Mysteries of Eleusis, that Constellation was placed in the eighth
Heaven: and on the eighth day of those Mysteries, the feast of
Æsculapius was celebrated. It was also termed Epidaurus, or the feast of
the Serpent of Epidaurus. The Serpent was sacred to Æsculapius; and was
connected in various ways with the mythological adventures of Ceres.
So the libations to Souls, by pouring wine on the ground, and looking
toward the two gates of Heaven, those of day and night, referred to the
ascent and descent of Souls.
Ceres and the Serpent, Jupiter Ammon and the Bull, all figured in the
Mysteries of Bacchus. Suppose Aries, or Jupiter Ammon occupied by the
Sun setting in the West;--Virgo (Ceres) will be on the Eastern horizon,
and in her train the Crown, or Proserpine. Suppose Taurus setting;--then
the Serpent is in the East; and reciprocally; so that Jupiter Ammon, or
the Sun of Aries, causes the Crown to rise after the Virgin, in the
train of which comes the Serpent. Place reciprocally the Sun at the
other equinox, with the balance in the West, in conjunction with the
Serpent under the Crown; and we shall see the Bull and the Pleiades rise
in the East. Thus are explained all the fables as to the generation of
the Bull by the Serpent and of the Serpent by the Bull, the biting of
the testicles of the Bull by the Scorpion, on the Mithriac Monuments;
and that Jupiter made Ceres with child by tossing into her bosom the
testicles of a Ram.
In the Mysteries of the bull-horned Bacchus, the officers held serpents
in their hands, raised them above their heads, and cried aloud "Eva!"
the generic oriental name of the serpent, and the particular name of the
constellation in which the Persians placed Eve and the serpent. The
Arabians call it _Hevan_, Ophiucus himself, _Hawa_, and the brilliant
star in his head, _Ras-al-Hawa_. The use of this word _Eva_ or _Evoë_
caused Clemens of Alexandria to say that the priests in the Mysteries
invoked _Eve_, by whom evil was brought into the world.
The mystic winnowing-fan, encircled by Serpents, was used in the feasts
of Bacchus. In the Isiac Mysteries a basilisc twined round the handle of
the mystic vase. The Ophites fed a serpent in a mysterious ark, from
which they took him when they celebrated the Mysteries, and allowed him
to glide among the sacred bread. The Romans kept serpents in the Temples
of Bona Dea and Æsculapius. In the Mysteries of Apollo, the pursuit of
Latona by the serpent Python was represented. In the Egyptian Mysteries,
the dragon Typhon pursued Isis.
According to Sanchoniathon, TAAUT, the interpreter of Heaven to men,
attributed something divine to the nature of the dragon and serpents, in
which the Phœnicians and Egyptians followed him. They have more
vitality, more spiritual force, than any other creature; of a fiery
nature, shown by the rapidity of their motions, without the limbs of
other animals. They assume many shapes and attitudes, and dart with
extraordinary quickness and force. When they have reached old age, they
throw off that age and are young again, and increase in size and
strength, for a certain period of years.
The Egyptian Priests fed the sacred serpents in the temple at Thebes.
Taaut himself had in his writings discussed these mysteries in regard to
the serpent. Sanchoniathon said in another work, that the serpent was
immortal, and re-entered into himself; which, according to some ancient
theosophists, particularly those of India, was an attribute of the
Deity. And he also said that the serpent never died, unless by a violent
death.
The Phœnicians called the serpent _Agathodemon_ [the good spirit]; and
Kneph was the Serpent-God of the Egyptians.
The Egyptians, Sanchoniathon said, represented the serpent with the head
of a hawk, on account of the swift flight of that bird: and the chief
Hierophant, the sacred interpreter, gave very mysterious explanations of
that symbol; saying that such a serpent was a very divine creature, and
that, opening his eyes, he lighted with their rays the whole of
first-born space: when he closes them, it is darkness again. In reality,
the hawk-headed serpent, genius of light, or good genius, was the symbol
of the Sun.
In the hieroglyphic characters, a snake was the letter T or DJ. It
occurs many times on the Rosetta stone. The horned serpent was the
hieroglyphic for a God.
According to Eusebius, the Egyptians represented the world by a blue
circle, sprinkled with flames, within which was extended a serpent with
the head of a hawk. Proclus says they represented the four quarters of
the world by a cross, and the soul of the world, or Kneph, by a serpent
surrounding it in the form of a circle.
We read in Anaxagoras, that Orpheus said, that the water, and the vessel
that produced it, were the primitive principles of things, and together
gave existence to an animated being, which was a serpent, with two
heads, one of a lion and the other of a bull, between which was the
figure of a God whose name was Hercules or Kronos: that from Hercules
came the egg of the world, which produced Heaven and earth, by dividing
itself into two hemispheres: and that the God Phanes, which issued from
that egg, was in the shape of a serpent.
The Egyptian Goddess _Ken_, represented standing naked on a lion, held
two serpents in her hand. She is the same as the _Astarte_ or
_Ashtaroth_ of the Assyrians. _Hera_, worshipped in the Great Temple at
Babylon, held in her right hand a serpent by the head; and near _Khea_,
also worshipped there, were two large silver serpents.
In a sculpture from Kouyunjik, two serpents attached to poles are near a
fire-altar, at which two eunuchs are standing. Upon it is the sacred
fire, and a bearded figure leads a wild goat to the sacrifice.
The serpent of the Temple of Epidaurus was sacred to _Æsculapius_, the
God of Medicine, and 462 years after the building of the city, was taken
to Rome after a pestilence.
The Phœnicians represented the God _Nomu_ (_Kneph_ or _Amun-Kneph_) by a
serpent. In Egypt, a Sun supported by two asps was the emblem of
_Horhat_ the good genius; and the serpent with the winged globe was
placed over the doors and windows of the Temples as a tutelary God.
Antipater of Sidon calls _Amun_ "the renowned Serpent," and the Cerastes
is often found embalmed in the Thebaid.
On ancient Tyrian coins and Indian medals, a serpent was represented,
coiled round the trunk of a tree. _Python_, the Serpent Deity, was
esteemed oracular; and the tripod at Delphi was a triple-headed serpent
of gold.
The portals of all the Egyptian Temples are decorated with the hierogram
of the Circle and the Serpent. It is also found upon the Temple of
Naki-Rustan in Persia; on the triumphal arch at Pechin, in China; over
the gates of the great Temple of Chaundi Teeva, in Java; upon the walls
of Athens; and in the Temple of Minerva at Tegea. The Mexican hierogram
was formed by the intersecting of two great Serpents, which described
the circle with their bodies, and had each a human head in its mouth.
All the Buddhists crosses in Ireland had serpents carved upon them.
Wreaths of snakes are on the columns of the ancient Hindu Temple at
Burwah-Sangor.
Among the Egyptians, it was a symbol of Divine Wisdom, when extended at
length; and, with its tail in its mouth, of Eternity.
In the ritual of Zoroaster, the Serpent was a symbol of the Universe. In
China, the ring between two Serpents was the symbol of the world
governed by the power and wisdom of the Creator. The Bacchanals carried
serpents in their hands or round their heads.
The Serpent entwined round an Egg, was a symbol common to the Indians,
the Egyptians, and the Druids. It referred to the creation of the
Universe. A Serpent with an egg in his mouth was a symbol of the
Universe containing within itself the germ of all things that the Sun
develops.
The property possessed by the Serpent, of casting its skin, and
apparently renewing its youth, made it an emblem of eternity and
immortality. The Syrian women still employ it as a charm against
barrenness, as did the devotees of Mithras and Saba-Zeus. The
Earth-born civilizers of the early world, Fohi, Cecrops, and Erechtheus,
were half-man, half-serpent. The snake was the guardian of the Athenian
Acropolis. NAKHUSTAN, the brazen serpent of the wilderness, became
naturalized among the Hebrews as a token of healing power. "Be ye," said
Christ, "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."
The Serpent was as often a symbol of malevolence and enmity. It appears
among the emblems of Siva-Roudra, the power of desolation and death: it
is the bane of Aëpytus, Idom, Archemorus, and Philoctetes: it gnaws the
roots of the tree of life in the Eddas, and bites the heel of
unfortunate Eurydice. In Hebrew writers it is generally a type of evil;
and is particularly so in the Indian and Persian Mythologies. When the
Sea is churned by Mount Mandar rotating within the coils of the Cosmical
Serpent Vasouki, to produce the Amrita or water of immortality, the
serpent vomits a hideous poison, which spreads through and infects the
Universe, but which Vishnu renders harmless by swallowing it. Ahriman in
serpent-form invades the realm of Ormuzd; and the Bull, emblem of life,
is wounded by him and dies. It was therefore a religious obligation with
every devout follower of Zoroaster to exterminate reptiles, and other
impure animals, especially serpents. The moral and astronomical
significance of the Serpent were connected. It became a maxim of the
Zend-Avesta, that Ahriman, the Principle of Evil, made the Great Serpent
of Winter, who assaulted the creation of Ormuzd.
A serpent-ring was a well-known symbol of time: and to express
dramatically how time preys upon itself, the Egyptian priests fed vipers
in a subterranean chamber, as it were in the sun's Winter abode on the
fat of bulls, or the year's plenteousness. The dragon of Winter pursues
Ammon, the golden ram, to Mount Casius. The Virgin of the zodiac is
bitten in the heel by Serpens, who, with Scorpio, rises immediately
behind her; and as honey, the emblem of purity and salvation, was
thought to be an antidote to the serpent's bite, so the bees of
Aristæus, the emblems of nature's abundance, are destroyed through the
agency of the serpent, and regenerated within the entrails of the Vernal
Bull.
The Sun-God is finally victorious. Christina crushes the head of the
serpent Calyia; Apollo destroys Python, and Hercules that Lernæan
monster whose poison festered in the foot of Philoctetes, of Mopsus, of
Chiron, or of Sagittarius. The infant Hercules destroys the pernicious
snakes detested of the gods, and ever, like St. George of England and
Michael the Archangel, wars against hydras and dragons.
The eclipses of the sun and moon were believed by the orientals to be
caused by the assaults of a dæmon in dragon-form; and they endeavored to
scare away the intruder by shouts and menaces. This was the original
Leviathan or Crooked Serpent of old, transfixed in the olden time by the
power of Jehovah, and suspended as a glittering trophy in the sky; yet
also the Power of Darkness supposed to be ever in pursuit of the Sun and
Moon. When it finally overtakes them, it will entwine them in its folds,
and prevent their shining. In the last Indian Avatara, as in the Eddas,
a serpent vomiting flames is expected to destroy the world. The serpent
presides over the close of the year, where it guards the approach to the
golden fleece of Aries, and the three apples or seasons of the
Hesperides; presenting a formidable obstacle to the career of the
Sun-God. The Great Destroyer of snakes is occasionally married to them;
Hercules with the northern dragon begets the three ancestors of Scythia;
for the Sun seems at one time to rise victorious from the contest with
darkness, and at another to sink into its embraces. The northern
constellation Draco, whose sinuosities wind like a river through the
wintry bear, was made the astronomical cincture of the Universe, as the
serpent encircles the mundane egg in Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The Persian Ahriman was called "The old serpent, the liar from the
beginning, the Prince of Darkness, and the rover up and down." The
Dragon was a well-known symbol of the waters and of great rivers; and it
was natural that by the pastoral Asiatic Tribes, the powerful nations of
the alluvial plains in their neighborhood who adored the dragon or Fish,
should themselves be symbolized under the form of dragons; and overcome
by the superior might of the Hebrew God, as monstrous Leviathans maimed
and destroyed by him. Ophioneus, in the old Greek Theology, warred
against Kronos, and was overcome and cast into his proper element, the
sea. There he is installed as the Sea-God Oannes or Dragon, the
Leviathan of the watery, half of creation, the dragon who vomited a
flood of water after the persecuted woman of the Apocalypse, the monster
who threatened to devour Hesione and Andromeda, and who for a time
became the grave of Hercules and Jonah; and he corresponds with the
obscure name of _Rahab_, whom Jehovah is said in Job to have transfixed
and overcome.
In the Spring, the year or Sun-God appears as Mithras or Europa mounted
on the Bull; but in the opposite half of the Zodiac he rides the emblem
of the waters, the winged horse of Nestor or Poseidon: and the Serpent,
rising heliacally at the Autumnal Equinox, besetting with poisonous
influence the cold constellation Sagittarius, is explained as the
reptile in the path who "bites the horse's heels, so that his rider
falls backward." The same serpent, the Oannes Aphrenos or Musaros of
Syncellus, was the Midgard Serpent which Odin sunk beneath the sea, but
which grew to such a size as to encircle the whole earth.
For these Asiatic symbols of the contest of the Sun-God with the Dragon
of darkness and Winter were imported not only into the Zodiac, but into
the more homely circle of European legend; and both Thor and Odin fight
with dragons, as Apollo did with Python, the great scaly snake, Achilles
with the Scamander, and Bellerophon with the Chimæra. In the apocryphal
book of Esther, dragons herald "a day of darkness and obscurity"; and
St. George of England, a problematic Cappadocian Prince, was originally
only a varying form of Mithras. Jehovah is said to have "cut Rahab and
wounded the dragon." The latter is not only the type of earthly
desolation, the dragon of the deep waters, but also the leader of the
banded conspirators of the sky, of the rebellious stars, which,
according to Enoch, "came not at the right time"; and his tail drew a
third part of the Host of Heaven, and cast them to the earth. Jehovah
"divided the sea by his strength, and broke the heads of the Dragons in
the waters." And according to the Jewish and Persian belief, the Dragon
would, in the latter days, the Winter of time, enjoy a short period of
licensed impunity, which would be a season of the greatest suffering to
the People of the earth; but he would finally be bound or destroyed in
the great battle of Messiah; or, as it seems intimated by the Rabbinical
figure of being eaten by the faithful, be, like Ahriman or Vasouki,
ultimately absorbed by and united with the Principle of good.
Near the image of Rhea, in the Temple of Bel at Babylon, were two large
serpents of silver, says Diodorus, each weighing thirty talents; and in
the same temple was an image of Juno, holding in her right hand the head
of a serpent. The Greeks called Bel _Beliar_; and Hesychius interprets
that word to mean a dragon or great serpent. We learn from the book of
Bel and the Dragon that in Babylon was kept a great, live serpent, which
the people worshipped.
The Assyrians, the Emperors of Constantinople, the Parthians Scythians,
Saxons, Chinese, and Danes all bore the serpent as a standard, and among
the spoils taken by Aurelian from Zenobia were such standards, _Persici
Dracones_. The Persians represented Ormuzd and Ahriman by two serpents,
contending for the mundane egg. Mithras is represented with a lion's
head and human body, encircled by a serpent. In the Sadder is this
precept: "When you kill serpents, you will repeat the Zend-Avesta, and
thence you will obtain great merit; for it is the same as if you had
killed so many devils."
Serpents encircling rings and globes, and issuing from globes, are
common in the Persian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Indian monuments. Vishnu
is represented reposing on a coiled serpent, whose folds form a canopy
over him. Mahadeva is represented with a snake around his neck, one
around his hair, and armlets of serpents on both arms. Bhairava sits on
the coils of a serpent, whose head rises above his own. Parvati has
snakes about her neck and waist. Vishnu is the Preserving Spirit,
Mahadeva is Siva, the Evil Principle, Bhairava is his son, and Parvati
his consort. The King of Evil Demons was called in Hindū Mythology,
_Naga_, the King of Serpents, in which name we trace the Hebrew
_Nachash_, serpent.
In Cashmere were seven hundred places where carved images of serpents
were worshipped; and in Thibet the great Chinese Dragon ornamented the
Temples of the Grand Lama. In China, the dragon was the stamp and symbol
of royalty, sculptured in all the Temples, blazoned on the furniture of
the houses, and interwoven with the vestments of the chief nobility. The
Emperor bears it as his armorial device; it is engraved on his sceptre
and diadem, and on all the vases of the imperial palace. The Chinese
believe that there is a dragon of extraordinary strength and sovereign
power, in Heaven, in the air, on the waters, and on the mountains. The
God Fohi is said to have had the form of a man, terminating in the tail
of a snake, a combination to be more fully explained to you in a
subsequent Degree.
The dragon and serpent are the 5th and 6th signs of the Chinese Zodiac;
and the Hindus and Chinese believe that, at every eclipse, the sun or
moon is seized by a huge serpent or dragon, the serpent _Asootee_ of the
Hindus, which enfolds the globe and the constellation Draco; to which
also refers "the War in Heaven, when Michael and his Angels fought
against the dragon."
Sanchoniathon says that Taaut was the author of the worship of serpents
among the Phœnicians. He "consecrated," he says, "the species of dragons
and serpents; and the Phœnicians and Egyptians followed him in this
superstition." He was "the first who made an image of Cœlus"; that is,
who represented the Heavenly Hosts of Stars by visible symbols; and was
probably the same as the Egyptian Thoth. On the Tyrian coins of the age
of Alexander, serpents are represented in many positions and attitudes,
coiled around trees, erect in front of altars, and crushed by the Syrian
Hercules.
The seventh letter of the Egyptian alphabet, called _Zeuta_ or _Life_,
was sacred to Thoth, and was expressed by a serpent standing on his
tail; and that Deity, the God of healing, like Æsculapius, to whom the
serpent was consecrated, leans on a knotted stick around which coils a
snake. The Isiac tablet, describing the Mysteries of Isis, is charged
with serpents in every part, as her emblems. The _Asp_ was specially
dedicated to her, and is seen on the heads of her statues, on the
bonnets of her priests, and on the tiaras of the Kings of Egypt. Serapis
was sometimes represented with a human head and serpentine tail: and in
one engraving two minor Gods are represented with him, one by a serpent
with a bull's head, and the other by a serpent with the radiated head of
a lion.
On an ancient sacrificial vessel found in Denmark, having several
compartments, a serpent is represented attacking a kneeling boy,
pursuing him, retreating before him, appealed to beseechingly by him,
and conversing with him. We are at once reminded of the Sun at the new
year represented by a child sitting on a lotus, and of the relations of
the Sun of Spring with the Autumnal Serpent, pursued by and pursuing
him, and in conjunction with him. Other figures on this vessel belong to
the Zodiac.
The base of the _tripod_ of the Pythian Priestess was a triple-headed
serpent of brass, whose body, folded in circles growing wider and wider
toward the ground, formed a conical column, while the three heads,
disposed triangularly, upheld the _tripod_ of gold. A similar column
was placed on a pillar in the Hippodrome at Constantinople, by the
founder of that city; one of the heads of which is said to have been
broken off by Mahomet the Second, by a blow with his iron mace.
The British God Hu was called "The Dragon--Ruler of the World," and his
car was drawn by serpents. His ministers were styled _adders_. A Druid
in a poem of Taliessin says, "I am a Druid, I am an _Architect_, I am a
Prophet, I am a _Serpent_ (Gnadi)." The Car of the Goddess Ceridwen also
was drawn by serpents.
In the elegy of Uther Pendragon, this passage occurs in a description of
the religious rites of the Druids: "While the Sanctuary is earnestly
invoking _The Gliding King_, before whom _the Fair One_ retreats, upon
the evil 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_;" in which we readily discover
the mystic and obscure allusion to the Autumnal Serpent pursuing the Sun
along the circle of the Zodiac, to the celestial cup or crater, and the
Golden horns of Virgil's milk-white Bull; and, a line or two further on,
we find the Priest imploring the victorious _Beli_, the Sun-God of the
Babylonians.
With the serpent, in the Ancient Monuments, is very often found
associated the Cross. The Serpent upon a Cross was an Egyptian Standard.
It occurs repeatedly upon the Grand Staircase of the Temple of Osiris at
Philæ; and on the pyramid of Ghizeh are represented two kneeling figures
erecting a Cross, on the top of which is a serpent erect. The _Crux
Ansata_ was a Cross with a coiled Serpent above it; and it is perhaps
the most common of all emblems on the Egyptian Monuments, carried in the
hand of almost every figure of a Deity or a Priest. It was, as we learn
by the monuments, the form of the iron tether-pins, used for making fast
to the ground the cords by which young animals were confined: and as
used by shepherds, became a symbol of Royalty to the Shepherd Kings.
A Cross like a Teutonic or Maltese one, formed by four curved lines
within a circle, is also common on the Monuments, and represented the
Tropics and the Colures.
The Caduceus, borne by Hermes or Mercury, and also by Cybele, Minerva,
Anubis, Hercules Ogmius the God of the Celts, and the personified
Constellation Virgo, was a winged wand, entwined by two serpents. It
was originally a simple Cross, symbolizing the equator and equinoctial
Colure, and the four elements proceeding from a common centre. This
Cross, surmounted by a circle, and that by a crescent, became an emblem
of the Supreme Deity--or of the active power of generation and the
passive power of production conjoined,--and was appropriated to Thoth or
Mercury. It then assumed an improved form, the arms of the Cross being
changed into wings, and the circle and crescent being formed by two
snakes, springing from the wand, forming a circle by crossing each
other, and their heads making the horns of the crescent; in which form
it is seen in the hands of Anubis.
The triple Tau, in the centre of a circle and a triangle, typifies the
Sacred Name; and represents the Sacred Triad, the Creating, Preserving,
and Destroying Powers; as well as the three great lights of Masonry. If
to the Masonic point within a Circle, and the two parallel lines, we add
the single Tau Cross, we have the Ancient Egyptian Triple Tau.
A column in the form of a cross, with a circle over it, was used by the
Egyptians to measure the increase of the inundations of the Nile. The
Tau and Triple Tau are found in many Ancient Alphabets.
With the Tau or the Triple Tau may be connected, within two circles, the
double cube, or perfection; or the perfect ashlar.
The _Crux Ansata_ is found on the sculptures of Khorsabad; on the
ivories from Nimroud, of the same age, carried by an Assyrian Monarch;
and on cylinders of the later Assyrian period.