Snake Cults Dominated Early Arabia

[rastamasta]

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

May 17, 2007 —

Pre-Islamic Middle Eastern regions were home to mysterious snake cults, according to two papers published in this month's Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy journal.

From at least 1250 B.C. until around 550 A.D., residents of what is now the Persian Gulf worshipped snakes in elaborate temple complexes that appear to have been built for this purpose, the studies reveal.

The first paper, by archaeologist Dan Potts of the University of Sydney, describes architecture and relics dating to 500 B.C. from Qalat al-Bahrain in Bahrain.

Two rooms in what is now known as the Late Dilmun Palace each contain 39 pits, some of which surround what appears to have been an altar. At least 32 of the pits housed ceramic vessels containing bones from rat snakes and sea snakes.

The remains showed no signs of mutilation.

"They were in cloth bags, now badly decomposed, and that might suggest that they had been buried alive, i.e. put into a bag, placed in a bowl, and then buried in the ground," Potts told Discovery News.

Some bowls found at the site have been identified as "wine-drinking" cups. Potts, however, does not necessarily think that wine consumption accompanied the snake rituals, which he speculates were meant to confer protection and good luck.

He described pottery decorated with snakes, snake artwork and even ancient oral traditions, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, which originated at early Arabic sites and paid homage to snakes.

In the second paper, archaeologist Anne Benoist of the Eastern Archaeology Laboratory at the National Center for Scientific Research in France describes yet another Iron Age temple complex linked to snake cults.

Excavation of the site, at Al Bithnah in the United Arab Emirates, revealed both indoor and open-air altars, chapel-like structures, incense burners, man-made pools of water and numerous vessels and objects decorated with snakes.

Most of the snakes were depicted with triangular heads and scales, which Benoist said suggests "a viper species, which is striking, as they are venomous and therefore dangerous."

Benoist said early Middle Eastern traditions held that snake venom was viewed as "a source of power over life." Snakes are prevalent in Persian Gulf regions.

She pointed out that the association of snakes with power over life even carried over into the Old Testament. One passage describes Moses placing a bronze snake on a pole so that anyone who had been bitten by a snake would be healed upon seeing it.

The seasonal shedding of skin linked the reptile to cycles of death and rebirth, so snakes were probably also connected to fertility.

Potts thinks snake worship originated in India and spread throughout the Middle East. There is evidence for extensive trade and travel between the two areas.

As for the fate of snake cults, Benoist said later religions likely deemed them "superstitious," causing followers to practice snake veneration in secret. Eventually, she said, the cults were "overtaken by the official monotheist religion."

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/0...19-502-ak-0000

[mynameis]

That the Uraeus link from ancient Egyptian ancestors means nothing as to the true nature of who our true god is named afterwards. If I were a betting, I'd find it funny that the links I established come close after this article was published. More to speculate upon, but less is the facts that are presented in the one letter difference between Uranus and Uraeus, along with the mix confusion of Kronos and Ouranus.

http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1646

[zircon]

I'd be interested to hear from anyone about their thoughts on serpent mythology, especially in the context of researchers such as Philip Gardiner.

Are there any arguments for seeing a positive view of what this mythology may be?, or is it just another form of the hidden agenda of depriving of humanity of knowledge about the "silent weapons of social automation technology"? was it just another kind of control of ignorance, keeping us "on the farm"?

Philip Gardiner's books are very well researched and tend to suggest that the serpent mythology is a benign and enlightened form of "control" of public opinion that is meant to be helpful to humanity. The serpent is here seen as a positive, friendly entrant onto the stage, whose role was perhaps to combine the strands of DNA or the dark and light, or any number of polarities, and represents knowledge and eventual liberation, whereas the "creator" could be seen as an unfriendly force.

At what point does any kind of double-bluff come into this, and does anyone know more about the serpent mythology as described by P.Gardiner?

[rastamasta]

Originally Posted by zircon

I'd be interested to hear from anyone about their thoughts on serpent mythology, especially in the context of researchers such as Philip Gardiner.

dont know much about it to be honest but google pulls up some useful info

Serpentine Empires

This is a list of some of the empires/people that worshipped the Serpent God, including what they perceived the Serpent God as:

Egyptians= Set. The god of the desert. No true appearance, lots of different pictures of HIM, all different from each other. God of evil.

Incan=Urcaguary. The god of jewels and metals. Chimera-like appearance.

Vodou=Simbi. Large and diverse family of snakes.

Solomon Islands=Agunua. Main god, all other gods are just aspects of HIM. Appears as serpent. Snake?

Maya=Vision Serpent. Serpents are vehicles that cross the heavens. Gives visions in return for sacrifice. Human sacrifice? Vision Serpent link between mortals and the ‘spirit world’. Giver of power?

Mesoamerican=Quetzalcoatl. Feathered serpent. God of earth. Transporter of gods.

Khabi=Dhakhan. Giant serpent with tail of fish. Water serpent?

Ophite= devil. Levithian? Power?

Muslim= omnipotent serpent, Falak. Lives in ‘realm of fire’. Allah’s enemy? Dragon

Ugarite= Lotan. 7-headed serpent. Hyrdra? God of the sea.

Norse=Jörmungandr. Midgard serpent. Bigger than the earth. 9 step killing poison, supposed ancient martial arts move.

Aztec

Chicomecoatl=goddess of food

Cihuacoatl=fertality goddess

Coatlicue=Goddess of death

Mixcoatl

Xiuhcoatl=god of fire

There are many others, but I did not have enough time to research them. According to my research, the serpent god has many different faces, but a lot of those faces are to do with war, death and fire. But many others are peace, fertility, earth and water. So this means that the Serpent God is everything, so this further enforces the fact that the Serpent god is the greatest of all the gods, so is the heir to everything.

http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q...-GB&FORM=CVRE2

Serpent (symbolism)

Serpent is a word of Latin origin (serpens, serpentis) that is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context, signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some symbolic value.

Cross-cultural Symbolic Values

The serpent is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. Considerable overlap exists in the symbolic values that serpents represent in various cultures. Some such overlap is due to the common historical ancestry of contemporary symbols. Much of the overlap, however, is traceable to the common biological characteristics of snakes.

In some instances, serpents serve as positive symbols with whom it is possible to identify or to sympathize; in other instances, serpents serve as negative symbols, representing opponents or antagonists of figures or principles with which it is possible to identify. Serpents also appear as ambivalent figures, neither wholly positive nor wholly negative in valence. An example of a serpent used as a positive symbol is Mucalinda, the king of snakes who shielded the Buddha from the elements as the Buddha sat in meditation. An example of a serpent used as a negative symbol is the snake who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, as described in the Book of Genesis.

The following are some of the particular symbolic values frequently assiged to serpents in myth, legend, and literature:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_%28symbolism%29

Quetzalcoatl

In Aztec religion, Quetzalcoatl (IPA: [ketsalˈkoː.aːtɬ]) was a god and was thought to be the leader and most vicious of gods, thought to come back and take back the empire. The feathered serpent god was connected by the planet Venus. Today Quetzalcoatl is the most well-known Aztec deity, and is often thought to have been the principal Aztec god. In reality, Quetzalcoatl was just one god in a pantheon of gods, not considered superior to the others.[1]

The god Quetzalcoatl was sometimes conflated with Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl, a semi-legendary 10th century Toltec ruler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl

http://www.crystalinks.com/quetzalcoatl.html

THE
WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT.
CHAPTER I.
SERPENT-WORSHIP IN ASIA.

THE WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT is supposed by Bryant to have commenced in Chaldæa; and to have been the "first variation from the purer Zabaism 1."

That it was intimately connected with Zabaism cannot be doubted; for the most prevailing emblem of the solar god was the SERPENT 2: and wherever the Zabæan idolatry was the religion, the SERPENT was the sacred symbol. But the UNIVERSALITY of serpent-worship, and the strong traces which it has left in ASTRONOMICAL MYTHOLOGY, seem to attest an origin coëval with Zabaism itself.

The earliest authentic record of SERPENT-WORSHIP is to be found in the astronomy of Chaldæa and China; but the extensive diffusion of this remarkable superstition through the remaining

p. 40

regions of the globe, where Chinese wisdom never penetrated, and Chaldæan philosophy was but feebly reflected, authorizes the inference that neither China nor Chaldæa was the mother, but that both were the children of this idolatry. That accidental circumstances very materially affected the religions of the early heathen at different times, by introducing innovations both in gods and altars, worship and sacrifices, cannot be denied; but it is equally true, that uniformly with the progress of the first deviation from the truth, has advanced the sacred serpent from Paradise to Peru. To follow the traces of this sacred serpent is the intention of the following treatise: and it is confidently expected that few ancient nations of any celebrity will be found which have not, at some time or other, admitted the serpent into their religion, either as a symbol of divinity, or a charm, or an oracle, or A GOD 1. Into the creed of some he

p. 41

has insinuated himself in all these characters, and is so mixed up with their traditions of the ORIGIN and END of EVIL, that we cannot, without violence to all rules of probability, reject the consequence--that the prototype of this idolatry was THE SERPENT IN PARADISE.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/wos/wos04.htm

Who was the serpent?

by Russell M. Grigg

In the account of the temptation of Eve and the Fall of mankind, in Genesis chapter 3, we are introduced to a creature called 'the serpent'. Who or what is this creature? Was it a real serpent? Some people try to make out that the story is just symbolic or an allegory, because animals do not speak human language. So who or what is the person who uses the body of this 'beast of the field', not only to speak to Eve, but also to persuade her to disobey almighty God?

http://www.answersingenesis.org/crea...i4/serpent.asp

SERPENT FAITH.

No country in Europe is so associated with the Serpent as Ireland, and none has so many myths and legends connected with the same. As that creature has furnished so, many religious stories in the East, and as the ancient faiths of Asia and Egypt abound in references to it, we may reasonably look for some remote similarity in the ideas of worship between Orientals and the sons of Erin.

That one of the ancient military symbols of Ireland should be a serpent, need not occasion surprise in us. The Druidical serpent of Ireland is perceived in the Tara brooch, popularized to the present day. Irish crosses, so to speak, were alive with serpents.

p. 169

Although tradition declares that all the serpent tribe have ceased to exist in Ireland, "yet," as Mrs. Anna Wilkes writes, "it is curious to observe how the remains of the serpent form lingered in the minds of the cloistered monks, who have given us such unparalleled specimens of ornamental initial letters as are preserved in the Books of Kells, Ballymote, &c." A singular charm did the reptile possess over the imagination of the older inhabitants. Keating assures his readers that "the Milesians, from the time they first conquered Ireland, down to the reign of Ollamh Fodhla, made use of no other arms of distinction in their banners than a serpent twisted round a rod, after the example of their Gadelian ancestors."

And, still, we recognize the impression that Ireland never had any snakes. Solinus was informed that the island had neither snakes nor bees, and that dust from that country would drive them off from any other land. But the same authority avers that no snakes could be found in the Kentish Isle of Thanet, nor in Crete. Moryson, in 1617, went further, in declaring, "Ireland had neither singing nightingall, nor chattering pye, nor undermining moule."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/idr/idr21.htm

IN THE COILS OF THE NAGA

As cryptozoologists, we at the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are frequently contacted by researchers from TV companies wanting to make monster-related programmes. While many of these projects come to nothing, a call from Bang Productions, who were working on a Discovery Channel series called Mysteries of Asia, led to my boarding a flight to Thailand in October 2000 to go in search of the legendary monster of the Mekong river, the naga.

The naga is essentially a gigantic snake, usually found in Hindu and Buddhist mythology rather than in present-day Thailand. It is supposed to bear an erectile crest on its head – rather like that of a cockatoo, but made of scales – which it holds menacingly aloft when angry, just as a cobra opens its hood.

http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/166_naga.shtml

The word naga is a Sanscrit word which means "serpent". Nagas are believed to live in palaces [Patala] in the underground city Bhogavati. They are considered the protectors of springs, wells and rivers. They bring rain [ similar to the Chinese Lung dragons] and therefore fertility, but can also bring disasters such as floods and drought. In Malay myths nagas are many-headed dragons of enormous size. On Java and Thailand, the naga is a serpent-god, a ruler of the netherworld who possesses much wealth. In Java they are also called Sesas. In Thailand the naga can have five heads, much like the Hindu Naga Kanya.


In Mexico we find the word "Nagal" which describes a class of serpent guardian spirits. The avenue leading to the main temple at Ankhor Wat is lined with seven-headed nagas. The Chinese claim to be able to speak Naga-Krita, the language of the serpentine gods. For a place that has no serpents, Tibet, the naga are still known in a symbolic sensand are called "Lu' which is the Tibetan translation of " naga". For example Nagarjuna is called Lu-truh in Tibet.

http://puthettusarppakkavu.tripod.com/id7.html

Shesha

In Hindu (Vedic) tradition, Shesha (Śeṣa in IAST transliteration, Devanagari: शेष) is the king of all nagas, one of the primal beings of creation, and according to the Bhagavata Purana, an avatar of the Supreme God[1] known as Sankarshan. In the Puranas, Shesha is said to hold all the planets of the universe on his hoods and to constantly sing the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. He is sometimes referred to as "Ananta-Shesha" which means "Endless Shesha."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shesha

Coatlicue

Coatlicue, also known as Teteoinan (also transcribed Teteo Inan) ("The Mother of Gods"), is the Aztec goddess who gave birth to the moon, stars, and Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war. She is also known as Toci ("our grandmother") and Cihuacoatl ("the lady of the serpent"), the patron of women who die in childbirth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatlicue

Mixcoatl

Mixcoatl, meaning “cloud serpent,” was the god of the hunt and identified with the Milky Way, the stars, and the heavens in several Mesoamerican cultures. He was the patron deity of the Otomi, the Chichimecs, and several groups that claimed decent from the Chichimecs. While Mixcoatl was part of the Aztec pantheon, his role was less important than that of Huitzilopochtli, who was their central deity. Under the name of Camaxtli, Mixcoatl was worshipped as the central deity of Huejotzingo and Tlaxcala.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixcoatl

Ayida-Weddo
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In Vodun, especially in Benin and Haiti, Ayida-Weddo (aso Aida-Wedo, Aido Quedo) is a loa of fertility, rainbows and snakes, and a companion or wife to Damballah-Wedo. Also Ayida-Weddo is known as the Rainbow Serpent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayida-Weddo

Damballa

In Vodun, Damballa is one of the most important of all the loa. He is associated with snakes. He is also the father of all the rest of the loa. His wife is the rainbow serpent Ayida Weddo (he is also married to Erzulie Freda). As a loa of the Rada nation he is associated with the color white, and his particular colors are white and silver. Also know as Da.

Because of his association with snakes, he is sometimes disguised as Moses, who carried a snake on his staff.

He is also thought by many to be the same entity of Saint Patrick, known as a snake banisher.

Alternative names: Damballa Weddo (or Wedo), Damballah Weddo, Danbhala Weddo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damballah

Níðhöggr

e roots of Yggdrasill in this illustration from a 17th century Icelandic manuscript.

In Norse mythology, Níðhöggr (Malice Striker, often anglicized Nidhogg[1]) is a dragon who eats the roots of the World Tree, Yggdrasill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%AD%C3%B0h%C3%B6ggr

Ningishzida

Ningishzida (sum: dnin-ǧiš-zi-da)is an underworld Mesopotamian deity. He is the patron of medicine, and may also be considered a God of nature, as his name in Sumerian means "lord of the good tree". In Sumerian mythology, he appears in Adapa's myth as one of the two guardians of Anu's celestial palace alongside Dumuzi. Sometimes he was depicted as a serpent with a human head.

Ningishzida is the earliest known symbol of snakes twining (some say in copulation) around an axial rod. It predates the Caduceus of Hermes, the Rod of Asclepius and the staff of Moses by more than a thousand years.

In the Louvre, there is a famous green steatite vase carved for king Gudea of Lagash (dated variously 2200–2025 BCE), dedicated by its inscription: "To the god Ningiszida, his god Gudea, patesi of Lagash, for the prolongation of his life, has dedicated this".

As for his divine ancestry, Ningishzida is the son of Ninazu, and is related to Geshtinanna. His wife is either Ninazimua or Dazimua[1]. He was one of the ancestors of Gilgamesh. His symbolic animal is the bashmu dragon, a type of snake with horns. He is also associated with the Hydra constellation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ningizzida