_Ophiolatreia in Britain--The Druids--Adders--Poem of Taliessin--The
Goddess Ceridwen--A Bardic Poem--Snake Stones--The Anguinum--Execution
of a Roman Knight--Remains of the Serpent-temple at Abury--Serpent
vestiges in Ireland of great rarity--St. Patrick._
It will probably be a matter of surprise to many, but it is a fact that
even in Britain in ancient times Ophiolatreia largely prevailed. Deane
says: "Our British ancestors, under the tuition of the venerable Druids,
were not only worshippers of the solar deity, symbolized by the serpent,
but held the serpent, independent of his relation to the sun, in peculiar
veneration. Cut off from all intercourse with the civilized world, partly
by their remoteness and partly by their national character, the Britons
retained their primitive idolatry long after it had yielded in the
neighbouring countries to the polytheistic corruptions of Greece and
Egypt. In process of time, however, the gods of the Gaulish Druids
penetrated into the sacred mythology of the British and furnished
personifications for the different attributes of the dracontic god Hu.
This deity was called "The Dragon Ruler of the World" and his car was
drawn by serpents. His priests in accommodation with the general custom of
the Ophite god, were called after him "Adders."[18]
In a poem of Taliessin, translated by Davies, in his Appendix, No. 6, is
the following enumeration of a Druid's titles:--
"I am a Druid; I am an architect; I am a prophet; I am a serpent"
(Gnadr).
From the word "Gnadr" is derived "adder," the name of a species of snake.
Gnadr was probably pronounced like "adder" with a nasal aspirate.
The mythology of the Druids contained also a goddess "Ceridwen," whose car
was drawn by serpents. It is conjectured that this was the Grecian
"Ceres;" and not without reason, for the interesting intercourse between
the British and Gaulish Druids introduced into the purer religion of the
former many of the corruptions ingrafted upon that of the latter by the
Greeks and Romans. The Druids of Gaul had among them many divinities
corresponding with those of Greece and Rome. They worshipped Ogmius (a
compound deity between Hercules and Mercury), and after him, Apollo, Mars,
Jupiter, and Minerva, or deities resembling them. Of these they made
images; whereas hitherto the only image in the British worship was the
great wicker idol into which they thrust human victims designed to be
burnt as an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of some chieftain.
The following translation of a Bardic poem, descriptive of one of their
religious rites, identifies the superstition of the British Druids with
the aboriginal Ophiolatreia, as expressed in the mysteries of Isis in
Egypt. The poem is entitled "The Elegy of Uther Pendragon;" that is, of
Uther, "The Dragon's Head;" and it is not a little remarkable that the
word "Draig" in the British language signifies, at the same time, "a fiery
serpent, a dragon, and the Supreme God."[19]
In the second part of this poem is the following sacrificial rites of
Uther Pendragon:--
"With solemn festivity round the two lakes:
With the lake next my side;
With my side moving round the sanctuary;
While the sanctuary is earnestly invoking
The Gliding King, before whom the Fair One
Retreats upon the veil that covers the huge stones;
Whilst the Dragon moves round over
The places which contain vessels
Of drink offering:
Whilst the drink offering is in the Golden Horns;
Whilst the golden horns are in the hand;
Whilst the knife is upon the chief victim;
Sincerely I implore thee, O victorious Bell, etc., etc."
This is a most minute and interesting account of the religious rites of
the Druids, proving in clear terms their addiction to Ophiolatreia: for we
have not only the history of the "Gliding King," who pursues "The Fair
One," depicted upon "the veil which covers the huge stones"--a history
which reminds us most forcibly of the events in Paradise, under a poetic
garb; but we have, likewise, beneath that veil, within the sacred circle
of "the huge stones," the "Great Dragon, a Living Serpent," moving round
the places which contain the vessels of drink-offering; or in other words,
moving round the altar stone in the same manner as the serpent in the
Isiac mysteries passed about the sacred vessels containing the offerings.
The Golden Horns which contained the drink offerings were very probably of
the same kind as that found in Tundera, in Denmark.
The sanctity of the serpent showed itself in another very curious part of
the superstition of the British Druids, namely, in that which related to
the formation and virtues of the celebrated _anguinum_, as it is called by
Pliny, or _gleinen nadroeth_, that is, "snake-stones," as they were called
by the Britons. Sir R. C. Hoare in his _Modern Wiltshire_, Hundred of
Amesbury, gives an engraving of one, and says: "This is a head of
imperfect vitrification representing two circular lines of opaque skylight
and white, which seem to represent a snake twined round a centre which is
perforated." Mr. Lhwyd, the Welsh antiquary, writing to Ralph Thornley
says:--"I am fully satisfied that they were amulets of the Druids. I have
seen one of them that had nine small snakes upon it. There are others that
have one or two or more snakes."
A story comes to us, on Roman authority (that of Pliny), that a knight
entering a court of justice wearing an anguinum about his neck was ordered
by Claudius to be put to death, it being believed that the influence would
improperly wrest judgment in his favour.
Of this anguinum (a word derived from _anguis_, a snake,) Pliny says: "An
infinite number of snakes, entwined together in the heat of summer, roll
themselves into a mass, and from the saliva of their jaws and the froth of
their bodies is engendered an egg, which is called 'anguinum.' By the
violent hissing of the serpents the egg is forced into the air, and the
Druid destined to secure it, must catch it in his sacred vest before it
reaches the ground."
Information relative to the prevalence of this superstition in England
will be found in Davies' _Myths of the Druids_, Camden's _Britannia_, and
Borlase's _Cornwall_.
Perhaps the most remarkable of all British relics of this worship are to
be found on the hills overlooking the village of Abury, in the county of
Wiltshire. There, twenty-six miles from the celebrated ruins of
Stonehenge, are to be found the remains of a great Serpentine Temple--one
of the most imposing, as it certainly is one the most interesting,
monuments of the British Islands. It was first accurately described by Dr.
Stukeley in 1793 in his celebrated work entitled _Abury, a Temple of the
British Druids_. It was afterwards carefully examined by Sir R. C. Hoare
and an account published in his elaborate work _Ancient Wiltshire_. Dr.
Stukeley was the first to detect the design of the structure and his
conclusions have been sustained by the observations of every antiquary who
has succeeded him.
The temple of Abury consisted originally of a grand circumvallation of
earth 1,400 feet in diameter, enclosing an area of upwards of twenty-two
acres. It has an inner ditch and the height of the embankment, measuring
from the bottom of the ditch, is seventeen feet. It is quite regular,
though not an exact circle in form, and has four entrances at equal
distances apart, though nearly at right angles to each other. Within this
grand circle were originally two double or concentric circles composed of
massive upright stones: a row of large stones, one hundred in number, was
placed upon the inner brow of the ditch. Extending upon either hand from
this grand central structure were parallel lines of huge upright stones,
constituting, upon each side, avenues upwards of a mile in length. These
formed the body of the serpent. Each avenue consisted of two hundred
stones. The head of the serpent was represented by an oval structure
consisting of two concentric lines of upright stones; the outer line
containing forty, the inner eighteen stones. This head rests upon an
eminence known as Overton, or Hakpen Hill, from which is commanded a view
of the entire structure, winding back for more than two miles to the point
of the tail, towards Bekhampton.
_Hakpen_ in the old British dialects signified _Hak_, serpent, and _pen_,
head, _i.e._, Head of the Serpent. "To our name of _Hakpen_," says
Stukeley, "alludes _ochim_, called 'doleful creatures' in our
translation." Isa. (13 v. 21), speaking of the desolation of Babylon,
says: "Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall
be full of _ochim_, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance
there." St. Jerome translates it "serpents." The Arabians call a serpent
_Haie_, and wood-serpents _Hageshin_; and thence our _Hakpen_; _Pen_ is
"head" in British.
"That the votaries of Ophiolatreia penetrated into every part of Britain
is probable from the vestiges of some such idolatry even now to be found
in Scotland and the western isles. Several obelisks remain in the vicinity
of Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth, upon which appear devices strongly
indicative of Ophiolatreia. They are engraved in Gordon's _Itinerarium
Septentrionale_. The serpent is a frequent and conspicuous hieroglyphic.
From the Runic characters traced upon some of these stones it is
conjectured that they were erected by the Danes. Such might have been the
case; but the Danes themselves were a sect of Ophites, and had not the
people of the country been Ophites also, they might not have suffered
these monuments to remain."
Remains indicating the presence of Serpent Worship in Ireland are
extremely scarce, but we must remember the story prevalent in the country,
accepted as truthful by a large majority of its inhabitants, that St.
Patrick banished all snakes from Ireland by his prayers. After all, this
may mean nothing more than that by his preaching he overturned and
uprooted the superstitious practices of the serpent worshippers of his
times.