> snakes ... were respected but not feared.
> ...it would appear that snakes were not feared ...
The fact that snakes were fed and honoured does not imply that they were not
also feared. In modern rural India, cobras and other venomous snakes are
fed, and if they lodge in a temple or a house it is considered a sign of
luck.
All of this is, of course, apotropaic, like calling the Black Sea the Euxine
or the Furies the Eumenides (the kindly ones). If we feed the snake it
might not bite us ...... if we try to expel it with fear and loathing, it
might get annoyed and do what we don't want it to....
Peter