"[18] In this perspective the "ravishingly beautiful" Medusa (see above) is the mother remembered in innocence; before the mythic truth of castration dawns on the subject. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. Athena was often pictured with snakes along the edges of her clothing. In Egyptian myth, the state of existence before creation was symbolized as Amduat; a many-coiled serpent from which Ra the Sun and all of creation arose, returning each night and being reborn every morning. In Korean mythology, the goddess Eobshin was the snake goddess of wealth, as snakes ate rats and mice that gnawed on the crops. This venom becomes Thors eventual cause of death, as he is only able to walk nine paces from the dead world serpent before succumbing to his own battle wounds. [16][12], The legend of Perseus beheading Medusa means, specifically, that "the Hellenes overran the goddess's chief shrines" and "stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks", the latter being apotropaic faces worn to frighten away the profane. The deshret was commonly worn by rulers during the period, so Wadjet wearing the crown goes on to further suggest her guardianship over the lands sovereigns. Heracles (Hercules) is said to have obtained a lock of Medusas hair (which possessed the same powers as the head) from Athena and given it to Sterope, the daughter of Cepheus, as a protection for the town of Tegea against attack; when exposed to view, the lock was supposed to bring on a storm, which put the enemy to flight. Similarly, Lord Vishnu, another important deity in Hinduism, is depicted with a thousand-headed serpent called . They are presented as having a slender, dog-like body covered in smooth scales with a long neck, a horn, and a forked tongue. In one interview after another we were told that Medusa is 'the most horrific woman in the world' [though] none of the women we interviewed could remember the details of the myth. Messy family dynamics aside, the most famous aspect of Asclepius was not his paternity nor his untimely death. Snakes are a common occurrence in myths for a multitude of cultures. The Hopi people of North America viewed snakes as symbols of healing, transformation, and fertility. Athena was often pictured with the G orgoneion - the head of Medusa. Meanwhile, Basmu is described as being a giant serpent with hindlegs and wings. She is called also Household Goddess due to her attribute of the snake, which is connected with the welfare of the Minoan household. Snakes were called upon by the creator of Kerala, Parasurama, to make the saline land fertile. Gorgon Medusa. Taking that into consideration, Basmu is a symbol of Ningishzida when theyre seen as either a serpent wrapped around a staff, or as two joined snakes. In ancient Slavic paganism a deity by the name of Veles presided over the underworld. Those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone. Snake Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient World Snake Deities of Egypt: Wadjet, Renenutet, Nehebkau, Meretseger, and Apep In Egyptian Mythology, snakes have a plethora of meanings and interpretations that can be examined through the various serpentine gods that are a part of the religion. The earliest records in existence indicate this snake god was closely tied to the rain and water god, Tlaloc, and that his original domain was vegetation. Browse 465 goddess of snakes photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. Then Perseus gave the Gorgon's head to Athena, who placed it on her shield, the Aegis.[14]. Nehebkau is one of the original primeval gods in Egypt and is speculated to be the son of the goddess Renenutet. Likewise, the Korean snake goddess Eobshin was portrayed as a black snake that had human ears. The History of Guns, Greek Mythology: Stories, Characters, Gods, and Culture, Aztec Mythology: Important Stories and Characters, Greek Gods and Goddesses: Family Tree and Fun Facts, Roman Gods and Goddesses: The Names and Stories of 29 Ancient Roman Gods, Snake Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient World, Snake Deities of Egypt: Wadjet, Renenutet, Nehebkau, Meretseger, and Apep, Snake Gods of Ancient Greece: Asclepius, The Gorgons, and The Hydra, Australias Creation Serpent The Rainbow Snake, Norse Serpent God: The Midgard Serpent Jormungandr. One of the most well-known snake gods in Hinduism is Lord Shiva, who is often depicted with a snake coiled around his neck. The two unslain sisters are mere appendages due to custom; the real Gorgon is Medusa. Described as beings with copper hands and wings of gold, the gorgons were feared amongst the ancient Greeks for their ugly visage and ferocity. In fact, Shiva was so fond of Vasuki that he blessed him and wore the serpent as a necklace. Ma Manasa Devi, the snake goddess, is worshiped by Hindus, mainly for the prevention and cure of snakebites and infectious diseases like smallpox and chicken pox as well as for prosperity and fertility. Also, all those tales of dragons hoarding treasure? an actual historic rupture, a sort of sociological trauma, which has been registered in this myth, much as what Freud terms the latent content of a neurosis is registered in the manifest content of a dream: registered yet hidden, registered in the unconscious yet unknown or misconstrued by the conscious mind.[17]. From Hades should send up an awful monster's grisly head. Best known as being the Lord of Chaos, or the god of death, Apep is no ordinary snake. "[25][incomplete short citation], Medusa's visage has since been adopted by many women as a symbol of female rage; one of the first publications to express this idea was a feminist journal called Women: A Journal of Liberation in their issue one, volume six for 1978. The serpent deities of ancient Egypt cover all aspects of these simultaneously adored and feared creatures, from their highs to their lows. Not only do both representations of Apep include him as a reptile, they both tend to translate the same way. He is considered to be eternal, continuing the theme of snakes being symbols of immortality. The Origin of Hotdogs, The History of Boracay Island in The Philippines. Other depictions of the goddess has her wearing the Red Crown (also known as the deshret) of Lower Egypt, the land surrounding the Nile delta, thus establishing her as being one of the patron goddesses of the region. The Mayan sky-goddess was a common attribute. She stands for both 'destruction' and 'regeneration', almost akin to a snake shedding its skin and being reborn. Who is the goddess with snakes on her head? Free shipping for many products! Etruscan, from Italy, 6th century BC. Manasa Devi is the goddess of snakes who is worshipped in Bengal, Jharkhand and the northeastern parts of India. The snakes crawl around the body of one the goddesses and appear in each hand of the other. [21] Sea monsters lived in every ocean from the seven-headed crocodile-serpent Leviathan of Hebrew myth to the sea-god Koloowisi of the Zuni people of North America and the Greek monster Scylla with twelve snake-necks. However, Saint Patrick is credited with driving the snakes from Ireland. More or less, the fact there are no more snakes in Ireland, and snakes are Corras primary manifestation, suggests that pagan religion and reverence for the goddess toppled under Christianity. The snake goddess figurines excavated in the Minoan palace at Knossos may have been connected to Wadjet, as is the uraeus, the stylized upright cobra used as a symbol of sovereignty and divine . Such a sacrilege attracted the goddess' wrath, and she punished Medusa by turning her hair to snakes. [11][12][13], In the Sumerian culture snakes were also very important as a healing symbol. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Angry Medusa Gorgon Goddess Snakes Men Women 925 Silver Biker Rider Ring Gift at the best online prices at eBay! As you could imagine, this bears a striking resemblance to Hermes Caduceus although there is no relation between the two. After digging out the entire western wing, he decided to check under the paving stones. Harrison's translation states that "the Gorgon was made out of the terror, not the terror out of the Gorgon."[12]. She was essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of the outdoors. The interpretation of this figure as a goddess is also difficult, since there is no evidence of what a Minoan goddess might have looked like. Through many of her iterations, Medusa pushes back against a story that seeks to place the male, Perseus, at its center, blameless and heroic. [16] Nagas, "the demon cobra"[17] and naginis were human-headed snakes whose kings and queens who lived in jewel-encrusted underground or underwater paradises and who were perpetually at war with Garuda the Sun-bird. Its purpose was to act as a guardian for female power, keeping the book solely in the hands of women. Actually this one is both. This would fit perfectly with his overall theme, since his name literally translates to Lord of the Good Tree.. In Korean mythology, the goddess Eobshin was the snake goddess of wealth, as snakes ate rats and mice that gnawed on the crops. They are also revered as the god of the weather, as many times a rainbow compliments this serpent gods image in archaic artwork. Additionally, although symbols of power, they were both heavily associated with rebirth as well. Snakes are often poisonous and almost universally feared by primates and therefore have become symbolic of evil / deatth in many human cultures. The Great Goddess often had snakes as her familiarssometimes twining around her sacred staff, as in ancient Creteand they were worshipped as guardians of her mysteries of birth and regeneration. Beth Seelig chooses to interpret Medusa's punishment as resulting from rape rather than the common interpretation of having willingly consented in Athena's temple, as an outcome of the goddess' unresolved conflicts with her own father Zeus. [27] Thousands of people gather around snake pools called Naga kuan that are said to lead to Nagaloka, the lavish underwater world of these snake deities or Nagas. The goddess wears a tall headdress with a snake wound around it. The goddess is worshipped mainly during the rainy season, when the snakes are most active. To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. The Snake Goddess is a provocative image, but its restoration and interpretation are problematic. Mostly she is a beneficial protection deity who once looked after the infant Horus in the swamps as he was hidden from his uncle Set. And, unfortunately for Asclepius, Zeus really did not like doctors especially divine ones. Rivers and lakes often had snake-gods or snake-guardians including Untekhi the fearsome water-spirit of the Missouri River. Article created on Saturday, February 19, 2000. Day in and day out Nw amused herself making mud figures and watching them come to life.[15]. They are revered as beneficial deities, though they have proven themselves to be formidable foes throughout mankind in Hinduism. When Perseus beheaded her, Pegasus, a winged horse, and Chrysaor, a giant wielding a golden sword, sprang from her body.[11]. This symbol has many interpretations, one of which is the snake representing cyclical nature of life and death, life feeding on itself in the act of creation. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. She mainly worshipped for preventing snakebites, curing them, blessing the humans with fertility and prosperity. There are three different ways you can cite this article. The Egyptians had temples with snakes and also a temple for cats. The eldest brother of Takshaka, Vasuki, and well over a hundred serpents, Adishesha is known as another Naga king. Snake Goddess (Mythic) In 1903, Sir Arthur Evans, excavating at the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete, discovered fragments of faience statuettes depicting female figures holding snakes. Looking at the forbidden mother (in her hair-covered genitals, so to speak) stiffens the subject in illicit desire and freezes him in terror of the Father's retribution. To cite this article in an academic-style article or paper, use: Cierra Tolentino, "Snake Gods and Goddesses: 19 Serpent Deities from Around the World", History Cooperative, January 16, 2022, https://historycooperative.org/snake-gods-and-goddesses/. I understand that Cretans produced images to honor Egyptian gods. Snakes were often also associated with immortality because they were observed biting their tails to form a circle and when they coiled they formed spirals. [13] In a similar manner, the corals of the Red Sea were said to have been formed of Medusa's blood spilled onto seaweed when Perseus laid down the petrifying head beside the shore during his short stay in Ethiopia where he saved and wed his future wife, the lovely princess Andromeda, who was the most beautiful woman in the world at that time. Foremost a snake god worshipped during funerary rites, Nehebkau eventually became Ras successor as King of the Sky. As the story goes, the Rainbow Serpent slept beneath the earth for millennia, until it rose out of the ground one day. In the state of Kerala, India, snake shrines occupy most households. [26], Elana Dykewomon's 1976 collection of lesbian stories and poems, They Will Know Me by My Teeth, features a drawing of a Gorgon on its cover. [22] This creature, known in Akkadian as the muuu, meaning "furious serpent", was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as a general protective emblem. [22] Representations of two intertwined serpents are common in Sumerian art and Neo-Sumerian artwork[22] and still appear sporadically on cylinder seals and amulets until as late as the thirteenth century BC. The Snake Goddess of Egypt, Wadjet, was protector of the land, kings, and women in childbirth. Though, Corra did not just disappear. It stands for the outward expansion of the Aztec empire. Her associations are depicted in various images of Manasa, which show her seated upon a lotus with a child in her lap. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Edward Burne-Jones' Perseus Cycle of paintings and a drawing by Aubrey Beardsley gave way to the twentieth-century works of Paul Klee, John Singer Sargent, Pablo Picasso, Pierre et Gilles, and Auguste Rodin's bronze sculpture The Gates of Hell. Their interpretations and implications can be as varied as the species itself. [8][9] As the act of killing a beautiful maiden in her sleep is rather unheroic, it is not clear whether those vases are meant to elicit sympathy for Medusa's fate, or to mock the traditional hero. Animals alone are given the privilege of lifting the veil of Isis; men dare not. When she swallowed him whole, he had cut his way out after two days, and her body turned to stone. Also, in Norse mythology, the snake biting its tail (Ouroboros) symbolized the sea as the eternal ring which enclosed the world. Healing and snakes were associated in ancient Greek myth with Asclepius, whose snake-familiars would crawl across the bodies of sick people asleep at night in his shrines and lick them back to health. Although no earlier version speaks of rape, ancient depictions of Medusa as a beautiful maiden instead of a horrid monster predate Ovid. Medusa The snake-haired Medusa does not become widespread until the first century B.C. Author Sibylle Baumbach described Medusa as a multimodal image of intoxication, petrifaction, and luring attractiveness," citing her seductive contemporary representation, as well as her dimensionality, as the reason for her longevity.[28]. Direct link to David Alexander's post Gods and goddesses are no. His roles took the form of everything from bringer of morning winds and bright daylight for healthy crops, to a sea god capable of bringing on great floods. Once upon a time, in the ancient world, Medusa was little more than a terrifying monster. World Register of Marine Species. [12], An ancient Roman carving of the Medusa, now spolia in use as a column base in the Basilica Cistern, Coins of the reign of Seleucus I Nicator of Syria (312280 BC), The Medusa's head central to a mosaic floor in a tepidarium of the Roman era. The written texts that contain her myth, the Manasa-mangals, date from the 16th17th century but are probably based on an earlier oral tradition. [37][incomplete short citation]. It is sure that idols, made at Knossos from faence and with a high artistic level, had an important function in Minoan religion. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. It was over the wine in Mouquin's. He lives on fiction and myth. She is a deity in the form of a giant cobra. In Greek mythology, the Gorgons were snake-women whose gazes would turn people to stone; they had serpents for hair, long claws, sharp teeth and scales covering their bodies. In the Old Testament, Samael (also Sammael or Samil) is an important archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore, a figure who is accuser, seducer and destroyer, and has been regarded as both good and evil. Contents 4 Mighty Deities That are Associated with Snakes The Cretan Snake Goddess Wadjet Hygeia The beautiful Hindu Ganga 4 Mighty Deities That are Associated with Snakes The Cretan Snake Goddess The smaller of the two statues of the snake goddess, the one holding two snakes, one with each hand. Direct link to David Alexander's post Are there other examples , Posted a year ago. Corrections? She is also celebrated in a variety of songs, dances, and dramas in the villages. She was usually represented as a winged female creature having a head of hair consisting of snakes; unlike the Gorgons, she was sometimes represented as very beautiful. Perseus then flew to Seriphos, where his mother was being forced into marriage with the king, Polydectes, who was turned into stone by the head. She would be shown wearing a double plumed headdress, or as having a solar disk around her. The circle was particularly important to Dahomeyan myth where the snake-god Danh circled the world like a belt, corseting it and preventing it from flying apart in splinters. As seen on the Ishtar Gate of Babylon (located in modern day Hillah, Iraq), Mushussu is an amalgam creature. Like many of the minor gods and goddesses in ancient Greek religion, there were few, if any, specific myths about Hygieia's actions and personality. Manasa is famous as the goddess of serpents, very powerful and worshipped in different forms and with different names throughout India. [23] Details vary among tribes, with many of the stories associating the mystical figure with water, rain, lightning and thunder. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. A great degree of respect is afforded to snakes in Serer culture, as they are the very embodiment and symbol of their saints and ancestral spirits. Some classical references refer to three Gorgons; Harrison considered that the tripling of Medusa into a trio of sisters was a secondary feature in the myth: The triple form is not primitive, it is merely an instance of a general tendency which makes of each woman goddess a trinity, which has given us the Horae, the Charites, the Semnai, and a host of other triple groups. "Here there is an evil dragon named Nidhogg that gnaws constantly at the root, striving to destroy Yggdrasil" [19] The restoration of the Snake Goddess was done by the Danish artist Halvor Bagge together with Evans. The faience figurines identified as the "snake goddess" were discovered in 1903 by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in the so-called Temple Repositories at the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete. Minoan Civilization, 17th-16th Century BC. The mythology of the Dogon's primordial ancestor Lebe, it based almost entirely on a serpent mythology. The moon goddess frequently pours water from a jar, symbolic of women's fecundity . Nilsson regards the snake as a personification of the Snake Goddess and he believed that her chthonic form is one of the aspects of the Great Mother. Besides the ritual function, they are among the best examples of Minoan art with its dominant features naturalism and grace. Viewed frequently as a goddess of mercy and punishment, Meretseger watched over the dead and punished grave robbers. In other cultures[which?] With snakes for hairhatred of mortal man[5], While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as having monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the fifth century BC began to envisage her as being beautiful as well as terrifying. A story of victim blaming, one that she says sounds all too familiar in a current American context. Medusa is widely known as a monstrous creature with snakes in her hair whose gaze turns men to stone. Because of the fragmentary nature of these valuable objects, Evans assumed what he had found were damaged pieces that had been cleaned out from a temple. In rare instances, Eopsin is also known to take the form of a human, although the circumstances around this manifestation are specific and few and far between. Excavation of the temple repositories, from Sir Arthur Evans. Snake-gods were more often portrayed as hybrids or shape-shifters; for example, North American snake-spirits could change between human and serpentine forms whilst keeping the characteristics of both. Medusa was the only Gorgon who was mortal; hence her slayer, Perseus, was able to kill her by cutting off her head. In ancient Aztec mythology, Quetzalcoatl was the son of the fertility earth goddess, Cihuacoatl, and cloud serpent and hunting god, Maxicoat. The Snake Goddess was one of the Minoan divinities associated closely with the snake cult. Inscribe the breath of the whole woman. The symbol and spirit of the Minoan Snake Goddess took in Greek mythology many different aspects. Tiresias gained a dual male-female nature and an insight into the supernatural world when he killed two snakes which were coupling in the woods. The coiled snake headdress is worn by Ix Chel in her moon goddess aspect, associated with women's menstrual cycles and resultant fertility. [6], In a late version of the Medusa myth, by the Roman poet Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.794803), Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but when Neptune/Poseidon had sex with her in Minerva/Athena's temple,[7] Minerva punished Medusa by transforming her beautiful hair into horrible snakes. Serpent Deities and Monsters of Mesopotamia: Ningishzida and Mushussu, Aztecs Feathered Serpent God: Quetzalcoatl, Hinduism and Serpent Worship: The Five Nagas, Ancient War Gods and Goddesses: 8 Gods of War from Around the World, iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order, US History Timeline: The Dates of Americas Journey, Ancient Civilizations Timeline: 16 Oldest Known Cultures From Around The World, Why Are Hot Dogs Called Hot Dogs? Later depictions associate Wadjet with the protection of the pharaohs. However, the indisputable root of life that the Rainbow Snake provided was water, regardless of story. The underworld was part of a mythical world tree. Manasa, goddess of snakes, worshipped mainly in Bengal and other parts of northeastern India, chiefly for the prevention and cure of snakebite and also for fertility and general prosperity. Wadjet is associated with the Eye of Ra and protects both kings and women in childbirth. In northern Europe and West Asia, snakes were associated with healing whilst in parts of South Asia, snakes are regarded as possessing aphrodisiac qualities. We have to take into consideration that the material of the New-Palace Snake Goddesses faence symbolized in old Egypt the renewal of life, and therefore was used in the Minoan funeral cult and in sanctuaries. Many scholars today agree that Saint Patrick did not literally exterminate the animal, but this story represents the way Christianity squashed the traditional Celtic religion and Druidic worship. Mushussu was viewed as a guardian spirit more than anything, linked closely to Marduk, the chief god of Babylonia, after Marduk defeated it in battle. As it turns out, this Naga is no ordinary snake! "[31] Cixous wants to destroy the phallogocentric system, and to empower women's bodies and language. [20][21][22][23] The name "Medusa" itself is often used in ways not directly connected to the mythological figure but to suggest the gorgon's abilities or to connote malevolence; despite her origins as a beauty, the name in common usage "came to mean monster. Greek cosmological myths tell of how Ophion the snake incubated the primordial egg from which all created things were born. No, the job of the Midgard Serpent does not sound like fun at all. Snakes were associated with wisdom in many mythologies, perhaps due to the appearance of pondering their actions as they prepare to strike, which was copied by medicine men in the build-up to prophecy in parts of West Africa. Even before he excavated at the site, he had argued that there was a great mother goddess who was worshiped in the pre-Classical Greek world. 2. In Chinese mythology, the woman-headed snake Nwa made the first humans. The Snake Goddess is a provocative image, but its restoration and interpretation are problematic. snakes symbolized the umbilical cord, joining all humans to Mother Earth. By Sarah Crocker / Aug. 24, 2021 12:30 am EST. The Mannarasala Shri Nagaraja Temple is one of the main centers of worship. In Hammurabis Law Code (c. 1700 BC) the god Ninazu is identified as the patron of healing, and his son, Ningishzida, is depicted with a serpent and staff symbol (Bunn 1967:618), Snakes were a common feature of many creation myths, for example many people in California and Australia had myths about the Rainbow Snake, which was either Mother Earth herself giving birth to all animals or a water-god whose writhing created rivers, creeks and oceans. "Only the Gorgon has the savage, threatening appearance to serve as an immediately recognized symbol of rage and a protector of women's secrets," wrote Wilk. 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