CONTENTS.
| PAGE. | |
| [Chapter I.] | [1] |
| Ophiolatreia an extraordinary subject—Of mysterious origin—Of universal prevalence—The Serpent,a common symbol in mythology—Serpent Worship, natural but irrational—Bacchic orgies—Olympias, mother of Alexander, and theSerpent Emblem—Thermuthis, the sacred Serpent—Asps—Saturn and his children—Sacrificesat altar of Saturn—Abaddon—Ritual of Zoroaster—Vulcan—Theology of Ophion—The Cuthites—The Ophiogeneis—TheOphionians—Greek Traditions—Cecrops—Various Serpent worshippers. | |
| [Chapter II.] | [10] |
| Supposed Phallic Origin of Serpent Worship—The idea of life—Adoration of the principle of generation—The Serpent as a symbolof the Phallus—Phallic Worship at Benares—The Serpent and Mahadeo—Festival of the “Nag panchami”—Snakes and Women—Tracesof Phallic Worship in the Kumaon Rock Markings—The Northern Bulb-stones—Professor Stephens on the Snake as aSymbol of the Phallus—The “Dionysiak Myth”—Brown on the Serpent as a Phallic Emblem—Mythology of the Aryan Nations—SirG. W. Cox and the Phallic theory—Athenian Mythology. | |
| [Chapter III.] | [17] |
| Mythology of the Ancients—Characteristics of the Pagan Deities—Doctrine of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature—Creation andthe Egg—Creation and the Phallus—The Lotus—Osiris as the active, dispensing, and originating energy—Hesiod and the generativepowers—Growth of Phallic Worship. | |
| [Chapter IV.] | [21] |
| Ancient Monuments of the West—The valley of the Mississippi—Numerous earth-works of the Western States—Theories as to theorigin of the mounds—“The Defence” Theory—The Religious Theory—Earth-work of the “Great Serpent” on Bush Creek—The“Alligator,” Ohio—The “Cross,” Pickaway County—Structures of Wisconsin—Mr. Pigeon’s drawings—Significanceof earth-mounds—The Egg and Man’s primitive ideas—The Egg as a symbol—Birth of Brahma—Aristophanes and his “Comedy of theBirds”—The hymn to Protogones—The Chinese and Creation—The Mundane or Orphic Egg—Kneph—Mr. Gliddon’s replies tocertain inquiries—The Orphic Theogony and the Egg—The Great Unity. | |
| [Chapter V.] | [38] |
| The Sun and Fire as emblems—The Serpent and the Sun—Taut and the Serpent—Horapollo and the Serpent Symbol—Sanchoniathonand the Serpent—Ancient Mysteries of Osiris, &c.—Rationale of the connection of Solar, Phallic, and Serpent Worship—The AztecPantheon—Mexican Gods—The Snake in Mexican Theology—The Great Father and Mother—Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent—Researchesof Stephens and Catherwood—Discoveries of Mr. Stephens. | |
| [Chapter VI.] | [60] |
| Mexican Temple of Montezuma—The Serpent emblem in Mexico—Pyramid of Cholula—Tradition of the giants of Auahuac—Thetemple of Quetzalcoatl—North American Indians and the Rattlesnake—Indian Tradition of a Great Serpent—Serpents in theMounds of the West—Bigotry and folly of the Spanish Conquerors of the West—Wide prevalence of Mexican Ophiolatreia. | |
| [Chapter VII.] | [77] |
| Egypt as the home of Serpent Worship—Thoth said to be the founder of Ophiolatreia—Cneph the architect of the universe—Mysteriesof Isis—The Isiac table—Frequency of the Serpent symbol—Serapis—In the temples at Luxore, etc.—Discoveryat Malta—The Egyptian Basilisk—Mummies—Bracelets—The Caduceus—Temple of Cneph at Elephantina—Thebes—Storyof a priest—Painting in a tomb at Biban at Malook—Pococke at Raigny. | |
| [Chapter VIII.] | [84] |
| Derivation of the name “Europe”—Greece colonized by Ophites—Numerous traces of the Serpent in Greece—Worship ofBacchus—Story of Ericthonias—Banquet of the Bacchantes—Minerva—Armour of Agamemnon—Serpents at Epidaurus—Storyof the pestilence in Rome—Delphi—Mahomet at Atmeidan. | |
| [Chapter IX.] | [89] |
| Ophiolatreia in Britain—The Druids—Adders—Poem of Taliessin—The goddess Ceridwen—A Bardic poem—Snakestones—The anguinum—Execution of a Roman Knight—Remains of the serpent temple at Abury—Serpent vestiges in Ireland of greatrarity—St. Patrick. | |
| [Chapter X.] | [94] |
| India conspicuous in the history of Serpent Worship—Nágpúr—Confessionsof a snake worshipper—The gardeners of Guzerat—Cottages for snakes at Calicut—The Feast of the Serpents—Thedeity Hari—Garuda—The snake as an emblem of immortality. | |
| [Chapter XI.] | [99] |
| Mr. Bullock’s exhibition of objects illustrating Serpent Worship. |
OPHIOLATREIA.
CHAPTER I.
Ophiolatreia an extraordinary subject—Of mysterious origin—Of universal prevalence—The Serpent a common symbol in mythology—Serpent-worship natural but irrational—Bacchic orgies—Olympias, mother of Alexander, and the Serpent emblem—Thermuthis, the Sacred Serpent—Asps—Saturn and his children—Sacrifices at altar of Saturn—Abaddon—Ritual of Zoroaster—Theologo of Ophion—The Cuthites—The Ophiogeneis—The Ophionians—Greek Traditions—Cecrops—Various Serpent worshippers.
Ophiolatreia, the worship of the serpent, next to the adoration of the phallus, is one of the most remarkable, and, at first sight, unaccountable forms of religion the world has ever known. Until the true source from whence it sprang can be reached and understood, its nature will remain as mysterious as its universality, for what man could see in an object so repulsive and forbidding in its habits as this reptile, to render worship to, is one of the most difficult of problems to find a solution to. There is hardly a country of the ancient world, however, where it cannot be traced, pervading every known system of mythology, and leaving proofs of its existence and extent in the shape of monuments, temples, and earthworks of the most elaborate and curious character. Babylon, Persia, Hindostan, Ceylon, China, Japan, Burmah, Java, Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Italy, Northern and Western Europe, Mexico, Peru, America—all yield abundant testimony to the same effect, and point to the common origin of Pagan systems wherever found. Whether the worship was the result of fear or respect is a question that naturally enough presents itself, and in seeking to answer it we shall be confronted with the fact that in some places, as Egypt, the symbol was that of a good demon, while in India, Scandinavia, and Mexico, it was that of an evil one. It has been remarked that in the warmer regions of the globe, where this creature is the most formidable enemy which man can encounter, the serpent should be considered the mythological attendant of an evil being is not surprising, but that in the frozen or temperate regions of the earth, where he dwindles into the insignificance of a reptile without power to create alarm, he should be regarded in the same appalling character, is a fact which cannot be accounted for by natural causes. Uniformity of tradition can alone satisfactorily explain uniformity of superstition, where local circumstances are so discordant.
“The serpent is the symbol which most generally enters into the mythology of the world. It may in different countries admit among its fellow-satellites of Satan the most venomous or the most terrible of the animals in each country, but it preserves its own constancy, as the only invariable object of superstitious terror throughout the habitable world. ‘Wherever the Devil reigned,’ remarks Stillingfleet, ‘the serpent was held in some peculiar veneration.’ The universality of this singular and irrational, yet natural, superstition it is now proposed to show. Irrational, for there is nothing in common between deity and a reptile, to suggest the notion of Serpent-worship; and natural, because, allowing the truth of the events in Paradise, every probability is in favour of such a superstition springing up.”[1]
It may seem extraordinary that the worship of the serpent should ever have been introduced into the world, and it must appear still more remarkable that it should almost universally have prevailed. As mankind are said to have been ruined through the influence of this being, we could little expect that it would, of all other objects, have been adopted as the most sacred and salutary symbol, and rendered the chief object of adoration. Yet so we find it to have been, for in most of the ancient rites there is some allusion to it. In the orgies of Bacchus, the persons who took part in the ceremonies used to carry serpents in their hands, and with horrid screams call upon “Eva, Eva.” They were often crowned with serpents while still making the same frantic exclamation. One part of the mysterious rites of Jupiter Sabazius was to let a snake slip down the bosom of the person to be initiated, which was taken out below. These ceremonies, and this symbolic worship, are said to have begun among the Magi, who were the sons of Chus, and by them they were propagated in various parts. Epiphanius thinks that the invocation “Eva, Eva,” related to the great mother of mankind, who was deceived by the serpent, and Clemens of Alexandria is of the same opinion. Others, however, think that Eva was the same as Eph, Epha, Opha, which the Greeks rendered Ophis, and by it denoted a serpent. Clemens acknowledges that the term Eva, properly aspirated, had such a signification.