Why do serpent goddesses exist all over the world

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There is no continent on which "goddesses with snakes" or "goddesses-snakes", later defeated and supplanted by more complex and "disciplined" deities, did not once reign. Offhand, if you think about it, you can remember at least three goddesses, if you studied carefully at school. But why is this image so widespread and ancient? There are several theories.

What the serpent goddess can mean

In different schools of psychology and psychoanalytics, the image of snakes in culture and in the general unconscious is interpreted in different ways. For Freudians, they are unambiguously associated with male genitals and thus express the desire for domination and reproduction, as well as the naive phallocentricity of archaic cultures. But in this case, the goddess with snakes, being a woman, shows control over the masculine principle as the birth of a civilization built on the control of simple animal impulses - this is the image of a formidable, controlling mother. Or, in another version, it is the image of a woman appropriating a masculine principle, an expression of power - such an interpretation can be adhered to by those who believe that every society has passed the stage of matriarchy.

However, despite all efforts, scientists almost nowhere have found the same matriarchy - the pure power of mothers of families without access to power and economic control of men. Despite the fact that many peoples in the past (or present) practiced matrilinealism - the transfer of property and name along the female line, matrilocality - the life of several generations in the house of mothers connected by a common mother, and noted the strong social influence of older women in many cultures and the worship of women deities, which was gradually replaced by a greater veneration of the male gods.

Others will associate the serpent with the element of water, which expresses feminine fertile power, and the goddess with snakes thus becomes a goddess of fertility (especially since they are often related to such a cult). Still others will see in snakes a sign of wisdom, which is traditionally attributed to women. … Fourth - the desire to express natural strength as something dangerous (after all, they are afraid of snakes everywhere).

Finally, the most unpopular and original version is based on the theory of Demos, who believed that people were greatly impressed by the months spent in the womb, when there were not so many external stimuli and the placenta was the most vivid images, in imitation of which the world tree was later invented and solar symbols, and the nourishing umbilical cord, the path through which all benefits come. Representatives of different cultures tried to find her later in the phallus (based on the human body, it resembles an umbilical cord), high long sticks or structures, as if connecting with the sky, replacing the placenta, threads of fate in female hands … And, possibly, snakes tied to female (maternal) image. After all these theories, you look at the goddesses with snakes in a completely different way.

Athena

The image of Athena was most likely created over time from the images of several female deities, from Lebanese and Cretan to those who were worshiped in mainland Greece. The longer Athena lived, the more civilized she looked, but no matter what gods rose, she continued to be worshiped as one of the most popular goddesses. Probably, initially she did not even have anything to do with Zeus - her popularity was simply used by the priests, tying her to his image for ideological reasons.

The more centuries passed, the more civilized the image of Athena became, and few people remembered that her robes were sewn from the skin of a defeated titanium (it sounds too bloodthirsty and inelegant for antiquity of the classical period). However, one of the images of Athena - a serpent at the foot - swept through the centuries. According to myths, this is the son of Athena from Hephaestus, born from the fact that the seed of the blacksmith god fell on the leg of the warrior goddess. Sometimes the armor of Athena was referred to as being covered in serpent scales. In addition, it is Athena who decorates the head of Medusa the Gorgon with snakes after she experiences an outrage - and no other man can approach her (unless Athena herself helps him).

It is known that in Athens, gilded snakes were worn on children’s necks as a protective amulet and were directly associated with the goddess Athena. According to the myths, in which the son of the goddess is presented either as a snake or as human babies, Athena assigned her obedient snakes to guard him. But on other children - the sons of Laocoon, as well as on himself, Athena sent snakes to punish them.

Api

The famous Scythian serpentine goddess, whose image can often be seen in the hoards of these legendary nomads, also underwent transformations over time in an image that is easy to trace, because the Scythians left many images of her. In the earlier, it is a woman who has two (or more) snake tails instead of legs, in later ones they turn into some kind of ribbons, maybe into stylized streams of water. Moreover, Api, as the goddess of fertility and life, was also associated with water. She is also known as the mother goddess who gave birth to the Scythians, the embodiment of the mother image. Sometimes Api also clasps the heads of the snakes in his hands.

After a long close communication with the Greeks, the Scythians began to claim that Api gave birth to her people after visiting Zeus or his son Hercules. By the way, the Tauride Greeks sometimes also used the image of Api - perhaps as a decorative one, or maybe they began to worship her, communicating with the Scythians. In its latest, elinized form, the image of Api appears in the Thracian mausoleum. He is still recognizable, but two waves form the hem of the dress, and the goddess herself now has ordinary human legs.

Oya

The Nigerian goddess Oya rules over winds, hurricanes and lightning, and also patronizes battles, love passion and motherhood. Markets, shopping areas and cemeteries are under her command. In general, this is a goddess of almost as broad a spectrum as Athena. Among its attributes are the snake and lightning, and sometimes it is believed that lightning also represents the evolution of the image of the snake. She is also often armed with a spear or machete.

Benzaiten

Although Shinto itself is very close to animism, a very archaic type of religion, almost nothing archaic is left in the Japanese gods themselves, they are very humanized and orderly. Some of them were borrowed and came along with Indian and Chinese Buddhists, like the goddess Bndzaiten, who is considered a reinvention of the Indian goddess Saraswati. Benzaiten is one of the seven deities of happiness.

Unlike Saraswati, her head is wrapped around a snake - which suggests that a local goddess related to snakes was also the prototype of Benzaiten. Benzaiten uses snakes as his messengers, that is, commands them. Until the fourteenth century, this goddess (more precisely, her statues) could also be seen with weapons in hand - a bow and a sword.

Sirona

The Gauls had the goddess of healing Sirona (by the way, as you know, Athena taught the gods and people how to heal and gave birth to a daughter, Hygia, patronizing doctors). She was depicted with a snake coiled around her arm, similar to how Hygia was depicted by the Greeks with a snake sliding down her hand to drain its poison into a bowl. It is difficult to say more about Sirona because the Gaulic mythology was not described (or depicted) in as much detail as the Romans or the Greeks. Another attribute of Sirona is the decoration on the head in the form of a star. This is exactly how her name is translated "star".

Nuiva

The Chinese believed that humanity and several gods descended from a snake goddess with a female head (or even a torso) named Nuiva. She molded people from clay, and expelled other gods from the cloaca (hopefully, this means she gave birth, because the cloaca of the snake is used for different purposes). Nuiva saved the earth during the end of the world, and she also patronizes matchmaking and marriage - that is, she belongs to the goddesses of fertility. Surprisingly, the compass is considered to be an attribute of Nuiva. She, along with her brother-husband, also a serpent god, was depicted on graves and for a very long time in China there were rich temples of Nuiwa.

Coyolshawki

The Aztec warrior goddess, whose name means Golden Bells, was killed by her own brother Huitzilopochtli for trying to kill her own mother, who became pregnant out of wedlock. He divided his sister's body into pieces and threw his head into the sky, where she turned into the moon. That is why the images of Koyolshawki are so different. Sometimes it is only one head, and sometimes - a woman with a helmet on her head, with snakes on her arms and around her waist. Her breasts are bare, like those of a man or a savage, and there are golden bells on her cheeks.

By the way, Koyolshawki's mother conceived her from an obsidian knife - a weapon popular in Mesoamerica, and this mother's name is Coatlicue, literally - "She is in a dress of snakes", or Coatlantonan, "Our snake mother." Her face is usually formed by the heads of two snakes (or two streams of blood in the form of snakes), and her skirt consists of snakes. In the later state of the Aztecs, very orderly, she was given the place of the patroness of those who plant flowers. Perfect for a goddess whose head is made of streams of blood.

Urabunna - children of snakes

Australian tribes do not know humanoid gods, but the Urabunna tribe believes that it came from two snakes, brown and green, which traveled through the desert and left behind them the souls of children instead of eggs. They uniquely identify these snakes as “mothers”. The Urabunnas consider snakes to be their totem, but this does not prevent them from eating them, and they even have a ceremony that should cause the birth of a large number of snakes - so that they can then be eaten. A direct descendant of one of the two snakes participates in the ceremony - he himself cannot eat a snake, but he can, as it is believed, give rise to new snakes. His skin is pierced to reveal blood. Streams of blood at a symbolic level and turn into a serpent underground.

One of the most interesting systems of myths is among the Aztecs: What gods did the Aztecs pray to and who taught people to love.