The Origin of Serpent-Worship.

Author(s): C. Staniland Wake

Source: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 2
(1873), pp. 373-390
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
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C. S. WAKE.-Origin of Serpent- Worship. 373
From the EDITOR.--- Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesell-
schaft in Wien, 1872.
From the SOCIETY.-Jahrbuch der K. K. Geologischen
Reichsanstalt,
vol. xxii, No. 3, 1872; Verhandlungen ditto, 1872.
From the EDITOR.-Nature (to date).
From the EDITOR.-La Revue
Scientifique,
Nos. 22-26.
The following paper was read by the author:
The ORIGIN of SERPENT-WORSHIP. By C. STANILAND WAKE,
M.A.I.
THE subject proposed to be discussed in the present paper is
one of the most fasciinating that can
engage the attention of
anthropologists. It is remarkable, however, that although so
much has been written in relation to it, we are still almost in
the dark as to the origin of the superstition in question. The
student of mythology knows that certain ideas were associated
by the peoples of antiquity with the
serpent, and that it was the
favourite symbol of particular deities; but why that animal
rather than any other was chosen for the
purpose is yet un-
certain. The facts being well known, however,
I shall dwell on
them only so far as may be necessary to support the conclusions
based upon them.
We are indebted to Mr. Fergusson
for
bringing together a
large array of facts, showing
the
extraordinary range which
serpent worship had
among
ancient nations. It is true that he
supposes it not to have been adopted by any
nation
belonging
to the Semitic or Aryan stock;
the
serpent-worship of India
and Greece originating,
as he
believes,
with older
peoples. How-
ever this may be, the
superstition
was
certainly
not unknown to
either Aryans or Semites. The brazen
serpent
of the Hebrew
exodus was destroyed in the
reign
of
Hezekiah, owing to the
idolatry to which it gave rise. In the
mythology of the Chal-
deans, from whom the
Assyrians
seem to have sprung, the
serpent occupied
a most
important position. Among
the allied
Pheenicians and Egyptians
it was one of the most divine sym-
bols. In Greece, Hercules was said "to have been the pro-
geiiitor of the whole race of
serpent-worsliipping Scythians,
through his intercourse with the
serpent
Echidna
";
and when
Minerva planted
the sacred olive on the
Acropolis
of
Athens,
she placed it under the care of the
serpent-deity Erechthonios.
As to the Latins, Mr. Fergusson remarks that "Ovid's 'Meta-
morphoses' are full of
passages referring
to the
important part
which the serpent performed
in all the traditions of classic
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374 C. S. WAKE.-Oigin of Seqpent- Worship.
mythology." The superstitions tonnected with that animal are
supposed not to have existed among the ancient Gauls and
Germans; but tlhis is
extrenmely improbable, considering that it
appears to have been known to the British Celts and to the
Gothic inhabitants of Scandinavia. In eastern Europe there is
nlo doubt that the serpent superstition was anciently prevalent,
anid Mr. Fergusson refers to evidence proving that "both trees
and serpents were worshipped by the peasantry in Esthonia and
Finland within the limits of the present century, and even with
all the characteristics possessed by the old faith when we first
become acquainted with it."
The serpent entered largely into the mythology of the ancient
Persians, as it does into that of the Hindus. In India it is
associated with both Sivaismn and Vishnuism, aithlough its
acttual worship perhaps belonged rather to the aboriginal tribes
among whom Buddhism is
thought by recent writers to have
originated. The modern home of the superstition, however,
is western Africa, where the serpenit is not merely considered
sacred, but is actually worshipped as divine. On the other side
of the Indian Ocean traces of the same superstition are met with
among the peoples of the Indian islands and of Polynesia, and
also in China. The evidences of
serpent-worship on the
American continent have long engaged the attention of archaeo-
logists, who have found it to be almost universal, under one
forml or another, among the aboriginal tribes. That animal was
sculptured on the temples of Mexico and Peru, anid its form is
said by Mr. Squier to be of frequent occuLrrence among the
mounds of Wisconsin. The most remarkable of the symbolic
earthworks of North America is the great serpent mound of
Adam's county, Ohio, the convolutions of which extend to a
length of 1000 feet. At the Edinburgh meetingr of the British
Association, in
1871, iMr. Phene gave an account of his discovery
in Argyllshire of a similar mound several hundred feet long,
and about fifteen feet
hiigh by thirty feet broad, tapering
gradually to the tail, the head being surmounted by a circular
cairn, which he supposes to answer to the solar disc above the
head of the Egyptian urfeus, the position of which, with head
erect, answers to the form of the Oban serpent-mound. This
discovery is of great interest, and its author is probably justified
in assuming that the mound was connected with serpent- worship.
I may remark, in evidence of the existence of such structures
in other parts of the old world, that the hero of one of the
Ya?nas of the Zend Avesta is made to rest on what he thinks is
a bank, but which he finds to be a great green snake, doubtless
a serpent mound. Another ancient reference to these structures
is made by Iphicrates, who, according to Bryant,
"
related that
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C. S. WAKE.-Origin of Serpent-
TVorship.
375
in Mauritania there were dragons of such
extent,
that
grass
grew
ulpon
their backs."
Let us now see what ideas have been associated with the
serpent by various peoples. Mr.
Fergusson
mentions the curious
fact that "the chief characteristic of the serpents
throughout
the East in all
ages
seems to have been their power over the
wind and rain." According to Colonel Meadows Taylor, in the
Indian Deccan, at the present day, offerings are made to the
village divinities (of whom the nag, or
snake, is
always one)
at spring time and harvest for rain or fine weather, and also in
time of cholera or other diseases or pestilence. So, among tlle
Chinese, the dragon is regarded as the giver of
rain,
and in time
of 'drought offerings are made to it. In the spring and fall of
tlhe year it is one of the objects worshipped, by command of the
Emperor, by certain mandarins. The Chinese notion of the
serpent or dragon dwelling above the clouds in
spring to give
rain reminds us of the Aryan myth of Vritra, or Ahi, the throt-
tling snake, or dragon with three heads, who hides away the rain-
clouds, but who is slain by Indra, the beneficent giver of
rain. "Whenever," says Mr. Cox, "the rain is shut up in the
clouds, the dark power is in revolt against Dyaus and Indra.
In the rumblings of the thunder, while the drouight still sucks
out the life of the earth, are heard the mutterings of their hateful
enemy. In the lightning flashes which precede the outburst of
the pent-up waters are seen the irresistible spears of the god,
who is attacking the
throttling serpent in his den; and in the
serene heaven which shone out when the
deluging clouds are
passed away, men beheld the face of the mighty deity who was
their friend." Mr. Cox elsewhere remarks that Vritra, "the
enemy of Indra, reappears in all the
dragons, snakes, or worms
slain by all the heroes of
Aryan mrlythology."
Whether the great serpent be the giver or the storer of
rain,
the Aryans, like all eastern peoples, suppose it to have power
over the clouds. This, however, is only one of its attributes.
It is thought to have power over the wind as well as the rain,
and this also is confirmed by reference to Aryani mythology.
Mr. Cox has well shown that Hermes is
"
the air in motion, or
wind, varying in degree from the soft breath of a summer breeze
to the rage of the growing hurricane." In these more violent
moods he is represented by the Maruts, the "crushers" or
"
grinders," who are also the children of Rudra, the "Father of
the Winds," and hiimself the "w vielder of the thunderbolt
"
and
the "
mightiest of the mighty." IRudra is also
"
the robber, the
cheat, the deceiver, the master thief," and in this character both
he aind Hermes agree with the cloud-thief Vritra.
Notwithstanding the fact that in the Mahabliarafta, Rudra,
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376 C. S.
WAKE.-Origin
of Serpent- 4Worship.
like Hercules, is described as the " destroyer of serpents," he is
in the same poem identified with Mahadeva, and hence he is
evidently the same as Siva, who has the title of King of Serpents.
The primitive character of Siva, as the Vedic Rudra, is now
almost lost, but the identity of the two deities may be supported
ey reference to an incident related in the myth of Hermes and
Apollo. It is said that, in return for the sweet-sounding lyre,
Apollo gave to Hermes the magical " three-leafed rod of wealth
and happiness.>' Sometimes this rod was entwined with serpents
instead of fillets, and there is no difficulty in recognising in it
the well-known emblem of Siva, which also is sometimes en-
circled by serpents. It can be shown that the Hindu deity is a
form of Saturn, one of the Semitic names for whom was Set or
Seth. It was the serpent-symbol of this God* which was said to
have been elevated in the wilderness for the healing of the
people bitten by serpents, and curiously enough Rudra (Siva)
was called not only the bounbtiful, the strong, but the healer.
The later Egyptian title of the god Set was Typhon, of whom
Mr. Breal says that "
Typhon is the monster who obscures the
heaven, a sort of Greek Vritra." The myth of Indra alnd Vritra
is reproduced in Latin mythology as that of Hercules and Cacus.
Cacus also is analogous to Typhon, and as the former is sup-
posed to have taken his name from, or given it to, a certain
wind which had the power of clothing itself with clouds, so the
latter bore the same name as a very destructive wind which
was much dreaded by the Phoenicians and
Egyptians.
More-
over, the name Typhon was given by the Egyptians to anything
tempestuous, and hence to the ocean; and in Hebrew the allied
word "
Suph
" denotes a "whirlwind." There is another point
of contact, however, between Siva and the god Set or Typhon,
who was known to the Egyptians also as the serpent Aph6phis,
or the giant. An ancient writer states that one of the names of
El, or Chronios, was Typhon, and the serpent and pillar symbols
of the Phcenician deity confirm the identification between Set
or Saturn, and the Siva of the Hindu Pantheon.
One of the
leading ideas connected with the serpent was, as
we have seen, its
power over the rain, but another equally in-
fluential was its connection with health. Mr. Fergusson remarks
that "when we first meet with
serpent-worship, either in the
wilderness of Sinai, the groves of Epidaurus, or in the Sarmiatian
huts, the serpent is always the Agathodaemon, the bringer of
health and
good
fortune."t The Agathodsemon, which in
*
Theodoret did not distinguish between an Egyptian sect called Sethians
and the Gnostic Ophites or serpent-worshippers.
t
The
heavenly serpent,
Danh. of the
Dahoinans,
is said
by Captain Bur-
ton to be the god of wealth. " His earthly representative is esteemed the
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C. S.
WAKE.-Origin of Serpent-
Worsship. 377
ancient Egypt presided over the affairs of men as the guardian
spirit of their houses,* was the Asp of
Ranno, the snake-headed
goddess who is represented as nursing
the
young princes. That
the idea of health was intimately associated with the serpent is
shown by the crown formed of the asp, or sacred TLhermrtuthis,
having been given particularly to Isis, a goddess of life and
healing. It was also the symbol of other deities with the like
attributes. Thus on a papyri it encircles the
figure
of Harpo-
crates, who was identified with the serpent god iAsculapius;
while not only was a great serpent kept alive in the temple of
Serapis, but on later monuments this deity is represented by a
great serpent, with or without a human head. Sanchoniathon
says of that animal-" It is long-lived, and has the
quality not
only of putting off its old
age
and assuming a second youth, but
of
receiving
at the same tilmie an augmentation of its size and
strength." The serpent, therefore, was a fit emblem of Rudra
"the healer"; and the gift which Apollo presented to Mercury
could be entwined by no niore appropriate object than the
animal wvhich was supposed to be able to give the health without
which even Mercury's magic-staff could not confer wealth and
happiness. It is remarkable that a Moslemn saint of Upper
Egypt is still thought to appear under the form of a serpent,
and to cure the diseases which afflict the pilgrims to his
shrine.
Ramahavaly, one of the four national idols of the Madacasses,
bears a curious analogy to the serpent gods of wisdom and healing.
One of his titles is Babiby, signifying "animal,"
and
denoting "the
god of beasts "; and his emissaries are the serpents which abide
in Madagascar, and are looked
upon
witlh superstitious fear by the
inhabitants. Ramriahavaly is, moreover, regarded as the Physi-
cialn of Imerina, and is thought to preserve from, or expel,
epidemic diseases. Mr. Ellis says that he is sometimes described
" as god, sacred, powerful, and almighty; who kills and inakes
alive; who heals the sick, and prevents diseases and
pestilence;
who can cause thunder and
lightning
to strike their victims or
prevent their fatality; can cause rain in abundance when wanted,
or can withhold it so as to ruin the crops of rice. He is
also celebrated for his knowledge of the past and future, and for
his capacity of discovering whatever is hidden or concealed."
It is probable that the association with the serpent of the idea
of hlealing arose from the still earlier recognition of that animal
supreme bliss and general good." The Slavonian Morlacchi still consider
that the sight of a snake crossing the road is an omen of good fortune.-
Wilkinson's "IDalmatia and Montenegro," vol. ii, p. 160.
*
Mr. Lane states that each
quarter
of Cairo is supposed to have its
guardian genius, or agatho-dwmon, in the form of a serpent.- Vol. i, p. 289.
VOL. II. Cc
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378 C. S. WAKE.-Origin of Serpent- TWorship.
as a symbol of life. I have already referred to the representa-
tions in the Egyptian temples of the young princes being nursed
by a woman having the head of an asp. Lt is interesting to
find that in India at the present day serpent-worship is expressly
resorted to on behalf of children, and " the first hair of a child
which is shaved off when it has passed teething and other in-
fantine ailments is frequently dedicated to a serpent." This
animal in both cases is treated as the guardian of life, and
therefore the crown given to Egyptian sovereigns and divinities
was very properly formed of the asp of Ranno. Another snake-
headed Egyptian goddess has the name Hih or Hoh, and Sir
Gardner Wilkinson mentions that the Coptic word Hof signifies
the viper, analogous to the hye of tlhe Arabs. The Arabic word
Iiya,
indeed, means both life and a serpent. This connection
is supported by the association, already pointed out, between
the serpent and the gods of the life-giving wind, and by the
fact that these also possess the pillar symbol of life. This
belongs as well to Siva the destroyer, the preserver, and the
creator, as to Set or Saturn, to Thoth-Hermes, and El or Chronos.
Both the serpent and the pillar were assigned also to many of
the personifications of the sun, the deified source of earthly life.
Probably the well-known figure representing the serpent with
its tail in its mouth, was intended to symbolise endless life
rather than eternity, an idea which does not appear to have been
associated with that animal by the Egyptians. Agreeably with
this view, Horapollo affirms that Kneph-Agathodoemon denoted
immortality.
One of the best-known attributes of the serpent is wisdom.
The Hebrew tradition of the fall speaks of that aninal
as the most subtle of the beasts of the field ; and the
founder of Christianity tells his disciples to be as wise as ser-
penits,
though
as harmless as doves. Among the ancients the
serpent was consulted as an oracle, and Maury points out that
it played an importailt part in the life of several celebrated
Greek diviners in connection with the knowledgre of the
language
of birds, which many of the ancients believed to be the souls of
the dead. The
serpenit was associated with Apollo aiid Athene,
the Grecian deities of wisdom, as well as with the Egyptian
Kneph,* the ram-lheaded god from i whloixi the G(-nostics are Som1le-
times said to lhave derived their idea of the So)hia. This per-
sonification of divine wisdom is undoubtedly represented on
Gniostic gems unider the form of the serpent. In Hindii mytho-
logy there is the same association between that animilal alid the
ictea of wisdomll. Siva, as Sambliu, is the patron of the Brah-
*
Warburtoii sipposes that the worship of the One God Kneph, was
chang-ed into that of the dragyol or winged-.d
cTpent
3tyihis.
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C. S. WAKE.- Origin of Serpent- Worship. 379
manic order, anid, as shown by his being three-eyed, is essentially
a god possessing high intellectual attributes. Vishnu also is a
god of wisdom, but of the somewhat lower type which is dis-
tinctive of the worshippers of truth under its feminine aspect.
The connection between wisdom and the serpent is best seen,
however, in the Hindu legends as to the Nagas. Mr.
Fergusson
remarks that " the Naaa appears everywhere in Vaishnava tradi-
tion. There is no more common representation of Vishnu* than
as reposing on the Sesha, the celestial seven-headed snake, con-
templating the creation of the world. It was by his assistance
that the ocean was churned and Amrita produced. He every-
where spreads his protecting hood over the god or his avatars;
and in all instances it is the seven-headed heavenly Naga, not
the earthly cobra of Siva." The former animal, no doubt, is
especially symbolical of wisdomn, and it is probably owing to his
intellectual attributes rather than to his destructive or creative
power that Siva is sometimes styled the King of Serpents. The
Upanishads refer to the science of serpents, by which is meant
the wisdom of the mysterious Nagas who, according to Buddhistic
legend, reside under Mount M6ru, and in the waters of the
terrestrial world. One of the sacred books of the Tibetan
Buddhists is fabled to have been received from the Nagas, who,
says Schlagentweit, are "fabulous creatures of the nature of
serpents, who occupy a place among the beings superior to man,
and are regarded as protectors of the law of the Buddha. To these
spiritual beings S'akyamuni is said to have taught a more philo-
sophical religiouis system than to men, who were not sufficiently
advanced to understand it at the time of his appearance." So
far as this has any historical basis, it can mean only that Gau-
tama taught his most secret doctrines to the Nagas, or aboriginal
serpent-worshippers, who were the first to accept his teaching, and
whose religious ideas had probably much in common with those
of Gautama himself. Mr. Fergusson refers to the fact that a king
of the Naga race was reigning in Magadha when Buddha was
born in 623 B.C.; and he adds that the dissemination of his
religion "is wholly due to the accident of its having been
adopted by the low caste kings of Magadha, and to its having
been elevated by one of them to the rank of the religion of the
state." It would appear, indeed, that according to a Hindu
legend, Gautamia himself had a serpent lineage.
The "
serpent-science
"
of Hindu legend has a curious parallel
in Phoenician
mlythology.
The invention of the Phcenicialn
written character is referred to the god Taaut or Thoth, whose
snake-symbol bears his niame Tet, and is used to represent the
ninth letter of the alphabet (teta), which in the oldest Phcenician
*
Vishnu is often identified with Kneph.
c c 2
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380 C. S. WAKE.-Origin of
&rpent-
JVorship.
character has the form of the snake curling itself up. Philo
thus explains the form of the letter theta, and that the god from
whom it took its name was
desigcnated
by the Egyptians as a
serpent curled up, with its head turned inwards. Philo adds
that the letters of the Phoenician alphabet
" are those formed by
means of serpents; afterwards, when they built temples, they
assigned them a place in the adytums, instituted various cere-
inonies and solemnities in honour of them, and adored them as
the supreme gods, the rulers of the universe." Bunsen thinks
the sense of this passage is " that the forms and movements of
serpents were employed in the invention of the oldest letters,
which represent the gods." He says, however, that 'the alphabet
loes not tally at all with the Phcenician
names," and the ex-
planation given by Philo, although curious as showing the ideas
anciently associated with the serpent, is reliable only so far as
it confirms the connection between that animal and the inventor
of the written characters. According to another tradition, the
ancient theology of Egypt was said to have been given by the
Agathodcemon, who was the benefactor of all mankind.
The account given of the serpent by Sanchoniathon, as cited
by Eusebius, is worth repetition as showing the peculliar notions
anciently current in connection with that animal. The Phceni-
cian writer says: "Taautus first attributed
something of the
divine nature to the serpent and the serpent tribe, in which he
was followed by the Phoenicians and
Egyptians; for this aniimal
was esteemed by him to be the most inspired of all the reptiles,
and of a fiery nature, inasmuch as it exhibits an incredible
celerity, moving by its spirit without either hands or feet, or
any of those external members by which other animals effect
their motion, and in its progress it assumes a variety of forins,
moving in a spiral course, and darting forwards with whatever
degree of swiftness it pleases. It is, moreover, long-lived, and
has the quality not only of putting off its old age, and assuming
a second youth, but of receiving at the same time an augmenta-
tion of its size and strength, and when it has fulfilled the
appointed measure of its existence it consumes itself, as Taautus
has laid down in the sacred books; upon which account this
animal is introduced in the sacred rites and mysteries." In
India at the present day some Brahmans always keep the skin
of a nag, or snake, in one of their sacred books, probably from
some idea connected with the casting by the serpent of its skin
referred to in the preceding passage.
We have now seen that the serpent was anciently the symbol
of wisdom, life, and healing, and also that it was thought to
have power over the wind and rain. This last attribute is
easily understood when the importance of rain in the east is
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C. S.
WAKE.--Origin oj
Serpent- Worship. 381
considered, and the ideas associated by the ancieints with the
air and moisture are remembered. The Hebrew tradition which
speaks of the creative spirit moving over the face of the waters
embodies those ideas, according to which the water contains the
elements of life and the wind is the vivifying principle. The
attribute of wisdom cannot so easily be connected with that of
life. The power of healing is certainly an evidence of the
possession of wisdom,* but as it is only one phase of it, pro-
bably the latter attribute was antecedent to the former, or at
least it may have had an independent origin. What this
origin
was
may
perhaps be explained by reference to certain other
ideas very generally entertained in relation to the serpent.
Among various African tribes this animal is viewed with great
veneration, unider the belief that it is often the re-embodiment
of a deceased ancestor. This notion appears to be prevalent
also among the Hindus, who, like the Kafirs, will never kill a
serpent, although it is usually regarded with more dislike than
veneration. Mr. Squier remarks that
"
nmany of the North
American tribes entertain a superstitious regard for
serpents,
and particularly for the rattlesnake, Though always avoiding
they never destroy it, 'lest,' says Barham, 'the spirit of the
reptile should excite its kindred to revenge."' Mr. Squier adds
that,
"according
to Adair, this fear was not unmingled with
veneration. Charlevoix states that the Natchez had the figure
of a rattlesnake, carved from wood,
placed
among other objects
upon the altar of their temple, to which they paid great honour.
Heckwelder relates that the Linni Linape called the rattlesnake
' grandfather,' and would on no account allow it to be destroyed.
Hemy states that the Indians around Lake Huron had a similar
superstition, and also designated the rattlesnake as their 'grand-
father.' He also mentions instances in which offerings of tobacco
were made to it, and its parental care solicited for the party
performing the sacrifice. Carver also mentions an instance of
similar regard on the part of a Menominee Indian, who carried
a rattlesnake constantly with him, 'treating it as a deity, and
calling it his great
father."'t
The most curious notion, however, is that of the
Mexicans,
who always represented the first woman, whose name was trans-
lated by the old Spanish writers
"
the woman of our flesh," as
accompanied by a great male serpent. This serpent is the sun-
god Tonacati-coatl, the principal deity
of the Mexican
pantheon,
*
According to Gaelic aud Germanic folklore, the white snake when
boiled has the
faculty
of
conferring medicinal wisdom. The white snake is
venerated as the king of serpents by
the Scottish Highlanders as by certain
Arab tribes,
and it would appear also
by the Singhalese of Ceylon.
t The snake is one of the Indian tribal totems.
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382 C. S. WAKE.-Origin
of
Serpent- Worship.
and his female companion, the goddess mother of mankind, has
the title cihna-cohuatl, which signifies "womian of the serpent."
With the Peruvians, also, the principal deity was the serpent-
sun, whose wife, the fernale serpent, gave birth to a boy and a girl
from whom all mankind were said to be descenided. It is remark-
able that the serpent origin thus ascribed to the human race is
not confined to the aborigines of Anierica. According to Hero-
dotus, the primeval mother of the Scyths was a monster, half
woman and lialf serpent. This reminds us of the serpent
parentage ascribed to various personages of classical antiquity.
Among the Semites, Zohak, the traditional Arabian conqueror
of Central Asia, is represented as having two snakes growing at
his back; and Mr. Bruce mentions that the line of the Abyssinian
kings begins with "The Serpent," Arwe, who is said to have
reigned at Axum for 400 years, showing that the royal descent
was traced from this animal. Fromi the position assigned to the
dragon
inl China, it probably was formerly thought to stand in
a similar relation to the Emperor, of whom it is the special
symbol.
The facts cited prove that the serpent superstition is in-
timately coninected with ancestor worship, probably originating
anmong uncultured tribes who, struck by the noiseless movemient
and the activity of the serpent, combined with its peculiar gaze
and marvellous power of fascination, viewed it as a spirit em-
bodiment. As such, it would be supposed to have the superior
wisdom and power ascribed to the denizens of the invisible
world, and from this would originate also the ascription to it of
the power over life and health, and over the moisture on which
those benefits are dependent. The serpent-spirit may, however,
have made its appearance for a good or a bad purpose, to confer
a benefit or to inflict punishment for the misdeeds of the living.
The notion of there being good and evil serpent-spirits would
thus naturally arise. Amnong ancestor-worshipping peoples,
however, the serpent would be viewed as a good being who
busied himself about the interests of the tribe to which he had
once belongred. When the simple idea of a spirit ancestor was
transformed into that of the Great Spirit, the father of the race,
the attributes of the serpent would be enlarged. The common
ancestor would be relegated to the heavens, and that which was
necessary to the life and well-being of his people would be
supposed to be under his care. Hence the great serpent was
thought to have power over the rain and the hurricane, with
the latter of which he was probably often identified.
When the serpent was thus transferred to the atmosphere, and
the superstition lost its simple character as a phase of ancestor
worship, its nmost natural association would be with the solar
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C. S. WAEE.-Origin of Serpent- Worship. 383
cult. It is not
surprisinig,
therefore, to find that Qtetzalcoatl,
the divine benefactor of the
Mexicanis,
was an incarnation of the
serpent-sun Tonccatlcoati, who thus becamle the great father, as
the female serpent Cihuacoatl was the great mother, of the human
race. It is an initeresting enquiry how far the sun-gods of other
peoples partook of this double character. Bunsen has a remark-
able passage bearing on the serpent niature of those deities.
He, says that "'Esmuni-Esculapius is strictly a Pheinician god.
He was especially worshipped at Berytus. At
Carthage
he was
called the highest
god, together
with Astarte and Hercules. At
Babylon, according to the above genealogy of Bel, Apollo cor-
responded to him. As the snake-god he must actually be
Hermes, in Phuenician TWt, Taautes. . . . In an earlier stage of
kosmocgonical
consciousness he is Agathodenemon-Sos, whorn
Lepsius has shown to be the third god in the first order of the
Egyptian
Pantheon." The serpent deity who was thus known
under so many forms was none other than the sun-god Set or
Saturn, who has already been identified with Siva and other
deities havingr the attributes usually ascribed to the serpent.
Bunsen asserts that Set is comnmon to all the Semites and
Chaldmeans, as he was to the Egyptianls, but that
"
his supposed
identity with Saturn is not so old as his identity with the sun-
god, as Sirius (SOthis), because the sunl has the greatest power
when it is in Sirius." Elsewhere the same writer says that
"
the Oriento-Egyptian conception of Typhon-Set was that of a
drying-up parching heat. Set is considered as the sun-god when
he has reached his zenith, the god of the summer sun."
The solar character of the serpent-god appears
therefore to be
placed beyond doubt. But what was the relation in which he
was supposed to stand to the human race? Bunsen,
to whose
labours I am so much indebted, remairks that Seth "appears
gradually among the Semites as the
background
of their
religious
consciousness," and not merely was he "the primitive god of
northern Egypt and Palestine," but his genealocy as "the Seth
of Genesis, the father of Enoch (the man), mnust be considered
as originally running parallel with that derived from the
Elohim,
Adam's father." Seth is thus the divine ancestor of the
Semites,
a character in which, but in relation to other races,
the solar
deities genierally agree with him. The kings
and
priests
of
ancient peoples claimed this divine origini,
and
"c children of the
sun" was the title of the members of the sacred caste. When
the actuial ancestral character of the
deity
is hidden he is
regarded as
"1
the father of his people
" and their divine bene-
factor. He is the introducer of
agriculture,
the invenitor of arts
and sciences, and the civilizer of
mankind; "characteristics,"
says Faber,
" which every
nationi ascribed to the first of tleir
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D84 C. S. WAKE.-Or'&gin of Serpent- Worship.
gods or the oldest of their kings." This was true of Thoth,
Saturn, and other analogous deities, and the Adam of Hebrew
tradition was the father of agriculture, as his representative
Noah was the introducer of the vine.
Elsewhere I have endeavoured to show that the name of the
great ancestor of Hebrew tradition has been preserved by certain
peoples who may thus be classed togetlher as Adamites. He
appears, indeed, to be the recognised legendary ancestor of the
members of thlat division of mankind whose primneval home we
can scarcely doubt was in Central Asia, answering in this re-
spect to tlle Seth of the Semites. According to the tradition,
however, as handed down to us by the Hebrews, Seth himself
was the son of Adam. From this, it would seem to follow that,
as Seth was the serpent sun-god (the Agathodamon), the legendary
ancestor of the Adamites must himself have partaken of the same
character. Strange as this idea may appear it is not without
warrant. We have already seen that the Mexicans ascribed
that nature to Tonacatl-coatl and his wife, the mother of man-
kind, and that a similar notion was entertained by various peoples
of the old world. The
Chaldeean
god H&6 who, as the " teacher
of nmankind," and the
"
lord of
uinderstanding,"'
answers exactly
to the divine benefactor of the race before referred to, was
"figured by the great serpent 'which occulpies so conspicuous a
place among the symbols of the gods on the black stones re-
cording Babylonian benefactions." The name of the god is
connected with the Arabic Hiya, which signifies a serpent as
well as life, and Sir Henry
Rawlinson
says that " there are very
strong
grounds indeed for connecting him with the serpent of
scripture, and with the Paradisaical traditions of the tree of
knowledge and the tree of life." The god Hea was, therefore,
the serpent revealer of knowledge, answering in some respects
to the serpent of the fall. He was, however, the Agathodemon,
and in the earlier form of the legend doubtless answered to the
great human ancestor himself. It is curious that, according to
Rabbinical tradition, Cain was the son, not of Adam, buLt of the
serpent-spirit Asmodeus, who is the same as the Persian Ahri-
man, "the great serpent with two feet." In the name of Eve,
the mother of mankind, we have, ilndeed, direct reference to the
supposed serpent-nature of our first parents. Clemens Alexan-
drinus long since remarked that the name Hevia, aspirated,
signifies a female serpent. The name Eve is evidently connected
with the same Arabic root as that which we have seen to mean
both
"
life
"
and " a serpent," and the Persians appear to have
called the constellation Serpens "the little Ava," that is Eve, a
title which is still given to it by the Arabs. But if Eve was
the serpent mnotlher, Adam mnust have been the serpent father.
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C. S. WAKE.-Origin of
Serpent- Worsh'p.
38D
In the old Akkad tongue Ad signiifies "a father," and the
mythical personages with whom Adam is most nearly allied,
such as Seth or Saturn, Taaut or Thoth, and others, were serpent
deities. Such would seem to have been the case also with the
deities whose names show a close fornmal resemblance to that of
Adam. Thus the original name of Hercules was Sandan or
Adanos, and Hercules, like the allied god Mars, was ulldoubtedly
often closely associated with the serpent. This notion is con-
firmed by the identificatioln of Adonis and Osiris as Azar or
Adar, according to Bunsen the later Egyptian Sar-4pis, who is
known to, have been represented as a serpent. The Abaddon of
St. John, the old
dragon
Satan, was probably intended for the
same serpent-god. It is interesting to compare the ideas enter-
tained as to the great dragon in the Book of Revelation and
those held by the Chinese in relation to probably the same
being. Mr. Doolittle says: "The dragon holds a remarkable
position in the history and government of China. It also enjoys
an ominous eininence in the affections of the Chinese people.
It is
frequently
represented as the greatest benefactor of man-
kind. It is the dragon which causes the clouds to form and the
rain to fall. The Chinese delight in praising its wonderful pro-
perties and powers. It is the venerated symbol of good."
It is remarkable that one of the most ancient people of whom
we have any written record - the primitive inhabitants of
Chaldmea-not only bore the name of the traditional father of
mankind, but were especially identified with the
serpent. The
predecessors of the Akkad, in Chaldmea, were the Medes, or Had, of
Berosus, and the distinctive title of at least the later Medes was
AJfdr,which in Persian means 'a snake." This Sir HenryRawlinson.
supposes to have given rise " not
only
to the Persian traditions
of Zohak and his snakes, but to the Armenian
traditions, also,
of the
dragon
dynasty of Media." The Medes of Berosus be-
loniged almost certainly to the old Scythic stock of Central Asia,
to whorm the Chaldaeans, the Hebrews,
and the
Aryans have
alike been affiliated by different writers. When, therefore, Mr.
Fergussoni says that serpent
-
worship characterised the old
Turanian Chaldeean Empire, he would seem to trace it to the
old Asiatic centre. Probably to the same source must be traced
the
serpent
tradition of the Abyssinian kings. Bryant
long
since asserted that that superstition origilnated
with the
Amonians or Hamites, who also would seema to hav6 been de-
rived from the Scythic stock. The facts brought together
in
this paper far from exhaust the subject, but they appear to
justify the following conclusions:-
First, The serpent has been viewed with awe or veneration
from
primeval
times, and almost universally as a re-embodiment
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386 Discutssion.
of a deceased human being, andl as such there were ascribed to it
the attributes of life and wisdom, and the power of healing.
Secondly, The idea of a simple spirit re-incarnation of a de-
ceased anicestor gave rise to the lnotion that mankind
originally
spraang from a serpent, and ultimately to a leg,end embodying
that idea.
Thirdly, This legend was connected with nature-or rather
sun--worship, and the sun was, therefore, looked upon as the
divine serpent-father of man and nature.
Fourthly, Serpent-worship, as a developed religious system,
originated in Central Asia, the home of the great Scythic stock,
from whom all the civilised races of the historical period sprang.
Fifthly, These peoples are the Adamites, and their legendary
ancestor was at one time regarded as the Great Serpent, his de-
scendants being in a special sense serpenit-worshippers.
DISCUSSION.
LORD TALBOT DE MALAHIDE said:-We have every reason to be
obliged to Mr. Wake for his valuable anid interesting paper. We
must not, however, be
expected
to agree with hinm in all his conclu-
sions. Indeed, I think Mr. Darwin would hardly admit that we
could possibly be descended from the serpent. He has found us
higher parentage. Before coming to
any
definite conclusion on this
difficult subject, it is absolutely
necessary
to collect as large as possible
an array of facts not only as to the past state, but the present pre-
valence of serpent worship. It is notorious that in the traditions
of the Deccan the cobra plays a great part as a powverful and
benficent being. But probably one of the most startling instances
of serpent-worship in the presont day is an instance mentioned
to me by my friend Sir Vincent
Eyre,
who had witnessed it
himself, in France, a few
years
since, in the neighbourhood of the
baths of Luchon. I cannot recollect the precise details, bht he made
a very interesting comLmunication on the subject to the " Athenceum"
journal.
Mr. PARK HARRISON had listened to the greater part of the paper with
much interest, but was uniable to accept Mr. Wake's conclusions. The
theory that snakes 'were regrarded in early times as emblems of electric
phenomena and the wind, suggests an origin for serpent-worship
more in accordance with the evidence before them; and there were
other facts which might be quoted in support of the same view.
ThusAwe are told that the Mexican
god
of thunder was represented
with a golden snake in his hand; and the American Indians termed
lightning "cthe great serpent." The same people also reverenced a
cloud-serpent, answering to "the fiving dragon of the air" of the
middle ages, in which may be recognised the fearful yet health-be-
stowing thtunderstorm, that frequently travels in a snake-like path,
and sometimes moulds the clouds into forms more or less resembling
the legendary drag9)n.* The meteoric theory helps to connect serpent
*
"Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish."-SHEIAKESPEARiE.
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Discu.ssion. 387
and sun-worship; and though, in course of time, in some countries
the emblem lost altogether its pristine meaning and became an object
of worship for its own sake, in others myths like those of Hercules
and the Hydra, and Apollo and the
Python, show that the original
idea was not lost sight of amongst intelligent races. If it had been a
fact that the brazeni serpent was set up for the
purpose
of
being wor-
shipped,
it would be
necessary to assume that the prohibition regard-
ing the religious use of images of all kinds by the Israelites had been
withdrawn. But there is nothing in the accouint quoted by Mr.
Wake to show that any act of worship was paid,
or directed to be
paid. Several hundred
years afterwards, when it had become for
some time an object of
superstitious reverence, we are told the
symbol was
destroyed
for that reason. The Sethians were an
Egyp-
tian sect of no earlier date than the third or fourth century of our
era. The lexicons do not appear to support an
etymology that
would connect Seth with serpent.
Mr. CONWAY thought that in
considering the origin of
serpent-wor-
ship it was necessary to remember the extent to which euphemism
prevailed in ancient religion. The Greeks are said to have called the
Axine Sea Euxine to soothe its roughness, and the Furies Eumenides,
or well-meaning, to flatter and soften them. However that might be,
it was quite consistent with worshipping the serpent as an Agatho-
daemon, or associating him with the rainbow (as in Persia) anid the
sun, that in the
beginning he should have been
propitiated through
simple dread as the most subtle and mysterious enemy of man. It
was, he submitted, a confirmation of this that even when the serpent
was worshipped, there appeared also traces of a diabolical and hostile
character at some time ascribed to him. Thus in India, though the
cobra is honoured as of the rank of a Brahman, the mark on his head
is popularly said to have been left there by the heel of Vishnui.
Among the Hebrews the adorationi of the brazen serpent, the orna-
mentationi of the sacred ark with seraphim (the Hebrew word for
serpents),
were associated with the seeming anomaly of his appearance
as a kakodcemon in Eden. No doubt in the danigerous character
of the serpent the supplication of him as the agent of divine wrath
beg,an, anid he was subsequently invested with the splendours of
poetic anid mythological invention. It was very remarkable, as Mr.
Wake had remarked, how deep a hold the serpenit superstition had
upon human natuLre. It scornls the usual ethnlical limits. Connected
as he is in India with the rain-cloud, he is no less so associiated amiong,
Africans, anid he (Mr. Conway) had ofteni seen negroes kill a snake in
timiies of droug,ht and hang, it up by the tail to bring rain. In coni-
firmation of wlhat Mr. Wake hzd said concerning, the recenit case of
serpenit-worship in France, he (MIr. Conway) miight add that there
was n1ow
appearing in a
New England magsziuc a story based
uipon
the legend actutally told, as
he happelned to kniow-, by a peasanit girl
of Foiitainiebleani, in
good faith, to the authoress of that story, of the
descenit of tleir
family- from a
serpenlt. Here wats the fair
M10elulsin"a
fyll
acred'ite(d in France
in
our own
day.
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388 Discussion.
Dr. A. CAMPBELL said that he did not intend making any remarks
on the paper which had dealt so fully with serpent-worship all over
the world, but he begged leave to draw the attention of the meeting
to the vase now exhibited, illustrating some form of serpent-worship
in India, and he hoped that some one present would be able to inter-
pret the bearing of the vase, as he could not do so himself. Dr.
Campbell had borrowed the vase for this occasion from Dr. Hooker,
to whom it had been brought from Calcutta by Dr. King, Superin-
tendent of the Botanical Gardens there. Dr. King, who was not in
England now, was infornmed that the vase was believed by priests and
people-Hindoos-to be prelhistoric in design and workmanship.
Dr. Campbell directed attention to the beautiful workmanship, as
well as the elegant form of the vase, which was of silver. The body
of it was the shape of a water-goglet or caraffe, but with wider neck
and mouth. Over the mouth of it rose a many-headed crest of the
cobra serpent, beautifully engraved, and, as it were, guarding the
contents of the vase, supposing it to be the holy Ganges water. The
bandle of the vase was formed by the body of the serpent bending
backwards from the neck. This was equally graceful in
form,
and of
beautiful workmanship. At the top of the handle is a standing figure
of Hooniman the Monkey, General of the Ramayun. In front of the
vase,
attached to it, but not communicating with the interior of it, is
a projecting vessel, resemrbling the open lamip or " cruishkan " used
in Scotland, Ireland, and India at this day. Dr. Campbell
- said
that this projection and the snake heads may, however, be symbols
of greater mysteries which he could not fully explain.
Mr. GEORGE DIBLEY said :-I take the liberty of entirely dissenting
from the views of the gentleman who has just addressed the meeting.
To discuss the opiniions of religious professors relative to the ser-
pent recorded in Genesis does not fall within the province of this
Society, as we should get into an interminable discussion, resulting in
an absolute waste of time in consequence of having to deal with a
variety of hypotheses which are generally generated in the
imag,ina-
tions of those who make them, and are therefore necessarily of a
most contradictory and even absurd character. I am a little disap-
pointed, as the title of the paper does not appear to me to have been
fully borne out even by the able remarks and facts that have been
narrated by the writer. To ascertain the origin of serpent-worship
appears to me to be a most difficult subject, as it lies still in the
depths of the yet unfathomed ocean of antiquity. One great diffi-
culty in treating with these far prehistoric subjects is our incapacity
of transforming ourselves into the same circumnstances and ideas that
existed in suich remote periods, as it is onily by so doing that we
can get even an approximately correct view concerning them. As
mnany suggestions have been rnade this evening,, I think I nmay be
pardoned for offering one. It appears to me that serpent-worship
must have originated in a purely symbolical age. One indication of
this is its comparative universality. Serpelnts probably symsbolised
s?eusation
;
sosllationi is universal
;
auid we well kniow thiat alny onie
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Discussion. 389
who simply gratifies
his senses without the
correcting
influence of his
intellectual and moral faculties soon becomes degraded; hence the
award that "dust should be the serpent's meat." The manifold
forms of serpent-worship mrtay have been expressive of a variety of
particulars which flow from sensation.
Dr. CARTER BLXKE considered that America was par excellence the
country of serpent-worship, which need not necessarily have originated
in Central Asia, and pointed out that true worship of serpents had
been observed in parts of the world where ophidian reptiles do not
exist.
Dr. CHARNOCK thought serpent-worship might in some cases have
originated through a wrong interpretation of proper names and the
mixing up of mythology with the Scriptures. Thus Ops (i.e., Rhea
or Semele), who was daughter of Coelus and Terra, and whose name
is really derived from ops, opis, riches, was supposed by some to have
been called from ojig, a serpent. Saturn (son of Ops) begat Jove, which
is without doubt etymologically the same name as Jehovah.
Saturn,
Noah, and Janus have been thouight to refer to the same deity; and
Janus was represented by the Phbenicians in the form of a serpent
with his tail in his mouth. Osiris, Oceanus, Serapis, and Apis, and
the patriarch Joseph, have been supposed to be identical. The
Egyptian form of Apis is
Afltwv,
whilst
O,8/ov
is rendered " serpens,"
and A chelous, son of Oceanus, metamorphosed himself into a serpent.
Again, the winged serpent Cniuphis or Cneph
(Kvyy0)
in Egyptian mytho-
logy was esteemed the good genius and creator of the world. Canopus,
pilot of Menelaus, was wrecked on the coast of Egypt, and died there
of the bite of a serpent. After his death he was honoured with a monu-
ment, and a cily erected and named after him, where he was worshipped
under the name of Serapis. Further, the Hebrew seraph is rendered
"pytho," whilst the plural, seraphim, is translated both "Cwinged
serpents," and " bright or shining angels." Apart from the paper, he
(Dr. Charnock) thought the distribution of serpent-worship had been
over-rated, and that some authors discovered it everywhere. Accord-
ing to some, Abury showed serpent-worship, so did Stonehenge, and
even the Pierres AiUgnges, at Carnac in Bretagne. It had lately been
thought to have prevailed in Argyllshire, partly on the ground that
the town named Oban means " serpent of the sun." A Pheenicio-
Egyptian cornpound having such a meaning might possibly be cor-
rupted down to Oban; but the place more probably had its name
from being situated on a beautiful bay, oban in Gaelic meaning a bay
or harbour.
Mr. WAKE said in reply that, of course, he did not mean to suiggest
that man had actually had a serpent origin. He merely stated the
ideas of other people. Referring to Mr. Harrison's opinion that the
superstitious regard for that animal had arisen from the belief
common among the American tribes that the lightning is a great ser-
pent, he believed, on the other hand, that the atmospheric conniection
of the animal in question was of a more recent origin than that which
associated it with the spirits of the dead. Mr. Moncure Conway had
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390 Discussion.
referred to the universal prevalence of the serpent stuperstition, and
to the fact that in India the cobra has the
position
of a
Brahnman, but
he could not determine whether the serpent was first feared as a
demon or venerated as an Agathodnemon, although probably it was
the former. His (Mr. Wake's) view, however, was that the original
feeling was one neither of fear nor of reverence, but anl indefinite one,
arising from the uncertainty as to whether the serpent embodiment
of the deceased ancestor had presented itself for a good or an evil
purpose. The serpent would afterwards come to be regarded with
dread or veneration by various peoples, according to the ideas which
they ha(l gradually associated with it. In all the ancient mythologies,
moreover, there were both good and bad serpents. Mr. Charlesworth
had regretted that the paper did not refer more fuilly to the element
of serpent-worship in ouir national
tbeology.
The omission had
been intentional, but he fully admitted its importtace, although, so
far from accepting Dr. Adam Clarke's notion of the serpent of the
fall being an ape, he believed that according to the original reading
of the legend the serpent and the man Adam were one and the same.
The temptation was the seduction of the woman by the man, or the
reverse, the sexual act necessary to the perpetuation of the human
race having been considered as a sign of moral impurity. The serpent
naight thus be viewed as a
symbol
of the sexuial sense, but there was
no ground for supposinig it to have symbolised the senses, as Mr.
Dibley thouight. It was rnore likely to have represented the matter
by which the senses are seduced. Dr. Carter Blake had referred to
the existence of serpent-veneration in countries where no serpents are
to be found; and the author believed that the meaning of the
legend that St. Patrick expelled all the snakes from Ireland was that
he puit down serpent-worship. The co-existence of the phallic
sylmibol,
the open red hand, and the serpent superstition in America menltioned
by Dr. Blake, was interesting, but the Latter superstition could be said
to be phallic only so far as the serpetnt was viewed as the embodi-
ment of the deceased antcestor. No doubt, as Mr. Price remarked, the
power of distending the head, possessed by the cobra, led to this
animal being treated as
'emblematic
of the male activity, but that
might be explained without holdinlg the serpent superstition to be
really phallic. Veneration for the serpent mnay sometimes have
originiated, as supposed by Dr. Charnock, in mistakes as to the mean-
inig of certain names met with in ancient mythology, but he (Mr.
Wake) thought that these would, if thoroughly examined, support the
view he had taken. Finallv, he said that he couild nlot accept the
opinion referred to by Dr. Blake, that serpent-worship had originated
on the American conltinent. T'hat was part of a rnuch wider question,
but he believed that the American nations amolln whom the supersti-
tion was the most prevalent had sprung fromn Central Asia, and if so
their serpent-worship must be traced to the same position.
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