Snake Cults

67,000 B.C.E. – Botswana, Africa

World’s oldest ritual discovered. Worshipped the python 70,000 years ago
SACRIFIED TO THE PYTHON:

The world’s oldest ritual ceremonies are twice as old as previously thought. More than 70,000 years ago
in a small cave in Botswana, humans sacrificed spearheads to the python.

A new archaeological find in Botswana shows that our ancestors in Africa engaged in ritual practice
70,000 years ago — 30,000 years earlier than the oldest finds in Europe. This sensational discovery
strengthens Africa’s position as the cradle of modern man.

Associate Professor Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo, can now show that modern humans,
Homo sapiens, have performed advanced rituals in Africa for 70,000 years. She has, in other words,
discovered mankind’s oldest known ritual.
6,000 B.C.E – Bulgaria, E. Europe
3000 B.C.E - Egypt
• 5,000-year-old Semitic text dealing
with magical spells and snakes has
been deciphered from an ancient
Egyptian pyramid inscription, the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
announced Monday.
•
• These serpent spells, written in
hieroglyphic characters and
discovered in an Egyptian pyramid,
are the earliest continuous Semitic
texts to have been deciphered.

• The texts, which were first

discovered a century ago in a 24th
Century BCE Egyptian pyramid, are
the earliest continuous Semitic texts
ever to have been deciphered, said
Semitic languages Prof. Richard
Steiner of New York's Yeshiva
University in a premiere presentation
at the Hebrew University.

• The passages, serpent spells written

in hieroglyphic characters, are
estimated to have been written
between the 25th to the 30th
centuries BCE.
3000 B.C.E – Elam (Iran)
 2,100 B.C.E – Lagash (Babylon)
2100 B.C.E. -
This famous green steatite vase was carved for king
Gudea of Lagash (dated variously 2200& 2025 BCE),
dedicated by its inscription to Ningizzida, "Lord of
the Tree of Truth" which bears a relief of serpents
twined round a staff"

The drawing above is from the internet and shows the image of
the vase "rolled out".
Tiamat & Marduk

Marduk , the god of Babylonian society, defeated the great serpent Tiamat
1,400 – 1,500 C.E. – Mexico / Aztec 100 – 200 C.E. - Peru
Naga
the great snake that sheltered Siddhartha from the rain

1,100 C.E. – Cambodia India

1,600 B.C.E. - Snake veneration in Crete

• Seen in the form of the

snake goddess statues
found at Knossos dating
to the 17th century BC, as
well as, for example,
earrings, such as the one
showing a double-
headed, earth encircling
serpent.
 Medusa / Gorgon
• Arguably the most indelible image of snakes in

mythology, Medusa means "sovereign female

wisdom," in Sanskrit. Medusa was actually imported

into Greece from Libya. Medusa was the destroyer

aspect of the Great Triple Goddess also called Neith,

Anath, Athene or Ath-enna in North Africa and Athana

in 1400 c. BC Minoan Crete. Medusa was originally

an aspect of the goddess Athena from Libya where

she was the Serpent-Goddess of the Libya

(Amazons). In her images, her hair sometimes

resembles dread locks, showing her origins in Africa.

Images of the gorgon / Medusa
 Athena

Images are from 600 - 500 BCE

• The goddess of wisdom and strategy, Athena is often depicted

wearing the Aegis of Zeus, which was fashioned from the head of
Medusa.
 Apollo
• The Greek god most closely
associated with snake worship
is Apollo; the original name of
Apollo's temple at Delphi was
Pytho, after the snake Python .
Apollo killed the snake when he
came there, and took it over .
This may actually be the origin
of the story of the gorgons.
• Apollo was the god of prophesy
and knowledge, and the
snake, therefore became a
natural symbol for him.
 Aesculapius
• The Greek God of Medicine
was the son of Apollo. He is
typically depicted as having a
staff with a snake wound
around it.
The Staff of
Aesclapius

Many believe that the

Aesclapius staff (left)
represents the healer’s
Caduseus
ability to rid the patient of The Caduseus was the
the guinea worm by rolling staff of Hermes, and was
the parasite out of the derived from the “tree of
body attached to a stick, life / truth” image
each day rolling a little
more out. A symbol of
medicine for thousands of
years, it was replaced by
the Caduseus when the
army Medical Corp.
adopted it as its official
emblem in 1905.
Nehushtan
depicted as a bronze snake wrapped around a staff, it was said to have been used by
Moses to cure the Israelites of their snake bites.
The Mormon religion speaks of it as wrapped around the tree of life, and that it has the
power to heal. Some Christian religions have claimed that the tree of life was used to
make the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
Macedonia 375-316 BCE

Olympias, the mother of Alexander the

Great, was said to have conceived of the
great ruler after laying with a snake. The
famous historian Plutarch writes:
“And Philip, some time after he was married,
dreamt that he sealed up his wife's body with a
seal, whose impression, as be fancied, was
the figure of a lion. Aristander of Telmessus,
considering how unusual it was to seal up
anything that was empty, assured him the
meaning of his dream was that the queen was
with child of a boy, who would one day prove
as stout and courageous as a lion. Once,
moreover, a serpent was found lying by
Olympias as she slept, which more than
anything else, it is said, abated Philip's passion
for her; and whether he feared her as an
enchantress, or thought she had commerce
with some god, and so looked on himself as
excluded, he was ever after less fond of her
conversation…”
 Greece 120 B.C.E.

• Glykon

• The cult of the snake god

Glykon was introduced in in
the mid-second century CE by
the Greek prophet Alexander
of Abonutichus.

• The cult -or at least the snake

Alexander venerated-
originated in Macedonia,
where similar snake cults were
already known in the fourth
century BCE.
Ouroboros
The serpent or dragon eating its own tail has survived from antiquity and can be
traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 B.C.E. From there it passed to
Phoenicia and then to the Greek philosophers, who gave it the name
Ouroboros ("the tail-devourer").

First Fruits of the Earth Offered to Saturn

Giorgio Vasari (Italian, 1511–1574)
Tree of Life and Death
Garden of Eden
The snake in the Garden of Eden