_Egypt as the Home of Serpent Worship--Thoth said to be the founder of
Ophiolatreia--Cneph, the Architect of the Universe--Mysteries of
Isis--The Isaic Table--Frequency of the Serpent Symbol--Serapis--In
the Temples at Luxore, etc.--Discovery at Malta--The Egyptian
Basilisk--Mummies--Bracelets--The Caduceus--Temple of Cneph at
Elephantina--Thebes--Story of a Priest--Painting in a Tomb at Biban at
Malook--Pococke at Raigny._
Egypt, of all ancient nations the most noted for its idolatry, was in its
earliest days the home of the peculiar worship we are contemplating. A
learned writer on the subject says "the serpent entered into the Egyptian
religion under all his characters--of an Emblem of Divinity, a Charm or
Oracle, and a God." Cneph, Thoth and Isis were conspicuous and chief among
the gods and goddesses thus symbolized, though he is said to have entered
more or less into the symbolical worship of all the gods.
Sanchoniathon describes Thoth as the founder of Serpent Worship in Egypt,
and he is generally regarded as the planter of the earliest colonies in
Phoenicia and Egypt after the Deluge. He has been called the Reformer of
the Religions of Egypt, and Deane says: "He taught the Egyptians (or
rather that part of his colony which was settled in Egypt) a religion,
which, partaking of Zabaism and Ophiolatreia, had some mixture also of
primeval truth. The Divine Spirit he denominted Cneph, and described him
as the Original, Eternal Spirit, pervading all creation, whose symbol was
a serpent."
Cneph was called by the priests the architect of the universe, and has
been represented as a serpent with an egg in his mouth; the serpent being
his hieroglyphical emblem, and the egg setting forth the mundane elements
as proceeding from him.
After his death Thoth was, in return for services rendered to the people,
made a god of--the god of health, or of healing, and so became the
prototype of AEsculapius. His learning appears to have been great, and he
instructed the people in astronomy, morals, hieroglyphics and letters. He
is generally represented leaning upon a knotted stick which has around it
a serpent.
The mysteries of the worship of Isis abounded in allusions to the serpent,
and Montfaucon says that the Isaic table, a plate of brass overlaid with
brass enamel, intermixed with plates of silver, which described the
mysteries, was charged with serpents in every part as emblems of the
goddess. The particular serpent thus employed was that small one well know
as the instrument used in her suicide by the celebrated Cleopatra, the
asp. This creature is pictured and carved on the priestly robes, the
tiaras of the kings, the image of the goddess. The British Museum
possesses a head of this divinity wearing a coronet of them. Not only so,
the living reptiles were kept in her temple and were supposed to sanctify
the offerings by crawling about amongst them.
As we have said the serpent entered largely into the symbolical worship of
all the Egyptian deities, and Cneph, Thoth and Isis can only be regarded
as three of the chief.
Deane says there is scarcely an Egyptian deity which is not occasionally
symbolized by it. Several of these deities are represented with their
proper heads terminating in serpents' bodies. In Montfaucon, vol. 2, plate
207, there is an engraving of Serapis with a human head and serpentine
tail. Two other minor gods are also represented, the one by a serpent with
a bull's head, the other by a serpent with the radiated head of the lion.
The second of these, which Montfaucon supposes to be an image of Apis, is
bored through the middle: probably with a design to hang about the neck,
as they did many other small figures of gods, by way of ornament or
charms.
The figure of Serapis encircled by serpents is found on tombs. The
appearance of serpents on tombs was very general. On an urn of Egnatius,
Nicephoras, and of Herbasia Clymene, engraved in Montfaucon, vol. 5, a
young man entwined by a serpent is described as falling headlong to the
ground. In the urn of Herbasia Clymene the corners are ornamented with
figures of serpents. It is a singular coincidence that the creature by
whom it is believed came death into the world should be consecrated by the
earliest heathen idolaters to the receptacles of the dead. It is
remarkable also that Serapis was supposed by the Egyptians to have
dominion over evil demons, or in other words was the same as Pluto or
Satan.
On some of the Egyptian temples the serpent has been conspicuously figured
as an emblem consecrated to the Divine service. Thus it is found at
Luxore, Komombu, Dendara, Apollinopolis and Esnay. The Pamphylian obelisk
also bears it many times--fifty-two it is said--and according to Pococke
each of the pillars of the temple of Gava has it twice sculptured.
All writers on the subject have noticed the variations of form under which
the serpent has appeared on Egyptian monuments, and have laid stress upon
it as indicating the great consideration in which he was held. There is
little to be wondered at in this when we remember that he was regarded as
symbolical of divine wisdom, power, and creative energy; of immortality
and regeneration, from the shedding of his own skin; and of eternity, when
represented in the act of biting his own tail.
One writer says the world was represented by a circle, intersected by two
diameters perpendicular to each other, which diameters, according to
Eusebius, were serpents. Jablonski says the circumference only, was a
serpent.
Kircher says that the elements (or rather what were so considered in
ancient times) were represented by serpents. Earth was symbolized by a
prostrate two-horned snake; water, by a serpent moving in an undulated
manner; air, by an erect serpent in the act of hissing; fire, by an asp
standing on its tail and bearing upon his head a globe. "From these
hieroglyphics," remarks Deane, "it is clear that the serpent was the most
expressive symbol of divinity with the Egyptians."
An engraving in Montfaucon, vol. 2, p. 237, calls for notice here, as
illustrating the great extent to which the veneration of the serpent once
prevailed in Egypt. In the year 1694, in an old wall of Malta, was
discovered a plate of gold, supposed to have been concealed there by its
possessors at a time when everything idolatrous was destroyed as
abominable. Montfaucon says: "This plate was rolled up in a golden casket;
it consists of two long rows which contain a very great number of Egyptian
deities, most of which have the head of some beast or bird. Many serpents
are also seen intermixed, the arms and legs of the gods terminating in
serpents' tails. The first figure has upon its back a long shell with a
serpent upon it; in each row there is a serpent extended upon an altar.
Among the figures of the sacred row there is seen an Isis of tolerably
good form. This same plate, no doubt, contains the most profound mysteries
of the Egyptian superstition."
It hardly matters where we look in Egypt, this same serpent symbol is
found entering into the composition of everything, whether ornamental,
useful or ecclesiastical. The basilisk, the most venomous of all snakes,
and so regarded as the king of the species and named after the oracular
god of Canaan OB or OUB, was represented on coins with rays upon his head
like a crown; around the coin was inscribed "Agathodaemon." The emperor
Nero in the "madness of his vanity," it is said, caused a number of such
coins to be struck with the inscription "The New Agathodaemon," meaning
himself.
The Egyptians held basilisks in such veneration that they made images of
them in gold and consecrated and placed them in the temples of their gods.
Bryant thinks that they were the same as the Thermuthis, or deadly asp.
These creatures the Egyptian priests are said to have preserved by digging
holes for them in the corners of their temples, and was a part of their
superstition to believe that whosoever was accidentally bitten by them was
divinely favoured.[15]
Deane further mentions that the serpent is sometimes found sculptured, and
attached to the breasts of mummies; but whether with a view to talismanic
security, or as indicative of the priesthood of Isis, is doubtful. A
female mummy, opened by M. Passalacqua at Paris some years ago, was
adorned with a necklace of serpents carved in stone.
Bracelets, in the form of serpents, were worn by the Grecian women in the
time of Clemens Alexdrinus, who thus reproves the fashion: "The women are
not ashamed to place about them the most manifold symbols of the evil one;
for as the serpent deceived Eve, so the golden trinket in the fashion of a
serpent misleads the women." The children also wore chaplets of the same
kind.
We must not omit to notice the Caduceus, which forms, it is said, one of
the most striking examples of the talismanic serpent. According to
Montfaucon, Kirchen and others, the notion that this belonged exclusively
to Hermes or Mercury is erroneous, as it can be seen in the hand of
Cybele, Minerva Amebis, Hercules Ogmius and the personified constellation
Virgo, said by Lucian to have had her symbol in the Pythian priestess.
Variously represented in the main, the Caduceus always preserved the
original design of a winged wand entwined by two serpents. It is found
sometimes without the wings, but never without the serpents; the varieties
consisting chiefly in the number of folds made by the serpents' bodies
round the wand, and the relative positions of the wings and serpents'
heads. It was regarded as powerful in paralyzing the mind and raising the
dead.
Kirchen says that the Caduceus was originally expressed by the simple
figure of a cross, by which its inventor, Thoth, is said to have
symbolized the four elements proceeding from a common centre.
"Ophiolatreia," says Deane, "had taken such deep root in Egypt that the
serpent was not merely regarded as an emblem of divinity, but even held in
estimation as the instrument of an oracle. The priests of the temple of
Isis had a silver image of a serpent so constructed as to enable a person
in attendance to move its head without being observed by the supplicating
votary.
"But Egyptian superstition was not contented with worshipping divinity
through its emblem the serpent. The senseless idolater soon bowed before
the symbol itself, and worshipped this reptile, the representative of
man's energy, as a god."
In addition to the temple of the great serpent-god Cneph at Elephantina,
there was a renowned one of Jupiter at Thebes, where the practice of
Ophiolatreia was carried to a great length. Herodotus writes: "At Thebes
there are two serpents, by no means injurious to men; small in size,
having two horns springing up from the top of the head. They bury these
when dead in the temple of Jupiter: for they say that they are sacred to
that god." AElian says: "In the time of Ptolemy Euergetes, a very large
serpent was kept in the temple of AEsculapius at Alexandria, and in another
place a live one of great magnitude was kept and adored with divine
honours; the name of this place he called Melite." He gives the following
story:--"This serpent had priests and ministers, a table and a bowl. The
priests every day carried into the sacred chamber a cake made of flour and
honey and then retired. Returning the next day they always found the bowl
empty. On one occasion, one of the priests, being extremely anxious to see
the sacred serpent, went in alone, and having deposited the cake retired.
When the serpent had ascended the table to his feast, the priest came in,
throwing open the door with great violence: upon which the serpent
departed with great indignation. But the priest was shortly after seized
with a mental malady, and, having confessed his crime, became dumb and
wasted away until he died."
In Hewart's tables of Egyptian hieroglyphics we see a priest offering
adoration to a serpent. The same occurs on the Isiac table.
"In a tomb at Biban, at Malook, is a beautiful painting descriptive of the
rites of Ophiolatreia. The officiating priest is represented with a sword
in his hand, and three headless victims are kneeling before an immense
serpent. Isis is seen sitting under the arch made by the serpent's body,
and the sacred asp, with a human face, is behind her seated on the
serpent's tail. This picture proves that the serpent was propitiated by
human victims."[16]
It is noteworthy that in Egypt as in Phoenicia and other places serpent
worship was not immediately destroyed by the advance of Christianity. The
Gnostics united it with the religion of the cross, and a quotation from
Bishop Pococke will, just here, be most appropriate and interesting.
"We came to Raigny, where the religious sheikh of the famous Heredy was at
the side of the river to meet us. He went with us to the grotto of the
serpent that has been so much talked of under the name of the Sheikh
Heredy, of which I shall give you a particular account, in order to show
the folly, credulity, and superstition of these people; for the Christians
have faith in it as well as the Turks. We went ascending between the rocky
mountain for half a mile, and came to a part where the valley opens wider.
On the right is a mosque, built with a dome over it, against the side of
the rock, like a sheikh's burial-place. In it there is a large cleft in
the rock out of which they say the serpent comes. There is a tomb in the
mosque, in the Turkish manner, that they say is the tomb of Heredy, which
would make one imagine that one of their saints is buried there, and that
they suppose his soul may be in the serpent, for I observed that they went
and kissed the tomb with much devotion and said their prayers at it.
Opposite to this cleft there is another, which they say is the tomb of
Ogli Hassan, that is of Hassan, the son of Heredy; there are two other
clefts which they say are inhabited by saints or angels. The sheikh told
me there were two of these serpents, but the common notion is that there
is only one. He said it had been there ever since the time of Mahomet. The
shape of it is like that of other serpents of the harmless breed. He comes
out only during the four summer months, and it is said that they sacrifice
to it. This the sheikh denied, and affirmed they only brought lambs,
sheep, and money to buy oil for the lamps--but I saw much blood and
entrails of beasts lately killed before the door.
"The stories are so ridiculous that they ought not to be repeated, if it
were not to give an instance of their idolatry in those parts in this
respect, though the Mahometan religion seems to be very far from it in
other things. They say the virtue of this serpent is to cure all diseases
of those who go to it.
"They are also full of a story, that when a number of women go there once
a year, he passes by and looks on them, and goes and twines about the neck
of the most beautiful.
"I was surprised to hear a grave and sensible Christian say that he always
cured any distempers, but that worse followed. And some really believe
that he works miracles, and say it is the devil mentioned in Tobit, whom
the angel Gabriel drove into the utmost parts of Egypt."
The bishop is of opinion (in which he is joined by others) that the above
superstition is a remnant of the ancient Ophiolatreia.