SERPENT
581
SERPENT
change of form on account of the part it played in the history of the fall. The sun and the moon were in the heavens long before they were appointed "for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years." The typ- ical form of the serpent and its mode of progression were, in all probability, the same before the fall as af- ter it; but subsequent to the fall its form and progres- sion were to be regarded with hatred and disgust bj' all mankind, and thus the animal was cursed "above all cattle," and a mark of condemnation was forever stamped upon it. There is no necessit}' to show how that part of the curse is literally fulfilled which speaks of the " enmity" that was henceforth to exist between the serpent and mankind; and though, of course, this has more especial allusion to the devil whose instru- ment the serpent was in his deceit, yet it is perfectly true of the serpent. Few will be inclined to differ with Theocritus {Id. xv, 58) —
Toe >|/i/xpoi' iiipiv Tafji<iXi(TTa dedoiKta 'Ek Traitor.
Serpents are said in Scripture to " eat dust" (see Gen. iii, 14; Isa. Ixv, 25; Mic. vii, 17) ; these animals, which, for the most part, take their food on the ground, do con- sequently swallow with it large portions of sand and dust (see Thomson, Laud and Book, ii, 332).
IV. Mythology. — As already seen, scriptural evidence attests the serpent's influence on the early destinies of mankind ; and this fact may be traced in the history, the legends, and creeds of most ancient nations. It is far from being obliterated at this daj^ among the pagan, barbarian, and savage tribes of both hemispheres, where the most virulent and dangerous animals of the vivip- arous class are not uncommonly adored, but more gen- erally respected, from motives originating in fear; and others, of the oviparous race, are suffered to abide in hu- man dwellings, and are often supplied with food, from causes not easily determined, excepting that the serpent is ever considered to be possessed of some mysterious superhuman knowledge or power. Hence, besides real species, ideal forms, taken from the living, but combining other or additional properties, occur, at the most early periods, as metaphorical types, in fable and history, and in the hierogh'phics and religious paintings of many nations. Such are the innumerable fables in Hindu lore of Nagas and Naga kings; the primeval astronomy which placed the serpent in the skies, and called the Milky Way by the name of Ananta and Sesha Naga; the pagan obscure yet almost universal record of the deluge typi- fied by a serpent endeavoring to destroy the ark, which astronomy has likewise transferred to the skies in the form of a dragon about to devour the moon, when, in an eclipsed state, it appears in the form of an amphi- promnos,or crescent-shaped boat; and, strange as it may seem, lunar eclipses still continue to be regarded in this character, and to excite general apprehension in Cen- tral Africa as well as in China, in the South Sea Isl- ands as well as in America. See Dkagon. The na- tions of the North once believed in the .Jormunds Gan- der, or Kater serpent of tlie deep ; and they, together with the Celts and Basques and all Asia, had legends of the Orm, the Paystha. the dragon guardian of riches, brooding on gold in caverns deep below the surface of the earth, or lying in huge folds on dreary and exten- sive heaths. These fables were a resi(hie of that an- tique dragon-worship which had its temples from High Asia and Colchis to the north of Great Britain, and once flourished both in Greece and Northern Africa — structures with avenues of upright stones of several miles in length, whereof the ruins may still be traced at Carnak in Brittany, Abury in Wiltshiro, and Red- ruth in Cornwall — the two last mentioned nmre partic- ularly showing their connection with the circle con- stituting a form of the mundane egg, which again was an emblem of the deluge and the ark. The Hesperian, Colchian, and Lerinvan dragons are only Greek legends of the same doctrine, still more distorted, and affording ample proof how far the pagan world had departed from
the simplicity of scriptural truth, from the excessive use of metaphorical descriptions and fanciful symbols. In Egypt, the early centre of ophiolatry, this debasing service was so deeplj- rooted tliat a Christian sect of heretics, called Ophita;, or, according to Clemens Alex- andrinus, Ophiani, arose in the 2d century of our a?ra. As an emanation of the Gnostics, their errors are par- ticularly noticed by Tertullian, and form a signal in- stance of human perverseness ingeniously misleading itself and others by the abuse of symbols; yet, when the anguine type did not pass into long, distorted leg- ends, it is evident, from tlie brazen serpent raised by Moses in the wilderness, that it was correctly appreci- ated by the people as a sign, not in itself a power, of divine aid; and that its true symbolical meaning did not escape even pagan comprehension appears from pro- fane history, in Meissi, the good serpent, being likewise properly understood by the Egyptians, until idolatry distorted all the national reminiscences, and the prom- ise of what was not fully revealed till the Saviour ap- peared on earth was obliterated. Ob, Oub, the Coptic Hof, Obion in Kircher, was, however, the general name for serpents in Egypt; and Kneph, or Cnuphis, or Ih- Nuphi, the good genius, always figured as the Nachash or Thermuth, is, therefore, the same as Naga Sahib, or lord-serpent of India, and still a personification of the vanquisher of the deluge — Vishnu and many others being pagan denominations of Noah. In this sense the good genins Cnuphis was a type of the Saviour of men, and called by them the spirit pervading nature, the creator from whose mouth proceeded the mundane egg; being referred, after the loss of the true interpretation, to any typical form of the patriarch, the events of the deluge and the creation, thus confounding the opera- tions of the Almighty with the ministry of his servant. (See Deane, The Worship of the Serpent traced through- out the Woiid [Lond. 1833].) See Serpent-worship.