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The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin serpens, a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to humankind [1] [2] and represent dual expression [3] of good and evil. [4] In some cultures, snakes were fertility symbols.
The Brazen Serpent (illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by Providence Lithograph Company). Pseudo-Tertullian (probably the Latin translation of Hippolytus's lost Syntagma, written c. 220) is the earliest source to mention Ophites, and the first source to discuss the connection with serpents.
According to the popular urban legend, it was a terrifying creature, described as a rooster, snake or turkey, with a snake's tail and the eyes of a frog. [10] [11] It guarded hidden treasures in the Warsaw's Old Town underground and killed intruders with its eyes. It died outwitted by a young journeyman who went underground carrying a mirror in ...
The word ousted adder, as adder went on to narrow in meaning, though in Old English næddre was the general word for snake. [12] The other term, serpent, is from French, ultimately from Indo-European *serp-'to creep', [13] which also gave Ancient Greek ἕρπω (hérpō) 'I crawl' and Sanskrit sarpá ‘snake’. [14]
Hence the snake eating its tail is an accepted image or metaphor in the autopoietic calculus for self-reference, [30] or self-indication, the logical processual notation for analysing and explaining self-producing autonomous systems and "the riddle of the living", developed by Francisco Varela. Reichel describes this as:
Hydra (constellation), the many-headed serpent killed by Heracles; Hydrus, the water snake, is a minor southern constellation; Serpens, which represents a snake being tamed by the snake-handler Ophiuchus
From the ouroboros (a snake eating its own tail in a circle like shape) to the cosmic rainbow serpent, snake dreams can alert you to your state of consciousness and well-being, as well as the ...
Ophidia / oʊ ˈ f ɪ d i ə / (also known as Pan-Serpentes [2]) is a group of squamate reptiles including modern snakes and reptiles more closely related to snakes than to other living groups of lizards.