"The most remarkable remembrance," says Dean, "of the power of the
paradisaical serpent is displayed in the position which he retains in
Tartarus. A cuno-draconictic cerberus guards the gates; serpents are
coiled upon the chariot wheels of Proserpine; serpents pave the abyss of
torment; and even serpents constitute the caduceus of Mercury, the
talisman which he holds in his hand when he conveys the soul to Tartarus.
The image of the serpent is stamped upon every mythological fable
connected with the realms of Pluto. Is it not probable that in the
universal symbol of heathen idolatry we recognise the universal object of
primitive worship, the serpent of paradise?"
"Speaking of the names of the snake tribe in the great languages," Ruskin
says, "in Greek, OPHIS meant the seeing creature, especially one that sees
all round it; and DRAKON, one that looks well into a thing or person. In
Latin, ANGUIS, was the strangler; SERPENS, the winding creature; COLUBER,
the coiling animal. In our own Saxon the SNAKE meant the crawling
creature; and ADDER denoted the groveller."
The true serpents comprise the genera without a sternum or breastbone, in
which there is no vestige of shoulder, but where the ribs surround a great
part of the circumference of the trunk. To the venomous kind belong the
rattlesnake, cobra de capello, spectacled or hooded snake, viper, &c. So
the non-venomous, the boa constrictor, anaconda, python, black snake,
common snake.
The minute viper, _V. Brashyura_, is celebrated for the intensity of its
poison, and is truly one of the most terrible of its genus. The asp of
Egypt, or Cleopatra's asp (_Coluber naja_, Lin.), was held in great
veneration by the Egyptians; and it is this snake which the jugglers, by
pressing on the nape of the neck with the finger, throw into a kind of
catalepsy, which renders it stiff, or, as they term it, turns it into a
rod.
All snakes, says the celebrated naturalist Waterton, take a motion from
left to right or _vice versa_--but never up and down--the whole extent of
the body being in contact with the ground, saving the head, which is
somewhat elevated. This is equally observable both on land and in water.
Thus, when we see a snake represented in an up-and-down attitude, we know
at once that the artist is to blame.
Another misconception exploded by Waterton is the common and accepted
notion that a snake can fascinate to their destruction and render
powerless by a dead set of its eye the creatures it makes its prey. Snakes
have no such power. The eyes, which are very beautiful, do not move, and
they have no eyelids; they have been placed by nature under a scale
similar in composition to the scales of the body, and when the snake casts
it slough, this scale comes away with it, and is replaced by a new one on
a new skin.
_Noli me tangere_--do not touch me with intent to harm me--is, continues
Waterton, a most suitable motto for a snake, which towards man never acts
on the offensive (except perhaps only the larger species which may be in
waiting for a meal, when any creature, from a bull to a mouse, may be
acceptable). But when roused into action by the fear of sudden danger,
'tis then that, in self-defence a snake will punish the intruder by a
prick (not a laceration) from the poison-fang, fatal or not, according to
its size and virulence.
A writer in the _Daily Telegraph_ of July 23, 1883, giving an account of
the new reptile house in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, dwells
upon the surpassing beauty of a python that had just cast its skin, "a
very miracle of reptilian loveliness. Watch it breathing; it is as gentle
as a child, and the beautiful lamia head rests like a crowning jewel upon
the softly heaving coils. Let danger threaten, however, and lightning is
hardly quicker than the dart of those vengeful convolutions. The gleaming
length rustles proudly into menace, and instead of the voluptuous lazy
thing of a moment ago, the python, with all its terrors complete, erects
itself defiantly, thrilling, so it seems, with eager passion in every
scale, and measuring in the air, with threatening head, the circle within
which is death. Once let those recurved fangs strike home, and there is no
poison in them, all hope is gone to the victim. Coil after coil is rapidly
thrown round the struggling object, and then with slow but relentless
pressure life is throttled out of every limb. No wonder that the world has
always held the serpent in awe, and that nations should have worshipped,
and still worship, this emblem of destruction and death. It is fate
itself, swift as disaster, deliberate as retribution, incomprehensible as
destiny." It would be tedious to recapitulate the multitude of myths
through which the "dire worm" has come to our times, dignified and made
awful by the honours and fears of the past. A volume could hardly exhaust
the snake-lore scattered up and down in the pages of history and fable.
"The python in the Zoological Gardens, however," adds the same writer,
"though it may stand as the modern reality of the old-world fable of a
gigantic snake that challenged the strength of the gods to overcome it,
presents to us only one side of snake nature. It possesses a surprising
beauty and prodigious strength; but it is not venomous. Probably the more
subtle and fearful apprehensions of men originated really from the smaller
and deadlier kinds, and were then by superstition, poetry and heraldry
extended to the larger. The little basilisk, crowned king of the vipers;
the horned 'cerastes dire,' a few inches in length; the tiny aspic, fatal
as lightning and as swift; and the fabled cockatrice, that a man might
hold in his hand, first made the serpent legend terrible; their venom was
afterwards transferred, and not unnaturally, to the larger species. It was
the small minute worms, that carried in their fangs such rapid and
ruthless death, which first struck fear into the minds of the ancients,
and invested the snake with the mysterious and horrid attributes whereunto
antiquity from China to Egypt hastened to pay honours."
Cadmus and his wife Harmonia were by Zeus converted into serpents and
removed to Elysium. Æsculapius, son of Apollo, god of medicine, assumed
the form of a serpent when he appeared at Rome during a pestilence;
therefore he is always represented with his staff entwined with a serpent,
symbol of healing. Similarly represented was Hippocrates, a famous
physician of Cos; who delivered Athens from a dreadful pestilence, in the
beginning of the Peloponnesian War, and was publicly rewarded with a
golden crown, and the privileges of a citizen. Therefore it is that the
goddess of health bears in her hand a serpent.
The caduceus of Mercury was a rod adorned with wings, having a male and
female serpent twisted about it, each kissing the other. With this in his
hands, it was said, the herald of the Gods could give sleep to whomsoever
he chose; wherefore Milton, in "Paradise Lost," styles it "his opiate
rod."
"With his caduceus Hermes led
From the dark regions of the imprisoned dead;
Or drove in silent shoals the lingering train
To night's dull shore and Pluto's dreary reign."
DARWIN, _Loves of the Plants_, ii. 291.
Jupiter Ammon appeared to Olympias in the form of a serpent, and became
the father of Alexander the Great:
"When glides a silver serpent, treacherous guest!
And fair Olympia folds him to her breast."
DARWIN, _Economy of Vegetation_, i. 2.
Jupiter Capitolinus in a similar form became the father of Scipio
Africanus.
In the temple of Athena at Athens, a serpent was kept in a cage and called
"The Guardian Spirit of the Temple." This serpent was supposed to be
animated by the soul of Ericthonius. It was thus employed by the Greeks
and Romans to symbolise a guardian spirit, and not unfrequently the figure
of a serpent was depicted on their altars.
Upon the shields of Greek warriors, on ancient vases, &c., the serpent is
often to be seen blazoned.
[Illustration: Greek Shield, from painted vase in the British Museum.]
The serpent monster Python, produced from the mud left on the earth after
the deluge of Deucalion, lived in the caves of Mount Parnassus, but was
slain by Apollo, who founded the Pythian games in commemoration of his
victory. This and many similar solar myths are merely classic panegyrics
on the conquering power exercised by the genial warmth of spring over the
dark gloom of winter.
The serpent in Christian Art figures in Paradise as the tempter of Eve
under that form, and is generally placed under the feet of the Virgin, in
allusion to the promise made to Eve after the Fall: "The seed of the woman
shall bruise the serpent's head." The heart of the serpent being close to
the head, renders a severe "bruise" there fatal. The serpent bruised the
"heel" of man--_i.e._, being a cause of stumbling, it hurt the foot which
tripped against it (Gen. iii. 15).
[Illustration]
The brazen serpent erected by Moses in the wilderness, which gave newness
of life to those plague-stricken Israelites who were bitten by the fiery
dragons and raised their eyes to this symbol (Numb. xxi. 8), as an emblem
of healing, is represented in Christian art as coiled up on a tau cross, a
symbol of which our Saviour did not disdain in some degree to admit the
propriety when he compared himself to the healing serpent in the
wilderness.
The serpent is placed under the feet of St. Cecilia, St. Euphemia, and
many other saints, either because they trampled on Satan, or because they
miraculously cleared some country of such reptiles. St. Patrick, the
patron saint of Ireland, is always represented habited as a bishop, his
foot upon a viper, the head transfixed with the lower extremity of his
pastoral staff, from his having banished snakes and all venomous reptiles
from the soil of Ireland. As the symbol of the evil principle, a
diminutive specimen of the dragon, guivre, or winged snake was more
frequently used, wriggling under foot.
The serpent is emblematical of THE FALL; Satan is called the great serpent
(Rev. xii. 9); of WISDOM: "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless
as doves" (Matt. x. 16); of SUBTLETY: "Now the serpent was more subtil
than any beast of the field" (Gen. iii. 1); of ETERNITY: a serpent in a
circle with its tail in its mouth is the well understood symbol of
unending time.
"The serpent figures largely in Byzantine Art as the instrument of the
Fall, and one type of the Redemption. The cross planted on the serpent is
found sculptured on Mount Athos; and the cross surrounded by the so-called
runic knot is only a Scandinavian version of the original Byzantine
image--the crushed snake curling round the stem of the avenging cross. The
cross, with two scrolls at the foot of it typifying the snake, is another
of its modifications, and a very common Byzantine ornament. The ordinary
northern crosses, so conspicuous for their interlaced ornaments and
grotesque monsters, appear to be purely modifications of this idea."[8]
Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, in his letter to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, inveighs against the luxuries of dress, and declares against
those garments that are adorned with very broad studs and images of worms,
announcing the coming of Antichrist.
In the wonderfully intricate interlacing of snake-like and draconic forms
of celtic art which appear in the marvellously illuminated manuscripts
executed in Ireland of the sixth and seventh centuries, the great
sculptured crosses, as well as in gold and metal work, are seen
unmistakable traces of the traditional ideas relating to the early
serpent-worship.
"The serpent," says Mr. Planché, "the most terrible of all reptiles, is of
rare occurrence in English heraldry. Under its Italian name of _Bisse_ it
occurs in the Roll of Edward III.'s time, 'Monsire William Malbis
_d'argent, a une chevron de gules, a trois testes de bys rases gules_'
(_Anglicé_, argent, a chevron between three serpents' heads erased
gules)."
The well-known historic device, the _Biscia_ or serpent devouring a child,
of the dukedom of Milan is of much interest. There are many stories as to
the origin of this singular bearing. Some writers assign it to Otho
Visconti, who led a body of Milanese in the train of Peter the Hermit, and
at the crusades fought and killed in single combat the Saracen giant
Volux, upon whose helmet was this device, which Otho afterwards assumed as
his own. Such is the version adopted by Tasso, who enumerates Otho among
the Christian warriors:
"Otho fierce, whose valour won the shield
That bears a child and serpent on the field."
_Gerusalemme Liberata_, cant. i. st. 55.
(Hoole's translation.)
From another legend we learn that when Count Boniface, Lord of Milan, went
to the crusades, his child, born during his absence, was devoured in its
cradle by a huge serpent which ravaged the country. On his return, Count
Boniface went in search of the monster, and found it with a child in its
mouth. He attacked and slew the creature, but at the cost of his own life.
Hence it is said his posterity bore the serpent and child as their ensign.
A third legend is referred to under Wyvern (which see).
Menestrier says that the first Lords of Milan were called after their
castle in Angleria, in Latin _anguis_, and that these are only the _armes
parlantes_ of their name.[9] Be this as it may, "_Lo Squamoso Biscion_"
(the scaly snake) was adopted by all the Visconti lords, and by their
successors of the House of Sforza.
"Sforza e Viscontei colubri."
_Orlando Furioso_, cant. xiii. 63.
And again in the same poem (cant. iii. 26. Hoole's translation):
"Hugo appears with him, his valiant son
Who plants his conquering snakes in Milan's town."
Dante also refers in "Purgatorio" to this celebrated device.
[Illustration: Arms of Whitby Abbey.]
The "_three coiled snakes_," which appear in the arms of Whitby Abbey,
Yorkshire, really represent _fossil ammonites_, which are very plentiful
in the rocky promontories of that part of the English coast, and on that
account were no doubt adopted in the arms of the Abbey, and afterwards of
the town of Whitby.
The arms are: _Azure three snakes coiled or encircled two and one, or_.
Popular legend, however, ascribes their origin to the transformation of a
multitude of snakes into stone by _St. Hilda_, an ancient Saxon princess.
The legend is referred to by Sir Walter Scott in "Marmion":
"_How of a thousand snakes each one
Was changed into a coil of stone
While Holy Hilda prayed._"
It is, however, more than likely that the arms suggested the legend of the
miracle.
The ancient myth of the _deaf adder_ seems to have been a favourite
illustration of the futility of unwelcome counsel.
"What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?
Be poisonous too."
_2 King Henry VI._ Act ii. sc. 2.
"Pleasure and revenge have ears more deaf than adders
To the voice of any true decision."
_Troilus and Cressida_, Act ii. sc. 2.
"He flies me now--nor more attends my pain
Than the deaf adder heeds the charmer's strain."
_Orlando Furioso_, cant. xxxii. 19.
(Hoole's translation.)
A serpent or adder stopping his ears, by some writers termed "_an adder
obturant his ear_" from the Latin _obturo_, to shut or stop, is a very
ancient idea. It is said that the asp or adder, to prevent his hearing
unwelcome truths, puts one ear to the ground and stops the other with his
tail, a device suggested by Psalm lviii. 4,5: "They are like the deaf
adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of
charmers, charming never so wisely."
Alessandro d'Alessandri (+ 1523), a lawyer of Naples, of extensive
learning, and a member of the Neapolitan Academy, took for device a
serpent stopping its ears, and the motto, "Ut prudentia vivam" ("That I
may live wisely"), implying that as the serpent by this means refuses to
hear the voice of the charmer, so the wise man imitates the prudence of
the reptile and refuses to listen to the words of malice and slander.
It is said that the _cerastes_ hides in sand that it may bite the horse's
foot and get the rider thrown. In allusion to this belief, Jacob says,
"Dan shall be ... an adder in the path, that his rider shall fall
backward" (Gen. xlix. 17).
_Asp._--According to Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, the ancient Egyptian kings
wore the asp, the emblem of royalty, as an ornament on the forehead. It
appears on the front of the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Many terms have been invented by the heralds to express the positions
serpents may assume in arms. Berry's "Encyclopædia of Heraldry"
illustrates over thirty positions, the terms of blazon of which it is
impossible to comprehend, and hardly worth the inquiry. Few of these terms
are, however, met with in English heraldry.
Two serpents erect in pale, their tails "nowed" (twisted or knotted)
together, are figured in the arms of Caius College, Cambridge. In the
words of the old grant, they are blazoned "_gold, semied with flowers
gentil, a sengreen_ (or houseleek) _in chief, over the heads of two whole
serpents in pale, their tails knit together (all in proper colour),
resting upon a square marble stone vert, between a book sable, garnish't
gul, buckled, or_."
Fruiterers' Company of London.--_On a mount in base vert, the tree of
Paradise environed with the serpent between Adam and Eve, all proper._
Motto: _Arbor vitæ Christus, fructus perfidem gustamus._
_Nowed_ signifies tied or knotted, and is said of a serpent, wyvern, or
other creature whose body or tail is twisted like a knot.
_Annodated_, another term for nowed; bent in the form of the letter S, the
serpents round the caduceus of Mercury may be said to be annodated.
_Torqued_, _torgant_, or _targant_ (from the Latin _torqueo_, to wreathe),
the bending and rebending, either in serpents, adders or fish, like the
letter S.
[Illustration: A Serpent, nowed, proper. Crest of Cavendish.]
_Voluted_, _involved_ or _encircled, gliding_, and several terms used in
blazon explain themselves, as _erect_, _erect wavy_, &c.
In blazoning, the terms _snake_, _serpent_, _adder_, appear to be used
indiscriminately.
_A serpent nowed, proper_, is the crest of Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire.
_Gules, three snakes nowed in triangle argent_ (Ednowain Ap Bradwen,
Merionethshire).
_Or, three serpents erect wavy sable_ (Codlen, or Cudlen).
_Remora_ is an old term in heraldry for a serpent entwining.
[Illustration: Amphiptère, or flying serpent.]
Serpents are also borne entwined round pillars and rods, &c., and around
the necks of children, as in the arms of Vaughan or Vahan Wales: _Azure,
three boys' heads affronté, couped at the shoulders proper, crined or,
each enveloped or enwrapped about the neck with a snake vert_. Entwisted
and entwined are sometimes used in the same sense.
_The amphiptère_ is a winged serpent. _Azure, an amphiptère or, rising
between two mountains argent_, are the arms of Camoens, the Portuguese
poet.
As a symbol in heraldry the serpent does not usually have reference to the
mythical creature, as in Early Christian Art, its natural qualities being
more generally considered.