous shape away! Destruction, like impetuous waves, rouls on. Where are thy feet, thy legs, thy shoulders gone? Chang'd is thy visage, chang'd is all thy frame; Cadmus is only Cadmus now in name. Ye Gods, my Cadmus to himself restore, or me like him transform; I ask no more. The husband-serpent show'd he still had thought, with wonted fondness an embrace he sought; play'd 'round her neck in many a harmless twist, and lick'd that bosom, which, a man, he kist. The lookers-on (for lookers-on there were) shock'd at the sight, half-dy'd away with fear. The transformation was again renew'd, and, like the husband, chang'd the wife they view'd. Both, serpents now, with fold involv'd in fold, to the next covert amicably roul'd. There curl'd they lie, or wave along the green, Fearless see men, by men are fearless seen, still mild, and conscious what they once have been."
("Metamorphoses", by Ovid (8 AD))
When the Greek thunder-god Zeus (who wielded a thunderbolt) rose to power by overthrowing the previous generation of gods, the Earth goddess Gaia (his grandmother) became angry with him. She mated with Tartarus (the deep abyss) and gave birth to Typhon, a monstrous serpent who battled with, but was ultimately vanquished by Zeus. ("The Theogony" by Hesiod, 8th - 7th century BC)
"Leto (Latona) was the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe. She was gifted with wonderful beauty, and was tenderly loved by Zeus, but her lot was far from being a happy one, for Hera, being extremely jealous of her, persecuted her with inveterate cruelty, and sent the dreadful serpent Python to terrify and torment her wherever she went."
("A Hand-Book of Mythology: the Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome"
Heracles (Herakles "pride of Hera", Roman Hercules) was the son of Zeus and the human woman Alcmene, who was the granddaughter of Perseus and Andromeda. Heracles was famously given "Twelve Labours" to perform by Eurystheus king of Tiryns, twelve difficult tasks, of which number two was to slay the Lernaean Hydra. The Hydra was a monster that lived in the Lerna lake. It was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna (another monster, half-woman and half-snake). Other offspring of Echidna include the Sphinx and Cerberus the multiheaded dog that guards the gates of Hades.
Near to Lerna is the place "they say that Pluto [Hades], after carrying off, according to the story, Core [Kore ("the maiden"), Persephone], the daughter of Demeter [Roman Ceres], descended here to his fabled kingdom underground." Also nearby is "the Spring of Amphiaraus and the Alcyonian Lake, through which the Argives say Dionysus went down to Hell to bring up Semele". Its was said there is "no limit to the depth of the Alcyonian Lake". (Pausanias, Book 2, 2nd Century AD.)
After completing the twelve labours Hercules joined the Argonauts in the search for the Golden Fleece. It was while on this voyage that he killed the Trojan Cetus (sea-monster).
"Poseidon, as the story runs, became angry with Laomedon the king of Troy in connection with the building of its walls, according to the mythical story, and sent forth a Ketos (Cetus, Sea-Monster) to ravage the land. By this monster those who made their living by the seashore and the farmers who tilled the land contiguous to the sea were being surprised and carried off.... Consequently the common crowd gathered together into an assembly and sought for a deliverance from their misfortunes, and the king, it is said, dispatched a mission to Apollon to inquire of the god regarding what had befallen them. When the oracle, then, became known, which told that the cause was the anger of Poseidon and that only then would it cease when the Trojans should of their free will select by lot one of their children and deliver him to the monster for his food, although all the children submitted to the lot, it fell upon the king's daughter Hesione. Consequently, Laomedon was constrained by necessity to deliver the maiden and to leave her, bound in chains, upon the shore. Here Herakles, when he had disembarked with the Argonauts and learned from the girl of her sudden change of fortune, rent asunder the chains which were about her body and going up to the city made an offer to the king to slay the Ketos (Sea-Monster)."
("Library of History" by Diodorus Siculus, 1st Century BC)
During a quick summary of Heracles' accomplishments, the Greek poet Lycophron gives a rather obscure description of Heracles' encounter with the Trojan Cetus that suggests he was swallowed by it in the course of the battle.
"She [Hesione] it was that the babbler, the father of three daughters, standing up in the council of his townsmen, urged should be offered as dark banquet for the grey hound [the Ketos (Sea-Monster)], which with briny water was turning all the land to mud, spewing waves from his jaws and with fierce surge flooding all the ground. But, in place of the woodpecker [Hesione], he swallowed in his throat a scorpion [Herakles] and bewailed to Phorkys (Phorcys [a primordial sea god]) the burden of his evil travail, seeking to find counsel in his pain.”
("Alexandra" by Lycophron, 3rd Century BC)
The story of Hercules and the Trojan sea-monster has obvious similarities to the story of Perseus rescuing Andromeda, princess of the kingdom of Aethiopia, from a sea-monster. Akrisios (Acrisius) king of Argos had locked away his daughter Danae to prevent her becoming pregnant with a son who had been prophesied to kill him. Zeus paid Danae a visit and the result was Perseus. Heracles was the great grandson of Perseus and Andromeda.
"Cassiope claimed that her daughter Andromeda's beauty excelled the Nereids' [sea nymphs]. Because of this, Neptunus [Poseidon] demanded that Andromeda, Cepheus' daughter, be offered to a sea-monster. When she was offered, Perseus, flying on Mercurius' [Hermes] winged sandals, is said to have come there and freed her from danger."
("Fabulae" by Pseudo-Hyginus, 2nd Century AD)
"Then Beowulf came as king this broad realm to wield; and he ruled it well fifty winters, a wise old prince, warding his land, until one began in the dark of night, a dragon, to rage. In the grave on the hill a hoard it guarded, in the stone-barrow steep. A strait path reached it, unknown to mortals. Some man, however, came by chance that cave within to the heathen hoard. In hand he took a golden goblet, nor gave he it back, stole with it away, while the watcher slept, by thievish wiles: for the warden’s wrath prince and people must pay betimes!... When the dragon awoke, new woe was kindled. O’er the stone he snuffed. The stark-heart found footprint of foe who so far had gone in his hidden craft by the creature’s head.... The guardian waited ill-enduring till evening came; boiling with wrath was the barrow’s keeper, and fain with flame the foe to pay for the dear cup’s loss.... Then the baleful fiend its fire belched out, and bright homes burned. The blaze stood high all landsfolk frighting. No living thing would that loathly one leave as aloft it flew.... To Beowulf then the bale was told quickly and truly: the king’s own home, of buildings the best, in brand-waves melted, that gift-throne of Geats. To the good old man sad in heart, ’twas heaviest sorrow.... With comrades eleven the lord of Geats swollen in rage went seeking the dragon. He had heard whence all the harm arose and the killing of clansmen; that cup of price on the lap of the lord had been laid by the finder. In the throng was this one thirteenth man, starter of all the strife and ill, care-laden captive; cringing thence forced and reluctant, he led them on till he came in ken of that cavern-hall, the barrow delved near billowy surges, flood of ocean. Within ’twas full of wire-gold and jewels; a jealous warden, warrior trusty, the treasures held, lurked in his lair."
("Beowulf" (XXXI-XXXIV), ll.2207-2415 (c. 975 - 1025 AD),
Many of these stories of heroes battling dragons and serpents are mere adventure stories, but these are still not distinct from their mythological meanings. Because living is a heroic enterprise. Battling the monster is much a part of living, and courage integral to its meaning. Integrity and righteousness are in the end acts of courage. It is our own personal battle with the monsters of fear, darkness, hatred, evil and despair. Played out again in almost every novel ever written and almost every movie ever made.
See here for another representation of Krishna subduing the serpent Kaliya.
The Hindu god Garuda may appear as part man and part bird, as above, or entirely as a bird, a kite (similar to a hawk or an eagle), as below. See here for a representation of Garuda in battle. Garuda was the enemy of the nagas (serpents).
There are many ancient Greek and Roman coins depicting an eagle gripping a snake in its talons or its beak, sometimes with a lightning bolt on the opposite side of the coin. For a couple of not very clear examples see for instance "Bronze coin of Amyntas III of Macedonia" (393-370 BC) or "Silver drachm of Chalkis in Euboia" (340-294 BC). You may find some better examples searching on "eagle AND snake" at the Coin Archives, a website for the auctioning of ancient coins. The Romans called the eagle "Aquila". The eagle carrying a thunderbolt in its talons is known as the "Eagle of Zeus" (Aetos Dios).
At the end of the world, in a prophesied episode referred to as Ragnarok ("Fate of the gods") or Ragnarokkr ("Twilight of the gods"), the other gods do battle against Loki (the sometime enemy of the other gods), and his offspring: Hel (goddess of the underworld), the giant wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr ("huge monster", also called "Miðgarðsormr" or "Mithgarthsorm", meaning "Midgard [world] serpent"). The great sea-serpent Jörmungandr was "girdler of all the earth" (The Poetic Edda: Hymiskvitha, 23). At the onset of Ragnarok: "In giant-wrath does the serpent writhe; o'er the waves he twists" ("The Poetic Edda": Voluspo, 50). The thunder god Thor does battle with the serpent. "The bright snake gapes to heaven above; against the serpent goes Othin's [i.e., "Odin's"] son. In anger smites the warder of earth, forth from their homes must all men flee". Although Thor vanquishes the world serpent, he dies himself soon after as a result of the strain or his wounds. "Nine paces fares the son of Fjorgyn ["earth", Thor's mother], and, slain by the serpent, fearless he sinks" ("The Poetic Edda": Voluspo, 56). Odin ("joy of Frigg [wife of Odin]") dies fighting the wolf Fenris (Voluspo, 53). After this: "The sun turns black, earth sinks in the sea" (Voluspo, 57). However the destruction is followed immediately by the world's rebirth: "the earth anew rise all green from the waves again" (Voluspo, 59). And the gods "meet together, of the terrible girdler of earth they talk, and the mighty past they call to mind" (Voluspo, 60).
After Armageddon the new world will be better than the old. "In wondrous beauty once again shall the golden tables stand mid the grass, which the gods had owned in the days of old. Then fields unsowed bear ripened fruit, all ills grow better.... There shall the righteous rulers dwell, and happiness ever there shall they have. There comes on high, all power to hold, a mighty lord, all lands he rules." (Voluspo, 61-65). The source documents for Norse mythology date from the 13th century AD, well into the Christian era, and so they are thought to show some Christian influence. Compare also Perun, the Slavic god of thunder and lightning, versus Veles.
"When she was there S. George passed by, and when he saw the lady he demanded the lady what she made there and she said: Go ye your way fair young man, that ye perish not also. Then said he: Tell to me what have ye and why weep ye, and doubt ye of nothing. When she saw that he would know, she said to him how she was delivered to the dragon. Then said S. George: Fair daughter, doubt ye no thing hereof for I shall help thee in the name of Jesu Christ. She said: For God's sake, good knight, go your way, and abide not with me, for ye may not deliver me. Thus as they spake together the dragon appeared and came running to them, and S. George was upon his horse, and drew out his sword and garnished him with the sign of the cross, and rode hardily against the dragon which came towards him, and smote him with his spear and hurt him sore and threw him to the ground. And after said to the maid: Deliver to me your girdle, and bind it about the neck of the dragon and be not afeard. When she had done so the dragon followed her as it had been a meek beast and debonair. Then she led him into the city, and the people fled by mountains and valleys, and said: Alas! alas! we shall be all dead. Then S. George said to them: Ne doubt ye no thing, without more, believe ye in God, Jesu Christ, and do ye to be baptized and I shall slay the dragon. Then the king was baptized and all his people, and S. George slew the dragon and smote off his head, and commanded that he should be thrown in the fields, and they took four carts with oxen that drew him out of the city."
("The Golden Legend", by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275 AD.)
The story of St George is also thought to derive partly from the popular early Medieval hero known as the "Thracian Horseman". (See for instance: "Thracian Hero", 2nd century A.D. High relief in limestone. At The UNESCO Works of Art Collection. (note the serpent in the tree)) The Thracian Horsman in turn evolved from Sabazios, the sky god of the Phrygians and Thracians, who was often depicted riding a horse.
"Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."
(Revelation 12:7-9 (c. 81 - 96 AD))
"The male cat is Ra himself, and he is called Maau.... As to the fight by the Persea tree hard by, in Annu, it concerneth the children of impotent revolt when justice is wrought on them for what they have done. As to [the words] 'that night of the battle,' they concern the inroad [of the children of impotent revolt] into the eastern part of heaven, whereupon there arose a battle in heaven and in all the earth.... As concerning the words 'that night of the reckoning of destruction,' it is the night of the burning of the damned, and of the overthrow of the wicked at [the sacred] block, and of the slaughter of souls."
("The Egyptian Book of the Dead" (c. 1250 BC), by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 287-288)
In Egyptian mythology, Nut (goddess of the sky) swallows the sun-god Ra every night, and gives birth to him each morning. The sun's journey "under the earth" each night is paralleled to being swallowed and later regurgitated, and these associated with ideas of death and rebirth. The mythological motif is sometimes referred to as the "night sea journey". When the Earth was thought to be flat and surrounded by ocean, the sun appeared to sink into the sea in the West, and emerge from it again in the East, passing beneath the waters during the night. The death and rebirth motif was incorporated into religious ceremonies.
"The icon, a familiar one on the Eastern Mediterranean, survived in Orphic art, where it represented a ritual ceremony of initiation: the initiate was swallowed by the Universal Mother, the sea-monster, and re-born as an incarnation of the Sun-god."
("The White Goddess" by Robert Graves, p.480)
So too in the Christian baptismal rite, particularly that involving full submersion, the creature is ritually returned to Nu, to re-emerge as a new creation, sensuously united to a primal continuum of spirit, having passed through its own fleeting night sea journey. The following describes part of the passage of the sun through the underworld each night.
"Here is the five-headed serpent ASHT-HRAU, and on his back lies the dead Sun-god; with his right hand, which is raised above his head, he is drawing to himself the Beetle of KHEPERA, which is the type of regeneration, or new birth, or resurrection."
("The Egyptian Heaven and Hell", by E. A. Wallis Budge, Volume III, 1906, p.149)
Jesus draws a parallel between the time he will spend in his tomb prior to his own resurrection, and Jonah's time in the belly of the fish.
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
(Matthew 12:40)
Victory over the beast could also be represented by standing on it.
"Another form of Ptah was Ptah-Seker-Ausar.... He is represented as a dwarf standing upon a crocodile, and having a scarabaeus [sacred scarab beetle] upon his head; the scarab is the emblem of the new life into which the deceased is about to break, the crocodile is the emblem of the darkness of death which has been overcome."
("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. cviii)
The Egyptian god of resurrection was Osiris, by virtue of his own death and resurrection.
"the doctrine of immortality, gained through the god [Osiris] ... had remained unchanged for at least four thousand years of its existence."
("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. cxiv)
The resurrection of Osiris was facilitated by his sister wife Isis. There is a nice painting ("Isis and Osiris") by Susan Seddon Boulet (1941-1997) depicting Isis over what is presumably the temporarily deceased Osiris. Jesus did not have an Isis to look out for him. Instead he had the two Marys: his mother and Mary Magdalene.
As tends to happen in mythology, various ideas blur into each other in various myths. But in broad terms we have a comparison between life in the flesh and a period spent in the underworld or the grave, in the belly of the beast. But like the sun each morning, we are finally released from this period of captivity and reborn, born again in a kind of victory, or that the enemy has been vanquished by a god on our behalf.
"The Basutos [Sotho people (Basotho) of southern Africa] have their myth of the hero Litao-lane; he came to man's stature and wisdom at his birth; all mankind save his mother and he had been devoured by a monster [Kammapa]; he attacked the creature and was swallowed whole, but cutting his way out he set free all the inhabitants of the world. The Zulus tell stories as pointedly suggestive. A mother follows her children into the maw of the great elephant, and finds forests and rivers and highlands, and dogs and cattle, and people who had built their villages there; a description which is simply that of the Zulu Hades. When the Princess Untombinde was carried off by the Isikqukqumadevu, the 'bloated, squatting, bearded monster,' the King gathered his army and attacked it, but it swallowed up men, and dogs, and cattle, all but one warrior; he slew the monster, and there came out cattle, and horses, and men, and last of all the princess herself."
("Primitive Culture" by Edward B Tylor, p.338)
We should not make too much of this negative representation of life on Earth, but take it as merely a comparison. As life on Earth is to life in the underworld, so the afterlife is to life on Earth. Nor should we feel obliged to assume the cycle merely repeats as it does for the sun each night. The comparisons can be selective. The imagery of the night sea journey can be applied to any period of difficulty.
Because the snake has a head and a tail but no arms or legs it is little more than a vector with a personality. It is therefore well suited to represent a one-dimensional linear progress such as the flow of time, pulling us on like a current. The sinusoidal, wavy motion of the serpent also gives it associations with water, as does its slippery simplicity. The soulless cruelty of the serpent has parallels with the implacable progress of time and the machinery of the material creation, and the sensuousness of the serpent conjures all the goods of living in the midst of death (mortality). It is difficult to think of a creature more primal in basic form. In form then, we might consider it as just a single step removed from the primeval waters, so that there are close associations between the sea and the serpent, water as creature. It is natural to conceive it as the first living thing to emerge from inanimate matter, or the first living form to emerge from chaos. It is easy to imagine a serpent slithering into the water becoming water, and a serpent slithering out of the water as water taking form and slithering onto the land. It is easy to see the serpent as the spirit of a river and the creator of the river valley.
In some ancient Egyptian creation myths, the creator god Atum stands of a mound of earth in the midst of the primeval waters (Nu) to perform his acts of creation. In some of these myths his initial emergence from the waters is also described.
"Atum was also said to have ascended from the chaos-waters with the appearance of a snake.... Atum has taken on his human shape after the Chaos powers had been defeated."
("Atum" in "Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible"
At the end of the universe, Atum returns to his serpent form and slithers back into the waters, returning the world to chaos. This description parallels the universe that is ended by flood, as in Ragnarok. When the continents disappear beneath the surface of the waters, they have returned to the primordial medium from which they came. The serpent also appears in Egyptian mythology in the form of Cnouphis (or Chnoubis).
Because of the frequent comparisons made with the dying and resurrected Christ, the notion of the universal presence of a motif of "the dying and rising god" in the form of the setting and rising sun and the disappearance of life in winter and its re-emergence in Spring has become a contentious issue, its existence outside of the Near Eastern religions and their derivatives questioned, as well as its existence as a clear-cut "type".
"However, in 2001 Tryggve Mettinger affirms that many of the gods of the mystery religions die (often violently), descend to the underworld, are lamented and retrieved by a woman (usually a fertility or earth goddess), and are restored to life, for at least part of each year. Reviewing the critical literature along with primary sources and some important material that was not seen until recently, Mettinger concludes, 'The world of ancient Near Eastern religions actually knew a number of deities that may be properly described as dying and rising', although he adds that 'One should not hypostasize these gods into a specific type "the dying and rising god." On the contrary, the gods mentioned are of very different types, although we have found tendencies to association and syncretism'."
("Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature", by Jane Garry and Hasan El-Shamy, p.19-20)
Among the Aztecs of ancient Central America we find the following.
"Unlike the primordial bird of the creator gods and the cosmic powers incarnating the fundamental forces (earth, wind, water, and fire), Hun Nal Ye, Hun Hunahpu, and Quetzalcoatl are humanized gods. They suffer persecutions, fears, threats, and losses. Their lives are a drama that goes through death and culminates in resurrection. The three are connected to retrieving corn from the depths of the earth, making human beings from corn dough, and delivering the precious grain to human beings as food. After vanquishing the masters of the netherworld, all three incarnate the corn god and demonstrate the triumph of the forces of life over death."
("The Myth of Quetzalcoatl" by Enrique Florescano, p.66. (1995))
The Greek vegetation goddess Persephone became queen of the underworld after being abducted by Hades, its king. As plants withered and died starvation ensued so Zeus demanded that Persephone be returned to the surface. Hades agreed, but tricked Persephone into first eating some pomegranate seeds. Because she had eaten food belonging to the underworld, she was only permitted to leave it for two-thirds of each year, spending the winter months below ground with her husband. For a character to go down to the underworld to rescue and retrieve someone, and bring them back to the land of the living was a common motif, although the mission was not always successful. The Japanese version of the story goes somewhat awry.
"After a lengthy period of mourning, Izanagi determined to go down to Yomi, the land of the dead, to rescue his wife. After long travel down precipitous places, he spied a large mansion, which he thought must be his destination.... Inside the castle he spied his wife and called her name. They greeted each other lovingly, and Izanagi entreated his wife to come back with him, so that they could complete the act of creation imposed on them by the elder kami. Izanami replied that though she would like to obey him, her return was impossible because she had eaten food while in Yomi.
"Izanagi begged her to reconsider, and she finally agreed to go into the mansion and ask the deities of the place whether there was any way for her to return.... She had appeared to him in her original form as his beautiful wife, but now she appeared as a rotting corpse.... Revolted by the horrible sight, Izanagi dropped his torch and fled. The sound of the falling torch awoke Izanami, and she vowed to take revenge for his faithlessness."
("Handbook of Japanese Mythology" by Michael Ashkenazi, p.174)
One should not hope for a high degree of consistency in mythology. Ideas shade into other ideas that give different colours to their meaning. Untangling the commonalities is a dubious undertaking, and exaggerated arguments exist both for and against. In the world of myth, Aristotle's rule of the excluded middle ("that for any proposition, either that proposition is true or its negation is true") does not apply. Aristotle himself was not averse to say that something could be "in a sense" both true and untrue (statements of this kind are called "dialetheia") because he understood that "the same thing can at the same time be in being and not in being-but not in the same respect" ("Metaphysics", by Aristotle, Book IV, Part V (350 BC)). Some modern proponents of reason and logic seem to lack such subtlety.
The serpent coiled around the tree shades into the serpent coiled around the stick, pole, rod or staff. The following passage from the Bible is often interpreted in such a way.
"The Lord said to Moses, 'Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.' So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived."
(Numbers 21:8-9)
Here the snake has healing powers, and this is commonly the power of the snake wrapped around the stick. King Hezekiah later "broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)" (2 Kings 18:4). Ellicott's Commentary on 2 Kings 18:4 states the following.
"In ancient Egypt the serpent symbolised the healing power of Deity; a symbolism which is repeated in the Græco-Roman myth of Æsculapius. When Moses set up the Brasen Serpent, he taught the people by means suited to their then capacity that the power of healing lay in the God whose prophet he was—namely, Jehovah; and that they must look to Him, rather than to any of the gods of Egypt, for help and healing."
Jesus compared himself to the brazen serpent.
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up...."
(John 3:14)
Like the comparison of Jonah's time in the belly of the whale to his own impending internment in the grave, with this approving allusion to the brazen serpent, also approved by Moses, but condemned by King Hezekiah, Jesus apparently seeks to connect the Christian religion to its own ancient mythological roots, and thereby to the common mythological heritage of mankind. This reference has given us the crucified serpent of Alchemy.
The idea of the good serpent also manifested in Greek religion in the form of Agathodaemon and lived on for a time in Christian Gnostic sects such as the Ophites and Basilideans (see the deity Abraxas).
Abraxas appears to have given us the word ABRACADABRA used in magic acts. Historically it was "used as a magical formula by the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune. It is found on Abraxas stones which were worn as amulets. Subsequently its use spread beyond the Gnostics...." (Encyclopædia Britannica (1911)).
See another example of Abraxas (this time holding a caduceus) at Christie's: A Roman Limestone Relief - circa 3rd century AD (or here). Serapis might appear as Agathodaemon (see for instance Statuette of Serapis Agathodaemon or an Interesting Serpent Deity).
Dionysus might also appear with the body of a snake, and be paired with Isis. See for instance page 6 of "Ptolemy II Philadelphus and the Dionysiac Model of Political Authority", by Michael Goyette ("Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnection").
Moses' brother Aaron had a magic staff that could turn into a snake, so that the stick and the serpent in turn could shade one into the other.
"Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs."
(Exodus 7:10-12)
Asclepius was the Greek god of medicine and he had a staff with a serpent wrapped around it: commonly called the "Staff of Asclepius" or "Rod of Asclepius". It has since become the symbol of the medical profession.
Hygieia was the goddess of good health and the daughter of Asclepius, and Epione, the goddess of healing (soothing). Her name is the source of the word "hygiene". While her father was more involved in curing disease, Hygieia was more involved in disease prevention. She was often depicted feeding a serpent from a bowl in her hand, so that in some places the "Bowl of Hygieia", a serpent coiled around a goblet, has been used as the symbol for a pharmacy.
See also: Agathe Tyche and Agathodaimon with a bearded Serpent, 350 BC, Delos, Archaeological Museum (or here). Demeter was the Greek goddess of agriculture, daughter of Cronus (Roman Saturn) and Rhea, and mother to Persephone. Her Roman equivalent was Ceres. Ceres rode in a chariot drawn by two snakes.
The Rod of Asclepius is often confused with the Caduceus ("herald's staff" (also called a "kerukeion" from the Greek, or "Staff of Hermes")) which has two serpents wrapped around it and was carried by the Greek god Hermes who was messenger of the gods, called Mercury by the Romans. The Caduceus sometimes was depicted with wings. It has come to represent the medical profession in the United States. The caduceus was more often associated with commerce (which might go some way toward resolving the outstanding mystery of where the $ symbol came from). Mercury does not appear at first to be a very interesting god, being a mere messenger, but his alter ego Hermes, and the caduceus in his hand have a rich and tantalising history.
The caduceus is represented in different ways. In the following image we see a simpler version.
The caduceus is thought of as the staff carried by divine heralds in general, because Iris, another messenger of the gods, also had one.
Iris was also goddess of the rainbow (which joins heaven and Earth). There are two varieties of the god Hermes. There is Hermes the divine messenger, and an older more primitive version that is a god of fertility interchangeable with the Greek god Priapus. Here we see Priapic-Hermes still holding his caduceus, painted on a wall in Pompeii.
It should be mentioned here that the caduceus was not a typical accompaniment of the god Priapus, nor of Dionysus (Bacchus). This Roman fresco gives Priapus the attributes of Mercury in order to make that connection because of Mercury's association with Hermes. Notice that the caduceus in this image seems to be made of streamers rather than snakes, and this may be to reinforce the association with Dionysus. While Dionysus does not carry a caduceus, he does carry something called a "thyrsus" (or thyrsos). The thyrsus was a staff with a pine cone at the top and a ribbon around the neck. Sometimes the pole was entwined in ivy. Dionysus is derived from the earlier Etruscan god Fufluns who was likewise associated with the thyrsus (see for example this drawing of an Etruscan bronze mirror (4th century BC), depicting from left to right: a satyr, Apulu (Apollo), Fufluns and his mother Semla (Greek Semele, who is shown holding the thyrsus), see also p.161 of "The Etruscan Language: An Introduction", Revised Editon (2002) by Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante).
There is apparently in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, a "Staff of Osiris" with a pair of serpents forming a double-helix around a staff, at the top of which is a pine cone. A similar pine cone topped caduceus appears on the Whitehall Building in New York City and the Lion House at the Bronx Zoo. Pine trees are evergreen and have therefore come to represent resilience and immortality. A funereal wreath is likely to be made from an evergreen. The pine cone in particular has come to represent immortality.
It appears that the Catholic Pope also carries a staff with a pine comb at the top, and a crucifix on top of that (see for instance here, and perhaps here and here). You will see Agathos Daimon as a bearded serpent next to a pine cone topped staff or pillar at the Agathos Daimon Photos page at (bibleorigins.net). Relief carvings in the 2nd century AD Egyptian tomb at Alexandria called Kom El Shoqafa ("Mound of Shards") shows the Agathodaimon serpent with both a caduceus and a thrysos (see for instance The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa and Alexandria the Divine). See page 86 of "The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence" by Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum to see a Roman coin (ca. 76 AD showing the Agathos Daimon wearing the Egyptian skkent (double) crown, with a caduceus and an ear of wheat.
Why does Dionysus, the god of wine, carry the symbol of immortality? The association of pleasure and immortality might seem strange to us today, but in the pre-Christian world joy and immortality were the two primary goals of life. In the Christian world immortality has come to be associated with renunciation, and pleasure has come to be seen as an obstacle.
"If you go into the history of Eros you will find that he is a variation of Hermes; the Eros of antiquity is similar to Hermes Kyllenios. In olden times when he was a fertility god of Boetia he was represented exactly like the priapic Hermes statues."
("Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology", by Marie-Luise von Franz, p.118.)
While Eros (Roman Cupid) is frequently depicted in his baby form, this is not always the case. For instance in the story of Cupid and Psyche.
"Hermes is neither Minoan nor Mycenaean, however, but is associated with the hermae, ithyphallic stone pillars capped with a head or bust of Hermes that were employed throughout Greece as topographic markers. The oldest form by which Hermes was represented, these ubiquitous herms stood upon the thresholds of private homes and estates, at the gateways of towns and cities, before temples and gymnasia, along the side of roadways and at crossroads, at the frontiers of territories and upon tombs, the portal between this and the underworld, to mark the boundaries of inhabited space and to protect its productive areas against incursions."
("Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible",
by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst, p.405.)
"Hermes' origins are somewhat more humble, and they are thought to lie in the stone piles, or cairns, left by travellers at crossroads. These stone piles, or herms in Greek, which date to 600 BC, later developed into pillars topped by a bearded head of Hermes, with an erect phallus at the base."
("The Quest For Hermes Trismegistus", by Gary Lachman)
The archaeologist Arthur Lincoln Frothingham (1859 - 1923) held the view that the caduceus had originally been a god in its own right ("Babylonian Origin of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus I", American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 20, No. 2 (1916)), suggesting that its origin was an obscure Babylonian deity called Ningishzida ("right-hand sceptre god" or "lord of the good tree"), who was "Herald of the Earth" and "Throne-bearer of the Earth". The prefix "nin" meant "lord" or "lady", so that "Ningishzida" was Lord Gishzida. Together with the better known god Tammuz (Dumuzid), consort of Inanna (Ishtar), Gishzida appears in the Adapa legend as "stationed at the gate of Anu". Anu ("sky", "heaven") was the supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon.
The Carthaginian goddess Tanit was related to the Phoenician goddess Astarte (Astoreth) who was in turn related to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and the Sumerian goddess Inanna.
There are many ancient images of Ishtar holding something in her hand. Unfortunately it is not clear what.
The matter of whether Ishtar held a variant of the caduceus in her hand is complicated by the fact that there were a number of different kinds of object the Mesopotamian gods may hold in their hand. In the image below, the three-pronged object held in the right-hand of the god at right is thought by some to be a branch from the tree of life, due to its similarity to some contemporary depictions of branches on the tree of life.
In 1953, biologists James Watson and Francis Crick suggested that DNA was in the shape of a double-helix. The double-helix formed by a pair of snakes has been around in world mythology for a while now. The Chinese deities Nüwa and her brother Fuxi are credited with creating human beings out of clay, which makes for a nice association with DNA ... I'm just saying. The single helix has associations with light, if the sinusoidal wave of electromagnetic radiation is a two dimensional projection of a helical transformation, and perhaps more generally for other harmonic phenomena. We might consider too that as the solar system as a whole moves through space, each planet traces out a helix around the pillar traced out by the sun. So too the classical model of the atom with electrons circling a nucleus. So that the helix is central to time and transformation in general. Though the image of the double-helix is likely to have been inspired by twine, weaving and braiding.
The pair of entwined serpents, in a double-helix or otherwise, are quite common in India.
See here (or here) for another nice Naga sculpture. In the image below we see a sculpture of Vishnu in his boar form (Varaha) which he uses to rescue the Earth goddess Bhumi (Bhudevi, Varahi). To the left (according to Kirit Mankodi: Sculptures of Apsarās and other Celestial Women at Ran-ki-Vav (see also: "The Queen's stepwell at Patan", by Kirit L. Mankodi)), is a nagkanya holding a skull-cup (that is, a cup made out of the top of a human skull) with a fish in it in her hand. A snake crawls up her leg to the bowl, but her raised hand gives a gesture of admonition (tarjani). (The fish and skull cup combination is also found with the tantric Matsya Varahi form of the mother goddess Varahi. See for instance the Varahi temple of Chaurasi, India. Varahi, who has the head of a sow, is the shakti (feminine energy) of Varaha.)
We sometimes see the motif of the serpent sipping from a bowl of its own accord in relation to Hygieia.
Notice the raised bump in the middle of the bowl in Hygieia's hand in the image above. This is typical of a kind of libation bowl called a "patera" or "phiale", which we will learn more about later. There are other instances of a snake sipping from a phiale, such as in the funerary stele below.
Nagkanya (nag-kanya, nagakanya, naga kanyaka) are maidens of the race of Nagas (snakes), born of Kadru (Aditi, mother of a thousand nāgas), wife of Kasyapa, daughter of Daksha (a Prajapati or one of the sons of Brahma) and his wife Panchajani (Virani). They live in Patala, the lowest of the seven underworld regions (see "Deccan Nursery Tales" by C. A. Kincaid, and "Indian Serpent-lore: Or, The Nāgas in Hindu Legend and Art" by Jean Philippe Vogel). Ulupi who marries Arjuna in the Mahabharata was a nag-kanya. Her father was the Naga king Kouravya (Kauravya), a descendent of Airavata, who was the third son of Kashyap (Kasyapa) and Kadru.
Where the pair of serpents have a rod or a figure between them, they count as a trinity symbol, so too the trident.
You might be wondering what these serpent pairs have to do with the priapic form of Hermes and the phallus in general. Snakes are considered a phallic symbol, but Philip Elliot Slater bemoans the complications involved in treating mythological serpents as simple Freudian phallic symbols.
"An additional complication arises when one considers the frequency with which phallic objects in fertility cults are represented with snakes coiled around them. Wright shows, for example, a bronze amulet (of a type still being sold in Naples at the time he wrote), consisting of a phallus encircled by a snake, with its mouth on the urethral orifice.... In any case, it seems clear that the encircling snake is not masculine but feminine.... Representations (on ancient medals, for example) in which the snake-encircled phallus is replaced by an egg add another complication, since the snake could connote either the fertilizing phallus or the female reproductive organs."
("The Glory of Hera: Greek Mythology and the Greek Family",
by Philip Elliot Slater, pp.80-82)
The Egyptian fertility god Min was frequently represented with an erect penis. In the image below, the Syrian/Canaanite fertility goddess Kadesh (Qetesh), who was adopted into the Egyptian pantheon, stands on a lion. In her left hand she holds a snake, and in her right lotus flowers. At the left of the image stands Min holding a flail, and on the right, another Canaanite god adopted by the Egyptians, Reshep (Resheph), holding a spear.
Our consideration of serpent symbolism commenced with the image of the "Orphic Egg", the egg wrapped in a helical serpent like a solenoid around a core. We can now come full circle and present Kronos or Phanes (often equated with Eros and Dionysus (Bacchus)), the winged Mithraic deity inside the egg, himself wrapped in a helical serpent. (There are also lion headed (Leontocephaline) variations.)
"In the beginning was the silver cosmic egg, created by Time. Phanes-Dionysos broke forth from the egg as the firstborn (Protogonos), the androgynous container of all the seeds of life. It was Phanes-Dionysos who created the universe, beginning with a daughter, Nyx (Night), and later the familiar gods, Gaia and Ouranos."
("Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia", by David Adams Leeming, p.119.)
Phallic religious sculpture has not fared well down through the ages in the West, so that not much remains today.
In India, the lingam (a stylised representation of the phallus similar to the omphalos (means "navel") stone) and the yoni (a stylised representation of the vagina) are combined into an altar. The lingam blurs into the egg. The yoni is usually a kind of keyhole-shaped platform. Together they form a representation of the universe divided into masculine and feminine principles: being upon a stage, coloured with eroticism. The Lingam may be encircled by a serpent (can also be found here). See also a relief of yoni–lingga on the floor of the Candi Sukuh's entrance, Indonesia. See here for a painting of a pair of snakes coiled in a double helix around a lingam (image can also be found here).
Earlier we saw Buddha shielded by the Naga Mucalinda. We find the linga in similar situation, so that the phallus, the god and the self, if you have not already guessed, are all interchangeable. In some versions, two snakes face each other over the lingam.
We might compare the design of the Tusha Hiti fountain to Shiva Lingams such as here and here.
In the caduceus, the serpents form a cone rather than a cylinder, their circuits around the staff grow wider as they ascend, forming helical spirals or vortices. The serpent appears associated with the spiral in other contexts too. In the article On Happiness we considered that evolution was a spiral rather than a simple circuit, a closed loop, because together with cyclic repetition there is overall growth.
It is difficult to touch on the ouroboros without being drawn into the rich tapestry of serpent-based mystical symbolism. I have decided to embrace this temptation since it will be useful in what is to follow. The purity and power of the serpent makes it a flexible and potent vehicle for stringing together extensive classes of being, notions and experience. It is a symbol of very great antiquity.
"Two or three years ago it was just another snake cult...."
(From the movie "Conan the Barbarian" (1982))
"The snake and its abstracted derivative, the spiral, are the dominant motifs of the art of Old Europe, and their imaginative use in spiraliform design throughout the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods remained unsurpassed by any subsequent decorative style until the Minoan civilization, the sole inheritor of Old European lavishness."
("The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images", by Marija Gimbutas, p.93.)
A bronze helmet from the 4th century BC, at the Virtual Museum of Bulgaria, has a spiral serpent design on the side. The ancients, being avid stargazers, became aware of patterns in the heavens. For example, see this time lapse of Lunar Phases taken by Giorgia Hofer, or this Solar Analemma by Cenk E. Tezel yTunç Tezel.
We might view the systematic destruction of monsters by the Greek heroes as the beginning of the end for the demon haunted world. These human-deity hybrids were making the world safe from monsters. Human beings would no longer dread the monster living in the lake or the forest. As human beings gained greater control over their environment, and grew in number, they were less intimidated by nature.
We have seen that snakes and trees and pillars and even the penis are interchangeable in mythology, and that a pair of trees can just as easily be a pair of snakes or a pair of pillars. A pair of objects representing opposites may merge to become one, or that pair may stand on either side of, or encircle the one that represents their unification. Or the opposites may in some sense be constituents of the one. We also have the conviction after all that, yes, the penis is the centre of the universe (see for instance: House in Thimphu, Bhutan, with phallic symbols painted on wall or: Traditional architecture of the Paro district in Bhutan).
See also, The Tomb of the Blue Demons, Tarquinia, c. 400 BC, and Relief of Demeter, Eleusis.
In the Egyptian Book of the Dead the deceased enters the great hall of Right and Truth (the Hall of two-fold Maati where his heart is weighed) through a doorway, the doorposts of which are called the "Serpent children of Rennut [Renenutet, Ernutet, the "Lady of Fertile Fields" (Greek: Thermouthis)]". The right doorpost is called "Weigher of the labours of right and truth". The left doorpost is called "Judge of wine". ("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 351-352 (Nebseni papyrus, 15th century BC)) Also, the two-headed serpent Nehebkau is "son of Geb, born of your mother Ernutet" (Coffin Text Spell 762). Nehebkau is one of the 42 gods in the hall of Right and Truth that the deceased performs his "negative confession" (that is, a list of sins he has not committed) to (The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 351).
In the Orphic religion of Greece, pairs of opposites find their unification in the androgynous god, Phanes Dionysus, who encompasses both male and female. The ouroboros serpent with which we began this survey of serpent symbolism has given us the adjective "uroboric", meaning ouroboros like. It has come to be applied to instances of the union of opposites: such as male-female in an androgynous being. The traditional (pre-Orphic) Dionysus (god of wine and religious ecstasy) was already an effeminate character.
"Zeus fell in love with Semele and slept with her, promising her anything she wanted, and keeping it all from [his wife] Hera. But Semele was deceived by Hera into asking Zeus to come to her as he came to Hera during their courtship. So Zeus, unable to refuse, arrived in her bridal chamber in a chariot with lightning flashes and thunder, and sent a thunderbolt at her. Semele died of fright, and Zeus grabbed from the fire her six-month aborted baby, which he sewed into his thigh.... At the proper time Zeus loosened the stitches and gave birth to Dionysos, whom he entrusted to Hermes. Hermes took him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to bring him up as a girl. Incensed, Hera inflicted madness on them, so that that Athamas stalked and slew his elder son Learkhos on the conviction that he was a deer, while Ino threw Melikertes into a basin of boiling water, and then, carrying both the basin and the corpse of the boy, she jumped to the bottom of the sea.... As for Zeus, he escaped Hera's anger by changing Dionysos into a baby goat. Hermes took him to the Nymphai of Asian Nysa, whom Zeus in later times places among the stars and named the Hyades."
("Bibliotheca" by Pseudo-Apollodorus, 2nd Century AD)
Ino, who was the daughter of Cadmus the monster slayer, was not Athamas' first wife. His first wife was Nephele, with whom he had the children Phrixos (Phrixus) and Helle, who were rescued by the ram with the golden fleece.
Semele's incineration at the unshielded sight of Zeus was why Dionysus later went to retrieve her from the underworld. Aphroditus of Cyprus was an androgynous variation of Aphrodite, and evolved into Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite (from whence we get the term "hermaphrodite"). The sexually aggressive water nymph Salmacis fell in love with Hermaphroditus and prayed they would never be parted.
"The descendant of Atlas holds out, denying the nymph’s wished-for pleasure: she hugs him, and clings, as though she is joined to his whole body. 'It is right to struggle, perverse one,' she says, 'but you will still not escape. Grant this, you gods, that no day comes to part me from him, or him from me.' Her prayer reached the gods. Now the entwined bodies of the two were joined together, and one form covered both. Just as when someone grafts a twig into the bark, they see both grow joined together, and develop as one, so when they were mated together in a close embrace, they were not two, but a two-fold form, so that they could not be called male or female, and seemed neither or either."
("Metamorphoses", by Ovid, Book 4, (8 AD))
The androgynous god or spirit also finds expression in the Japanese Shinto spirit (kami) Inari, and in Hinduism as Ardhanarishvara, which literally means "The Lord who is Half Woman", and is a composite of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati (see here for a modern representation). The Hindu god Krishna is sometimes represented in a somewhat effeminate manner.
"O Mountain! This whole world is interwoven in Me; It is I that am the Îs'vara that resides in causal bodies; I am the Sutrâtman, Hiranyagarbha that resides in subtle bodies and it is I that am the Virât, residing in the gross bodies. I am Brahmâ, Visnu, and Mahes'vara; I am the Brâhmâ, Vaisnavi and Raudrî S'aktis. I am the Sun, I am the Moon, I am the Stars; I am beast, birds, Chandâlas and I am the Thief, I am the cruel hunter; I am the virtuous high-souled persons and I am the female, male, and hermaphrodite. There is no doubt in this. O Mountain! Wherever there is anything, seen or heard, I always exist there, within and without, There is nothing moving or unmoving, that can exist without Me."
("The S'rîmad Devî Bhâgawatam", translated by Swami Vijñanananda", Book 7, Chapter 33, p. 710)
"Neith, also sometimes transliterated as Nit or Net ..., was one of the oldest of all Egyptian deities and one of the most important divinities during the early historic period.... Beginning in the Third and Fourth Dynasties, Neith came to be regarded as a form of Hathor, but, as Budge ... notes, 'at an earlier period she was certainly a personification of a form of the great, inert, primeval watery mass....' As a divinity of the First Principle, Neith was an autogenetic goddess who, in the ultimate mystery, created herself out of her own being.... Another development in later times was the conception of Neith as bisexual, rather than strictly female."
The great serpent Apep (Apophis) "existed in the chaotic world before creation and before the emergence of cosmos. The only reference to his origin comes from the Late Period temple of Neith at Esna, where it is stated that Apep was born from the spittle of Neith, the mother of Re, who was in the primordial waters. This spittle was warded off and became a huge snake, which was named Apep and revolted against Re." ("Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions", edited by Eric Orlin, pp. 62-63) So that Neith was the monster's mother.
The Nile river "was honoured as being the type of the life-giving waters out of the midst of which sprang the gods and all created things." ("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. cxxiii) It was personified as the androgynous god Hapi, a male god with female breasts ("indicating fertility").
Such unity of opposites as male/female appear in philosophy in terms like "Coincidentia oppositorum" or "coniunctio". In Buddhism we find the meditator seeking a reality devoid of duality and conceptual elaboration, a reality more fundamental and prior to these things. We do not know a lot about the details of the most ancient religions, but the considerations we have covered in this article seem to be among the earliest manifestations of the human religious impulse. What we know about ancient religions we know mainly from the historical record. That is, from preserved written records. So that what we know is the form the religions had at the time that the written record commences. We can only speculate on the form of religions in "prehistory". The written record however shows us how new gods displace old gods, and how the gods of different communities and peoples are arranged and rearranged into pantheons, and their attributes altered and consolidated as the ancients sought to bring order to a plethora of ancient local deities, many with similar characteristics. There are also hints of a back story, ancient traditions largely silenced, but appearing in indirect or unexplained references. As new gods displace their elders, perhaps illegitimately, they in turn fear being overthrown by their own children in a natural cosmic karmic retribution, as do human or semi-divine kings in ancient myths.
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."
(Revelation 22:1-2)
I'll finish with a few quotes from Mircea Eliade's: "A History of Religious Ideas", Volume 1.
"The agrarian cultures develop what may be called a cosmic religion, since religious activity is concentrated around the central mystery: the periodical renewal of the world. Like human existence, the cosmic rhythms are expressed in terms drawn from vegetable life. The mystery of cosmic sacrality is symbolized in the World Tree. The universe is conceived as an organism that must be renewed periodically--in other words, each year. 'Absolute reality,' rejuvenation, immortality, are accessible to certain privileged persons through the power residing in a certain fruit or in a spring near a tree. The Cosmic Tree is held to be at the center of the world, and it unites the three cosmic regions, for it sends its roots down into the underworld, and its top touches the sky." (pp.41-42)
"The Cosmic Tree is the most widespread expression of the axis mundi; but the symbolism of the cosmic axis probably precedes--or is independent of--the agricultural civilizations, since it is found in certain arctic cultures." (footnote p.42)
"In the Aeneolithic [Chalcolithic or Copper Age (between 5th and the 3rd millennia BC)] station of Cascioarele, 60 kilometers south of Bucharest, excavation has revealed a temple whose walls were painted with magnificent spirals in red and green on a yellowish-white ground. No statuettes were found, but a column 2 meters high and also a smaller one indicate a cult of the sacred pillar, symbol of the axis mundi." (pp.49-50)
"The symbolism of the axis mundi assimilates the Cosmic Tree to the Cosmic Pillar (columna universalis)." (footnote p.50)
"Continuity is also demonstrated in respect to other specific expressions of archaic Cretan religiosity. Sir Arthur Evans emphasized the solidarity between the tree cult and the veneration of sacred stones. A similar solidarity is found in the cult of Athena Parthenos at Athens: a pillar associated with the sacred tree (the olive) and with the owl, the goddess's emblematic bird. Evans also showed the survival of the pillar cult down to modern times; for example, the sacred pillar at Tekekioi, near Skoplje, a replica of the Minoan column, venerated by both Christians and Muslims. The belief that sacred springs are associated with goddesses is found again in classical Greece, where springs were worshiped as Nereids; it persists in our day: fairies are still called Neraides." (p.138)
(The Palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud, Iraq, was destroyed by ISIL in March 2015.)
"In the Pyramid Texts ... we have frequent allusions to the food and drink which the deceased enjoys, and to the apparel wherein he is arrayed in the Underworld. We find that he wears white linen garments and sandals, that he sits by a lake in the Field of Peace with the gods, and partakes with them of the tree of life"
("The Gods of the Egyptians", Volume 2, by E. A. Wallis Budge, 1904, p. 118)
"Hathor and Nut dwelt in the great tree of heaven and supplied the souls of the dead with celestial food"
("The Tree of Life: An Archaeological Study", by Edwin Oliver James, 1966, p. 41)
"It is said that Zeus, wishing to ascertain the exact centre of the earth, caused two eagles to fly simultaneously at equal speed from the eastern and western ends of the earth. The eagles met at Delphi, which was consequently regarded as the centre of the earth, and in memory of the way in which the supposed fact was said to have been ascertained, two golden eagles were set up beside the Navel (omphalos), which, as we learn from Pausanias, was a block of white marble believed to mark the exact centre of the earth."
("Pausanias's Description of Greece", translated with a commentary by J.G. Frazer, Vol. 5, pp. 314-315)
There was a class of ancient Greek coin (second to first century BC) which showed the head of Asklepios (Asclepius) on one side and a snake coiled around an omphalos on the other. See for instance: Pergamon 2 and Pergamon 4. You may also encounter instances of a snake coiled around a tree stump. See for instance figure 27 on p. 98 of "The Two Babylons", by Alexander Hislop. The Dragon Temple in Samphran, Thailand makes for a similar image (see also here).
Dionysos/Bacchus in his coat of many grapes is reminiscent of the strange (too many breasts) Artemis (Roman Diana) of Ephesus. Each presumably representing plenty.
The omphalos also appears in relation to the patera or phiale, a kind of shallow libation bowl that sometimes have a raised bump in the centre (an omphalos (navel)).
There also appears to be some obscure connection between the omphalos and Omphale, queen of Lydia, who is known from the following episode.
"After the delivery of the oracle, Hermes sold Hercules, and he was bought by Omphale, daughter of Iardanes, queen of Lydia, to whom at his death her husband Tmolus had bequeathed the government.... Hercules served Omphale as a slave...."
("The Library" (or "Bibliotheca"), by Apollodorus (or Pseudo-Apollodorus),
Below we see Omphale depicted in the centre of a phiale in place of the omphalos.
Hercules "passed a whole year, as he himself avows, in thraldom to Omphale" ("The Trachiniae" by Sophocles (430 BC), translated by R. C. Jebb). This appears to have been a difficult time for Hercules. Omphale was in the habit of taking his stuff.
Hercules copped a lot of flak over this traumatic episode. His manhood was severely questioned. In an argument between Heracles and Asclepius (the Greek god of medicine) before Zeus, Asclepius had the following cruel words.
"I was never a slave like you, never combed wool in Lydia, masquerading in a purple shawl and being slippered by an Omphale"
("Dialogues of the Gods" by Lucian (2nd century AD),
Tertullian (c. 155 - 240 AD), one of the fathers of the Christian church, has the following harsh words.
"What this Hercules looked like in Omphale's silken gown? This has already been indicated through the picture of Omphale in Hercules' hide!"
("On the Mantle" by Tertullian, 4.3.8)
So that in the navel of the world we have the spectacle of Hercules feminised at the hands of a domineering woman. Instead of Omphale or an omphalos, Hermes was sometimes represented in the centre of a phiale.
For the Dogon of Africa, the local granary was the axis mundi, aligned to the 4 cardinal directions and dividing the universe into the eight Cartesian regions (octants) of space.
"The four lower compartments in a Dogon granary are separated by two intersecting partitions, the junction of which forms a cup-like depression in the earth big enough to hold a round jar. This jar, containing grain or valuable objects, is the centre of whole building. The door opens above these compartments, and is only just wide enough to admit the passage of a man's body.
"Above the door is the upper storey comprising four other compartments.... In the celestial granary these compartments had a numbered order. Each of these compartments contained one of the eight seeds given by God to the eight ancestors.... They also represented the eight principal organs of the Spirit of water, which are comparable to the organs of men.... A round jar in the centre symbolized the womb.... The four uprights ending in the corners of the square roof were the arms and legs. Thus the granary was like a woman, lying on her back ... with her arms and legs raised and supporting the roof.... The two legs were on the north side, and the door at the sixth step marked the sexual parts.
"The granary and all it contained was therefore a picture of the world-system...."
("Conversations with Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas",
The theme of temple as woman on her back with her legs in the air also appears in the cathedral, with its arched entrance and twin towers.
"In the old Greek market-place, which was the centre or omphalos of the town, there generally stood an upright Hermes to mark the crossing of the two lines, which indicated the four quarters of the universe, and which meet at its centre. The earth, being in the centre of the cosmos, was symbolized by a cross of this kind, and represented, in the old astronomical system, the omphalos or navel of the universe. Delphi, as is well known, marked the supposed crossing of these imaginary lines in Greece, while Jerusalem occupied a similar position in Palestine; and the same practice existed in Egypt, Thebes being an omphalos in that country. In Italy the Romans called the crossing place cardo, from which we derive the name, cardinal points. In England we call the middle of our towns simply the cross, and until comparatively recently, a crucifix or other suitable erection always occupied this position....
"In old temples, which were microcosms or little worlds, there was always an omphalos, although it was not always marked by any architectural feature. In the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the tripod stood over the omphalos, and near the centre of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem there is a stone which was called the "Compass of our Lord." In a Christian cathedral, which is cruciform in plan, the cardo or compass is marked by the crossing of the transepts and nave."
("The Canon", by William Stirling)
The tripod in its turn leads us to trinity associations. Consider for instance the "triskelion".
The triskelion serves as a nice symbol for three-in-one or three-from-one and naturally conveys dynamism.
Compare these coins to the "Dynasts of Lycia, Perikles", silver 1/3 stater, circa 380 - 360 BC. Showing a lion's scalp opposite a triskeles (www.coinarchives.com). A similar example, "Dynasts of Lycia, Vekhssere I", silver stater, circa 450 - 430 BC, shows Herakles draped in a lion's skin, opposite a triskeles (www.coinarchives.com).
"The Quraysh were wont to circumambulate the Ka’bah and say: 'By Allat and al-’Uzza, and Manah, the third idol besides. Verily they are the most exalted females whose intercession is to be sought.' These were also called 'the Daughters of Allah,' and were supposed to intercede before God.”
("Kitab Al Asnam" ("The Book of Idols: Pre-Islamic Beliefs and Tribal Arabic Deities")
"Stettin, their most extensive town, which was larger than Julin, included three hills in its circuit. The middle one of these, which was also the highest, was dedicated to Triglav, the chief god of the pagans; its image had a triple head and its eyes and lips were covered with a golden diadem. The idol priests declared that their chief god had three heads because it had charge of three kingdoms, namely, heaven, earth and the lower regions, and that its face was covered with a diadem so that it might pretend not to see the faults of men, and might keep silence. When this most powerful town had been brought to the knowledge of the true God by the good bishop, the idol temples were destroyed by fire and two churches were built, one on the Triglav hill in honour of St. Adalbert, and the other outside the walls of the town in honour of St. Peter. Thereafter the churches of Christ appropriated the sacrifices which were before offered with great pomp and cost to the priests and the idol shrines."
"In the Codex Borgia, day signs are associated with divinities recognized by all Mesoamerican groups as inhabiting the heavens, earth, and underworld. Four of them ruled in each of the cardinal directions ... four cardinal points and the centre as a fifth central dimension. Each side is associated with a male deity, and the dual divinity, Ometeotl, represents the center, the vertical direction connecting heaven and earth. The Aztecs believed that Ometeotl's four male children, red and black Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Huitzilopochtli, ruled in each of the cardinal directions....
"The tree of life, which is a representation of the fertility goddess, goes back a long way. Many ancient and modern Mexican indigenous groups consider plants and trees, such as corn, agave, acacias, and ceilba, sacred. The Maya, for example, revered the ceilba tree, a voluminous angiosperm, naming it Wacab Chan (tree of the world) and pictured it with a bird perched on its branches. The tree was believed to be the medium that connected divinities with mortals. In their complex chiefdoms, Maya lords and ladies also embodied the concept of the world tree when they acted as mediators between the earth and other worlds. In Mesoamerican cosmovision, the tree of life is also related to Tamoanchan, a mystical as well as geographical place of waters and fertility."
("The Return to Coatlicue: Goddesses and Warladies in Mexican Folklore"
The penis god Hermes was at one time ubiquitous in ancient Greece. The human preoccupation with sex should make it unsurprising that the phallus has entered religion, particularly in the form of a fertility symbol. But what is "fertility" but a rather technical term for "happiness", for the good things in life that we want to obtain.
It is difficult to see a connection of Hermes with the rather bland god Mercury and his mysterious caduceus. The caduceus seems to be everywhere in the ancient world yet we know little about what it meant to the ancients. Mercury appears a mere echo of something else, something lost. Religions are often secretive, and the overwhelming influence of Christianity in the West has razed a lot of history. But we have seen similar symbolism in various parts of the world. Any symmetrical religious motif is likely to suggest duality, and a middle pillar in such a motif may suggest a reconciliation of opposites in a balance. What is more different than a shield and sword, yet the warrior with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, unites them in a single purpose, expressed through his own active being. The caduceus grew out serpent worship, but seems intent on portraying balance and apparently healing. It takes the primal forces of nature and submits them to order and purpose. Weaving them back and forth through each other. What would be more natural as the first metaphysical musings of primitive man than the relationship between 1 and 2 and the natural trinity they form? Mercury carries this message from the gods in a mute emblem. Serpents and staff emerging from a common point at the base, spiralling outwards and taking flight. The penis, the goddess and the snake, and the worship of the tree of life, are the four maligned motifs for the Judaic and Christian worlds. The aspirations of the goddess were to be inherited by the virgin Mary and the female saints in a religion that seemed to have no place for a feminine divine.
We have seen that the serpent/dragon is the guardian of the great treasure and the tree of life (immortality). It is also the ocean. If the serpent is this world we are in now, and the tree of life is where we want to be, then this symbolism may only allude to the dilemma that we must endure and overcome the travails of this world in order to win the next, better world, to win success, to rescue the princess and save our world, with the help of God, our supporter in heaven. A movement to something better always presupposes something less good to progress from. So if the progress is eternal, if there will always be something better than what we have now, then the serpent will always be with us, will always need to be conquered and overcome to take whatever is the next step.
Even in the modern world, to exist and to succeed is to grapple with fear. To handle it. To take it in both hands and master it. If you fail in this, success, joy and life may slip through your fingers, wriggle from your grasp and slither away into the long grass. So too your God or gods, and heroes were expected to conquer fear and master it. The serpent might represent fear, and the mighty forces of the world like ocean. This world might kill you and consume you. But if you face it with courage and integrity, it might also reward you. With one hand it gives you sorrow, while with the other joy. The responsibilities of living not infrequently require us to come into contact with something unpleasant, something we instinctively want to avoid. This queasiness, prissiness, daintiness, fussiness and delicacy too must be overcome, in such a way that we do not distort our finer sensibilities in the process.
The serpent can also refer to our own instinctive nature. In a sense, our body is like an animal in our care, like a horse we are riding and must steer and discipline. If the body is overindulged, it becomes more demanding. If we give in to desire every time it appears, we may end up losing the ability to control it altogether. If we eat whenever we are hungry we may find we are uncontrollably hungry all the time. If you fuck every woman you meet (if you can), or act on every violent or negative impulse, these impulses begin to dominate you and you are like a rider with no control over his mount, going instead wherever it leads you. Hateful inclinations indulged can consume you, like being swallowed alive by a serpent or torn apart in its teeth, or having it enter you, getting under your skin. The figures therefore of gods and heroes standing on the serpent or dragon, or other animal, not only represent dominance over external forces and external evils. They also represent the control of one's own nature and impulsiveness. The serpent can be all these things and more. It can be a messenger or message from the gods. The fear of dirt. The fear of the dark. The fear of the deep, can conceal what you do not want to know. A blind fear of the serpent, without proper recognition of what it represents, may cause you to mistake your own evil or negative inclinations, or your own moral neglect, for some external enemy, or to otherwise miss the message it seeks to communicate. Our body also has something to teach and to communicate, and will assert its proper rights to live the life it has been given.
For some Christians, who have forgotten the brazen serpent. The serpent is only the Devil, everywhere and always. And so a survey of nearly every other religion in the world, called "heathen" and "pagan" by Christians, and "infidel" by Moslems, with their frequent serpent symbolism, end up looking like the thousand and one faces of Satan.
The serpent is a symbol of sensuality, but also of much else besides. The associations with the penis therefore allude only to a small subset of its overall meaning. What does all of this have to do with the god of wine, Dionysos? The penis and wine both allude to pleasure. To us, a god of wine seems a rather trivial conception, like a god of sandwiches or a god of wheelbarrows. But to the ancients in their harsh existence, the god or goddess of wine held a special place of honour. The intoxication of wine offered the promise of happiness, freedom, and a cure for suffering and pain. It was liquid heaven. The promise and condition of the gods. It represented the love of living, a celebration of life. So it was Siduri, Babylonian goddess of beer and wine, who advised Gilgamesh on the meaning of life. In Greece and Rome, the obscure and mysterious but ever-hovering Hermes, was penis god come caduceus god, and source of the Golden Fleece guarded by the Colchian dragon overcome by Jason and Medea. Hermes, whose winged sandals carried Perseus to slay the sea-monster and free Andromeda. Hermes, protector of the young Dionysos, god of wine and ecstasy, whose outgrowth was the Mithraic androgyne Phanes. Hermes, father of Hermaphroditus by Aphrodite. Hermes, consort of the trinity goddess Hecate. In India, in early Hinduism we have the pairing of Varuna (god of truth and justice) and Varuni (goddess of wine), representing on the one hand responsibility and on the other joie de vivre ("joy of living"). When the deceased Egyptian entered the great hall of the afterlife, he passed through a door: "The right doorpost is called 'Weigher of the labours of right and truth'. The left doorpost is called 'Judge of wine'." In the skull-cup of Tantric Buddhism was typically alcohol, and so too the Holy Grail. If you find the Holy Grail, have a drink. In Matthew 26:26-28 we learn that bread (which gives life) is the body of Christ while wine (which gives joy) is the blood of Christ. The bread of Earth and the wine of Heaven. But only take a sip or you'll get tipsy. Only a wafer, not a meal. Christianity is famously the religion of teetotallers, but this was not the case for Judaism. Though there was the concept of "too much wine" (Proverbs 23:20), wine was the staple drink.
"Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram...." (Genesis 14:18-19)
"May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness—an abundance of grain and new wine." (Genesis 27:28)
"With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering." (Exodus 29:40)
"a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine." (Leviticus 23:13)
"With a ram prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a third of a hin of olive oil, and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Offer it as an aroma pleasing to the Lord." (Numbers 15:6-7)
"all the finest new wine and grain they give the Lord as the firstfruits of their harvest" (Numbers 18:12)
"He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil" (Deuteronomy 7:13)
"Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you." (Deuteronomy 15:14)
"Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns." (Deuteronomy 16:13-14)
"Jacob will dwell secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew." (Deuteronomy 33:28)
"There were plentiful supplies of flour, fig cakes, raisin cakes, wine, olive oil, cattle and sheep, for there was joy in Israel." (1 Chronicles 12:40)
"Let the light of your face shine on us. Fill my heart with joy when their grain and new wine abound." (Psalm 4:6-7)
"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23:5-6)
"He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts." (Psalm 104:14-15)
"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine." (Proverbs 3:9-10)
"They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord—the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well." (Jeremiah 31:12-13)
The muted joie de vivre of Christianity lives on in the hysterical intoxication of the "Holy Spirit" in Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, and in the red-nosed Germanic Santa Claus and his red-nosed reindeer sidekick. In the following, shortly before his crucifixion, Jesus describes how he will greet his disciples in heaven.
"I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom." (Matthew 26:29)
But let's maybe no one invite Paul who says: "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:18-19)
Living and wisdom are about balance, about recognising what is too much or too little. But there has been little in the way of balance in the history of religion, where things are either all good, or all bad, and not to be questioned either way. Christianity has gone on and on and on about: "love, love, love, love, ...", but saying the word does not necessarily equate to having the concept. Clasping your hands and staring heavenward in an imitation of ecstasy is not love. Neither is a fear that mistrusts to such a degree that it eliminates human freedom and earthly happiness. As responsibility and pleasure circle around us as opposing forces, pulling this way and that, we must stand upright and move onward and grow upward.
The New Testament comes to us as a snapshot from the Roman world, which was a melting pot of cultures. The Romans were much preoccupied with what we today would call "comparative religion". Having conquered many peoples and discovered many cultures, they easily recognised common themes, and sought to make comparisons on the assumption that different cultures were giving different names to what were in fact the same gods. At this time, the Egyptian Isis and Osiris rose to prominence, but were also themselves changed by the cultural milieu that absorbed them. As the Mediterranean world attempted a great syncretism. Women loved Isis because she was strong. Men loved Isis because of her legendary devotion to Osiris. The Roman world was already on a spiritual quest. Then onto this stage stepped the one god of the Jews, reimagined in the figure of Jesus and reconceived as a triune being. While the Jews were attached to their traditional conception, the more liberal Romans embraced the new god, eventually to the exclusion of all others. Inheriting in the process some of the Jewish inflexibility (which had made them, more or less, long faithful to the one God). The trinity concept had a life of its own and was already there in force when Jesus gave it the names: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Along the way, the old conceptions of duality represented by the sun and moon were swept away and replaced by a fundamental opposition between good and evil, with a laser focus. And the goddess lost her place in religion.
"The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger."
(Jeremiah 7:18)
There is a tendency nowadays to romanticise and idealise paganism as a kind of happy hippy religion. But there is a substantial moral element to the discipline of the religion of the one Most High god. As infant monotheism sought to assert itself in the face of the waywardness of the people, it could allow no tolerance.
"You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods."
(Deuteronomy 12:31, see also 2 Kings 17:31)
The Greek historian Herodotus described the religion of the Scythians, tribes of nomadic warriors who lived in southern Siberia from around 900 BC to around 200 BC. Their goddess Tabiti (equated by Herodotus with the Roman Vesta (Greek Hestia)) "they reverence beyond all the rest" of their gods. "They use no images, altars, or temples, except in the worship of Mars [Scythian Ares]; but in his worship they do use them."
"It is a pile of brushwood, made of a vast quantity of fagots, in length and breadth three furlongs; in height somewhat less, having a square platform upon the top, three sides of which are precipitous, while the fourth slopes so that men may walk up it. Each year a hundred and fifty waggon-loads of brushwood are added to the pile, which sinks continually by reason of the rains. An antique iron sword is planted on the top of every such mound, and serves as the image of Mars [Ares]: yearly sacrifices of cattle and of horses are made to it, and more victims are offered thus than to all the rest of their gods. When prisoners are taken in war, out of every hundred men they sacrifice one, not however with the same rites as the cattle, but with different. Libations of wine are first poured upon their heads, after which they are slaughtered over a vessel; the vessel is then carried up to the top of the pile, and the blood poured upon the scymitar. While this takes place at the top of the mound, below, by the side of the temple, the right hands and arms of the slaughtered prisoners are cut off, and tossed on high into the air. Then the other victims are slain, and those who have offered the sacrifice depart, leaving the hands and arms where they may chance to have fallen, and the bodies also, separate. Such are the observances of the Scythians with respect to sacrifice."
("The History" by Herodotus (c. 440 BC), Book IV)
So worshipping other gods became the great evil as it was represented in the Judeo-Christian Bible. There's much we don't know about pagan religion as it existed in ancient Rome because early Christianity saw this as its main opponent. So that it was severely suppressed, much of its imagery associated with the devil, and much of the history lost. While the ascendant Christian church was scrupulous to eradicate pagan beliefs, it continued burning its sons and daughters in the fire none the less, now in the name of the Christian god.
If there is only one god at the top of the pantheon, existing prior to any other beings, what gender is it? The androgyne was one solution, but this idea did not appeal to some. In a precreation universe, where there is only God and no universe, the concept of gender has no meaning, it being a relative property implying a multiplicity of beings. Nevertheless the notion of a male god was rooted and fixed, presumably because men were running things. What is it we are referring to when we speak of gender? Gender consists of biological characteristics. But when we ask if god is a man or a woman are we asking if He has a penis or a vagina? Gender is also personality traits, and we might easily attribute the traits of both genders to a single being. Gender is also a role: the role of husband or wife, father or mother. The only meaningful way to speak of the gender of God is as regards His relation to His creation. We may say He is "like a father" to His creation. But we may also say that He is "like a mother" to His creation, since He gave it birth. He is like a king, but might also be thought to be like a queen. If it is only by convention that we attribute gender to God, we might attribute both, either or neither, depending on what is the point we are making at the time. If a man prefers to imagine god as a man, and a woman prefers to imagine god as a woman, what does it matter? Since presumably neither is an entirely accurate conception, as is the case also with any other conception we might have of Him. One of the religious texts we will be looking at later on represents a supernatural being as giving the following explanation for how he describes God. He says: "Of all the possible titles by which he might appropriately be known, I have been instructed to portray the God of all creation as the Universal Father" (The Urantia Book 4:4.5).
In the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 1 (article 14 in the series), we will see the struggle the Jewish kings, priests and prophets had eradicating from ancient Israel the practice of worshipping trees and their associated goddesses. We will also see in: In the Beginning: Water - Part 2, several more examples of axis mundi, as we compare how religions go about describing the creation of the universe and everything in it.
Since "Materialism" is the view considered to be in opposition to religion, at this point we should seek to have at least a basic understanding of matter, so that we can utilise that understanding in what follows, and trace our understanding of it to the point where our understanding ceases. The next 3 articles of From Particles to Angels therefore consider what we currently know about matter, including some of the controversies and contradictions. The first of these, the next article, is Mysteries of Light - Part 1.
After Mysteries of Light - Part 2 we will then continue the discussion of matter in Atom where we will encounter another antinomy. We will then be in a position, after a brief digression, to tackle the place of the soul in nature.
Any comments welcome.
Preamble:
You can think of articles 1 to 4 of From Particles to Angels as constituting the "Introduction" of this series. They give an overview of the subject. If we want to continue the discussion, we need to drill down a level and get into the nitty-gritty.In the article On Happiness we learned that happiness required two things: (1) immortality, and (2) a universe with unlimited potential for fascination. But that article concluded with the statement that the first of these conditions appears not to be met by our universe, at least at present, and perhaps the second condition cannot be met either. Our goal then, in the pursuit of happiness, is to find a way to conclude that we do exist in a universe that meets these two conditions. ("Interstellar" spoiler alert.) Some human race of the far distant future may develop the technical means to satisfy both these conditions, but this can only be of benefit to us if that future race can travel back in time to deliver it to us, as in the movie "Interstellar". Or perhaps there are currently existing aliens with that ability who might take us away with them in their flying saucers. Or perhaps there are unseen dimensions where we can exist in this way.
In the two "Cosmic Conspiracy" articles we considered the religious solution, specifically in the context of why solid evidence for it is lacking. In Cosmic Conspiracy - Part 1 - Deus Absconditus we speculated on some conceivable reasons why, and in Cosmic Conspiracy - Part 2 - Strange Creatures we considered the specific form of the conspiracy, that is, how. In the article on The Origin of Religion we looked at the various means by which human beings have arrived at the religious hypothesis.
Putting aside the science fiction solutions and the "spiritual" solutions for now, let's continue looking at the religious solution. Let us imagine that, while we have no proof of the truth of religion, we accept that there is some evidence suggestive of its reality, but recognise that this evidence is all very dubious. Let's say we also recognise that we cannot get around the fact that the evidence is dubious because there appears to be a cosmic principle in place that prevents it being otherwise. We have some additional support provided by those considerations discussed in the article on the origin of religion, but we are rational people, and it would be nice to have some rational considerations lending support to this appealing wish fulfilment. What other means do we have of convincing ourselves of the reality of the religious hypothesis?
Perhaps there is some way of deducing the reality of religion. Perhaps if we think it through carefully enough, we will be led inescapably to the conclusion that religion must be true, if we are only earnest in our efforts and open to the truth. Perhaps you have already succeeded in this. For my own part, I have given up on such a solution. Philosophically deducing religion seems a dubious and futile exercise, and contrary to the principle of cosmic censorship that maintains agnostic freedom. Which is why I have adopted a "hope" solution instead, the: "It's what I choose to believe" solution. But still, it would be nice to be able to support the hope with some kind of reasoned justification, something to stand up against claims that science has removed the possibility and justification for religion, something to make the belief seem reasonable. Hope must have something to feed on, some meat, and some garments to wear. We do not want to have to insulate ourselves from reality by surrounding ourselves with other religious people so that our faith is not undermined or we are made to feel ridiculous. We will never be able to convince those who do not want to be convinced, but we want to be able to satisfy ourselves that we are not just being foolish, and we want to thoughtfully investigate the possibilities.
This is not a simple ask. If we cannot deduce that it is true, or is probably true, does that only leave establishing that it might be? The simple fact that no-one can prove that it is not true is some solace but not really satisfying. In what follows I hope to establish a way of viewing the world that is suggestive of the religious hypothesis. A number of things is meant by the word "suggestive". One is that the paradigm is internally coherent. Another is that it is a better story than materialism.
To say that the paradigm is internally coherent is to say that if we consider it in its own terms, it makes sense. This is not to say that it is entirely free of contradiction. Because reality is not entirely free of contradiction. But that it is reasonably free of contradiction, or can be made so by careful consideration. To consider the internal coherence of religion we must "suspend disbelief". We posit a "what if?" of religion being true, and then examine the implications of the hypothesis. We use the same method to enjoy a movie or novel. Placing ourselves within the reality being described. Not as a dispassionate observer, but engaged emotionally and invested within it.
The transition from one belief system to another is not a simple matter because belief systems (paradigms of thought) are just that, "systems". They consist of a set of interrelated parts that constitute a whole, in which each of the parts supports the whole and are in turn supported by it. That is why a religious person talking to an atheist are for the most part not really talking to each other. Each is rather drawing on concepts from their own belief system, concepts which either have no place, or have a different meaning in the context of the belief system of the person they are talking to. So that the religious person gives responses in terms of each idea's place within the religious framework, while the atheist gives responses in terms of a sceptical interpretation of each of these elements. So that each element in the other person's worldview, as it is presented, is immediately contradicted and declared invalid, having no proper place within the worldview being considered. The two cannot understand each other or each other's point of view until they attempt to adopt the other's worldview (Weltanschauung), and to assess what the other is saying from within that system. It requires each participant to simultaneously consider two views of the world. Their own, and that of the other person. That is what it is to stand in the other's shoes and to imagine: "What would it be like to believe that?". And to examine from the inside how all the parts of the worldview fit together, as if it were your own. In practice, despite the sheer difficulty of doing this, on the question of religion each participant is disinclined to do so. The religious person is disinclined to do it because they are afraid that if they truly embrace the atheistic hypothesis even as only a "what if?" they may lose their faith. The atheist is in turn afraid of making a fool of themselves. Opening the door to a what if, opens the door to the seduction of the alternative. Each would be mortified to be seen immersed in reading a book written for the other, worried that someone might think it is them.
Changing from one worldview to another, what is sometimes called a "paradigm shift", can be a dramatic event, and can have different causes. Sometimes it is caused by failures in the existing paradigm. Holes and inconsistencies that cause one to question the validity of the existing paradigm and causes one to look elsewhere, outside of the box, for an alternative explanation. There may be an accumulation of evidence that the current paradigm is not the final answer. The transition from Classical Physics to Quantum Physics was such a transition. But reality does not always force a paradigm shift in this way. Sometimes multiple contradictory worldviews can coexist and there is nothing to finally decide the matter. Worldviews also have a certain degree of resilience and can even continue in the face of a certain amount of contradictory evidence, or by simply avoiding looking at such evidence.
Sometimes dramatic events can cause a paradigm shift. Exposure to a supernatural event might transform an atheist into a religionist. A religionist who believes that God guarantees the physical and emotional safety of the righteous and their loved ones might question their worldview if a loved one dies prematurely or brutally. Or a person might seek out an alternative worldview simply because they are dissatisfied by the one they have now. But while the shift from one worldview to another might be inspired by a single event, it consists of much more than the change of a single element in the existing worldview. It means one system must be replaced with another. One system deconstructed and another constructed in its place.
By a "better story" I mean that the materialistic hypothesis is ultimately glib and unsatisfying, and provides less scope for the exercise of reason, and is less profound than the religious hypothesis, because there are "more things in heaven and earth" (Hamlet) offered by the religious hypothesis, and these knit together into a richer picture of reality. The profundity of materialism is a kind of tragic beauty. The preciousness of a life that is fleeting, of tenderness existing in a great and careless universal machine. But while this apocalyptic poetry does have a profundity derived from its emotional impact, it is ultimately unsatisfying. Ultimately glib in its intellectual potential. Ultimately a simple despair in which any intellectual pursuit is no more than examining the patterns on the wall while awaiting the executioner. Acceptable only because there appears to be no legitimate alternative. By better story I also mean that it sits well with the strangeness we find at edge of science, the border where reason can go no further, and where what reason can establish, is far from the ordinary. My assumption is that the better story is more likely to be the true one, that we do not inhabit a glib and purely banal universe. What exactly I mean by all this I hope will become somewhat clearer as we proceed. Seeking the most elegant explanations of phenomena is not inconsistent with this assumption.
The discussion has been becoming increasingly philosophical, consistent with the premise that if there is no external path to religion available, we must find an internal one. If we want to proceed, we must delve deeper in our understanding of matter and mind, science and philosophy. Our goal is to arrive at religion without doing any damage to our intelligence or integrity or good sense along the way. We do not want to pervert ourselves by trying to convince ourselves of the truth of things we know to be untrue, morally wrong, or just plain stupid. I will include the additional criterion that we do not want to deny anything that science has demonstrated to be true. We will not be suggesting that some malicious devil is laying down fake dinosaur bones within layers of bedrock to fool us into thinking the world is more than a few thousand years old, for the purpose of leading us away from God. Our motivation will not be an assumption that such a plot is impossible, because for the gods all things are possible. Instead our reason will be that it denies us the benefits of science and the wondrous reality it reveals to us. Science contributes to the story of reality, enhances it, improves it. We do not want to have to make a choice: "science or religion", but want to encompass both. We want to accept everything that there is in science, everything that is demonstrably part of reality, but we also want to add to that the magical universe offered by religion, so that rather than choosing one or the other subset of reality as all of reality, one box or the other, we have a religion that is a superset containing science within it. So that those without religion exist within a subset of reality, while those with religion have everything the unreligious have, plus more. That is our program. As a result, it is up to religion always to give way and revise itself in the face of scientific advances. Not to come into conflict with science. Fortunately, this should not be a serious problem for religion, because everything really essential to religion exists in the unknown, and there will always be unknowns within which and beyond which it can safely dwell.
Having defined the limits of science, and indeed logic, we are then free to consider the various possibilities of what may currently lay beyond it. So then, let's first lay out the broad brush strokes of the universe science defines at present.
The Scientific Creation Myth
The universe is said to have been born about 13 billion years ago in an explosion that is called the "Big Bang". The universe originated in an extremely hot, extremely dense soup of high energy and particles. This universe is expanding and cooling. Early on, when the universe had cooled sufficiently, our familiar protons, neutrons and electrons, the particles that make up all the familiar matter in the universe, had formed out of the pre-existing particles. Most of the matter in the universe (not counting dark matter) at that time, and now, are the gases hydrogen and helium, the two simplest and lightest elements. At first there are no planets and no heavy elements like oxygen, carbon, iron or lead. These vast, irregularly distributed gas clouds collapse under their own gravity and form stars and galaxies.As the gas collapses it gets hot and then ignites in a nuclear fusion reaction, making a shining star. The pressure of the heat in the star stops it collapsing further under the gravity of its own mass. The furnace melts together the nuclei of hydrogen and helium atoms to form the other elements: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, silicon, iron, lead, plutonium and so on, so that the heavier chemical elements are formed in the heart of these stars. When large stars run out of fusible fuel they collapse and explode in what is called a "supernova" explosion, spraying the elements they have made, out into space.
The remaining hydrogen and helium, and these heavier elements, again collect under their own gravity, this time forming not just stars, but solar systems, with a star of mostly hydrogen and helium at the centre, and planets circling them, some mostly made from the heavier elements. The forming planets are molten, melting together the heavier elements to form rock. On some worlds hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water, first as steam, but as the surface cools, oceans form after a long primeval rain. The particular character of a planet depends upon the particular mix of chemical elements that make it up, its size, its distance from its sun, and the kind of sun it circles.
If the terrestrial surface has the right mix of the right chemicals, the environment and chemical reactions lead to the formation of complicated molecules. These are referred to as "organic molecules". Out of the many many millions of worlds created, only a few will have the right conditions for this. In the case of our planet, the Earth, these organic molecules are mostly complex combinations of carbon with some other elements mixed in. Initially, this process mostly takes place in the oceans. Smaller molecules serve as the building blocks for larger molecules.
Some molecules naturally pair up. Their molecular structure is such that one will "fit" well with another, like a key and a lock. They stick to each other and hold fast. Let's imagine some hypothetical molecules. Let's call them molecule: A, B, C, D, E, F. Let's assume that the oceans are teeming with these molecules. Let's say that their tendencies to combine with each other are as follows.
A combines strongly with D and moderately with B.
B combines strongly with E, and moderately with A and C.
C combines strongly with F and moderately with B.
D combines strongly with A and moderately with E.
E combines strongly with B, and moderately with D and F.
F combines strongly with C and moderately with E.
As these molecules float around in the ocean, they will naturally form the following pairings according to what they pair strongly with.
AD
BE
CF
According to their moderate pairing tendencies, these molecules will naturally form the following even larger molecule.
AD
BE
CF
Now let us imagine there is another kind of molecule, we will call it G, which has the special characteristic that it breaks the following strong bonds: AD, BE, CF, but leaves intact the moderate bonds: AB, DE, BC, EF. G will have the effect of splitting the big molecule down the middle.
Step 1 (G splits A and D):
AGD
BE
CF
Step 2 (G splits B and E):
A D
BGE
CF
Step 3 (G splits C and F):
A D
B E
CGF
Step 4 (G has split the large molecule into two thin strands):
A D
B E
C F
G
The two resulting molecules: ABC and DEF will tend to pick up other stray molecules: A, B, C, D, E, F floating around in the ocean.
A
B
C
D
E
F
The A part of ABC will tend to pick up D molecules. The B part of ABC will tend to pick up E molecules, and the C part of ABC will tend to pick up F molecules. Similarly, the D part of DEF will tend to pick up A molecules, and so on. So that we now have two copies of the original large molecule.
AD
BE
CF
AD
BE
CF
Then G comes along and splits these two molecules down the middle, and the process repeats. The ABC and DEF molecules serve as templates for the creation of each other. So that in this rather schematic representation (the process in reality is somewhat more complicated) the oceans are now like great factories for the production of complicated organic molecules that in turn form larger congregations. We now have the beginnings of genetics and microscopic life. Over a long period of time, some combinations do better than others. The molecules do not have a desire to live or procreate. They reproduce themselves as a side effect of their chemical structure, and those that have the more durable structure endure the best, and those with the most common raw material are the most common. When larger molecules gather up smaller molecules to make them part of their own bodies, it is as if the smaller molecules are being eaten by the larger. Sometimes the smaller molecules are consumed whole, sometimes they are broken up in the process.
Anyway, eventually single celled organisms form, structures that can truly be called "alive", commencing the fierce competition of survival, and then multi-celled organisms form and the long story of biological evolution follows with plants and animals and then human beings.
So that's the story so far. That is the answer science gives us for the questions: "how did the universe come to be?" and "where did we come from?" Science does not yet have all the pieces, but is doing a very impressive job of solving this great mystery in a vast and disciplined detective enterprise. Some of science has the status of fact, some of convincing theory, some of theory that appear to be the best of the theories currently on offer. The Big Bang is a theory of the last kind.
There are however some things to note about this story of our little island of light in endless night.
Ex Nihilo
"Ex nihilo" is Latin for "out of nothing". Whenever we explain the creation of something we want to avoid an explanation that involves the creation of anything "ex nihilo", because we feel instinctively that creating something out of nothing is impossible. Modern proposals of particles and antiparticles appearing out of vacuum are not really creation out of nothing, but suggests that the vacuum is not really nothing, but rather is comprised of something out of which particles are made.What this means though, is that any creation story is not really a creation story, but is really an evolution story, a rearrangement story. Things only come into existence because some pre-existing thing or things change into it by means of some plausible process. The story of the Big Bang says that about 13 billion years ago the universe was hot and dense, but doesn't account for where that hot, dense universe came from. At that time 13 billion years ago, all the energy and all the matter that now exists, already existed in some form. It was just there. All that has happened since is that pre-existing energy and matter has gone through various changes in form to give us our familiar universe of today. So we don't really have an answer to our question "where did it come from?" More recently, a theory called "M Theory", which is an extension of String Theory, has speculated on the pre-Big Bang universe by means of objects called "branes" (derived from the notion of "membranes") whose interactions might lead to an event like the Big Bang. But if that idea catches on it just raises the further question: "where did the branes come from?"
It is sometimes said that using God as a means of answering the question "where did the universe come from?" with "God made it", only raises the further question "where did God come from?", and is therefore unsatisfactory. But this is true of any explanation. The more important problem with the "God made it" explanation is that it lacks detail, and is unsatisfying in that regard. It doesn't really tell us anything. How did God make it? We can always add God to whatever explanation science (that is: investigation) offers. "God decided there would be a Big Bang", "God decided there would be branes", "God decided the nature of atoms and physical laws". This satisfies the religionist without doing any damage to science or its pursuit. Because science cannot provide us with an answer regarding the first cause, or the overall design. It cannot answer or address the problem which is ultimately philosophical and metaphysical.
Antinomies
If the universe comes from anything but nothing, it comes from an earlier phase of the universe. Attempting to find an answer to the question "where did the universe come from?" immediately leads to two possibilities, either creation out of nothing at some point in time, which we feel is impossible and doesn't really explain anything; or an infinite recession of causes before causes stretching back for eternity; so that the universe has always existed, which likewise does not really explain anything, and requires that an infinite amount of time must first pass before this present moment can arrive. Where did the universe come from is an example of an "antinomy". An antinomy is where logic leads you to only two possibilities, each of which contradicts the other, and both of which are equally impossible. Another antinomy is the question of whether the universe is infinite or finite in spatial extent. If the universe is finite, then what is beyond it? If there is something beyond it, then we can just count that as part of the universe, more of the universe, and so that it is not really finite. If there is nothing beyond it ... well how can that be? If there is void beyond it, well that's just more space, and therefore more universe. How can there be "nothing" in the sense of not even void? An infinite universe implies an infinite amount of energy to run it, and if created, an infinite cause.Antinomies will be playing a significant role in our discussion. An antinomy isn't just a case of not having an answer to our question. They seem to suggest that there is something wrong with the question itself. Antinomies suggest a shortcoming in logic. Not that logic is wrong anywhere within its domain, but that it has a domain out of which it is not able to penetrate.
Imagining an infinite future time is not too hard, you just start at the present and imagine moving forward "without end". Imagining an infinite past is more problematic. Here again we would usually start at the present and work backwards "without end". But time does not go backwards. It goes forward. So we need to start at the beginning and move forward. But an infinite past offers no beginning. If we simply choose a starting point an infinite distance away in infinite time, and then move forward "without end" we will never reach the present. It is impossible by the definition of an infinite time. That's what "without end" means.
In General Relativity with its curved space, it may be possible to conceive of the universe as closed and finite. Travel far enough in any direction and you will return to your starting point. You can imagine how this might happen by imagining any flat plane taken through the whole universe, and then imagining that plane is actually the surface of a sphere in some "higher dimension". The surface of the Earth seems flat, but travel far enough in any direction and one day you will miraculously arrive back at your starting point. We might even imagine something similar happening to the time component of spacetime. So that time curls back on itself to form an actual loop (like the Ouroboros). The universe ends where it began and starts over, over and over again.
However, both of these scenarios (the one for space and the one for time) have similar implications. If we think the universe is closed and finite we immediately ask then: "What is outside it?" We start to wonder about other bubble universes all existing independently and floating around in some higher dimensional "space".
Time looping back on itself so that the initial conditions and final conditions are identical would doom the universe to an endlessly repeating cycle. But in this situation it is not really "time" that is repeating, but only events, and the second cycle of the universe will double the elapsed time, and so on, as seen by an outside observer sitting in the higher dimensional spacetime watching the inhabitants of the loop go round and round. Such a condition might prompt us to wonder how we can break out of the repeating cycle.
We haven't evaded the problem of the antinomies because we have not really resolved the problem of the limits of "space" and "time". We have only described the limits of "some space" and "some time". The hypothesis has no real impact on time itself, and introducing an additional dimension of space, has also introduced a whole new infinity. It doesn't matter how many dimensions of space and time we work with, the problem remains unchanged.
One solution might be to suggest the universe is finite and then simply forbid thinking about what's outside it.
"To ask what happened before the universe began is like asking for a point on the Earth at 91 degrees north latitude; it just is not defined. Instead of talking about the universe being created, and maybe coming to an end, one should say: 'The universe is.'"
("300 Years of Gravitation", by Stephen Hawking, p.651)
The religionist might similarly suggest that though the universe is created, having a beginning (and possibly an end) in time, its Creator is eternal and "just is", so that the questioning should end there. The answers to ultimate questions are hidden in the mystery of God.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) in his book "The Critique of Pure Reason" (1781(1st Ed.)/1787(2nd Ed.)) famously discussed the antinomies, causing a revolution in philosophy. He had the following to say.
"Human reason, in one sphere of its cognition, is called upon to consider questions, which it cannot decline, as they are presented by its own nature, but which it cannot answer, as they transcend every faculty of the mind."
("The Critique of Pure Reason" by Immanuel Kant (Preface to the first edition))
Kant concludes however that reason "falls into this difficulty without any fault of its own" (ibid), but rather due to a failure to determine the "rules and limits of its use" (ibid). He then points out that reason has the virtue of being able to do this for itself.
"For pure speculative reason has this peculiarity, that, in choosing the various objects of thought, it is able to define the limits of its own faculties ...."
("The Critique of Pure Reason" by Immanuel Kant (Preface to the second edition))
Kant sought to extend the techniques of reason to resolve these difficulties, but there is not general agreement that he succeeded in doing so. His criticisms of reason however had far reaching consequences. It is sometimes suggested that "everything must have a rational explanation", but philosophy shows that there is no rational basis for this declaration of faith. More recently the philosopher/logician/mathematician Kurt Godel (1906 - 1978) demonstrated what have become known as "Godel's incompleteness theorems". They say in essence that no formal logical proof can entirely free itself of baseless assumptions. You always have to start out with some assumptions and work from there, without being able to circle back and prove those assumptions later in their turn. The assumptions chosen will typically seem reasonable. We just have no way to demonstrate that they are true. Logic is not a completely self-contained (closed) system but includes unavoidable "loose ends" leading we know not where. We will encounter other antinomies as we proceed.
You may be thinking that infinite space and time seem like reasonable hypotheses, and so there is no antinomy. Our discussion has found fault primarily with the finite hypotheses. Kant's criticisms of the infinite hypotheses are in any case rather technical and debatable. But consider that these solutions also render meaningless the question of where the universe came from, or any account that attempts to use causation as explanatory of how or why the universe is. So how do we apply logic to it? And so, how can we say that such a question is within logic's domain?
An eternally existing universe and infinite space do not answer our questions of how or why things came to be. In the absence of a first cause or an external cause, the question becomes one of accounting for the internal design. Not in a causal sense, since it just is what it is. Rather, we choose, more or less arbitrarily, some quality we think the universe should have and use that as our organising principle, in place of causation. For instance we might decide, in place of causation, to use elegance and simplicity as the guide for deciding what is. The fundamental physical quantities of the universe like the force of gravity are what they are because they all fit together in an elegant way. So that the measure of elegance takes the place of cause. Why does a universe exist in which intelligent life arises to experience joy and love, pain and remorse? Because it is somehow "better" than the alternative. So that our universe is designed according to some value judgment. It is not enough to say that it is "fitter", because the very structure of the universe has already decided from the beginning what will be fitter. It might just as easily have decided that something altogether different was fitter. So why did the universe "choose" this state of being in particular, for itself and everything in it?
Alternatively we can make a flat statement that why the universe is the way it is simply cannot be accounted for. We can describe how it all fits together into a whole, or as much of the whole as we are aware of. We may assert that the essence of the universe is randomness, and it is only by chance that some elements appear to have been designed according to some criterion of good.
Really, is a first or outside cause the kind of explanation we are seeking anyway, when we ask for ultimate answers to questions of "how?" or "why?" No such answer can be satisfactory. The answer might as well be "42". In any theistic explanation we must in any case include "Why is God the way He is?" An infinite universe makes more sense than a finite one. Eternity makes more sense than a beginning or end of time. But how do we think about eternity and infinity? When we ask "how?" or "why?" in this context we are more concerned with our place within the scheme of things. How do you and I and our lives fit into this universe? If causal explanation does not apply. What kind of explanation does apply? Are we merely fending for ourselves in a random and indifferent universe? Or is there a greater scheme to the universe that we are an integral part of, with a role to play?
For convenience, in what follows, I will be using the term "antinomy" rather loosely as a label for questions that are in principle unanswerable, without necessarily abiding by Kant's definition, because this is the name he gave to the classic examples of such questions.
This article is called "The Scientific Creation Myth", but we have now actually completed that part of the article. The rest of the article will deal instead with world mythology and its reaction to the antinomy resulting from any purely rational explanation of the universe.
How did we get here? Why are we here? How did this universe we inhabit come to be and why is it the way it is? These are not new questions. Human beings have been asking them since the stone age, and all of our science has had no impact on these questions. These are not questions of physics, chemistry or biology. The technical details offered by science do not help us. And we do not only inhabit a universe of matter. We also inhabit a universe of feeling, perception and consciousness. We have become distracted by the detail of our physical explanations. Dispassionate explanation. Stone Age man included perception and feeling in the universe he interrogated for its meaning and intent. The universe he sought to call to account. Why did the universe put him here in the midst of all this beauty and terror? His explanations were drawn from the environment around him. A carnivorous world of monsters and combat.
Recent Christian theology and science offer us a reality composed of neat categories of good and evil. A worldview that was originally a revelation, but which has developed into a product of how insulated we have become from nature. A sanitised reality of sipping coffee, wiping down benchtops with disposable paper towels, and hoping not to say anything foolish in public. While God is in His heaven with a finely shampooed beard and a fresh pressed linen gown, all aglow in purity, and ready to advise us on the details of a moral life. The deaths of the animals we eat are hidden from us in great factories of execution. Anyone who dies in public is whisked away, or if that is not possible a screen is put up around them while their parts and fluids are collected. We are more afraid of terrorists and serial killers than the much more likely and much more terrible car crash or illness.
For the primitive, reality was a monster he must learn to live alongside. It was a violent contest for existence in a world that was out to get you. This is the world in which he asked his metaphysical questions of meaning and his moral questions of good. In disease, pain, decay, adrenalin, dirt, sweat and blood. It was his god who put him there, and who was with him in it, more or less. Some primitives were stupid, and some were smart, each having brains genetically like our own. The smart ones sought to lead the rest as best they could. To provide plausible meaning amongst all that chaos. Those same concerns are buried deep within us, beneath the veneer of civilization that allows us to forget where we are.
We are not allowed to question the goodness of God. Since we are told: "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5) To do so is to question faith itself. So for some the Devil and Eve's sin become the explain-all of everything wrong with the universe.
Ouroboros
In the Judeo-Christian Bible we have the story of a snake in a tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). But this imagery is a mere echo of something much grander, the tip of a mythological iceberg when considered in the context of religious symbolism throughout the world and down throughout history. A mythological relic preserved by the otherwise austere Jewish mind. In this section we will perform a somewhat rambling survey of some aspects of serpent/dragon symbolism in religion and mythology. And this will lead us into some related topics such as the Tree of Life and the Axis Mundi, and the status of the goddess. We begin with the proposition that the ouroboros serpent seeks to address the problem of first causes. Not in the sense of offering a reasoned solution, since none is possible, but rather as a kind of vivid allusion to something unknown and unknowable. We will then branch out from there into various other more or less unrelated serpent/dragon related themes. The purpose is to show a commonality among world myth and religion in the use of the serpent as a primary metaphor for a range of central concerns in myth and religion, and to touch on how these "serpent cult" notions have come to viewed and treated in the light of the rise of monotheistic patriarchal religion. This leads us into a consideration of a few of the other common symbols of world myth and religion that may make only a fleeting and obscure appearance within the confines of the Judeo-Christian Bible. In the course of it, I will at times give free reign to some wild speculation."I dreamt about the river last night. Only it wasn't a river. It was a big snake. I couldn't find the head or the tail of it. It had me wrapped up so tight... I just couldn't breathe."
(From the movie "The River" (1984) with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek)
We might think of the material creation as a river of causation, the origin (or head) of which is hidden in an antinomy, and the destination (or tail) of which is hidden in an antinomy. Not only physically inaccessible, but conceptually inaccessible to the material mind. We spend our physical lives within the body of this stream as if consumed by it.
"And then the one named Agha ['the evil one'] appeared on the scene, a great demon who could not tolerate the sight of their happy pastimes.... Thus having decided he assumed the wondrous form of a very, very large python that extended for miles. Therewith he occupied, as high as a mountain and with a mouth spread wide open like a mountain cave, that moment most wickedly the road in order to swallow the picnickers. Keeping his mouth wide open, his lower lip rested on the earth and his upper lip touched the sky. His teeth were like mountain peaks, the inside was pitch dark, his tongue resembled a broad road, his breath was like a warm wind and his fiery look was like a fire.... Meanwhile, all the boys and their calves had entered the belly of the demon, but they were not devoured.... They who had no one but Him now helplessly had moved away from His control to burn as straws in the fire of the belly of Aghâsura, death personified.... Gathering His thoughts the Lord, the Unlimited Seer, knew what to do and entered the mouth.... Krishna, the Supreme Lord who is never vanquished, immediately expanded Himself within the throat of the demon who tried to crush the boys and the calves in his belly.... After all life air had left the body and Krishna saw that the boys and calves lay dead, He, Mukunda, the Supreme Lord, brought them back to life whereupon He reappeared from the mouth in their company. From the body a most wonderful bright light issued that all by itself illumined the ten directions."
("Srimad Bhagavatam" (Bhagavata Purana), 10:12:13-33 (c. 800 - 1000 AD))
It is a commonplace in mysticism that outside of this stream exists eternity. Not perhaps an eternity in the sense of an infinity of time, but rather something outside of time, a state that somehow transcends time. The loose-ends of the chain of cause and effect imbue the material world with an incompleteness which therefore contrasts with notions of completeness, wholeness and unity. The other antinomies have similar implications, particularly those leading to infinite recessions. In fact, any aspect of the material world that is unexplainable in principle suggests something outside of it that can resolve the paradoxes and provide a unified explanation. While science answers many questions, these are not the questions religion is preoccupied with. The title of this article is not intended to suggest that the scientific creation story is untrue or dubious or of a merely relative validity. It is only intended to suggest that it is one of a collection of speculative narratives created by the human race to explain the universe. While it is more detailed and more carefully worked out than many of its mythological cousins, its focus is also somewhat different. In this sense it can be seen as complementary to, rather than a replacement for the others. When human beings ask the question: "Why?", it is not always a purely mechanical explanation they are seeking.
The Ouroboros is an ancient mystical symbol showing a serpent eating its own tail. While often trivially interpreted as representing a "cycle", it can be interpreted instead as representing transcendence of linear progress. The beginning and the end and everything in between are encompassed in a single state. In the Judeo-Christian bible, God describes Himself in the following terms.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
(Revelation 22:13)
Alpha (Α) and Omega (Ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet respectively. So the river of causation finds its unity in Him. The following image shows what is known as the "Orphic Egg". Orphism was an ancient Greek religion. The egg is a frequent symbol of "wholeness" and completeness, as exemplified by the egg's self-contained self-sufficiency, and therefore also representing the universe as whole. The circle or oval might be similarly used as symbols of wholeness. We are within the universe, but outside of the state of wholeness. Outside of the universe that transcends this universe. So that the egg represents the beyond. The serpent surrounds or circumnavigates the universe. Covering it from end to end. From our point of view the serpent stands between us and that universe. As one must pass the flashing sword to reach the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24), so one must pass the sting of the serpent to reach the egg and unity.
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| Orphic Egg |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Serpent-and-egg.svg where it is available as "in the public domain". The source of the image is "Art and Symbols of the Occult: Images of Power and Wisdom"
by James Wasserman.)
by James Wasserman.)
"I was come from abroad in order to take the pearl, and arouse the serpent against me."
("The Hymn of the Pearl", a Gnostic hymn from the apocryphal Acts of Thomas)
The association of the serpent and the mystical tree also extend beyond the Judeo-Christian Bible. In Greek mythology, a tree bearing golden apples in Hera's orchard in the west was guarded by a serpent.
"And Ceto [a primordial sea goddess] was joined in love to Phorcys [a primordial sea god] and bare her youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. This is the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys."
("The Theogony" of Hesiod, ll.333-336 (8th - 7th century BC))
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"The Garden of the Hesperides" by Frederic Leighton, c. 1892.
The three Hesperides, daughters of Night, are nymphs of evening and the golden light of sunset.
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperides
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| "Garden of the Hesperides", by Edward Burne-Jones, circa 1869-73. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Apples_of_the_Hesperides
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In Norse mythology, the gods retained their youth by consuming magic apples from a special tree. The apples were supplied by the goddess Idunn (Iðunn or Ydun), wife of Bragi, the god of poetry ("The Prose Edda", by Snorri Sturlson, Gylfaginning, XXVI, c.1200 AD). By granting eternal youth, the tree conferred immortality, and was therefore an instance of the "tree of life". In Irish mythology "a silver branch of the sacred apple-tree" was required "to enter the Otherworld before the appointed hour".
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| "Idunn and the Apples of Youth", by George Percy Jacomb-Hood. From "The Tragedy of the Norse Gods" by Ruth J. Pitt, 1893. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Iðunn
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, the tree of life appears in the form of the wish-granting tree Parijata, also called Kalpavriksha (Kalpa tree) or Kalpataru.
"Parijata, the great wish-granting tree, which in Hindu mythology surfaced from the primeval waters during the churning of the cosmic ocean, is said to blossom at the summit of Mt Meru in the centremost of Indra's five paradise gardens. Each of these gardens possesses its own central wish-granting tree, which are known as harichandana, kalpa, parijata, mandara, and santana. It is on account of the wish-granting tree that the asuras wage a perpetual war with the devas or gods, as the heavenly gods freely partake of its divine flowers and fruit, whilst the jealous demigods dwell in comparative poverty at the lower level of its trunk and roots.... It is described as having golden roots, a silver trunk, lapis lazuli branches, coral leaves, pearl flowers, gemstone buds, and diamond fruit.... A small wish-granting tree may also be depicted crowning the long-life vase held by longevity deities, such as Amitayus and Ushnishavijaya. The goddess Shramana-devi holds a jeweled branch of this tree in her left hand."
("The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols", by Robert Beer, p. 193)
"The Parijata Tree is the Hindu tree of the universe. It is owned by Indrani, the wife of Indra, and is planted in Swarge, the celestial dwelling place on Indrani and Indra.... Swarga is located between heaven and earth on Mount Meru. If the elderly gaze upon the magic wishing tree, they are reinvigorated. The Parijata Tree is said to yield all objects of desire."
("Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities", by Charles Russell Coulter and Patricia Turner, p. 373)
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| Kalpataru, the divine tree of life and wish-fulfilling tree. Guarded by mythical creatures; Kinnara and Kinnari; and divine beings; Apsara and Devata. Bas-relief from Pawon temple, 8th century AD, Java, Indonesia. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Gunawan Kartapranata. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpavriksha
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Amitayus (Amitābha), Buddha of Longevity, holding the long-life vase in his lap. The vase is topped by a jewelled Parijata tree. Thangka painting (detail), c. 1644 - 1911 AD. Exhibit at the Sichuan University Museum (四川大学博物馆), China. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Amitābha
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Ladon was the serpent-like dragon that twisted around the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides (Hera's orchard in the west) and guarded the golden apples. He was overcome by Heracles. In Norse mythology the serpent-dragon Níðhöggr gnaws at a root of the world tree Yggdrasil.
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| Heracles and Ladon (who guards the tree of the golden apples). Roman plate. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladon_(mythology)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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Herakles in the Garden of Hesperids,
Meidias Painter, Attic red-figured hydria, ca. 420–400 BC,
Hamilton collection, British Museum.Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Twospoonfuls. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Meidias_Painter
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The snake dwelling in the tree appears in a more ancient Babylonian myth of the goddess Inana (Inanna).
"At that time, there was a single tree, a single halub [Huluppu] tree, a single tree, growing on the bank of the pure Euphrates, being watered by the Euphrates. The force of the south wind uprooted it and stripped its branches, and the Euphrates picked it up and carried it away. A woman [Inana], respectful of An's words, was walking along; a woman, respectful of Enlil's words, was walking along, and took the tree and brought it into Unug [Uruk], into Inana's luxuriant garden.
"The woman planted the tree with her feet, but not with her hands. The woman watered it using her feet but not her hands. She said: 'When will this be a luxuriant chair on which I can take a seat?' She said: 'When this will be a luxuriant bed on which I can lie down?' Five years, ten years went by, the tree grew massive; its bark, however, did not split. At its roots, a snake immune to incantations made itself a nest. In its branches, the Anzud [Anzu] bird settled its young. In its trunk, the phantom maid [Lilitu (Lilith)] built herself a dwelling, the maid who laughs with a joyful heart. But holy Inana cried!"
("Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the nether world" (Old Babylonian Period (2000-1600 BC)))
Lilitu is a female Mesopotamian demon often compared to the Hebrew Lilith, who we will meet again in the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 1. Lilith sometimes appears as a female form of the serpent in the tree in the Garden of Eden.
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Adam, Eve, and the female serpent (Lilith) at the entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Rebecca Kennison. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
In Roman religion, the serpent appears guarding or within the mysterious "cista mystica" (secret casket) of Isis, a cylindrical wicker basket containing a vase containing models of the remains of Osiris.
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| Roman altar to the Egyptian goddess Isis. On one side is a serpent curled on a "cista mystica". On another side is Hermanubis. 2nd century AD, from the Colosseum, Rome. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Isis
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| One side of a Greek coin from 28 BC. Showing Pax, Roman goddess of peace, holding a caduceus. Behind her, a serpent is rising from a cista mystica. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cistophorus
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Cista mystica enveloped by a cobra. From a marble funerary altar, Flavian period (69-96 AD), Rome. Museo Terme di Diocleziano. Image from VROMA (www.vroma.org). |
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| Fresco from the East wall of the Sacrarium, Temple of Isis in Pompeii, 1st century AD. Now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. The top part of the image shows the transport of Osiris by Isis. The bottom part of the image shows two snakes approaching a wicker basket with a conical lid, decorated with a crescent moon. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Carole Raddato. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Frescos_from_Isis_Temple_of_Pompeii_(Naples)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Frescos_from_Isis_Temple_of_Pompeii_(Naples)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
"[T]here is a story in the 'Táin Bó Fraich' of an enormous serpent which guards a fort containing treasure.... Another treasure-guarding snake is recorded in Pembrokeshire by Giraldus Cambrensis: he describes a well containing a precious torc or neckring which is protected by a snake who bites potential thieves. Interestingly, this story has its counterpart in Norse myth, where supernatural snakes protect treasure: one such animal was Fafnir, a serpent killed by Sigurd the Volsung in order to get at the guarded treasure."
("Animals in Celtic Life and Myth" by Miranda Green, p.182)
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| "Cernunnos" type antlered figure or "horned god", holding a snake in one hand and a torc in the other. From the Gundestrup Cauldron, silver, c. 150 - 1 BC, National Museum of Denmark. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by National Museum, Roberto Fortuna and Kira Ursem. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundestrup_cauldron
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
A torc (neck ring) is itself reminiscent of an ouroboros.
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| Bronze Age Torc found in Ukraine |
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| Torque (neck ring) from north-western Iran, c. 1350-800 BC. |
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| Bronze, 4th-century BC, Celtic Torc from France. |
(These two images are taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Torcs
where they are available as "in the public domain".)
where they are available as "in the public domain".)
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| First known representation of the ouroboros. On one of the shrines enclosing the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun (18th dynasty). Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Djehouty. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
In Norse mythology, the Ouroboros takes the form of the World Serpent (Jormungandr) encircling Midgard (the world inhabited by humans) and Yggdrasil (the world tree), and bears some similarity to the biblical "Leviathan" (Job 41, Psalm 74:14, Isaiah 27:1, Revelation 13, The Book of Enoch (60:7)), the Babylonian "Tiamat", the Canaanite "Lotan" or "Tannin" ("אֶת-הַתַּנִּינִם" usually translated as "great creatures of the sea" or "great whales" in Genesis 1:21), the Hittite Hedammu, Hurrian Apse, the Egyptian "Apep" (or "Apophis"), Hindu "Shesha" (or "Sesa" ("the serpent Sesa ... who upholds the golden egg of the universe" ("The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India", by David Gordon White, p.215), "the female kundalini, who is explicitly identified with the serpent at the base of the cosmic egg, Sesa or, alternatively, Ananta, 'the endless one'" (ibid p.218), "In one myth Vishnu is sleeping on the primal serpent Ananata (Vasuki, Sesa) in the primal ocean of milk--beyond time and out of space" ("Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia - Volume 1", by David Adams Leeming, p.385))), also the "Naga Buddha" (Mucalinda protecting the Buddha), "Typhon" and "Python" of the Greeks, the "Rainbow Serpent" of Aboriginal Australia, and "Bakunawa" of the Philippines. In recent culture, the sacred tree appears at the end of the Alex Proyas movie "Knowing" (2009), and as symbol for universe and unity in the Darren Aronofsky movie "The Fountain" (2006). You can see Apophis in the movie "Gods of Egypt" (2016).
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| "The Ash Yggdrasil", by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1886). Shows the serpent Jormungandr in the water encircling Midgard and the serpent Níðhöggr among the roots. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"[Odin] cast the serpent into the deep sea, where he lies about all the land; and this serpent grew so greatly that he lies in the midst of the ocean encompassing all the land, and bites upon his own tail."
("The Prose Edda", by Snorri Sturlson (c. 1200 AD), Gylfaginning, XXXIV)
The ancient Greeks imagined the ocean as a great circular river, personified as the god Oceanus, encircling all the land of the flat earth. So this circular river shades into the great Ouroboros sea-serpent.
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| Engraving of an ouroboros by Lucas Jennis in the 1625 alchemical tract "De Lapide Philosophico". |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| "Allegory of human life" by Guido Cagnacci (1601–1663) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
A serpent or line represents linear progress, cause and effect. A serpent forming a ring represents eternity and transcendence. On the Gundestrup Cauldron "Cernunnos" holds the ring in one hand and a serpent in the other, but the Mesopotamian gods frequently held both the rod and ring in one hand, symbolising mastery over both heaven and Earth.
"A conjoined rod and ring appeared for millennia on cylinder seals, tablets, and stelae of ancient Mesopotamia. This unit evolved from a solitary depiction on a ca. 3000 b.c.e. cylinder seal to an emblem displayed by deities throughout the early first millennium b.c.e. Gods from the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2100 b.c.e.) held the rod and ring, as did deities of Old Babylon (ca. 1800 b.c.e.) and Neo-Assyria until about 700 b.c.e. Despite a long history and diverse applications throughout a large geographical region, the exact nature of the rod and ring remains a mystery. What did this motif mean to the ancients who sculpted it from stone? This article will review possible meanings presented by scholars and propose a new theory: the rod and ring, separate objects with distinct symbolisms, combine to represent life in its temporal and eternal aspects."
("A New Look at the Mesopotamian Rod and Ring: Emblems of Time and Eternity"
by Mary Abram (2011).)
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| Detail of the Tablet of Shamash (c. 888 - 855 BC), showing the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash (Utu) holding the rod and ring. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utu
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The thoughtful primitive recognised that one thing was caused by another, which immediately raises the question and puzzle of a first cause, and a cause of this. A thoughtful child can arrive at the same questions. The will of God as uncaused cause was the natural solution. The rod and ring parallels the Egyptian shen ring hieroglyph 𓍶 (Unicode character U+13376). We might compare the shen ring in turn with the Greek character omega Ω (Unicode character U+03A9).
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| "Vishnu and Lakshmi on Shesha Nāga", c. 1870 |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shesha
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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Cambodian statue of the Buddha shielded by the Naga Mucalinda.
The statue is dated between 1150 and 1175 A.D.
(Asian Arts Museum in San Francisco)
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(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(symbolism)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Manasa (Mansa Devi) Hindu goddess of snakes. Sister of Vasuki, king of snakes (nagaraja). Her daughter Astika is in her lap, 10th century Pala bronze from Bihar, India. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Manasa
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Hindu god Shiva's mastery over the great serpent extends as far as wearing Vasuki, king of serpents (nagaraja), as an ornament around his neck. We shall encounter Vasuki in the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 2, in the context of the samudra manthana ("churning of the ocean") to produce the nectar of immortality (Amrita, similar to the Greek ambrosia).
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| Shiva Monument, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Vasuki, king of snakes (nagaraja), is coiled around Shiva's neck. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Rajib Shome. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Shiva_Monument_Bangalore
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Varuna is one of the oldest of the Hindu gods. While originally a "king of the earth and sky", later he became the Hindu god of oceans ("Handbook of Hindu Mythology", by George Mason Williams). His ancient form is thought to be related to the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda. Varuna had a positive relationship with the water monster Makara. He is frequently represented as riding on Makara's back. Varuna's consort was Varuni, goddess of wine. As goddess of wine, Varuni has parallels with the Greek Dionysus. While Varuna was concerned with the enforcement of Ṛta (justice) and Satya (truth). Makara appears in a variety of forms, sometimes as a crocodile, sometimes as part fish, part mammal, sometimes with an elephant's trunk, the forepaws of a lion, or the tail of a peacock. Representations of Makara are found widely throughout Asia. The goddess Ganga (Ganges river) is also sometimes represented as riding on Makara. (See for instance the goddess Ganga rides on her makara vahana at the British Museum. For some other portrayals see Ganga by Shrestha Ramprakash (Nepal), or Ganga Maa descending on earth, or this, or this, or The Descent of Goddess Ganga (at Exotic India), or Ganga-Mayi Ki Jai by Yogeshvara.)
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| The God Varuna on his mount (vahana, "vehicle") Makara. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, painted sometime between 1675-1700, from Rajasthan, India. Now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varuna
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| The goddess Varuni (consort of Varuna) dancing on the sea-monster Makara. Snakes form a hood above her head and she holds a serpent in one hand. From a Hindu festival banner, 17th century AD, Nepal. Rubin Museum of Art (www.rubinmuseum.org), C2007.19.1, HAR69050, 69051. |
Like the Greek Oceanus, the ancient Hindus envisaged the ocean as comprising a great circle around all the land of a flat Earth. We therefore encounter ouroboros-like Makara in the form of jewellery. Instead of the head eating the tail, there is often a head at each end (the beginning and the end), facing each other. See for instance the following examples.
Bracelet with Makara Head Terminals, 19th century, Jaipur India, the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. Makara bracelets at the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac: bracelet 350416 (from Benares (Varanasi) India), bracelet 374670 (from Benares (Varanasi) India), bracelet 614139 (from Taiwan), bracelet 656393 (from Taiwan).
To see more examples, do an image search on "makara bracelet", or buy one on eBay. They are still quite popular. Torcs also sometimes had this motif of animal heads facing each other at each end, so that there is a "sameness" at the beginning and end, each a mirror image of the other.
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| Ribbed torc with lion heads, Achaemenid artwork from Susa, c. 350 BC. Department of Oriental Antiquities, Louvre Museum. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Torcs
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| The Trichtingen silver torc with bull heads, Art of the Celts, Historic Museum of Bern. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Rosemania. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Torcs
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Celtic torc ("Neck ring"), of the La Tène culture (450 BC - 1st century BC), found at Erstfeld in Switzerland. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Adrian Michael. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Goldschatz_von_Erstfeld
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Gold torque terminating in Scythian Horsemen. From the Northern Black Sea Region. 4th century BC. From The State Hermitage Museum. |
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| Torque, gold and turquoise, with the Figures of Beasts of Prey. Created in Iran, 5th - 3rd century BC. Found in Siberia, Russia. From The State Hermitage Museum. |
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| Arm ornaments. Gold. Greek, probably made in Alexandria, Egypt (220 - 100 BC). Coiled snakes are symbols of death and rebirth. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Wolfgang Sauber. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ptolemaic_jewellery
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
While jewellery may be purely decorative, there is reason to think these motifs held meaning for the ancients.
"Immediately in the fair way of the course of AFU-RA is a group of eight gods, called FAIU-NETERU, who bear on their shoulders a long pole-like object, each end of which terminates in a bull's head. This object is, intended to represent the long tunnel in the earth, each end of which was guarded by a bull, through which, according to one tradition, the night-Sun passed on his journey from the place of sunset to the place of sunrise. At intervals on the tunnel are seated seven gods called NETERU-AMIU, i.e., the "gods who are within," and they are intended to represent the guardians of the seven portions into which the tunnel was divided; the name given to the tunnel is "UAATA," i.e., "Boat of the Earth," but there is no doubt that it originally represented a kind of Tuat [underworld] which was complete in itself, as the bulls' heads, one at each end of it, prove."
("The Egyptian Heaven and Hell", by E. A. Wallis Budge, Volume III, 1906, pp. 125-126)
At this time, heaven and hell were both conceived to exist under the Earth, so that the underworld was also the afterlife in general. The Sun passed through this same underworld each night, entering at one end and emerging from the other, because the Earth was conceived to be flat. Swallowed at one end in the evening after sinking into the sea, to be regurgitated at the other the following morning before rising again out of the sea.
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| Double-headed serpent. Turquoise, red and white mosaic on wood, Aztec (Mexico). c. 1400–1521 AD. Now in the British Museum. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sara Branch. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Double-headed_serpent
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Relief carving from Sukuh Temple, Indonesia. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Bennylin. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Candi_Sukuh
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The god Siva wears "a makara-kundala [Makara earring] in his right ear and a patra-kundala [Patra earring] in his left" (Catalogue of the South Indian Hindu Metal Images in the Madras Government Museum). Krishna and some other Hindu gods may also wear Makara earrings.
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| Shiva statue, Bangalore, India, showing Makara earrings. Detail of photograph provided to Wikipedia by John Hoey. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Shiva_Monument_Bangalore
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| The elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha wore a serpent wrapped around his belly like a belt. From a 19th century Indian manuscript: Sritattvanidhi ("The Illustrious Treasure of Realities"). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ganesha_in_art
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Isis-Thermouthis, Louvre, 2nd - 3rd century AD. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Wikinade (cropped). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Isis-Thermuthis
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
As a circle, the disk of the sun can also stand as a symbol of wholeness, and thus of the universe as a whole. The sun disk and the Uraeus (a cobra with its head raised) were a common part of the symbolic headdress of the Egyptian gods, sometimes as in the case of the goddess Hathor, placed between a pair of cow horns. A few images such as the one below of the sun god Ra (Ré), make it clear that the serpent encircles the sun disk.
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| Drawing of the Egyptian Sun God Ra (Ré), showing the Uraeus encircling the sun disk. Illustration by Leon Jean Joseph Dubois, from "Panthéon Égyptien, collection des personnages mythologiques de l'ancienne Égypte", by Jean-François Champollion (1823). |
(Image found at: The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Book available at: The Internet Archive.)
Book available at: The Internet Archive.)
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| Detail from "Hathor and Seti I", Room 27, Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre.
Showing the head and tail of the Uraeus cobra dangling either side of the sun disk,
resting between horns as the headdress of the mother goddess Hathor.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Egyptian_Antiquities_of_the_Louvre
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The serpent represents variously: evil, chaos and time, power, sexuality, creation and death. It is the coils of sensuality and passion that grip the human condition. It has been used to embody the mixed emotions and forces of existence. Because it sheds its skin it is a symbol of renewal, and thus of resurrection, like the sun itself. The giant serpent is often represented as a sea serpent, reflective of its kinship with water, and so is reminiscent of another famous sea monster, Jonah's "huge fish", and possibly another parable of life in the belly of the material creation, out of the sight of heaven. A darkness akin to Plato's allegory of the cave ("The Republic", Book VII). The material existence is thus represented as a kind of journey through the underworld.
"Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: 'In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, "I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple." ...'"
(Jonah 1:15-2:4)
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| Jonah cast out by the fish. Illustration from "The story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation" (1873). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jonah_and_the_whale
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The fish later "vomited Jonah onto dry land" (Jonah 2:10). The story of Jonah and the whale also appears in the Qur'an (37:139-145). The Hindu god Vishnu when in the form of the fish Matsya was often represented as if he was being swallowed by the fish. Matsya saves Manu (the Hindu Adam) from the deluge, instructing him beforehand to build a boat (so that Manu is also the Hindu Noah).
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| Incarnation of Vishnu as a Fish (Matsya), preparing to slay the demon. From a devotional text (see "Indian Myths & Legends"). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsya
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In the study of mythology, parallels are drawn between the story of Jonah and the "whale" and similar events involving gods in other religions. For instance, the Hindu god Indra (god of lightning, thunder and storms) is swallowed by Vritra, a serpent or dragon, but the other gods force Vritra to vomit him up. Indra eventually succeeds in killing Vritra ("first-born of the dragons").
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| "Saturn Devouring His Son", by Francisco Goya (1819-1823) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Roman god Saturn (Greek Cronus) had several children by Ops (Greek Rhea): Vesta (Greek Hestia), Ceres (Greek Demeter), Juno (Greek Hera), Pluto (Hades) and Neptune (Greek Poseidon), but devoured each as soon as they were born. Pregnant again, Rhea sought to protect her next son Jupiter (Greek Zeus) from the same fate, and hid him from Saturn. When Zeus (god of lighting, thunder and storms) grew to maturity he forced Saturn to disgorge his siblings, and then he imprisoned Saturn and the other Titans in the underworld (Tartarus). (See "The Theogony", by Hesiod (c. 750 - 650 BC), ll. 453-735.)
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Jason being regurgitated by the snake who guards the Golden Fleece (which hangs on the tree in the background).
The goddess Athena stands to the right. From a cup by Douris (c.480-470 BC).
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The ancient Greek story of Jason and the Argonauts (crew of the Argo) told of the quest to obtain the "golden fleece", fleece of the magical, flying ram: Crius Chrysomallus (literally: "golden-fleeced ram" (also called Aries Chrysomallus)). The ram had been a gift to the cloud nymph Nephele from the god Hermes (see Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2nd Century AD). It had been born from the union of Poseidon (Roman Neptune, god of the sea and water) and Theophane (human daughter of Bisaltes, who was the semi-divine son of the gods Helios (sun god) and Gaia (earth goddess)). Poseidon had turned himself into ram, and Theophane into a ewe at the time. The fleece of the ram had been turned to gold by Hermes (see Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3rd Century BC). After rescuing Nephele's children (Phrixos (Phrixus) and Helle) from being sacrificed and carrying them to Colchis (modern Georgia), where the ram was sacrificed (on the instruction of Hermes (see Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3rd Century BC)), its fleece hung in the branches of an oak tree, in a grove sacred to the god Ares (Roman Mars, god of war), where it was guarded by the dragon ("offspring of Gaia" (see Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3rd Century BC)). The ram itself became the constellation Aries (the ram).
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| Jason, the Colchian Dragon and Golden Fleece, (presumably it is Medea's hand holding a bowl visible at the left) Apulian red-figure vase 4th Century BC, Naples National Archaeological Museum. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Golden_Fleece
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The story of exactly how Jason overcame the dragon varies somewhat. According to Pythian Pindar (5th Century BC), Jason "slew that drakon". According to Apollonius Rhodius (Argonautica, 3rd Century BC) Jason was assisted by Medea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis who made a potion "putting the guardian snake to sleep". We do not have a version of the story in which Jason is swallowed and then regurgitated by the serpent. We only have the 5th Century BC Douris cup indicating that there was such a variation.
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| The witch Medea drugs the dragon while Jason steals the golden fleece.
Illustration from "The Story of the Greatest Nations",
by Edward Sylvester Ellis and Charles Francis Horne (1913).
From a painting by Albert Pierre René Maignan (1845 - 1908).
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(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Golden_Fleece
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Golden Fleece is a convoluted story of intrigue. Medea fell in love with Jason because Hera (Roman Juno, goddess of women and marriage and wife of Zeus) in conspiracy with Athena (Roman Minerva, goddess of wisdom) had convinced Aphrodite (Roman Venus, goddess of love) to convince her son Eros (Roman Cupid, god of desire) to make it so. King Pelias (son of Tyro (a human princess) and the god Poseidon) had usurped the throne of Iolcus and Jason was the rightful heir. Jason had been hidden by his mother Alcimede when young, sent away to be raised by the centaur Chiron, so that Pelias would not murder him. Pelias later sent Jason on the quest to obtain the golden fleece expecting it to be a suicide mission. Hera wanted Jason's mission to be a success to punish Pelias. In the end, Pelias was murdered by his own daughters. The details of the behind the scenes activity in the story are intriguing because Hermes and Eros have some prominence in what follows. The anger of disenfranchised goddesses also has a place.
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| "The Murder of Pelias by His Daughters", by Georges Moreau de Tours (1878). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelias
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Aztecs of Central America had their serpent god Quetzalcoatl ("feathered serpent"), god of the wind; called Kukulkan or Ququmatz by the Maya.
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| Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent shown swallowing a man, in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Mayan "Vision Serpent" served as a gateway to the spirit world, conjured as an apparition through a ritual. Ancestors or deities could emerge from the mouth of the serpent. Instead of interpreting the serpent as an intermediary, we might consider it to be the underworld itself, sometimes allowing one of its inhabitants to communicate briefly with the outside world. Like the Agathos Daimon serpent, the Aztec vision serpent typically has a beard.
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| Lady Wak Tuun, one of the wives of king Bird-Jaguar IV during a bloodletting rite. Yaxchilan, Mexico, Late Classic Period. Lintel 15 of Structure 21. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Michel wal. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Vision_Serpent
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The theme of regurgitation reappears vividly in the case of the sea monster Makara. Since life comes from water, and the ancient view was that all existence emerged from out of a primordial watery chaos, Makara as representative of the ocean, could spew forth living things and other objects and substances from his mouth.
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| Multiheaded Naga (serpent) emerges from mouth of a Makara. At Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol, Amphoe Nong Phok, Roi Et Province, Thailand. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Makara
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Makara disgorging a lion-like creature. From a lintel from Sambor Prei Kuk temple, Kampong Thom City, Cambodia. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Makara
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Makara. Cham art from Vietnam, c. 990 - 1010, in the Musée Guimet. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by sailko. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Makara
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
A carved Makara head might be used for a fountain so that water issues from his mouth. Which may go some way toward explaining the origin of the peculiar fashion for fountains to have carved figures in them spewing water from their mouth.
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| Makara water spout at Maruhiti, Kathmandu, Nepal. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Kamal Ratna Tuladhar. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Makara
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Makaras appear in carvings above an entrance. Kumari Bahal (Kumari Courtyard), Kathmandu, Nepal. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Bgabel. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kumari_Bahal,_Kathmandu
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
A Makara head might be used as a decorative handle to some implement, so that the implement itself emerges from its mouth.
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| Vajra Flaying Knife, the blade emerging from the open mouth of a sculpted Makara head, ca. 15th century, Tibet. Steel inlaid with gold and silver. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. |
(This image is taken from https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2015/damascened-tibetan-knife
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Makara is the tenth sign in the Indian zodiac. Capricorn is the equivalent in the Western zodiac. Like Makara, Capricorn is depicted as part fish and part mammal, but the animal part is consistently a goat. The goatfish symbol is very ancient. It represented the Mesopotamian god of underground water (i.e., the water that comes from freshwater springs) Enki/Ea.
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| Goatfish figure representing the Mesopotamian god Enki/Ea, in a detail from a limestone basin used for ritual libations. Basin dates from the 13th or 12th century BC. Now in the Louvre museum, Paris, France. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cultual_bassin_ornated_with_fish-goats_(Louvre,_Sb_19)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The dragon and serpent are more or less interchangeable. In the book of Revelation we have the following.
"The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born."
(Revelation 12:4)
When the infant Zeus was being hidden from being consumed by Saturn, "Amalthea, the child's nurse, hung him in a cradle from a tree". Because Saturn ruled over sky, earth and sea, this was "so that he could be found neither in heaven nor on earth nor in the sea." (Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 139, 2nd Century AD). So the woman might try this tactic to conceal her child from the dragon, Satan. In the book of Revelation, the "enormous red dragon" appeared in heaven (Revelation 12:3), followed by the "beast coming out of the sea" (Revelation 13:1), followed by the "beast coming out of the earth" (Revelation 13:11). It was the dragon from out of heaven that had attempted to consume the child. There are more parallels in the description of protecting the unborn storm god Zeus from the consuming Saturn, and protecting the unborn child in Revelation from the consuming dragon.
"So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land of Crete, when she was ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her children. Him did vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete to nourish and to bring up." ("The Theogony", by Hesiod (c. 750 - 650 BC))
"The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.... the earth helped the woman" (Revelation 12:14-16 (c. 81 - 96 AD))
Eventually an angel "seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss...." (Revelation 20:2-3) So that Satan's fate parallels that of Saturn in Tartarus. If you look at the logo for Alfa Romeo, the automobile manufacturer, you will see a red cross on the left, and a serpent (wearing a crown) swallowing a person on the right. This image is taken from the coat of arms of the Visconti family who ruled Milan (where Alfa Romeo was founded) during the Middle Ages. In this context the serpent is referred to as the "biscione". The same emblem appears on the coat of arms of the Polish city Sanok and the seal of the Belarus town of Pruzhany. To be consumed by the serpent here appears to mean to go down into hell or death.
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Coat of arms of the City of Sanok in Poland.
Shows the biscione on the right and, presumably, the archangel Michael subduing Lucifer on the left.
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanok
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
During a lunar eclipse, the following song was sung by Hiligaynon children of the Philippines.
"Our moon long ago, long ago was eaten by the bakunawa please have pity, return it, return it the crown of our king."
(From "Bakunawa" by the World Heritage Encyclopedia)
In Norse mythology during the apocalyptic end of the universe called "Ragnarok", the monstrous wolf Fenris swallows Odin, killing him, while Fenris' sons swallow the sun and moon. When the Hindu monkey god Hanuman attempts to swallow the sun, Indra strikes him with a thunderbolt to prevent it. In Hittite mythology, Illuyanka (a serpentine dragon) is vanquished by the weather-god Tarhunt, closely associated with the Hurrian god Teshub (god of sky and storm) who wields a thunderbolt. In the Mesopotamian creation epic called the "Enuma Elish" (the name means "when on high" which is the first few words of the text), the Babylonian storm-god Marduk conquers the dragon Tiamat (primordial goddess of the sea).
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| Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal impression from the eighth century BC
which may depict the slaying of Tiamat from the Enûma Eliš.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Ben Pirard.
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiamat
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
"Then advanced Tiamat and Marduk, the counselor of the gods; to the fight they came on, to the battle they drew nigh. The lord spread out his net and caught her, and the evil wind that was behind him he let loose in her face. As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent, he drove in the evil wind, while as yet she had not shut her lips. The terrible winds filled her belly, and her courage was taken from her, and her mouth she opened wide. He seized the spear and burst her belly, he severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart. He overcame her and cut off her life; He cast down her body and stood upon it.... He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; one half of her he stablished as a covering for heaven. He fixed a bolt, he stationed a watchman, and bade them not to let her waters come forth. He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions thereof, and over against the deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud (god of waters)."
(Enuma Elish)
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The sky/weather god Tarhunt (Teshub) killing the serpent/dragon Illuyanka. Neo-Hittite: 850-800 BC.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Georges Jansoone (JoJan).
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuyanka
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| The Egyptian creator god Atum and the giant serpent Apophis (Apep, embodying darkness and chaos), whose brother and enemy was Ra the sun god, and whose mother was the creator goddess Neith. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Hebrew prophets knew Tiamat as Rahab, and so we have Yahweh victorious: "By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent." (Job 26:12-13). The Canaanite god was "Baal" (Bel), a storm-god who likewise had a victory over the many-headed sea-dragon Lotan.
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| "The Destruction of Leviathan", by Gustave Doré (1865) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotan#/media/File:Destruction_of_Leviathan.png
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| The Japanese storm god Susanoo slaying the dragon Yamata no Orochi, painted by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Susano_o_no_mikoto
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The three Japanese deities: Susanoo (the storm god who ruled the "Sea-Plain"), Amaterasu (the Sun goddess who ruled the "Plain-of-High-Heaven") and Tsukuyomi (the Moon god who ruled the dominion of "Night") were "born" from the god Izanagi. There was antagonism between Amaterasu and her brother Susanoo. When he came to visit her she said: "The reason of the ascent hither of His Augustness my elder brother is surely no good intent. It is only that he wishes to wrest my land from me" and promptly armed herself with bow and arrows. Her brother reassured her saying: "I have no evil intent", but then he "broke down the divisions of the rice-fields laid out by [Amaterasu], filled up the ditches, and moreover strewed excrements in the palace". Amaterasu reasons: "as to his breaking down the divisions of the rice-fields and filling up the ditches, it must be because he grudges the land [they occupy]". After which Susanoo "broke a hole in the top of the weaving hall, and through it let fall a heavenly piebald horse which he had flayed".
Later, after slaying the dragon Yamata no Orochi "at the head-waters of the River Hi", Susanoo finds a sword inside its body. "So he took this great sword, and, thinking it a strange thing, he respectfully informed [Amaterasu]. This is the Herb-Quelling Great Sword. So thereupon [Susanoo] sought in the land of Idzumo for a place where he might build a palace. Then he arrived at a place [called] Suga, and said: 'On coming to this place my august heart is pure,'--and in that place he built a palace to dwell in." ("KO-JI-KI : Records of Ancient Matters", translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan - Supplement to Volume X, pp.52-75)
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| "Krishna kills Aghasura", Pigments on paper, India, 1675 - 1700. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aghasura
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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Cadmus and the dragon (guardian of the sacred Ismenian spring),
black-figured amphora from Euboea, ca. 560–50 BC, from the Louvre
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Cadmus was the founder and first king of Thebes. Near the site of Thebes was the Ismenian spring sacred to Ares (Roman Mars, god of war), guarded by a giant serpent, sometimes described as Ares' child. Cadmus killed the serpent, and the removed teeth of the serpent reappear in the story of the golden fleece where they are given to Jason. Ares punished Cadmus for killing his serpent by turning both Cadmus and his wife Harmonia (Roman Concordia, goddess of harmony and daughter of Aphrodite (Roman Venus) and Ares) into serpents themselves. Cadmus and Harmonia were the grandparents of Dionysus (Roman Bacchus, god of wine) by their daughter Semele.
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| "Cadmus slays the dragon" by Hendrik Goltzius (painted sometime between 1573 and 1617). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The transformation of Cadmus and Harmonia into serpents is described in the Roman poet Ovid's "Metamorphoses".
"Then shriek'd Harmonia, Stay, my Cadmus, stay, glide not in such a monstrous shape away! Destruction, like impetuous waves, rouls on. Where are thy feet, thy legs, thy shoulders gone? Chang'd is thy visage, chang'd is all thy frame; Cadmus is only Cadmus now in name. Ye Gods, my Cadmus to himself restore, or me like him transform; I ask no more. The husband-serpent show'd he still had thought, with wonted fondness an embrace he sought; play'd 'round her neck in many a harmless twist, and lick'd that bosom, which, a man, he kist. The lookers-on (for lookers-on there were) shock'd at the sight, half-dy'd away with fear. The transformation was again renew'd, and, like the husband, chang'd the wife they view'd. Both, serpents now, with fold involv'd in fold, to the next covert amicably roul'd. There curl'd they lie, or wave along the green, Fearless see men, by men are fearless seen, still mild, and conscious what they once have been."
("Metamorphoses", by Ovid (8 AD))
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| "Cadmus and Harmonia", by Evelyn De Morgan (1877). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonia
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
When the Greek thunder-god Zeus (who wielded a thunderbolt) rose to power by overthrowing the previous generation of gods, the Earth goddess Gaia (his grandmother) became angry with him. She mated with Tartarus (the deep abyss) and gave birth to Typhon, a monstrous serpent who battled with, but was ultimately vanquished by Zeus. ("The Theogony" by Hesiod, 8th - 7th century BC)
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Zeus aiming his thunderbolt at a winged and snake-footed Typhon.
Chalcidian black-figured hydria (c. 540–530 BC)
(See "The Theogony", by Hesiod (c. 750 - 650 BC), ll. 820-868) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhon
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| "Apollo and the Python", by Jan Boeckhorst, 17th century. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Python_(mythology)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"Leto (Latona) was the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe. She was gifted with wonderful beauty, and was tenderly loved by Zeus, but her lot was far from being a happy one, for Hera, being extremely jealous of her, persecuted her with inveterate cruelty, and sent the dreadful serpent Python to terrify and torment her wherever she went."
("A Hand-Book of Mythology: the Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome"
by E. M. Berens)
Heracles (Herakles "pride of Hera", Roman Hercules) was the son of Zeus and the human woman Alcmene, who was the granddaughter of Perseus and Andromeda. Heracles was famously given "Twelve Labours" to perform by Eurystheus king of Tiryns, twelve difficult tasks, of which number two was to slay the Lernaean Hydra. The Hydra was a monster that lived in the Lerna lake. It was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna (another monster, half-woman and half-snake). Other offspring of Echidna include the Sphinx and Cerberus the multiheaded dog that guards the gates of Hades.
Near to Lerna is the place "they say that Pluto [Hades], after carrying off, according to the story, Core [Kore ("the maiden"), Persephone], the daughter of Demeter [Roman Ceres], descended here to his fabled kingdom underground." Also nearby is "the Spring of Amphiaraus and the Alcyonian Lake, through which the Argives say Dionysus went down to Hell to bring up Semele". Its was said there is "no limit to the depth of the Alcyonian Lake". (Pausanias, Book 2, 2nd Century AD.)
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| "Hercules and the Hydra" by Antonio del Pollaiolo, circa 1475. The (Lernaean) Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
After completing the twelve labours Hercules joined the Argonauts in the search for the Golden Fleece. It was while on this voyage that he killed the Trojan Cetus (sea-monster).
"Poseidon, as the story runs, became angry with Laomedon the king of Troy in connection with the building of its walls, according to the mythical story, and sent forth a Ketos (Cetus, Sea-Monster) to ravage the land. By this monster those who made their living by the seashore and the farmers who tilled the land contiguous to the sea were being surprised and carried off.... Consequently the common crowd gathered together into an assembly and sought for a deliverance from their misfortunes, and the king, it is said, dispatched a mission to Apollon to inquire of the god regarding what had befallen them. When the oracle, then, became known, which told that the cause was the anger of Poseidon and that only then would it cease when the Trojans should of their free will select by lot one of their children and deliver him to the monster for his food, although all the children submitted to the lot, it fell upon the king's daughter Hesione. Consequently, Laomedon was constrained by necessity to deliver the maiden and to leave her, bound in chains, upon the shore. Here Herakles, when he had disembarked with the Argonauts and learned from the girl of her sudden change of fortune, rent asunder the chains which were about her body and going up to the city made an offer to the king to slay the Ketos (Sea-Monster)."
("Library of History" by Diodorus Siculus, 1st Century BC)
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| "Hercules rescuing Hesione from the Sea Monster", from "Scenes from the Labors and Exploits of Hercules", by François-Alexandre Verdier (c. 1651 - 1730) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesione
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
During a quick summary of Heracles' accomplishments, the Greek poet Lycophron gives a rather obscure description of Heracles' encounter with the Trojan Cetus that suggests he was swallowed by it in the course of the battle.
"She [Hesione] it was that the babbler, the father of three daughters, standing up in the council of his townsmen, urged should be offered as dark banquet for the grey hound [the Ketos (Sea-Monster)], which with briny water was turning all the land to mud, spewing waves from his jaws and with fierce surge flooding all the ground. But, in place of the woodpecker [Hesione], he swallowed in his throat a scorpion [Herakles] and bewailed to Phorkys (Phorcys [a primordial sea god]) the burden of his evil travail, seeking to find counsel in his pain.”
("Alexandra" by Lycophron, 3rd Century BC)
The story of Hercules and the Trojan sea-monster has obvious similarities to the story of Perseus rescuing Andromeda, princess of the kingdom of Aethiopia, from a sea-monster. Akrisios (Acrisius) king of Argos had locked away his daughter Danae to prevent her becoming pregnant with a son who had been prophesied to kill him. Zeus paid Danae a visit and the result was Perseus. Heracles was the great grandson of Perseus and Andromeda.
"Cassiope claimed that her daughter Andromeda's beauty excelled the Nereids' [sea nymphs]. Because of this, Neptunus [Poseidon] demanded that Andromeda, Cepheus' daughter, be offered to a sea-monster. When she was offered, Perseus, flying on Mercurius' [Hermes] winged sandals, is said to have come there and freed her from danger."
("Fabulae" by Pseudo-Hyginus, 2nd Century AD)
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| "Perseus and Andromeda", by Giuseppe Cesari (1602). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Chained_to_the_Rocks
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"Then Beowulf came as king this broad realm to wield; and he ruled it well fifty winters, a wise old prince, warding his land, until one began in the dark of night, a dragon, to rage. In the grave on the hill a hoard it guarded, in the stone-barrow steep. A strait path reached it, unknown to mortals. Some man, however, came by chance that cave within to the heathen hoard. In hand he took a golden goblet, nor gave he it back, stole with it away, while the watcher slept, by thievish wiles: for the warden’s wrath prince and people must pay betimes!... When the dragon awoke, new woe was kindled. O’er the stone he snuffed. The stark-heart found footprint of foe who so far had gone in his hidden craft by the creature’s head.... The guardian waited ill-enduring till evening came; boiling with wrath was the barrow’s keeper, and fain with flame the foe to pay for the dear cup’s loss.... Then the baleful fiend its fire belched out, and bright homes burned. The blaze stood high all landsfolk frighting. No living thing would that loathly one leave as aloft it flew.... To Beowulf then the bale was told quickly and truly: the king’s own home, of buildings the best, in brand-waves melted, that gift-throne of Geats. To the good old man sad in heart, ’twas heaviest sorrow.... With comrades eleven the lord of Geats swollen in rage went seeking the dragon. He had heard whence all the harm arose and the killing of clansmen; that cup of price on the lap of the lord had been laid by the finder. In the throng was this one thirteenth man, starter of all the strife and ill, care-laden captive; cringing thence forced and reluctant, he led them on till he came in ken of that cavern-hall, the barrow delved near billowy surges, flood of ocean. Within ’twas full of wire-gold and jewels; a jealous warden, warrior trusty, the treasures held, lurked in his lair."
("Beowulf" (XXXI-XXXIV), ll.2207-2415 (c. 975 - 1025 AD),
translated by Francis Barton Gummere)
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| "Beowulf face to face with the fire-breathing dragon", illustration from "Myths and legends of all nations", by Logan Marshall (1914). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Many of these stories of heroes battling dragons and serpents are mere adventure stories, but these are still not distinct from their mythological meanings. Because living is a heroic enterprise. Battling the monster is much a part of living, and courage integral to its meaning. Integrity and righteousness are in the end acts of courage. It is our own personal battle with the monsters of fear, darkness, hatred, evil and despair. Played out again in almost every novel ever written and almost every movie ever made.
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| Kaliya's wives pray to Krishna to release their subdued husband, the serpent Kaliya. Illustrating an episode from the Bhagavata Purana (c. 800 - 1000 AD). Colours on paper, National Museum, New Delhi, c. 1785-1790 AD. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kaliya
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
See here for another representation of Krishna subduing the serpent Kaliya.
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| Hindu god Garuda battling a pair of Nagas. Hoysaleshvara Temple, Halebid, India. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by G41rn8. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Garuda_in_India
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The Hindu god Garuda may appear as part man and part bird, as above, or entirely as a bird, a kite (similar to a hawk or an eagle), as below. See here for a representation of Garuda in battle. Garuda was the enemy of the nagas (serpents).
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| Garuda was the vehicle (vahana) of the god Vishnu. Painting by Raja Ravi Varma (1848 - 1906). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
There are many ancient Greek and Roman coins depicting an eagle gripping a snake in its talons or its beak, sometimes with a lightning bolt on the opposite side of the coin. For a couple of not very clear examples see for instance "Bronze coin of Amyntas III of Macedonia" (393-370 BC) or "Silver drachm of Chalkis in Euboia" (340-294 BC). You may find some better examples searching on "eagle AND snake" at the Coin Archives, a website for the auctioning of ancient coins. The Romans called the eagle "Aquila". The eagle carrying a thunderbolt in its talons is known as the "Eagle of Zeus" (Aetos Dios).
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| "Aquila and serpent" (c. 29-27 BC), detail of the Arch of the Sergii, an Ancient Roman triumphal arch located in Pula, Croatia. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Arch_of_the_Sergii_(Pula),_closeups
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Eagle and Snake, 6th century AD mosaic flooring Constantinople, Grand Imperial Palace. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Nina Aldin Thune. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosaics_in_Great_Palace_Mosaic_Museum
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosaics_in_Great_Palace_Mosaic_Museum
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| The coat of arms of Mexico depicts an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus devouring a rattlesnake. The imagery is based on the legend of the founding of Mexico City, originally called Tenochtitlan. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Mexico
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
At the end of the world, in a prophesied episode referred to as Ragnarok ("Fate of the gods") or Ragnarokkr ("Twilight of the gods"), the other gods do battle against Loki (the sometime enemy of the other gods), and his offspring: Hel (goddess of the underworld), the giant wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr ("huge monster", also called "Miðgarðsormr" or "Mithgarthsorm", meaning "Midgard [world] serpent"). The great sea-serpent Jörmungandr was "girdler of all the earth" (The Poetic Edda: Hymiskvitha, 23). At the onset of Ragnarok: "In giant-wrath does the serpent writhe; o'er the waves he twists" ("The Poetic Edda": Voluspo, 50). The thunder god Thor does battle with the serpent. "The bright snake gapes to heaven above; against the serpent goes Othin's [i.e., "Odin's"] son. In anger smites the warder of earth, forth from their homes must all men flee". Although Thor vanquishes the world serpent, he dies himself soon after as a result of the strain or his wounds. "Nine paces fares the son of Fjorgyn ["earth", Thor's mother], and, slain by the serpent, fearless he sinks" ("The Poetic Edda": Voluspo, 56). Odin ("joy of Frigg [wife of Odin]") dies fighting the wolf Fenris (Voluspo, 53). After this: "The sun turns black, earth sinks in the sea" (Voluspo, 57). However the destruction is followed immediately by the world's rebirth: "the earth anew rise all green from the waves again" (Voluspo, 59). And the gods "meet together, of the terrible girdler of earth they talk, and the mighty past they call to mind" (Voluspo, 60).
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| "Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent", by Henry Fuseli (1790) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
After Armageddon the new world will be better than the old. "In wondrous beauty once again shall the golden tables stand mid the grass, which the gods had owned in the days of old. Then fields unsowed bear ripened fruit, all ills grow better.... There shall the righteous rulers dwell, and happiness ever there shall they have. There comes on high, all power to hold, a mighty lord, all lands he rules." (Voluspo, 61-65). The source documents for Norse mythology date from the 13th century AD, well into the Christian era, and so they are thought to show some Christian influence. Compare also Perun, the Slavic god of thunder and lightning, versus Veles.
"When she was there S. George passed by, and when he saw the lady he demanded the lady what she made there and she said: Go ye your way fair young man, that ye perish not also. Then said he: Tell to me what have ye and why weep ye, and doubt ye of nothing. When she saw that he would know, she said to him how she was delivered to the dragon. Then said S. George: Fair daughter, doubt ye no thing hereof for I shall help thee in the name of Jesu Christ. She said: For God's sake, good knight, go your way, and abide not with me, for ye may not deliver me. Thus as they spake together the dragon appeared and came running to them, and S. George was upon his horse, and drew out his sword and garnished him with the sign of the cross, and rode hardily against the dragon which came towards him, and smote him with his spear and hurt him sore and threw him to the ground. And after said to the maid: Deliver to me your girdle, and bind it about the neck of the dragon and be not afeard. When she had done so the dragon followed her as it had been a meek beast and debonair. Then she led him into the city, and the people fled by mountains and valleys, and said: Alas! alas! we shall be all dead. Then S. George said to them: Ne doubt ye no thing, without more, believe ye in God, Jesu Christ, and do ye to be baptized and I shall slay the dragon. Then the king was baptized and all his people, and S. George slew the dragon and smote off his head, and commanded that he should be thrown in the fields, and they took four carts with oxen that drew him out of the city."
("The Golden Legend", by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275 AD.)
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| "Saint George and the Dragon", 15th century |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Saint_George_and_the_Dragon
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The story of St George is also thought to derive partly from the popular early Medieval hero known as the "Thracian Horseman". (See for instance: "Thracian Hero", 2nd century A.D. High relief in limestone. At The UNESCO Works of Art Collection. (note the serpent in the tree)) The Thracian Horsman in turn evolved from Sabazios, the sky god of the Phrygians and Thracians, who was often depicted riding a horse.
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| A silver plaque with an image of Sabazios of Belintash (Bulgaria). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Kmrakmra. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sabazios
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| "St. Michael" by Raphael, 1504 or 1505. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael_(Raphael)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."
(Revelation 12:7-9 (c. 81 - 96 AD))
"The male cat is Ra himself, and he is called Maau.... As to the fight by the Persea tree hard by, in Annu, it concerneth the children of impotent revolt when justice is wrought on them for what they have done. As to [the words] 'that night of the battle,' they concern the inroad [of the children of impotent revolt] into the eastern part of heaven, whereupon there arose a battle in heaven and in all the earth.... As concerning the words 'that night of the reckoning of destruction,' it is the night of the burning of the damned, and of the overthrow of the wicked at [the sacred] block, and of the slaughter of souls."
("The Egyptian Book of the Dead" (c. 1250 BC), by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 287-288)
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| The sun god Ra, represented as a cat, kills the serpent of darkness with a knife. Detail from the papyrus of Hunefer. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Apep
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In Egyptian mythology, Nut (goddess of the sky) swallows the sun-god Ra every night, and gives birth to him each morning. The sun's journey "under the earth" each night is paralleled to being swallowed and later regurgitated, and these associated with ideas of death and rebirth. The mythological motif is sometimes referred to as the "night sea journey". When the Earth was thought to be flat and surrounded by ocean, the sun appeared to sink into the sea in the West, and emerge from it again in the East, passing beneath the waters during the night. The death and rebirth motif was incorporated into religious ceremonies.
"The icon, a familiar one on the Eastern Mediterranean, survived in Orphic art, where it represented a ritual ceremony of initiation: the initiate was swallowed by the Universal Mother, the sea-monster, and re-born as an incarnation of the Sun-god."
("The White Goddess" by Robert Graves, p.480)
So too in the Christian baptismal rite, particularly that involving full submersion, the creature is ritually returned to Nu, to re-emerge as a new creation, sensuously united to a primal continuum of spirit, having passed through its own fleeting night sea journey. The following describes part of the passage of the sun through the underworld each night.
"Here is the five-headed serpent ASHT-HRAU, and on his back lies the dead Sun-god; with his right hand, which is raised above his head, he is drawing to himself the Beetle of KHEPERA, which is the type of regeneration, or new birth, or resurrection."
("The Egyptian Heaven and Hell", by E. A. Wallis Budge, Volume III, 1906, p.149)
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Centre panel from a triptych showing the
Japanese Sun Goddess Amaterasu emerging from a cave.
19th century. Title: "Iwato kagura no kigen" (岩戸神楽之起顕),
by Shunsai Toshimasa (春斎年昌).
|
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Amaterasu_ōmikami
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Jesus draws a parallel between the time he will spend in his tomb prior to his own resurrection, and Jonah's time in the belly of the fish.
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
(Matthew 12:40)
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| Jesus emerges from the tomb. "The Resurrection", by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1881. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Religious_paintings_by_Carl_Bloch
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Victory over the beast could also be represented by standing on it.
"Another form of Ptah was Ptah-Seker-Ausar.... He is represented as a dwarf standing upon a crocodile, and having a scarabaeus [sacred scarab beetle] upon his head; the scarab is the emblem of the new life into which the deceased is about to break, the crocodile is the emblem of the darkness of death which has been overcome."
("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. cviii)
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| Egyptian god Ptah-Patek. It was an amulet for curing bites. The god holds knives and walks on crocodiles.
On the sides are statues of the goddesses Isis and her sister Nepthys.
4th - 3rd century BC. Louvre museum (Paris, France).
The Greek name Pataikos comes from a passage in the writings of Herodotus (c. 5th century BC),
who used this term to describe a Phoenician protective dwarf-like image.
The Egyptian Pataikos is a special manifestation of the creator god Ptah.
The dwarf-like appearance symbolizes his magical power. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pataikos_amulets
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
 |
Copy of a cippus showing Horus, the son of the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris,
standing on crocodiles and holding snakes. A "cippus" is normally a road or tomb marker.
This example said to have been used to ward off wild animals or cure poisonous bites.Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Wellcome Images. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cippus_of_Horus
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Alexandrian Serapis (from: "Osiris-Apis") standing on a crocodile. Etching from Willem Goeree (1700) "Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke", reprinted in Manly P. Hall (1928) "The Secret Teachings of All Ages". |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Serapis
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Depiction of Zoroaster in "Clavis Artis", an alchemy manuscript, published in Germany in the late 17th or early 18th century AD. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroaster
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Egyptian god of resurrection was Osiris, by virtue of his own death and resurrection.
"the doctrine of immortality, gained through the god [Osiris] ... had remained unchanged for at least four thousand years of its existence."
("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. cxiv)
The resurrection of Osiris was facilitated by his sister wife Isis. There is a nice painting ("Isis and Osiris") by Susan Seddon Boulet (1941-1997) depicting Isis over what is presumably the temporarily deceased Osiris. Jesus did not have an Isis to look out for him. Instead he had the two Marys: his mother and Mary Magdalene.
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| "Pietá" (Pity), a sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1498 – 1499. In St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Gary Ullah. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pietà_in_Saint_Peter%27s_Basilica
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
As tends to happen in mythology, various ideas blur into each other in various myths. But in broad terms we have a comparison between life in the flesh and a period spent in the underworld or the grave, in the belly of the beast. But like the sun each morning, we are finally released from this period of captivity and reborn, born again in a kind of victory, or that the enemy has been vanquished by a god on our behalf.
"The Basutos [Sotho people (Basotho) of southern Africa] have their myth of the hero Litao-lane; he came to man's stature and wisdom at his birth; all mankind save his mother and he had been devoured by a monster [Kammapa]; he attacked the creature and was swallowed whole, but cutting his way out he set free all the inhabitants of the world. The Zulus tell stories as pointedly suggestive. A mother follows her children into the maw of the great elephant, and finds forests and rivers and highlands, and dogs and cattle, and people who had built their villages there; a description which is simply that of the Zulu Hades. When the Princess Untombinde was carried off by the Isikqukqumadevu, the 'bloated, squatting, bearded monster,' the King gathered his army and attacked it, but it swallowed up men, and dogs, and cattle, all but one warrior; he slew the monster, and there came out cattle, and horses, and men, and last of all the princess herself."
("Primitive Culture" by Edward B Tylor, p.338)
We should not make too much of this negative representation of life on Earth, but take it as merely a comparison. As life on Earth is to life in the underworld, so the afterlife is to life on Earth. Nor should we feel obliged to assume the cycle merely repeats as it does for the sun each night. The comparisons can be selective. The imagery of the night sea journey can be applied to any period of difficulty.
Because the snake has a head and a tail but no arms or legs it is little more than a vector with a personality. It is therefore well suited to represent a one-dimensional linear progress such as the flow of time, pulling us on like a current. The sinusoidal, wavy motion of the serpent also gives it associations with water, as does its slippery simplicity. The soulless cruelty of the serpent has parallels with the implacable progress of time and the machinery of the material creation, and the sensuousness of the serpent conjures all the goods of living in the midst of death (mortality). It is difficult to think of a creature more primal in basic form. In form then, we might consider it as just a single step removed from the primeval waters, so that there are close associations between the sea and the serpent, water as creature. It is natural to conceive it as the first living thing to emerge from inanimate matter, or the first living form to emerge from chaos. It is easy to imagine a serpent slithering into the water becoming water, and a serpent slithering out of the water as water taking form and slithering onto the land. It is easy to see the serpent as the spirit of a river and the creator of the river valley.
In some ancient Egyptian creation myths, the creator god Atum stands of a mound of earth in the midst of the primeval waters (Nu) to perform his acts of creation. In some of these myths his initial emergence from the waters is also described.
"Atum was also said to have ascended from the chaos-waters with the appearance of a snake.... Atum has taken on his human shape after the Chaos powers had been defeated."
("Atum" in "Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible"
by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst; p.121)
At the end of the universe, Atum returns to his serpent form and slithers back into the waters, returning the world to chaos. This description parallels the universe that is ended by flood, as in Ragnarok. When the continents disappear beneath the surface of the waters, they have returned to the primordial medium from which they came. The serpent also appears in Egyptian mythology in the form of Cnouphis (or Chnoubis).
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| Ammon-Cnouphis (or Ammon-Chnoubis), "the Great Soul of the Universe".
Illustration by Leon Jean Joseph Dubois,
from "Panthéon Égyptien, collection des personnages mythologiques de l'ancienne Égypte",
by Jean-François Champollion (1823).
|
(Image found at: The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Book available at: The Internet Archive.)
Because of the frequent comparisons made with the dying and resurrected Christ, the notion of the universal presence of a motif of "the dying and rising god" in the form of the setting and rising sun and the disappearance of life in winter and its re-emergence in Spring has become a contentious issue, its existence outside of the Near Eastern religions and their derivatives questioned, as well as its existence as a clear-cut "type".
"However, in 2001 Tryggve Mettinger affirms that many of the gods of the mystery religions die (often violently), descend to the underworld, are lamented and retrieved by a woman (usually a fertility or earth goddess), and are restored to life, for at least part of each year. Reviewing the critical literature along with primary sources and some important material that was not seen until recently, Mettinger concludes, 'The world of ancient Near Eastern religions actually knew a number of deities that may be properly described as dying and rising', although he adds that 'One should not hypostasize these gods into a specific type "the dying and rising god." On the contrary, the gods mentioned are of very different types, although we have found tendencies to association and syncretism'."
("Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature", by Jane Garry and Hasan El-Shamy, p.19-20)
Among the Aztecs of ancient Central America we find the following.
"Unlike the primordial bird of the creator gods and the cosmic powers incarnating the fundamental forces (earth, wind, water, and fire), Hun Nal Ye, Hun Hunahpu, and Quetzalcoatl are humanized gods. They suffer persecutions, fears, threats, and losses. Their lives are a drama that goes through death and culminates in resurrection. The three are connected to retrieving corn from the depths of the earth, making human beings from corn dough, and delivering the precious grain to human beings as food. After vanquishing the masters of the netherworld, all three incarnate the corn god and demonstrate the triumph of the forces of life over death."
("The Myth of Quetzalcoatl" by Enrique Florescano, p.66. (1995))
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| "Proserpine" (the Roman Persephone) holding a pomegranate, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proserpina
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Greek vegetation goddess Persephone became queen of the underworld after being abducted by Hades, its king. As plants withered and died starvation ensued so Zeus demanded that Persephone be returned to the surface. Hades agreed, but tricked Persephone into first eating some pomegranate seeds. Because she had eaten food belonging to the underworld, she was only permitted to leave it for two-thirds of each year, spending the winter months below ground with her husband. For a character to go down to the underworld to rescue and retrieve someone, and bring them back to the land of the living was a common motif, although the mission was not always successful. The Japanese version of the story goes somewhat awry.
"After a lengthy period of mourning, Izanagi determined to go down to Yomi, the land of the dead, to rescue his wife. After long travel down precipitous places, he spied a large mansion, which he thought must be his destination.... Inside the castle he spied his wife and called her name. They greeted each other lovingly, and Izanagi entreated his wife to come back with him, so that they could complete the act of creation imposed on them by the elder kami. Izanami replied that though she would like to obey him, her return was impossible because she had eaten food while in Yomi.
"Izanagi begged her to reconsider, and she finally agreed to go into the mansion and ask the deities of the place whether there was any way for her to return.... She had appeared to him in her original form as his beautiful wife, but now she appeared as a rotting corpse.... Revolted by the horrible sight, Izanagi dropped his torch and fled. The sound of the falling torch awoke Izanami, and she vowed to take revenge for his faithlessness."
("Handbook of Japanese Mythology" by Michael Ashkenazi, p.174)
One should not hope for a high degree of consistency in mythology. Ideas shade into other ideas that give different colours to their meaning. Untangling the commonalities is a dubious undertaking, and exaggerated arguments exist both for and against. In the world of myth, Aristotle's rule of the excluded middle ("that for any proposition, either that proposition is true or its negation is true") does not apply. Aristotle himself was not averse to say that something could be "in a sense" both true and untrue (statements of this kind are called "dialetheia") because he understood that "the same thing can at the same time be in being and not in being-but not in the same respect" ("Metaphysics", by Aristotle, Book IV, Part V (350 BC)). Some modern proponents of reason and logic seem to lack such subtlety.
The serpent coiled around the tree shades into the serpent coiled around the stick, pole, rod or staff. The following passage from the Bible is often interpreted in such a way.
"The Lord said to Moses, 'Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.' So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived."
(Numbers 21:8-9)
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| "Moses lifts up the serpent of brass", from "The story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation" (1873) |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Brass_serpent
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Here the snake has healing powers, and this is commonly the power of the snake wrapped around the stick. King Hezekiah later "broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)" (2 Kings 18:4). Ellicott's Commentary on 2 Kings 18:4 states the following.
"In ancient Egypt the serpent symbolised the healing power of Deity; a symbolism which is repeated in the Græco-Roman myth of Æsculapius. When Moses set up the Brasen Serpent, he taught the people by means suited to their then capacity that the power of healing lay in the God whose prophet he was—namely, Jehovah; and that they must look to Him, rather than to any of the gods of Egypt, for help and healing."
Jesus compared himself to the brazen serpent.
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up...."
(John 3:14)
Like the comparison of Jonah's time in the belly of the whale to his own impending internment in the grave, with this approving allusion to the brazen serpent, also approved by Moses, but condemned by King Hezekiah, Jesus apparently seeks to connect the Christian religion to its own ancient mythological roots, and thereby to the common mythological heritage of mankind. This reference has given us the crucified serpent of Alchemy.
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Illustration of the crucified serpent,
from "Flamel's Hieroglyphics" (1624).
|
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nicolas_Flamel
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The idea of the good serpent also manifested in Greek religion in the form of Agathodaemon and lived on for a time in Christian Gnostic sects such as the Ophites and Basilideans (see the deity Abraxas).
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| Drawing of a Gnostic gem showing the deity Abraxas (here depicted as a serpent with a lion's head with rays of light projecting from it). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Abraxas_(deity)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Abraxas appears to have given us the word ABRACADABRA used in magic acts. Historically it was "used as a magical formula by the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune. It is found on Abraxas stones which were worn as amulets. Subsequently its use spread beyond the Gnostics...." (Encyclopædia Britannica (1911)).
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| A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem.
From Bernard de Montfaucon's "L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures",
vol. II, parte II, plancha CL, p. 362.
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
See another example of Abraxas (this time holding a caduceus) at Christie's: A Roman Limestone Relief - circa 3rd century AD (or here). Serapis might appear as Agathodaemon (see for instance Statuette of Serapis Agathodaemon or an Interesting Serpent Deity).
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| Relief with serpent forms of Isis and Serapis (from: "Osiris-Apis"), on either side of an image of Canopus as a human-headed water jar. Graeco-Roman Period (c. 332 BCE - 250 CE). |
(This image (cropped) is taken from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.)
Dionysus might also appear with the body of a snake, and be paired with Isis. See for instance page 6 of "Ptolemy II Philadelphus and the Dionysiac Model of Political Authority", by Michael Goyette ("Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnection").
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| Limestone stela with snake-bodied figures of Isis and Dionysos. The British Museum Collection online. |
Moses' brother Aaron had a magic staff that could turn into a snake, so that the stick and the serpent in turn could shade one into the other.
"Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs."
(Exodus 7:10-12)
Asclepius was the Greek god of medicine and he had a staff with a serpent wrapped around it: commonly called the "Staff of Asclepius" or "Rod of Asclepius". It has since become the symbol of the medical profession.
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| Statue of Asclepius, exhibited in the Museum of Epidaurus Theatre. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Michael F. Mehnert. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Hygieia was the goddess of good health and the daughter of Asclepius, and Epione, the goddess of healing (soothing). Her name is the source of the word "hygiene". While her father was more involved in curing disease, Hygieia was more involved in disease prevention. She was often depicted feeding a serpent from a bowl in her hand, so that in some places the "Bowl of Hygieia", a serpent coiled around a goblet, has been used as the symbol for a pharmacy.
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| Detail from "Hygieia", by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1826). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hygieia
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Antinous represented as Agathos Daimon (noble spirit), with snake and Cornucopia. c. 130 - 140 AD. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Antinous_as_Agathos_Daimon,_Antikensammlung_Berlin_361
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
See also: Agathe Tyche and Agathodaimon with a bearded Serpent, 350 BC, Delos, Archaeological Museum (or here). Demeter was the Greek goddess of agriculture, daughter of Cronus (Roman Saturn) and Rhea, and mother to Persephone. Her Roman equivalent was Ceres. Ceres rode in a chariot drawn by two snakes.
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| "Ceres", by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ceres
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| The Hindu warrior Goddess Durga, consort of Shiva, mother of Ganesha. Seen here holding a snake. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by peacay. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/7746546102/. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_Durga
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The Rod of Asclepius is often confused with the Caduceus ("herald's staff" (also called a "kerukeion" from the Greek, or "Staff of Hermes")) which has two serpents wrapped around it and was carried by the Greek god Hermes who was messenger of the gods, called Mercury by the Romans. The Caduceus sometimes was depicted with wings. It has come to represent the medical profession in the United States. The caduceus was more often associated with commerce (which might go some way toward resolving the outstanding mystery of where the $ symbol came from). Mercury does not appear at first to be a very interesting god, being a mere messenger, but his alter ego Hermes, and the caduceus in his hand have a rich and tantalising history.
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| Statue of Hermes with the Caduceus. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original, in Vatican Museum (fig leaf presumably added later). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The caduceus is represented in different ways. In the following image we see a simpler version.
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| Lekythos depicting Hermes bearing a caduceus. Greek, c. 480-470 BC. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by David Liam Moran. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The caduceus is thought of as the staff carried by divine heralds in general, because Iris, another messenger of the gods, also had one.
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Iris (messenger of the gods).
Detail from an Attic red-figure pelike, middle of 5th century BC.
From Agrigento, Sicilia.
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(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_(mythology)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Iris was also goddess of the rainbow (which joins heaven and Earth). There are two varieties of the god Hermes. There is Hermes the divine messenger, and an older more primitive version that is a god of fertility interchangeable with the Greek god Priapus. Here we see Priapic-Hermes still holding his caduceus, painted on a wall in Pompeii.
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| "Priapus with Caduceus", and winged sandals of Mercury. Anonymous fresco in Pompeii, between 89 BC and 79 AD. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priapus
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
It should be mentioned here that the caduceus was not a typical accompaniment of the god Priapus, nor of Dionysus (Bacchus). This Roman fresco gives Priapus the attributes of Mercury in order to make that connection because of Mercury's association with Hermes. Notice that the caduceus in this image seems to be made of streamers rather than snakes, and this may be to reinforce the association with Dionysus. While Dionysus does not carry a caduceus, he does carry something called a "thyrsus" (or thyrsos). The thyrsus was a staff with a pine cone at the top and a ribbon around the neck. Sometimes the pole was entwined in ivy. Dionysus is derived from the earlier Etruscan god Fufluns who was likewise associated with the thyrsus (see for example this drawing of an Etruscan bronze mirror (4th century BC), depicting from left to right: a satyr, Apulu (Apollo), Fufluns and his mother Semla (Greek Semele, who is shown holding the thyrsus), see also p.161 of "The Etruscan Language: An Introduction", Revised Editon (2002) by Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante).
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| Dionysus or Bacchus. Illustration from "Greek mythology systematized", by Sarah Amelia Scull (1880), p. 199. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Thyrsus
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
There is apparently in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, a "Staff of Osiris" with a pair of serpents forming a double-helix around a staff, at the top of which is a pine cone. A similar pine cone topped caduceus appears on the Whitehall Building in New York City and the Lion House at the Bronx Zoo. Pine trees are evergreen and have therefore come to represent resilience and immortality. A funereal wreath is likely to be made from an evergreen. The pine cone in particular has come to represent immortality.
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| Fragment of a tombstone of a soldier's daughter. The scene shows a funeral banquet. The dead woman reclines on a couch holding a goblet while a servant passes her food from a three-legged table. Framing the scene are motifs symbolising death and the Afterlife: the gaping head, a pine-cone, and a rosette. The gaping head probably represented all-devouring death; the pine-cone, above, was a symbol of immortality, and the rosette, next to it, was a symbol of fertility in the Afterlife. Romano-British, 2nd-4th century AD, Cumbria, England. From: The British Museum Online Collection. |
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| A supernatural being touches a pine cone to the tree of life. Ashurnasirpal II reliefs (c. 883-859 BC) in the Brooklyn Museum. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ashurnasirpal_II_reliefs_in_the_Brooklyn_Museum
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ashurnasirpal_II_reliefs_in_the_Brooklyn_Museum
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Fontana della Pigna ("Fountain of the Pine cone"), 1st century AD. Originally stood next to the Temple of Isis in Rome. Now in the Cortile della Pigna ("Courtyard of the Pine cone"), Vatican City, Rome. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by lance_mountain. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_della_Pigna
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
It appears that the Catholic Pope also carries a staff with a pine comb at the top, and a crucifix on top of that (see for instance here, and perhaps here and here). You will see Agathos Daimon as a bearded serpent next to a pine cone topped staff or pillar at the Agathos Daimon Photos page at (bibleorigins.net). Relief carvings in the 2nd century AD Egyptian tomb at Alexandria called Kom El Shoqafa ("Mound of Shards") shows the Agathodaimon serpent with both a caduceus and a thrysos (see for instance The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa and Alexandria the Divine). See page 86 of "The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence" by Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum to see a Roman coin (ca. 76 AD showing the Agathos Daimon wearing the Egyptian skkent (double) crown, with a caduceus and an ear of wheat.
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| Chapel entrance, Kom el-Shuqafa, Alexandria, Egypt. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Roland Unger. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kom_el-Shoqafa
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Bronze bust of Thracian god Sabazios, 2nd century AD. He holds a pine cone in one hand and a serpent-entwined stick in the other. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Jebulon. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sabazios
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Why does Dionysus, the god of wine, carry the symbol of immortality? The association of pleasure and immortality might seem strange to us today, but in the pre-Christian world joy and immortality were the two primary goals of life. In the Christian world immortality has come to be associated with renunciation, and pleasure has come to be seen as an obstacle.
"If you go into the history of Eros you will find that he is a variation of Hermes; the Eros of antiquity is similar to Hermes Kyllenios. In olden times when he was a fertility god of Boetia he was represented exactly like the priapic Hermes statues."
("Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology", by Marie-Luise von Franz, p.118.)
While Eros (Roman Cupid) is frequently depicted in his baby form, this is not always the case. For instance in the story of Cupid and Psyche.
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| "Cupid And Psyche", by Annie Swynnerton (1844-1933). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_Cupid_and_Psyche
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| A pair of winged youths grasping a pair of intertwined snakes. A Greek helmet from Crete, late 7th century BC, bronze. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
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| Roman statue of the god Hermanubis, which combines the Egyptian god Anubis, messenger of Osiris and guide of the dead, with the Greek Hermes. In his left hand he holds a caduceus. On his head is a disk on a crescent moon. 1st - 2nd century AD, Vatican Museums, Rome. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statue_of_Anubis,_Museo_Gregoriano_Egizio
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| "II. CLAVIS" (the second key), engraved by Matthaeus Merian (1593–1650). A winged Mercury stands holding a caduceus in each hand. To the left is a Sun and to the right a Moon. From an alchemical treatise: "Tripus aureus", (from "Musaeum Hermeticum", 1678). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mercury_symbols
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"Hermes is neither Minoan nor Mycenaean, however, but is associated with the hermae, ithyphallic stone pillars capped with a head or bust of Hermes that were employed throughout Greece as topographic markers. The oldest form by which Hermes was represented, these ubiquitous herms stood upon the thresholds of private homes and estates, at the gateways of towns and cities, before temples and gymnasia, along the side of roadways and at crossroads, at the frontiers of territories and upon tombs, the portal between this and the underworld, to mark the boundaries of inhabited space and to protect its productive areas against incursions."
("Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible",
by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst, p.405.)
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| Herm on an Attic red-figure lekythos, 475–450 BC. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herma
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Greek, Arcadian, Bronze Herm, c. 490 BC. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bronze_herm_MET_DT6197.jpg
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"Hermes' origins are somewhat more humble, and they are thought to lie in the stone piles, or cairns, left by travellers at crossroads. These stone piles, or herms in Greek, which date to 600 BC, later developed into pillars topped by a bearded head of Hermes, with an erect phallus at the base."
("The Quest For Hermes Trismegistus", by Gary Lachman)
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| Herm of Priapos, second or first century BC. Archaeological Museum of Delos. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Charles Haynes (source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/haynes/167232469/). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hermai
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The archaeologist Arthur Lincoln Frothingham (1859 - 1923) held the view that the caduceus had originally been a god in its own right ("Babylonian Origin of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus I", American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 20, No. 2 (1916)), suggesting that its origin was an obscure Babylonian deity called Ningishzida ("right-hand sceptre god" or "lord of the good tree"), who was "Herald of the Earth" and "Throne-bearer of the Earth". The prefix "nin" meant "lord" or "lady", so that "Ningishzida" was Lord Gishzida. Together with the better known god Tammuz (Dumuzid), consort of Inanna (Ishtar), Gishzida appears in the Adapa legend as "stationed at the gate of Anu". Anu ("sky", "heaven") was the supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon.
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Detail from the "libation vase of Gudea",
showing Ningishzida in the form of the caduceus, flanked by a pair of dragons
(21st century BC)
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(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ningishzida
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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Prehistoric Chalice (4th millennium BC) Saliangos, Paros, Greece.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Muriel Pécastaing-Boissière for Cédric Boissière.
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(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calice_2,_Saliangos.JPG
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Phoenician/Punic limestone votive stela with dedication to Baal. From Carthage, North Africa (modern Tunisia), Neo-Punic, 2nd-1st century BC. In pediment is a 12 petalled rosette in a disk; 4 line neo-Punic inscription; symbol of the goddess Tanit is flanked by caducei; above them are astral symbols. From a religious precinct known as the tophet at Carthage, which had been placed in the protection of the goddess Tanit and her consort Baal Hammon. The Punic (Carthaginian) script is almost identical to that of Canaanite inscriptions from the Levant. Despite the classical influence seen in the caduceii (curled snakes), the symbolism is Canaanite, with two representations of the goddess Tanit. The upper one is composed of a sun disc, a crescent moon and triangle. Below is an anthropomorphized (human-shaped) version of the goddess. From: The British Museum Online Collection. |
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| Punic votive stele with the sign of the goddess Tanit. From the shrine of el-Hofra in Constantine. 2nd century BC. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tanit
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Carthaginian goddess Tanit was related to the Phoenician goddess Astarte (Astoreth) who was in turn related to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and the Sumerian goddess Inanna.
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| Ishtar "holding her symbol". Terracotta relief, early 2nd millennium BC. From Eshnunna. Louvre Museum, Department of Near Eastern antiquities. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Marie-Lan Nguyen. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
There are many ancient images of Ishtar holding something in her hand. Unfortunately it is not clear what.
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Several figures from "The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia", by William Hayes Ward (1910),
showing the goddess Ishtar holding something in her hand.
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The matter of whether Ishtar held a variant of the caduceus in her hand is complicated by the fact that there were a number of different kinds of object the Mesopotamian gods may hold in their hand. In the image below, the three-pronged object held in the right-hand of the god at right is thought by some to be a branch from the tree of life, due to its similarity to some contemporary depictions of branches on the tree of life.
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| Detail of figure 436 from "The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia", by William Hayes Ward (1910). Showing a god holding what may be a branch from the tree from life in his right hand. |
In 1953, biologists James Watson and Francis Crick suggested that DNA was in the shape of a double-helix. The double-helix formed by a pair of snakes has been around in world mythology for a while now. The Chinese deities Nüwa and her brother Fuxi are credited with creating human beings out of clay, which makes for a nice association with DNA ... I'm just saying. The single helix has associations with light, if the sinusoidal wave of electromagnetic radiation is a two dimensional projection of a helical transformation, and perhaps more generally for other harmonic phenomena. We might consider too that as the solar system as a whole moves through space, each planet traces out a helix around the pillar traced out by the sun. So too the classical model of the atom with electrons circling a nucleus. So that the helix is central to time and transformation in general. Though the image of the double-helix is likely to have been inspired by twine, weaving and braiding.
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Nüwa and her brother Fuxi,
mid 8th century, Xinjiang, China
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(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Fuxi_and_Nüwa
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The pair of entwined serpents, in a double-helix or otherwise, are quite common in India.
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| Naga and Nagini, Chennakeshava Temple, Belur, India. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by G41rn8. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Reliefs_and_sculptures_at_the_Chennakesava_Temple,_Belur
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Serpent Deity Reliefs at Hampi, Karnataka. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Dineshkannambadi. |
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| Stones slabs with relief of the snake deity Naga in the Rameshwara Temple at Keladi. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Manjeshpv. |
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| Nagas at Kaadu Malleshwara Temple, Bengaluru, Karnataka. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Arunsbhat. |
(These three images taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nāga_in_Karnataka
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
See here (or here) for another nice Naga sculpture. In the image below we see a sculpture of Vishnu in his boar form (Varaha) which he uses to rescue the Earth goddess Bhumi (Bhudevi, Varahi). To the left (according to Kirit Mankodi: Sculptures of Apsarās and other Celestial Women at Ran-ki-Vav (see also: "The Queen's stepwell at Patan", by Kirit L. Mankodi)), is a nagkanya holding a skull-cup (that is, a cup made out of the top of a human skull) with a fish in it in her hand. A snake crawls up her leg to the bowl, but her raised hand gives a gesture of admonition (tarjani). (The fish and skull cup combination is also found with the tantric Matsya Varahi form of the mother goddess Varahi. See for instance the Varahi temple of Chaurasi, India. Varahi, who has the head of a sow, is the shakti (feminine energy) of Varaha.)
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| Vishnu sculpture inside Rani ki Vav, Patan, Gujurat. Detail from a photograph provided to Wikipedia by Shakti. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sculptures_in_Rani_ki_vav
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sculptures_in_Rani_ki_vav
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
We sometimes see the motif of the serpent sipping from a bowl of its own accord in relation to Hygieia.
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| Statue of Hygeia. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Wellcome Images. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hygieia
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Notice the raised bump in the middle of the bowl in Hygieia's hand in the image above. This is typical of a kind of libation bowl called a "patera" or "phiale", which we will learn more about later. There are other instances of a snake sipping from a phiale, such as in the funerary stele below.
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| Funerary banquet. Naiskos-style funerary stele with high-relief decoration. From left to right: a servant holding a round object, a seated woman, a half-reclining man holding a phiale from which a snake is drinking, a boy cupbearer. Marble, 2nd century BC. From Cyzicus. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Jastrow. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Phialai_in_art
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Nagkanya (nag-kanya, nagakanya, naga kanyaka) are maidens of the race of Nagas (snakes), born of Kadru (Aditi, mother of a thousand nāgas), wife of Kasyapa, daughter of Daksha (a Prajapati or one of the sons of Brahma) and his wife Panchajani (Virani). They live in Patala, the lowest of the seven underworld regions (see "Deccan Nursery Tales" by C. A. Kincaid, and "Indian Serpent-lore: Or, The Nāgas in Hindu Legend and Art" by Jean Philippe Vogel). Ulupi who marries Arjuna in the Mahabharata was a nag-kanya. Her father was the Naga king Kouravya (Kauravya), a descendent of Airavata, who was the third son of Kashyap (Kasyapa) and Kadru.
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Ulupi and Arjuna.
Illustration from the book ""Indian myth and legend" (1913),
by Donald Alexander Mackenzie.
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulupi
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Where the pair of serpents have a rod or a figure between them, they count as a trinity symbol, so too the trident.
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| Valleberga church window, Sweden. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Håkan Svensson. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Valleberga_church_window.jpg
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
You might be wondering what these serpent pairs have to do with the priapic form of Hermes and the phallus in general. Snakes are considered a phallic symbol, but Philip Elliot Slater bemoans the complications involved in treating mythological serpents as simple Freudian phallic symbols.
"An additional complication arises when one considers the frequency with which phallic objects in fertility cults are represented with snakes coiled around them. Wright shows, for example, a bronze amulet (of a type still being sold in Naples at the time he wrote), consisting of a phallus encircled by a snake, with its mouth on the urethral orifice.... In any case, it seems clear that the encircling snake is not masculine but feminine.... Representations (on ancient medals, for example) in which the snake-encircled phallus is replaced by an egg add another complication, since the snake could connote either the fertilizing phallus or the female reproductive organs."
("The Glory of Hera: Greek Mythology and the Greek Family",
by Philip Elliot Slater, pp.80-82)
The Egyptian fertility god Min was frequently represented with an erect penis. In the image below, the Syrian/Canaanite fertility goddess Kadesh (Qetesh), who was adopted into the Egyptian pantheon, stands on a lion. In her left hand she holds a snake, and in her right lotus flowers. At the left of the image stands Min holding a flail, and on the right, another Canaanite god adopted by the Egyptians, Reshep (Resheph), holding a spear.
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Stele of the Syrian goddess Kadesh with Min, god of fertility, and Reshep.
Limestone. Deir el-Medina. New Kingdom, Dynasty XIX (1292-1186 BC).
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(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qetesh
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Small shrine for the White Snake God, a messenger of the goddess Benzaiten. Japan. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by HAL-Guandu. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tsukubusuma-jinja
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Our consideration of serpent symbolism commenced with the image of the "Orphic Egg", the egg wrapped in a helical serpent like a solenoid around a core. We can now come full circle and present Kronos or Phanes (often equated with Eros and Dionysus (Bacchus)), the winged Mithraic deity inside the egg, himself wrapped in a helical serpent. (There are also lion headed (Leontocephaline) variations.)
"In the beginning was the silver cosmic egg, created by Time. Phanes-Dionysos broke forth from the egg as the firstborn (Protogonos), the androgynous container of all the seeds of life. It was Phanes-Dionysos who created the universe, beginning with a daughter, Nyx (Night), and later the familiar gods, Gaia and Ouranos."
("Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia", by David Adams Leeming, p.119.)
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| Mithraic Kronos, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Phanes_(deity)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Phanes by Francesco Salviati, 16th century. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Phanes_(deity)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Logo of the Human Genome Project. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logo_HGP.jpg
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Phallic religious sculpture has not fared well down through the ages in the West, so that not much remains today.
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| Temple of Dionysus on Delos. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Zde. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
In India, the lingam (a stylised representation of the phallus similar to the omphalos (means "navel") stone) and the yoni (a stylised representation of the vagina) are combined into an altar. The lingam blurs into the egg. The yoni is usually a kind of keyhole-shaped platform. Together they form a representation of the universe divided into masculine and feminine principles: being upon a stage, coloured with eroticism. The Lingam may be encircled by a serpent (can also be found here). See also a relief of yoni–lingga on the floor of the Candi Sukuh's entrance, Indonesia. See here for a painting of a pair of snakes coiled in a double helix around a lingam (image can also be found here).
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| Siva lingam at Hampi. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Nvamsi76. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lingam
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Earlier we saw Buddha shielded by the Naga Mucalinda. We find the linga in similar situation, so that the phallus, the god and the self, if you have not already guessed, are all interchangeable. In some versions, two snakes face each other over the lingam.
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| Naga Lingam at the Veerabhadra Temple, Lepakshi. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Pavithrah. |
(This image is taken from
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| A pair of serpents encircle a fountain built in 1647. Tusha Hiti, former Royal Palace of Patan, Nepal. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Gerd Eichmann. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tusha_Hiti
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tusha_Hiti
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
We might compare the design of the Tusha Hiti fountain to Shiva Lingams such as here and here.
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| Sculpture of the Hindu goddess Varuni (consort of Varuna). The goddess' feet rest of two fishes, resting on a skull-cup (Kapala), supported by a pair of serpents on a lotus flower. (For a discussion, see: "Churned from the Milk Ocean, Invoked into a Skull-Cup: The Goddess Varuni in Nepal" by Gudrun Bühnemann.) Tusha Hiti, former Royal Palace of Patan, Nepal. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Bijaya2043. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tusha_Hiti
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tusha_Hiti
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
In the caduceus, the serpents form a cone rather than a cylinder, their circuits around the staff grow wider as they ascend, forming helical spirals or vortices. The serpent appears associated with the spiral in other contexts too. In the article On Happiness we considered that evolution was a spiral rather than a simple circuit, a closed loop, because together with cyclic repetition there is overall growth.
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| 6th century coiled Nagaraja in ceiling (cave 1), Badami Hindu cave temple Karnataka. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sarah Welch. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nāga
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
It is difficult to touch on the ouroboros without being drawn into the rich tapestry of serpent-based mystical symbolism. I have decided to embrace this temptation since it will be useful in what is to follow. The purity and power of the serpent makes it a flexible and potent vehicle for stringing together extensive classes of being, notions and experience. It is a symbol of very great antiquity.
"Two or three years ago it was just another snake cult...."
(From the movie "Conan the Barbarian" (1982))
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| Painted pottery. Terracotta, 4800-3500 BC. Cucuteni-Tripolje culture, Romania. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Ismoon. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cucuteni_culture_pottery
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
"The snake and its abstracted derivative, the spiral, are the dominant motifs of the art of Old Europe, and their imaginative use in spiraliform design throughout the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods remained unsurpassed by any subsequent decorative style until the Minoan civilization, the sole inheritor of Old European lavishness."
("The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images", by Marija Gimbutas, p.93.)
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Bowl on stand, Vessel on stand, and Amphora. Eneolithic, the Cucuteni Culture, 4300-4000 BCE.
Found in Scânteia, Iași, Romania.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by 三猎. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cucuteni_culture_pottery
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Entrance stone with megalithic art, Newgrange, County Meath, Ireland, c. 3200 BC. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Jal74. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Newgrange
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| A Carved Stone Ball from Towie in Aberdeenshire. From "The Ancient Stone implements, Weapons & Ornaments of Great Britain", by Sir John Evans, 1897, p.421. |
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| Dacian gold bracelet. Natural History Museum Vienna. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by CristianChirita. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Dacian_bracelets
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Spiral decoration on Iron Age pot recovered from Rumailah, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Alexandermcnabb. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snake_decoration_on_pot_from_Rumeilah,_Al_Ain.jpg
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snake_decoration_on_pot_from_Rumeilah,_Al_Ain.jpg
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Pottery of the "Transdanubian" Linear Pottery style found in Budapest, between 5400 BC and 4000 BC. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Bjoertvedt. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Linear_pottery
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Linear Ceramics from Dehlitz, Museum for Pre- and Protohistory Berlin. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Linear_pottery
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Butmir culture pottery. Photo made in Sarajevo Earth History Museum. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Prof saxx. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Butmirska_vaza.jpg
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Butmirska_vaza.jpg
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Ancient Egyptian pottery. Decorated ware jar with spiral design. Predynastic, Naqada II, circa 3650 – 3500 BC. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Naqada_II_pottery
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Predynastic vase. Gerzean – Naqada II. Petrie Museum. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by BabelStone. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Naqada_II_pottery
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Stamp seal, small terracotta. Çatalhöyük, 6000-5500 BC. Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara. Detail of photograph provided to Wikipedia by Zde. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Neolithic_artefacts_from_Turkey
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Neolithic_artefacts_from_Turkey
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Jar With Spirals. Final Jomon (c. 1500 - 300 BC), Kamegaoka Style, Japan. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by PHGCOM. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jōmon_pottery
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Jomon period, pottery, Japan. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by sailko. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jōmon_pottery
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A bronze helmet from the 4th century BC, at the Virtual Museum of Bulgaria, has a spiral serpent design on the side. The ancients, being avid stargazers, became aware of patterns in the heavens. For example, see this time lapse of Lunar Phases taken by Giorgia Hofer, or this Solar Analemma by Cenk E. Tezel yTunç Tezel.
We might view the systematic destruction of monsters by the Greek heroes as the beginning of the end for the demon haunted world. These human-deity hybrids were making the world safe from monsters. Human beings would no longer dread the monster living in the lake or the forest. As human beings gained greater control over their environment, and grew in number, they were less intimidated by nature.
The Tree of Life and the Axis Mundi
We have seen that the serpent has an intimate connection with the sacred tree. In the Norse religion, this tree is Yggdrasil, the world tree that forms the central axis of the universe, an example of what in the study of mythology is called the "axis mundi", the cosmic or world axis. In the garden of Eden, in the "centre of the garden" were two trees, a good tree (the Tree of Life) and a bad tree (the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). The message of the story of the Garden of Eden seems to be: "don't get involved with serpents", because that was how access to the tree of life was lost. As we look deeper into religious symbolism, it seems that the good tree, the Tree of Life has associated with it a snake of its own. A good snake. A snake of healing and of fertility, a snake representing the life force. In the painting below from a church in Slovenia we see the symbolism of the good serpent seeking to reassert itself, with the crucifix as a rather awkward stand in for the tree of life. |
| "Isaiah, the Tree of Knowledge and the brass serpent", painting by Matija Bradaška (1897, the Church of St. Peter in Črnomelj, Slovenia.) |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tree_of_knowledge
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| A scene of sacrifice and snakes, from a lararium [a shrine for the Lares (a household spirit) in an ancient Roman home]. Fresco from a home in Pompeii. Now in the Museo Archeologico (Naples). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Catalogue_of_the_Museo_Archeologico_di_Napoli_(inventory_MANN)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Roman Lararium with wallpainting, Pompeii. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Claus Ableiter. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lararium
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
We have seen that snakes and trees and pillars and even the penis are interchangeable in mythology, and that a pair of trees can just as easily be a pair of snakes or a pair of pillars. A pair of objects representing opposites may merge to become one, or that pair may stand on either side of, or encircle the one that represents their unification. Or the opposites may in some sense be constituents of the one. We also have the conviction after all that, yes, the penis is the centre of the universe (see for instance: House in Thimphu, Bhutan, with phallic symbols painted on wall or: Traditional architecture of the Paro district in Bhutan).
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| The Snake Goddess, from the Temple Repositories at Knossos, 1650-1550 BC. Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Archaeological_Museum_of_Heraklion_-_Snake_Goddess
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Cernunnos, Roman relief, Corinium Museum, Cirencester, England. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cernunnos
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Bronze votive statuette of Vanth, an Etruscan winged female demon, holding snakes in either hand (425 - 400 BC). The British Museum Collection online. |
See also, The Tomb of the Blue Demons, Tarquinia, c. 400 BC, and Relief of Demeter, Eleusis.
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| Bronze statuette of infant Hercules strangling 2 snakes sent by Juno. Said to be from Ephesus, Roman, first - third century AD. British Museum, London. Photo: Barbara McManus (http://www.vroma.org/). |
In the Egyptian Book of the Dead the deceased enters the great hall of Right and Truth (the Hall of two-fold Maati where his heart is weighed) through a doorway, the doorposts of which are called the "Serpent children of Rennut [Renenutet, Ernutet, the "Lady of Fertile Fields" (Greek: Thermouthis)]". The right doorpost is called "Weigher of the labours of right and truth". The left doorpost is called "Judge of wine". ("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. 351-352 (Nebseni papyrus, 15th century BC)) Also, the two-headed serpent Nehebkau is "son of Geb, born of your mother Ernutet" (Coffin Text Spell 762). Nehebkau is one of the 42 gods in the hall of Right and Truth that the deceased performs his "negative confession" (that is, a list of sins he has not committed) to (The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 351).
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| Nehebkau in the form of a huge serpent which has two heads on separate necks, its tail also ending in a head. From the Egyptian "Book of Am Duat", 1550 – 1292 BC, (image from "The God Nehebkau", by Alan W. Shorter, in "Journal Of Egyptian Archaeology", Volume 21, p. 42). |
In the Orphic religion of Greece, pairs of opposites find their unification in the androgynous god, Phanes Dionysus, who encompasses both male and female. The ouroboros serpent with which we began this survey of serpent symbolism has given us the adjective "uroboric", meaning ouroboros like. It has come to be applied to instances of the union of opposites: such as male-female in an androgynous being. The traditional (pre-Orphic) Dionysus (god of wine and religious ecstasy) was already an effeminate character.
"Zeus fell in love with Semele and slept with her, promising her anything she wanted, and keeping it all from [his wife] Hera. But Semele was deceived by Hera into asking Zeus to come to her as he came to Hera during their courtship. So Zeus, unable to refuse, arrived in her bridal chamber in a chariot with lightning flashes and thunder, and sent a thunderbolt at her. Semele died of fright, and Zeus grabbed from the fire her six-month aborted baby, which he sewed into his thigh.... At the proper time Zeus loosened the stitches and gave birth to Dionysos, whom he entrusted to Hermes. Hermes took him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to bring him up as a girl. Incensed, Hera inflicted madness on them, so that that Athamas stalked and slew his elder son Learkhos on the conviction that he was a deer, while Ino threw Melikertes into a basin of boiling water, and then, carrying both the basin and the corpse of the boy, she jumped to the bottom of the sea.... As for Zeus, he escaped Hera's anger by changing Dionysos into a baby goat. Hermes took him to the Nymphai of Asian Nysa, whom Zeus in later times places among the stars and named the Hyades."
("Bibliotheca" by Pseudo-Apollodorus, 2nd Century AD)
Ino, who was the daughter of Cadmus the monster slayer, was not Athamas' first wife. His first wife was Nephele, with whom he had the children Phrixos (Phrixus) and Helle, who were rescued by the ram with the golden fleece.
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| Support for a table top adorned by a group of: Dionysos, Pan and a Satyr. 170 - 180 AD, National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Tilemahos Efthimiadis. Uploaded by Marcus Cyron. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Bacchus, Roman, 2nd century AD. Louvre Museum, Paris. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bacchus_in_Louvre_2.jpg
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Semele's incineration at the unshielded sight of Zeus was why Dionysus later went to retrieve her from the underworld. Aphroditus of Cyprus was an androgynous variation of Aphrodite, and evolved into Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite (from whence we get the term "hermaphrodite"). The sexually aggressive water nymph Salmacis fell in love with Hermaphroditus and prayed they would never be parted.
"The descendant of Atlas holds out, denying the nymph’s wished-for pleasure: she hugs him, and clings, as though she is joined to his whole body. 'It is right to struggle, perverse one,' she says, 'but you will still not escape. Grant this, you gods, that no day comes to part me from him, or him from me.' Her prayer reached the gods. Now the entwined bodies of the two were joined together, and one form covered both. Just as when someone grafts a twig into the bark, they see both grow joined together, and develop as one, so when they were mated together in a close embrace, they were not two, but a two-fold form, so that they could not be called male or female, and seemed neither or either."
("Metamorphoses", by Ovid, Book 4, (8 AD))
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"Hermaphroditos and Salmacis" by Bartholomäus Spranger,
(painted sometime between 1580 and 1582).
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(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hermaphroditus_and_Salmacis
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The androgynous god or spirit also finds expression in the Japanese Shinto spirit (kami) Inari, and in Hinduism as Ardhanarishvara, which literally means "The Lord who is Half Woman", and is a composite of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati (see here for a modern representation). The Hindu god Krishna is sometimes represented in a somewhat effeminate manner.
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| Shiva Ardhanarishvara. 8th - 9th century AD. City Palace, Jaipur. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by G41rn8. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ardhanarishvara
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
"O Mountain! This whole world is interwoven in Me; It is I that am the Îs'vara that resides in causal bodies; I am the Sutrâtman, Hiranyagarbha that resides in subtle bodies and it is I that am the Virât, residing in the gross bodies. I am Brahmâ, Visnu, and Mahes'vara; I am the Brâhmâ, Vaisnavi and Raudrî S'aktis. I am the Sun, I am the Moon, I am the Stars; I am beast, birds, Chandâlas and I am the Thief, I am the cruel hunter; I am the virtuous high-souled persons and I am the female, male, and hermaphrodite. There is no doubt in this. O Mountain! Wherever there is anything, seen or heard, I always exist there, within and without, There is nothing moving or unmoving, that can exist without Me."
("The S'rîmad Devî Bhâgawatam", translated by Swami Vijñanananda", Book 7, Chapter 33, p. 710)
"Neith, also sometimes transliterated as Nit or Net ..., was one of the oldest of all Egyptian deities and one of the most important divinities during the early historic period.... Beginning in the Third and Fourth Dynasties, Neith came to be regarded as a form of Hathor, but, as Budge ... notes, 'at an earlier period she was certainly a personification of a form of the great, inert, primeval watery mass....' As a divinity of the First Principle, Neith was an autogenetic goddess who, in the ultimate mystery, created herself out of her own being.... Another development in later times was the conception of Neith as bisexual, rather than strictly female."
("Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity" by M. Rigoglioso)
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| "Neith Génératrice", from "Pantheon Egyptien" (1823 - 1825) by Jean-François Champollion. Artist is Leon Jean Joseph Dubois. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Neith
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The great serpent Apep (Apophis) "existed in the chaotic world before creation and before the emergence of cosmos. The only reference to his origin comes from the Late Period temple of Neith at Esna, where it is stated that Apep was born from the spittle of Neith, the mother of Re, who was in the primordial waters. This spittle was warded off and became a huge snake, which was named Apep and revolted against Re." ("Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions", edited by Eric Orlin, pp. 62-63) So that Neith was the monster's mother.
The Nile river "was honoured as being the type of the life-giving waters out of the midst of which sprang the gods and all created things." ("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. cxxiii) It was personified as the androgynous god Hapi, a male god with female breasts ("indicating fertility").
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| Statue of the Egyptian god of the Nile, Hapi. Sculpture from the first or second century AD, found in Rome. Museo Gregoriano Vatican, Vatican City, Rome. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Androgyny_in_ancient_art
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| The Grand Hermetic Androgyne trampling underfoot the Four Elements of the Prima Materia. Illustration from an alchemical treatise: "Codex Germanicus Monacensis 598", 1417 AD, author unknown. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Alchemy_in_art
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| "Theosophie & Alchemie & Hermetik", Azoth (Basil Valentine), woodcut on paper, 1613 AD. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Books_about_alchemy
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Such unity of opposites as male/female appear in philosophy in terms like "Coincidentia oppositorum" or "coniunctio". In Buddhism we find the meditator seeking a reality devoid of duality and conceptual elaboration, a reality more fundamental and prior to these things. We do not know a lot about the details of the most ancient religions, but the considerations we have covered in this article seem to be among the earliest manifestations of the human religious impulse. What we know about ancient religions we know mainly from the historical record. That is, from preserved written records. So that what we know is the form the religions had at the time that the written record commences. We can only speculate on the form of religions in "prehistory". The written record however shows us how new gods displace old gods, and how the gods of different communities and peoples are arranged and rearranged into pantheons, and their attributes altered and consolidated as the ancients sought to bring order to a plethora of ancient local deities, many with similar characteristics. There are also hints of a back story, ancient traditions largely silenced, but appearing in indirect or unexplained references. As new gods displace their elders, perhaps illegitimately, they in turn fear being overthrown by their own children in a natural cosmic karmic retribution, as do human or semi-divine kings in ancient myths.
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."
(Revelation 22:1-2)
I'll finish with a few quotes from Mircea Eliade's: "A History of Religious Ideas", Volume 1.
"The agrarian cultures develop what may be called a cosmic religion, since religious activity is concentrated around the central mystery: the periodical renewal of the world. Like human existence, the cosmic rhythms are expressed in terms drawn from vegetable life. The mystery of cosmic sacrality is symbolized in the World Tree. The universe is conceived as an organism that must be renewed periodically--in other words, each year. 'Absolute reality,' rejuvenation, immortality, are accessible to certain privileged persons through the power residing in a certain fruit or in a spring near a tree. The Cosmic Tree is held to be at the center of the world, and it unites the three cosmic regions, for it sends its roots down into the underworld, and its top touches the sky." (pp.41-42)
"The Cosmic Tree is the most widespread expression of the axis mundi; but the symbolism of the cosmic axis probably precedes--or is independent of--the agricultural civilizations, since it is found in certain arctic cultures." (footnote p.42)
"In the Aeneolithic [Chalcolithic or Copper Age (between 5th and the 3rd millennia BC)] station of Cascioarele, 60 kilometers south of Bucharest, excavation has revealed a temple whose walls were painted with magnificent spirals in red and green on a yellowish-white ground. No statuettes were found, but a column 2 meters high and also a smaller one indicate a cult of the sacred pillar, symbol of the axis mundi." (pp.49-50)
"The symbolism of the axis mundi assimilates the Cosmic Tree to the Cosmic Pillar (columna universalis)." (footnote p.50)
"Continuity is also demonstrated in respect to other specific expressions of archaic Cretan religiosity. Sir Arthur Evans emphasized the solidarity between the tree cult and the veneration of sacred stones. A similar solidarity is found in the cult of Athena Parthenos at Athens: a pillar associated with the sacred tree (the olive) and with the owl, the goddess's emblematic bird. Evans also showed the survival of the pillar cult down to modern times; for example, the sacred pillar at Tekekioi, near Skoplje, a replica of the Minoan column, venerated by both Christians and Muslims. The belief that sacred springs are associated with goddesses is found again in classical Greece, where springs were worshiped as Nereids; it persists in our day: fairies are still called Neraides." (p.138)
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| Sacred Pillar in Shrine, Tekekioi, Macedonia. |
(Figure 69 from The Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult and its Mediterranean Relations,
by Arthur J. Evans, p.103 (1901))
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Supernatural beings tending the Tree of Life.
Room I, Northwest Palace, Nimrud (Kalhu), Iraq, Neo-Assyrian Period, reign of Ashur-nasir-pal II, c. 883-859 BC,
alabaster - Brooklyn Museum - Brooklyn, NY
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(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ashurnasirpal_II_reliefs_in_the_Brooklyn_Museum
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Detail of the Tree of Life. Ashurnasirpal II reliefs in the Brooklyn Museum. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ashurnasirpal_II_reliefs_in_the_Brooklyn_Museum
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ashurnasirpal_II_reliefs_in_the_Brooklyn_Museum
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(The Palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud, Iraq, was destroyed by ISIL in March 2015.)
"In the Pyramid Texts ... we have frequent allusions to the food and drink which the deceased enjoys, and to the apparel wherein he is arrayed in the Underworld. We find that he wears white linen garments and sandals, that he sits by a lake in the Field of Peace with the gods, and partakes with them of the tree of life"
("The Gods of the Egyptians", Volume 2, by E. A. Wallis Budge, 1904, p. 118)
"Hathor and Nut dwelt in the great tree of heaven and supplied the souls of the dead with celestial food"
("The Tree of Life: An Archaeological Study", by Edwin Oliver James, 1966, p. 41)
"It is said that Zeus, wishing to ascertain the exact centre of the earth, caused two eagles to fly simultaneously at equal speed from the eastern and western ends of the earth. The eagles met at Delphi, which was consequently regarded as the centre of the earth, and in memory of the way in which the supposed fact was said to have been ascertained, two golden eagles were set up beside the Navel (omphalos), which, as we learn from Pausanias, was a block of white marble believed to mark the exact centre of the earth."
("Pausanias's Description of Greece", translated with a commentary by J.G. Frazer, Vol. 5, pp. 314-315)
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| Omphalos, Delphi Museum, Greece. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Berthold Werner. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Omphalos_in_the_Archaeological_Museum_of_Delphi
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Omphalos_in_the_Archaeological_Museum_of_Delphi
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There was a class of ancient Greek coin (second to first century BC) which showed the head of Asklepios (Asclepius) on one side and a snake coiled around an omphalos on the other. See for instance: Pergamon 2 and Pergamon 4. You may also encounter instances of a snake coiled around a tree stump. See for instance figure 27 on p. 98 of "The Two Babylons", by Alexander Hislop. The Dragon Temple in Samphran, Thailand makes for a similar image (see also here).
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Roman fresco from the lararium of the house of Iulius Polybius in Pompeii,
showing an offering to Agathos, a benevolent daemon,
which appears in form of a serpent about the altar in a garden,
1st century AD.
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaemon_(mythology)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Fresco depicting Bacchus wearing a brunch of grapes. From the Lararium of the House of the Centenary, Pompeii. Naples Archaeological Museum. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Carole Raddato |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dionysos_in_ancient_Roman_paintings
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dionysos_in_ancient_Roman_paintings
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Dionysos/Bacchus in his coat of many grapes is reminiscent of the strange (too many breasts) Artemis (Roman Diana) of Ephesus. Each presumably representing plenty.
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| "The Godess Nature Fountain", in the garden of Villa d'Este in Tivol, Italy. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Amrei-Marie. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Artemis_of_Ephesus
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The omphalos also appears in relation to the patera or phiale, a kind of shallow libation bowl that sometimes have a raised bump in the centre (an omphalos (navel)).
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| Roman bronze statue of priest holding a patera (2nd - 3rd century AD). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Wolfgang Sauber. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Patera
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
There also appears to be some obscure connection between the omphalos and Omphale, queen of Lydia, who is known from the following episode.
"After the delivery of the oracle, Hermes sold Hercules, and he was bought by Omphale, daughter of Iardanes, queen of Lydia, to whom at his death her husband Tmolus had bequeathed the government.... Hercules served Omphale as a slave...."
("The Library" (or "Bibliotheca"), by Apollodorus (or Pseudo-Apollodorus),
2nd century BC, translated by J. G. Frazer, Book II)
Below we see Omphale depicted in the centre of a phiale in place of the omphalos.
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| Silver phiale, detail. Treasure of Berthouville, 1st century AD. In the center, Omphale asleep on the skin of the lion of Nemea, with the club and the bow of Hercules. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Clio20. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Berthouville_treasure
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Hercules "passed a whole year, as he himself avows, in thraldom to Omphale" ("The Trachiniae" by Sophocles (430 BC), translated by R. C. Jebb). This appears to have been a difficult time for Hercules. Omphale was in the habit of taking his stuff.
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| "Omphale", by Byam Shaw (1914). Omphale is wearing Hercules' lion skin and holding his club. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Omphale
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Hercules copped a lot of flak over this traumatic episode. His manhood was severely questioned. In an argument between Heracles and Asclepius (the Greek god of medicine) before Zeus, Asclepius had the following cruel words.
"I was never a slave like you, never combed wool in Lydia, masquerading in a purple shawl and being slippered by an Omphale"
("Dialogues of the Gods" by Lucian (2nd century AD),
translated by H. W. and F. G. Fowler)
Tertullian (c. 155 - 240 AD), one of the fathers of the Christian church, has the following harsh words.
"What this Hercules looked like in Omphale's silken gown? This has already been indicated through the picture of Omphale in Hercules' hide!"
("On the Mantle" by Tertullian, 4.3.8)
So that in the navel of the world we have the spectacle of Hercules feminised at the hands of a domineering woman. Instead of Omphale or an omphalos, Hermes was sometimes represented in the centre of a phiale.
For the Dogon of Africa, the local granary was the axis mundi, aligned to the 4 cardinal directions and dividing the universe into the eight Cartesian regions (octants) of space.
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| A female granary, Yugo, Mali (1981). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Wouter van Beek. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dogon_granaries
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
"The four lower compartments in a Dogon granary are separated by two intersecting partitions, the junction of which forms a cup-like depression in the earth big enough to hold a round jar. This jar, containing grain or valuable objects, is the centre of whole building. The door opens above these compartments, and is only just wide enough to admit the passage of a man's body.
"Above the door is the upper storey comprising four other compartments.... In the celestial granary these compartments had a numbered order. Each of these compartments contained one of the eight seeds given by God to the eight ancestors.... They also represented the eight principal organs of the Spirit of water, which are comparable to the organs of men.... A round jar in the centre symbolized the womb.... The four uprights ending in the corners of the square roof were the arms and legs. Thus the granary was like a woman, lying on her back ... with her arms and legs raised and supporting the roof.... The two legs were on the north side, and the door at the sixth step marked the sexual parts.
"The granary and all it contained was therefore a picture of the world-system...."
("Conversations with Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas",
by Marcel Griaule (1965))
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| Inside a female Dogon granary (2006). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by David Sessoms. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dogon_granaries
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The theme of temple as woman on her back with her legs in the air also appears in the cathedral, with its arched entrance and twin towers.
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St. Patricks Cathedral (New York).
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by VillageHero.
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(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Patricks_Cathedral_(New_York)_(45190701122).jpg
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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"In the old Greek market-place, which was the centre or omphalos of the town, there generally stood an upright Hermes to mark the crossing of the two lines, which indicated the four quarters of the universe, and which meet at its centre. The earth, being in the centre of the cosmos, was symbolized by a cross of this kind, and represented, in the old astronomical system, the omphalos or navel of the universe. Delphi, as is well known, marked the supposed crossing of these imaginary lines in Greece, while Jerusalem occupied a similar position in Palestine; and the same practice existed in Egypt, Thebes being an omphalos in that country. In Italy the Romans called the crossing place cardo, from which we derive the name, cardinal points. In England we call the middle of our towns simply the cross, and until comparatively recently, a crucifix or other suitable erection always occupied this position....
"In old temples, which were microcosms or little worlds, there was always an omphalos, although it was not always marked by any architectural feature. In the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the tripod stood over the omphalos, and near the centre of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem there is a stone which was called the "Compass of our Lord." In a Christian cathedral, which is cruciform in plan, the cardo or compass is marked by the crossing of the transepts and nave."
("The Canon", by William Stirling)
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| Navel of the World in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Vyacheslav Bukharov. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nappa_Mundi
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Reconstitution of the tripod of the Plataean Tripod at Delphi, by German historian and archaeologist Ernst Fabricius, 1886. The only remaining part of the tripod is the Serpent Column, now in the Hippodrome of Constantinople (Istanbul).
From: Ernst Fabricius (1857-1942), "Das plataische Weihgeschenk in Delphi",
Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 1886, 1, p. 189.
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(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Serpent_Column
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The tripod in its turn leads us to trinity associations. Consider for instance the "triskelion".
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| Bann Disk, Celtic Bronze Disc, decorated with triskele arrangement spawning three stylized bird heads. Found on Longban Island, Derry. Now in the Ulster Museum. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Gun Powder Ma. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triskelion
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Celtic spirals from the book, "Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times", by John Romilly Allen (1904). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtic_graphic_ornaments
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Triskelion designs in a church window, Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, France. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Alain Van den Hende. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triskelion
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Parade by the Shinto Matsubara Shrine in Odawara, Japan (2015). The shrine is dedicated to Hachiman (八幡神); a god of agriculture, archery and the protector of warriors and Japan. "Mikoshi", portable Shinto shrines, are being carried. Lanterns are decorated with mitsudomoe (三ツ巴), three-fold tomoe, a kind of triskelion; associated with Hachiman, and also the solar goddess Amaterasu. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Kaztima109. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Three-fold_Tomoe
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The triskelion serves as a nice symbol for three-in-one or three-from-one and naturally conveys dynamism.
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| Pot with triskelion design, Muzeum Ślężańskie, Poland. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Ratomir Wilkowski. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triple_spiral
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Beaked jug (ewer) decorated with triple spirals. Late Helladic III, 1400-1350 BC. Ancient Agora Museum in Athens. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sharon Mollerus. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triple_spiral
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Silver mount decorated with triple spirals. St Ninian's Isle Treasure, Shetland, Scotland (c. 800 AD). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Johnbod. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Ninian%27s_Isle_Treasure?uselang=pl
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Hanging bowl from the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England (6th - 7th century AD). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Johnbod. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_art
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Irish Celtic Penannular Brooch, bronze with traces of gilt. 6th century (Early Medieval), Ireland. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Walters Art Museum. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtic_art
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Vitastjerna's dream, from the "Gutasaga". She is at the bottom holding two snakes. Above her are three snakes she dreamed were entwined in her chest, and representing her 3 sons. From Gotland, Sweden. Now in Fornsalen museum, Visby. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Berig. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutasaga
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| "The Winged Gorgoneion". A shield decoration with a Gorgon (Medusa) head that served as an apotropaion (to ward off evil). Greece, 6th century BC. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Gorgoneion_(Olympia_B_110)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Silver Drachma from Sicily (361 – 289 BC). On one side is the head of Ares. On the opposite side is a triskeles composed of three human legs with winged feet. At the center is a gorgoneion. This was the ancient symbol of Sicily. Sicily was earlier called Trinacria ("three pointed") because of its triangular shape. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Odysses, from CNG. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinacria
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Silver Drachm from Bruttium (modern Calabria) in southern Italy. On one side is the head of the nymph Terina with a small triskeles behind. On the opposite side is Nike seated on a plinth, holding a caduceus. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by CNG. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triskelion_on_coins
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Compare these coins to the "Dynasts of Lycia, Perikles", silver 1/3 stater, circa 380 - 360 BC. Showing a lion's scalp opposite a triskeles (www.coinarchives.com). A similar example, "Dynasts of Lycia, Vekhssere I", silver stater, circa 450 - 430 BC, shows Herakles draped in a lion's skin, opposite a triskeles (www.coinarchives.com).
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| Triskelion carved in the back of a stone chair, Galician (Eastern Europe) Iron Age. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Froaringus. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtic_art
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Altar, Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh, England. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Trish Steel. |
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where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| A triple-formed representation of Hecate, a protective Greek goddess of crossroads, entrances and magic.
Consort of Hermes. Marble. Roman copy from a Greek original.
(Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican Museums)
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(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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"The Quraysh were wont to circumambulate the Ka’bah and say: 'By Allat and al-’Uzza, and Manah, the third idol besides. Verily they are the most exalted females whose intercession is to be sought.' These were also called 'the Daughters of Allah,' and were supposed to intercede before God.”
("Kitab Al Asnam" ("The Book of Idols: Pre-Islamic Beliefs and Tribal Arabic Deities")
by Hisham ibn-al-Kalbi (737 - 819 AD), translated by Nabih Amin Faris (1952), p.18)
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| Slavic deity Triglav ("three-headed one").
From "L' antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures" (Band 2,2),
by Bernard de Montfaucon (1722), p.402j.
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(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triglav_(mythology)
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"Stettin, their most extensive town, which was larger than Julin, included three hills in its circuit. The middle one of these, which was also the highest, was dedicated to Triglav, the chief god of the pagans; its image had a triple head and its eyes and lips were covered with a golden diadem. The idol priests declared that their chief god had three heads because it had charge of three kingdoms, namely, heaven, earth and the lower regions, and that its face was covered with a diadem so that it might pretend not to see the faults of men, and might keep silence. When this most powerful town had been brought to the knowledge of the true God by the good bishop, the idol temples were destroyed by fire and two churches were built, one on the Triglav hill in honour of St. Adalbert, and the other outside the walls of the town in honour of St. Peter. Thereafter the churches of Christ appropriated the sacrifices which were before offered with great pomp and cost to the priests and the idol shrines."
by Ebbo, Herbordus, and Charles Henry Robinson (1920), p.110)
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| Another version of Trigla. From "Saxonia: Museum für sächsische Vaterlandskunde" (detail), Volume 1 (1835), Section 14, p.64. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Saxonia_Museum_für_saechsische_Vaterlandskunde_I
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"In the Codex Borgia, day signs are associated with divinities recognized by all Mesoamerican groups as inhabiting the heavens, earth, and underworld. Four of them ruled in each of the cardinal directions ... four cardinal points and the centre as a fifth central dimension. Each side is associated with a male deity, and the dual divinity, Ometeotl, represents the center, the vertical direction connecting heaven and earth. The Aztecs believed that Ometeotl's four male children, red and black Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Huitzilopochtli, ruled in each of the cardinal directions....
"The tree of life, which is a representation of the fertility goddess, goes back a long way. Many ancient and modern Mexican indigenous groups consider plants and trees, such as corn, agave, acacias, and ceilba, sacred. The Maya, for example, revered the ceilba tree, a voluminous angiosperm, naming it Wacab Chan (tree of the world) and pictured it with a bird perched on its branches. The tree was believed to be the medium that connected divinities with mortals. In their complex chiefdoms, Maya lords and ladies also embodied the concept of the world tree when they acted as mediators between the earth and other worlds. In Mesoamerican cosmovision, the tree of life is also related to Tamoanchan, a mystical as well as geographical place of waters and fertility."
("The Return to Coatlicue: Goddesses and Warladies in Mexican Folklore"
by Grisel Gomez Cano, p.79-80)
The penis god Hermes was at one time ubiquitous in ancient Greece. The human preoccupation with sex should make it unsurprising that the phallus has entered religion, particularly in the form of a fertility symbol. But what is "fertility" but a rather technical term for "happiness", for the good things in life that we want to obtain.
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| Predynastic statue of Min, from Koptos ("oldest colossal statue of Egyptian history"). Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. |
(This image is taken from https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_(mitologia)
where it is available as "allows anyone to use it for any purpose".)
where it is available as "allows anyone to use it for any purpose".)
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| Relief carving of a pair of phalluses with wings, dating from Roman times. From the Museum of Delos. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Zde. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Phallica_in_Museum_of_Delos
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Roman bronze "flying phallus" amulet, tintinnabulum (wind chime). 1st century AD. It would be hung outside a house or shop doorway to ward off evil spirits and bring prosperity. Now on display in "the Secret Cabinet" of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Kim Traynor. |
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where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Chao Mae Tuptim shrine in Bangkok, Thailand Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Ddalbiez. (Compare also Phra Nang Cave.) |
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where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Kanamara Matsuri (かなまら祭り, "Festival of the Steel Phallus"), 2007. Held each spring at the Shinto Kanayama Shrine (金山神社) in Kawasaki, Japan. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Saya M. (Compare also Mara Kannon shrine.) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanamara_Matsuri
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Phallus tree fresco at Massa Marittima, Tuscany, Italy, circa 1265 AD. "The phallus tree was a well-known phenomenon in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance...." ("The Phallus Tree: A Medieval and Renaissance Phenomenon", by Johan J. Mattelaer) Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko. |
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It is difficult to see a connection of Hermes with the rather bland god Mercury and his mysterious caduceus. The caduceus seems to be everywhere in the ancient world yet we know little about what it meant to the ancients. Mercury appears a mere echo of something else, something lost. Religions are often secretive, and the overwhelming influence of Christianity in the West has razed a lot of history. But we have seen similar symbolism in various parts of the world. Any symmetrical religious motif is likely to suggest duality, and a middle pillar in such a motif may suggest a reconciliation of opposites in a balance. What is more different than a shield and sword, yet the warrior with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, unites them in a single purpose, expressed through his own active being. The caduceus grew out serpent worship, but seems intent on portraying balance and apparently healing. It takes the primal forces of nature and submits them to order and purpose. Weaving them back and forth through each other. What would be more natural as the first metaphysical musings of primitive man than the relationship between 1 and 2 and the natural trinity they form? Mercury carries this message from the gods in a mute emblem. Serpents and staff emerging from a common point at the base, spiralling outwards and taking flight. The penis, the goddess and the snake, and the worship of the tree of life, are the four maligned motifs for the Judaic and Christian worlds. The aspirations of the goddess were to be inherited by the virgin Mary and the female saints in a religion that seemed to have no place for a feminine divine.
We have seen that the serpent/dragon is the guardian of the great treasure and the tree of life (immortality). It is also the ocean. If the serpent is this world we are in now, and the tree of life is where we want to be, then this symbolism may only allude to the dilemma that we must endure and overcome the travails of this world in order to win the next, better world, to win success, to rescue the princess and save our world, with the help of God, our supporter in heaven. A movement to something better always presupposes something less good to progress from. So if the progress is eternal, if there will always be something better than what we have now, then the serpent will always be with us, will always need to be conquered and overcome to take whatever is the next step.
Even in the modern world, to exist and to succeed is to grapple with fear. To handle it. To take it in both hands and master it. If you fail in this, success, joy and life may slip through your fingers, wriggle from your grasp and slither away into the long grass. So too your God or gods, and heroes were expected to conquer fear and master it. The serpent might represent fear, and the mighty forces of the world like ocean. This world might kill you and consume you. But if you face it with courage and integrity, it might also reward you. With one hand it gives you sorrow, while with the other joy. The responsibilities of living not infrequently require us to come into contact with something unpleasant, something we instinctively want to avoid. This queasiness, prissiness, daintiness, fussiness and delicacy too must be overcome, in such a way that we do not distort our finer sensibilities in the process.
The serpent can also refer to our own instinctive nature. In a sense, our body is like an animal in our care, like a horse we are riding and must steer and discipline. If the body is overindulged, it becomes more demanding. If we give in to desire every time it appears, we may end up losing the ability to control it altogether. If we eat whenever we are hungry we may find we are uncontrollably hungry all the time. If you fuck every woman you meet (if you can), or act on every violent or negative impulse, these impulses begin to dominate you and you are like a rider with no control over his mount, going instead wherever it leads you. Hateful inclinations indulged can consume you, like being swallowed alive by a serpent or torn apart in its teeth, or having it enter you, getting under your skin. The figures therefore of gods and heroes standing on the serpent or dragon, or other animal, not only represent dominance over external forces and external evils. They also represent the control of one's own nature and impulsiveness. The serpent can be all these things and more. It can be a messenger or message from the gods. The fear of dirt. The fear of the dark. The fear of the deep, can conceal what you do not want to know. A blind fear of the serpent, without proper recognition of what it represents, may cause you to mistake your own evil or negative inclinations, or your own moral neglect, for some external enemy, or to otherwise miss the message it seeks to communicate. Our body also has something to teach and to communicate, and will assert its proper rights to live the life it has been given.
For some Christians, who have forgotten the brazen serpent. The serpent is only the Devil, everywhere and always. And so a survey of nearly every other religion in the world, called "heathen" and "pagan" by Christians, and "infidel" by Moslems, with their frequent serpent symbolism, end up looking like the thousand and one faces of Satan.
The serpent is a symbol of sensuality, but also of much else besides. The associations with the penis therefore allude only to a small subset of its overall meaning. What does all of this have to do with the god of wine, Dionysos? The penis and wine both allude to pleasure. To us, a god of wine seems a rather trivial conception, like a god of sandwiches or a god of wheelbarrows. But to the ancients in their harsh existence, the god or goddess of wine held a special place of honour. The intoxication of wine offered the promise of happiness, freedom, and a cure for suffering and pain. It was liquid heaven. The promise and condition of the gods. It represented the love of living, a celebration of life. So it was Siduri, Babylonian goddess of beer and wine, who advised Gilgamesh on the meaning of life. In Greece and Rome, the obscure and mysterious but ever-hovering Hermes, was penis god come caduceus god, and source of the Golden Fleece guarded by the Colchian dragon overcome by Jason and Medea. Hermes, whose winged sandals carried Perseus to slay the sea-monster and free Andromeda. Hermes, protector of the young Dionysos, god of wine and ecstasy, whose outgrowth was the Mithraic androgyne Phanes. Hermes, father of Hermaphroditus by Aphrodite. Hermes, consort of the trinity goddess Hecate. In India, in early Hinduism we have the pairing of Varuna (god of truth and justice) and Varuni (goddess of wine), representing on the one hand responsibility and on the other joie de vivre ("joy of living"). When the deceased Egyptian entered the great hall of the afterlife, he passed through a door: "The right doorpost is called 'Weigher of the labours of right and truth'. The left doorpost is called 'Judge of wine'." In the skull-cup of Tantric Buddhism was typically alcohol, and so too the Holy Grail. If you find the Holy Grail, have a drink. In Matthew 26:26-28 we learn that bread (which gives life) is the body of Christ while wine (which gives joy) is the blood of Christ. The bread of Earth and the wine of Heaven. But only take a sip or you'll get tipsy. Only a wafer, not a meal. Christianity is famously the religion of teetotallers, but this was not the case for Judaism. Though there was the concept of "too much wine" (Proverbs 23:20), wine was the staple drink.
"Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram...." (Genesis 14:18-19)
"May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness—an abundance of grain and new wine." (Genesis 27:28)
"With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering." (Exodus 29:40)
"a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine." (Leviticus 23:13)
"With a ram prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a third of a hin of olive oil, and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Offer it as an aroma pleasing to the Lord." (Numbers 15:6-7)
"all the finest new wine and grain they give the Lord as the firstfruits of their harvest" (Numbers 18:12)
"He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil" (Deuteronomy 7:13)
"Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you." (Deuteronomy 15:14)
"Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns." (Deuteronomy 16:13-14)
"Jacob will dwell secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew." (Deuteronomy 33:28)
"There were plentiful supplies of flour, fig cakes, raisin cakes, wine, olive oil, cattle and sheep, for there was joy in Israel." (1 Chronicles 12:40)
"Let the light of your face shine on us. Fill my heart with joy when their grain and new wine abound." (Psalm 4:6-7)
"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23:5-6)
"He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts." (Psalm 104:14-15)
"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine." (Proverbs 3:9-10)
"They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord—the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well." (Jeremiah 31:12-13)
The muted joie de vivre of Christianity lives on in the hysterical intoxication of the "Holy Spirit" in Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, and in the red-nosed Germanic Santa Claus and his red-nosed reindeer sidekick. In the following, shortly before his crucifixion, Jesus describes how he will greet his disciples in heaven.
"I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom." (Matthew 26:29)
But let's maybe no one invite Paul who says: "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:18-19)
Living and wisdom are about balance, about recognising what is too much or too little. But there has been little in the way of balance in the history of religion, where things are either all good, or all bad, and not to be questioned either way. Christianity has gone on and on and on about: "love, love, love, love, ...", but saying the word does not necessarily equate to having the concept. Clasping your hands and staring heavenward in an imitation of ecstasy is not love. Neither is a fear that mistrusts to such a degree that it eliminates human freedom and earthly happiness. As responsibility and pleasure circle around us as opposing forces, pulling this way and that, we must stand upright and move onward and grow upward.
The New Testament comes to us as a snapshot from the Roman world, which was a melting pot of cultures. The Romans were much preoccupied with what we today would call "comparative religion". Having conquered many peoples and discovered many cultures, they easily recognised common themes, and sought to make comparisons on the assumption that different cultures were giving different names to what were in fact the same gods. At this time, the Egyptian Isis and Osiris rose to prominence, but were also themselves changed by the cultural milieu that absorbed them. As the Mediterranean world attempted a great syncretism. Women loved Isis because she was strong. Men loved Isis because of her legendary devotion to Osiris. The Roman world was already on a spiritual quest. Then onto this stage stepped the one god of the Jews, reimagined in the figure of Jesus and reconceived as a triune being. While the Jews were attached to their traditional conception, the more liberal Romans embraced the new god, eventually to the exclusion of all others. Inheriting in the process some of the Jewish inflexibility (which had made them, more or less, long faithful to the one God). The trinity concept had a life of its own and was already there in force when Jesus gave it the names: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Along the way, the old conceptions of duality represented by the sun and moon were swept away and replaced by a fundamental opposition between good and evil, with a laser focus. And the goddess lost her place in religion.
"The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger."
(Jeremiah 7:18)
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| Statuette of Osiris with amulets. Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection, Kunsthistorisches Museum. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Alensha. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Egyptian_and_Near_Eastern_Collection_(Kunsthistorisches_Museum)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
There is a tendency nowadays to romanticise and idealise paganism as a kind of happy hippy religion. But there is a substantial moral element to the discipline of the religion of the one Most High god. As infant monotheism sought to assert itself in the face of the waywardness of the people, it could allow no tolerance.
"You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods."
(Deuteronomy 12:31, see also 2 Kings 17:31)
The Greek historian Herodotus described the religion of the Scythians, tribes of nomadic warriors who lived in southern Siberia from around 900 BC to around 200 BC. Their goddess Tabiti (equated by Herodotus with the Roman Vesta (Greek Hestia)) "they reverence beyond all the rest" of their gods. "They use no images, altars, or temples, except in the worship of Mars [Scythian Ares]; but in his worship they do use them."
"It is a pile of brushwood, made of a vast quantity of fagots, in length and breadth three furlongs; in height somewhat less, having a square platform upon the top, three sides of which are precipitous, while the fourth slopes so that men may walk up it. Each year a hundred and fifty waggon-loads of brushwood are added to the pile, which sinks continually by reason of the rains. An antique iron sword is planted on the top of every such mound, and serves as the image of Mars [Ares]: yearly sacrifices of cattle and of horses are made to it, and more victims are offered thus than to all the rest of their gods. When prisoners are taken in war, out of every hundred men they sacrifice one, not however with the same rites as the cattle, but with different. Libations of wine are first poured upon their heads, after which they are slaughtered over a vessel; the vessel is then carried up to the top of the pile, and the blood poured upon the scymitar. While this takes place at the top of the mound, below, by the side of the temple, the right hands and arms of the slaughtered prisoners are cut off, and tossed on high into the air. Then the other victims are slain, and those who have offered the sacrifice depart, leaving the hands and arms where they may chance to have fallen, and the bodies also, separate. Such are the observances of the Scythians with respect to sacrifice."
("The History" by Herodotus (c. 440 BC), Book IV)
So worshipping other gods became the great evil as it was represented in the Judeo-Christian Bible. There's much we don't know about pagan religion as it existed in ancient Rome because early Christianity saw this as its main opponent. So that it was severely suppressed, much of its imagery associated with the devil, and much of the history lost. While the ascendant Christian church was scrupulous to eradicate pagan beliefs, it continued burning its sons and daughters in the fire none the less, now in the name of the Christian god.
If there is only one god at the top of the pantheon, existing prior to any other beings, what gender is it? The androgyne was one solution, but this idea did not appeal to some. In a precreation universe, where there is only God and no universe, the concept of gender has no meaning, it being a relative property implying a multiplicity of beings. Nevertheless the notion of a male god was rooted and fixed, presumably because men were running things. What is it we are referring to when we speak of gender? Gender consists of biological characteristics. But when we ask if god is a man or a woman are we asking if He has a penis or a vagina? Gender is also personality traits, and we might easily attribute the traits of both genders to a single being. Gender is also a role: the role of husband or wife, father or mother. The only meaningful way to speak of the gender of God is as regards His relation to His creation. We may say He is "like a father" to His creation. But we may also say that He is "like a mother" to His creation, since He gave it birth. He is like a king, but might also be thought to be like a queen. If it is only by convention that we attribute gender to God, we might attribute both, either or neither, depending on what is the point we are making at the time. If a man prefers to imagine god as a man, and a woman prefers to imagine god as a woman, what does it matter? Since presumably neither is an entirely accurate conception, as is the case also with any other conception we might have of Him. One of the religious texts we will be looking at later on represents a supernatural being as giving the following explanation for how he describes God. He says: "Of all the possible titles by which he might appropriately be known, I have been instructed to portray the God of all creation as the Universal Father" (The Urantia Book 4:4.5).
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| Copper-gilt figure of "Tara" at Shambu-Nath, Nepal. Photograph from the book "Picturesque Nepal" (1912) by Percy Brown. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tara_(Buddhism)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 1 (article 14 in the series), we will see the struggle the Jewish kings, priests and prophets had eradicating from ancient Israel the practice of worshipping trees and their associated goddesses. We will also see in: In the Beginning: Water - Part 2, several more examples of axis mundi, as we compare how religions go about describing the creation of the universe and everything in it.
Since "Materialism" is the view considered to be in opposition to religion, at this point we should seek to have at least a basic understanding of matter, so that we can utilise that understanding in what follows, and trace our understanding of it to the point where our understanding ceases. The next 3 articles of From Particles to Angels therefore consider what we currently know about matter, including some of the controversies and contradictions. The first of these, the next article, is Mysteries of Light - Part 1.
After Mysteries of Light - Part 2 we will then continue the discussion of matter in Atom where we will encounter another antinomy. We will then be in a position, after a brief digression, to tackle the place of the soul in nature.
Any comments welcome.
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