From: Glen Gordon
Message: 7858
Date: 2001-07-13
Piotr:
>I wonder, however, if snakes were always regarded as destructive; down to historical times
>Aesculapian snakes and grass snakes hung about sacred places in many parts of Europe and
>were respected but not feared.
One is reminded of the famous "Snake Goddess" figurine of Crete depicting a woman
proudly and fearlessly holding two snakes in either hand. If we take Cretan beliefs as representative of the Old Pre-IE Europe, it would appear that snakes were not feared to
the extent that they came to be once Christianity slithered its way into Europe. Of course,
the snake may have had different, more positive symbolisms in Old Europe before the encroachment of IE peoples with their own views of the serpent.
My impression is that the snake originally was connected to the watery realm in Old Europe
and had to do with the creation myth. It was not inheirantly evil at all. This ties in with the
Neolithic economy of the Eastern Mediterranean when much cultural exchange existed,
so perhaps once a common worldview solidified in that area (including the view that the snake
of the water opposed the bird of the air), the IEs (along with other cultures and languages
of that neolithic web) may have given the bird and the snake even more binary characteristics like "good" for the bird and "evil" for the serpent.
- gLeN