[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. 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/. Also, in Norse mythology, the snake biting its tail (Ouroboros) symbolized the sea as the eternal ring which enclosed the world. The snake had a protective and beneficial role on the shield of Athena; it represented the chthonic power connected with the Goddess of Earth; it was the attribute of Asclepius, probably due to its knowledge of the herb of rebirth, resurrection and eternal youth, and generally it was the symbol of superhuman power of the god. During that time, Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon. World Register of Marine Species. In Egyptian mythology, the snake goddess is Wadjet. He is almost always portrayed as a serpent or dragon depending on the particular myth. 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. In so doing, we unravel a familiar narrative thread: In Western culture, strong women have historically been imagined as threats requiring male conquest and control, and Medusa herself has long been the go-to figure for those seeking to demonize female authority. [10], In most versions of the story, she was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who was sent to fetch her head by King Polydectes of Seriphus because Polydectes wanted to marry Perseus's mother. She was essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of the outdoors. With Haralampos Antaloudakis, Mihalis Boutsakis, Filippos Kalaitzakis, Ioannis Koumis. The upper part is dowelled into the lower. 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. Candia-Iraklion, Arheologik Mousso. With the Snake Goddess, Evans foundor fashionedwhat he had anticipated. Another example is the coat of arms of Dohalice village in the Czech Republic. 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. The Pomo people told of a woman who married a rattlesnake-prince and gave birth to four snake-children who freely moved between the two worlds of their parents. Punishment of those who wronged her and insulted those buried within the Necropolis would include blindness and deadly snakebites. Among a group of contemporary Maya people living near Lake Atitlan in Guatemala the womb is visualized as a coiled snake. The Hopi people of North America viewed snakes as symbols of healing, transformation, and fertility. [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 head of Medusa is featured on some regional symbols. doi: 10.1516/00207570260172975. The crown and cat have no parallel in any image of a Bronze Age woman, so these should be discounted. Most covered nothing but earth, but just south of the Throne Room, he discovered two stone-lined pits containing a wide variety of precious things, mostly broken: scraps of gold, ivory. 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. The Rainbow Serpent is the primary creator god in Indigenous Australian mythology. In fact, in their final showdown, the two end up killing each other. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Medusa Greek Goddess T-Shirt Smoking A Joint Snakes Ancient Greece Mythology at the best online prices at eBay! Manasa Devi is the goddess of snakes who is worshipped in Bengal, Jharkhand and the northeastern parts of India. In classical Greek art, the depiction of Medusa shifted from hideous beast to an attractive young woman, both aggressor and victim, a tragic figure in her death. The events follow a bout of madness caused by Hera (the goddess of marriage and family, and his fathers legal wife) that drove this tragic hero to kill his wife and children. T V July 15, 2021 0 Comment 2k. The coiled snake headdress is worn by Ix Chel in her moon goddess aspect, associated with women's menstrual cycles and resultant fertility. As the protector of children, she is often identified with the goddess Shashti (the Sixth; worshipped on the sixth day after birth). They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. It wasnt until Egypts New Kingdom (1550-1070 BCE) that her serpent cult flourished. Available from, Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). Omissions? The Snake Goddess was one of the Minoan divinities associated closely with the snake cult. [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. While some images show her as being a woman with the head of a lion, others show her as a cobra, much like Wadjet, or as a woman with the head of a cobra. Municipal coat of arms of Dohalice village, Hradec Krlov District, Czech Republic, Ceremonial French military uniform belt of World War I, Medusa image in a historical caricature of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, Medusa is honored in the following scientific names:[38], Probably the feminine present participle of. However, in her case, the snakes leaned into her ears and whispered the secrets of the universe (i.e. According to Ovid, in northwest Africa, Perseus flew past the Titan Atlas, who stood holding the sky aloft, and transformed Atlas into a stone when Atlas tried to attack him. 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. This Sumerian god is a complex individual. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Cixous calls writing "an act which will not only 'realize' the decensored relation of woman to her sexuality, to her womanly being, giving her access to her native strength; it will give her back her goods, her pleasures, her organs, her immense bodily territories which have been kept under seal." (Pythian Ode 12). Snakes were also commonly associated with water especially myths about the primordial ocean being formed of a huge coiled snake as in Ahi/Vritra in early Indian myth and Jormungand in Nordic myth. Comparatively, unlike her sisters, whose headful of serpents (oh yeah, actual live snakes) hint at their immortality. Medusa - whose name probably comes from the Ancient Greek word for "guardian" - was one of the three Gorgons, daughters of the sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, and sisters of the Graeae, Echidna, and Ladon. Their contribution to the figurine was the creation of a matching arm and stripy snake, the head of the goddess, and the placement of the hat and cat (separate faience pieces found in the Temple Repositories) on her head. Their symbol, a snake, is often mixed with the other sacred signs consecrating horns or birds. In ancient Aztec mythology, Quetzalcoatl was the son of the fertility earth goddess, Cihuacoatl, and cloud serpent and hunting god, Maxicoat. It is said that he was the guardian angel of Esau and a patron of the Roman empire. In Nordic myth, evil was symbolized by the serpent (actually a dragon) Nidhogg (the 'Dread Biter') who coiled around one of the three roots of Yggdrasil the Tree of Life, and tried to choke or gnaw the life from it. Two famous faence Snake Goddesses from Knossos belong to the New-Palace period (about 1600 BCE). She would be shown wearing a double plumed headdress, or as having a solar disk around her. It stands for the outward expansion of the Aztec empire. 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. The gods were well aware of this, and Perseus received help. [37][incomplete short citation]. No, the job of the Midgard Serpent does not sound like fun at all. A repeating theme present in Greek mythology is the view of serpents being divine messengers: Symbols of life and death. 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. The Egyptians had temples with snakes and also a temple for cats. In retaliation, Apollo killed the cyclops that had forged the fateful thunderbolt that killed his son. To start, ye old snakes can be considered the epitome of multitaskers. 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. You would guess that for a goddess whose name means She Who Loves Silence, troublemakers would figure out to mind their own business! [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. He believes that one reason for her longevity may be her role as a protector, fearsome and enraged. Krishna, as you could guess, was victorious and arose from the river dancing across Kaliyas hoods while playing a flute. Direct link to David Alexander's post Gods and goddesses are no. In Minoa, the Snake Goddess was addressed as A-sa-sa-ra-me and was related to the Hittite Ishassara, the Khmer Apsara and the Canaanite Asherah. The restoration of the Snake Goddess was done by the Danish artist Halvor Bagge together with Evans. Manasa may be related to the nagas, legendary half-human, half-cobra figures in India. iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order Zahhak - an evil serpent creature, originating in Persian mythology and folklore. More like a hundred headed serpentine dragon, actually. Updates? Famous for wearing a skirt of snakes, she was the mother of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war, and served as an agricultural fertility deity. Could this be something meant to bring to Egypt. The animal, awake, has no fictional escape from the Real because he has no imagination. Museum of Sousse, Tunisia, Roof ornament with Medusa's head. The Mannarasala Shri Nagaraja Temple is one of the main centers of worship. Though, Corra did not just disappear. 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. In Chinese mythology, the woman-headed snake Nwa made the first humans. 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. This divine creature became the symbol of fertility goddesses across Mesopotamia, as well as the birthing process; this is specifically when Basmu is shown with a protruding horn. The severed head, which had the power of turning into stone all who looked upon it, was given to Athena, who placed it in her shield; according to another account, Perseus buried it in the marketplace of Argos. After chasing her across the entirety of Ireland, Saint Patrick had a final showdown with the Celtic goddess at the sacred lake, Lough Derg. [2] He was viewed as a twin entity which embodied that of god and man and equally man and serpent, yet was closely associated with fertility. She is a deity in the form of a giant cobra. In ancient Rome we can also observe the tradition of snake worship, as the name of Marsian goddess Angitia origins from the word "serpent", and she was the goddess of snake-charmers, snakes and witches. The terra-cotta models of painted snakes were found in the cult center of Mycenae and the motif of snakes appear among the decoration of vessels for funeral cult from the Late Mycenaean cemeteries in the mainland and in the islands of Rhodes, Kos and Cyprus. Excavation of the temple repositories, from Sir Arthur Evans. Jack London uses Medusa in this way in his novel The Mutiny of the Elsinore:[35], I cannot help remembering a remark of De Casseres. She stands for both 'destruction' and 'regeneration', almost akin to a snake shedding its skin and being reborn. Many are familiar with the Greek tale of the Gorgons, for instance, monstrous sisters with snakes for hair who turned people to stone at a mere glance (per Greek Mythology).Shiva, one of Hinduism's prime deities, is often depicted with the King of Snakes, Vasuki, coiled around his neck . Initially described as an average Joe in Homers Iliad, Asclepius went on to be deified across ancient Greece for his medical prowess. 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. Since Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons who was mortal, Perseus was able to slay her while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena. 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. I understand that Cretans produced images to honor Egyptian gods. Before the soul can reach Jaaniiw in order to reincarnate (cii in Serer[4]), it must transform into a black snake. A Graceful Goddess The Roman author Ovid describes the mortal Medusa as a beautiful maiden seduced by Poseidon in a temple of Athena. He shuns facts from his infancy. 2002 Aug;83(Pt 4):895911. Meanwhile, Basmu is described as being a giant serpent with hindlegs and wings. By Sarah Crocker / Aug. 24, 2021 12:30 am EST. She is called also Household Goddess due to her attribute of the snake, which is connected with the welfare of the Minoan household. Originally feared as a giant sea serpent with nine heads, the hydra was created by Hera with the intent to kill Heracles during one of his Twelve Labors for King Eurystheus. Much like snakes, crocodiles were feared and revered. During the reign of the Aztecs (1100-1521 CE), Quetzalcoatl was worshipped as a patron of priests the through line between the gods and humanity and the guardian of various craftsmen. His life is a perpetual evasion. [32] "You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her," writes Cixous. Both circles and spirals were seen as symbols of eternity. Miracle, chimera and to-morrow keep him alive. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. As you could imagine, this bears a striking resemblance to Hermes Caduceus although there is no relation between the two. Question, why is most all ancient art tied to religion? Messy family dynamics aside, the most famous aspect of Asclepius was not his paternity nor his untimely death. "[31] Cixous wants to destroy the phallogocentric system, and to empower women's bodies and language. The joining method, style, and material make the . LikeHeras feelings towards Heracles type of hate. Johnston goes on to say that as Medusa has been repeatedly compared to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, she proves her merit as an icon, finding relevance even in modern politics. Athena was often pictured with the G orgoneion - the head of Medusa. Their name roughly translates to Venomous Snake and they seem to represent rebirth, death, and mortality. 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. 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. So, the catch with the hydra was that it had the worst breath ever (were talking literal lethal poison) and if nine heads was not enough then after Heracles cut off one, two more grew in its place; this quirky feature of the massive sea serpent ties right back in with you guessed it immortality! Two of these statuettes were extensively restored and identified by Evans as a "Mother Goddess" and a "Priestess." Two Snake Goddesses from the palace of Knossos, c. 1600 B.C.E., majolica, 34.2 cm and 29.5 cm high (Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, photo: In her restored state, the Snake Goddess is 29.5 cm (about 11.5 inches) high, a youthful woman wearing a full skirt made of seven. Snakes are often poisonous and almost universally feared by primates and therefore have become symbolic of evil / deatth in many human cultures. In Egyptian mythology, the snake was a personification of the goddess Kebechet, who personified the purification of water in the funeral cult, and the snake was a protector of the pharaohs after death. They are presented as the ladies of the palace court, dressed in typical Minoan clothes, with a long skirt (flounced, or with an apron) and a tight open bodice. From Medusa-Truth he makes an appeal to Maya-Lie.". Another significant thing about Vasuki is that he has a gem referred to as the nagamani on his head. The idea of snake-people living below the Earth was prominent in American myth. Saint George killing a maiden-devouring serpent or Saint Columba lecturing the Loch Ness Monster which then stopped eating humans and became shy of human visitors. 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. Through many of her iterations, Medusa pushes back against a story that seeks to place the male, Perseus, at its center, blameless and heroic. However, the indisputable root of life that the Rainbow Snake provided was water, regardless of story. 3. Greek myth held that people could acquire second hearing and second sight if their ears or eyes were licked by a snake. 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. Now, we all know that Ireland had never had snakes. The attribute of the snake had a strong significance in the belief system of the entire Aegean region at that time. In Korean mythology, the goddess Eobshin was the snake goddess of wealth, as snakes ate rats and mice that gnawed on the crops. 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. Direct link to David Alexander's post Are there other examples , Posted a year ago. They are also revered as the god of the weather, as many times a rainbow compliments this serpent gods image in archaic artwork. If it is the action of snake-wrangling that makes her a goddess, this is also a problem. Foregoing the whole deadly Underworld serpent thing, Renenutet sounds like one hell of a mother-figure: She Who Rears is quite the fitting epithet after all. "The Laugh of the Medusa" is largely a call to arms, urging women to reclaim their identity through writing as she rejects the patriarchal society of Western culture. During the dance, live snakes were handled and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee good crops. This interpretation of Wadjet can likely be tied in with her relation to Egypts pharaohs, and relate either to her unwavering ward, or the pharaohs role to protect and lead the realm. [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. Free shipping for many products! This was especially a boon because Kaliya had a huge fear of Garuda, the golden-winged vahana of Lord Vishnu, who despised snakes. The classical symbol of the Ouroboros depicts a snake in the act of eating its own tail. There is a belief that Manasa protects the people from snake bite. Furthermore, following the trend with other snake deities, this feathered serpent was revered as the embodiment of life, death, and rebirth. Jane Ellen Harrison argues that "her potency only begins when her head is severed, and that potency resides in the head; she is in a word a mask with a body later appended the basis of the Gorgoneion is a cultus object, a ritual mask misunderstood. [9][10] The Dogon believe that Lebe is the very reincarnation of the Dogon's first ancestorwho was resurrected in the form of a snake. The serpent plays an active role in Dogon religion and cosmogony. Ra and Atum ("he who completes or perfects") became the same god, Atum, the "counter-Ra", associated with earth animals, including the serpent: Nehebkau ("he who harnesses the souls") was the two-headed serpent deity who guarded the entrance to the underworld. M.P. Hymns and offerings were made to it since it was believed that the Goddess could manifest through the snake. Their interpretations and implications can be as varied as the species itself. Early depictions at Tetihucan usually show two snake gods: one looking inward to the city (Quetzalcoatl) and the other looking outward. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Evans found the sculpture of the Snake Goddess in a secondary exploration of the complex he called a palace at Knossos. Also, Athena definitely sided with her half-brother in this family quarrel: With Athenas golden sword gifted from an earlier encounter, Heracles was able to cripple the hydra enough to kill it by similar means. Are there other examples of 19th and 20th century archaeologists and anthropologists making up religious figures and even religions based on suppositions of what people "must have" believed before? Noted by Marjorie J. Milne in discussing a. Freud, Sigmund (Summer 2017). He lives on fiction and myth. Kaliya was known to reside in a river so jam-packed with poison that humans and birds could not go near it. Snakes have been associated with Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic and the lower world.[20]. Her death and eventual transformation suggests the ceasing of the natural life cycle that she represented. 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. It is said that during Ragnarok, the doomsday of Norse mythology, Jormungandr leaves the sea when he releases his tail from his mouth, causing the ocean to flood. In the story, the snake convinces Eve to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which she then convinces Adam to do as well. There is no real archaeological evidence in Crete to support her household role, and there is almost no support for the chthonic aspects. Kuru was a tribal union across the northernmost reaches of Iron Age India (1200-900 BCE). National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Several early classics scholars interpreted the myth of Medusa as a quasi-historical "based on or reconstructed from an event, custom, style, etc., in the past",[15] or "sublimated" memory of an actual invasion. That is to say, there occurred in the early thirteenth century B.C. The Aztec underworld, Mictlan was protected by python-trees, a gigantic alligator and a snake, all of which spirits had to evade by physical ducking and weaving or cunning, before they could start the journey towards immortality. What did the people use the snake goddess for? This article was most recently revised and updated by, IndiaNetzone - Manasa Devi, Hindu Goddess. the secrets of herself). It was his medicinal rod; a meager branch with a single snake twined around it. Wadjet is associated with the Eye of Ra and protects both kings and women in childbirth. In other cultures[which?] The Horned Serpent appears in the mythologies of many Native Americans. Many images of elite Minoan women, perhaps priestesses, look very much like this figurine. Article created on Saturday, February 19, 2000. Medusa is widely known as a monstrous creature with snakes in her hair whose gaze turns men to stone. This Egyptian goddess has quite a few alternating looks. The crown and cat have no parallel in any image of a Bronze Age woman, so these should be discounted. 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. It is believed that Nehebkau is the guardian of the entrance to the Underworld along with being one of the gods that sat on the Court of Maat. Is Wadjet own tail snake provided was water, regardless of story stands for the chthonic aspects eventual transformation the... That is to say, there occurred in the early thirteenth century B.C despised snakes another thing! Museum of Sousse, Tunisia, Roof ornament with Medusa 's head wants to destroy the phallogocentric,... Archaeological evidence in Crete to support her household role, and fertility,... She was essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many human.... 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