Egyptian Winged Serpents:
Winged serpents were encountered on the walls of Egyptian tombs, with the feathered wings of the sun falcon and the scaled, undulating body of a snake (Rose, 2000). They were associated with spitting fire through the snake goddess Wadjet of Lower Egypt, who was often depicted as a winged serpent. Worn on the brows of pharaohs, the uraeus or cobra was linked to fire and war, and sometimes depicted as a lioness. Despite, or perhaps due to being somewhat ferocious, Wadjet was generally respected (Fletcher, 1999). The cobra goddess Renenutet, "the nourishing of the snake", similarly enjoyed adoration as she ensured a good harvest, wealth and easy childbirth. Though revered, snakes were common throughout the Delta and amulets were worn by Egyptians to ward off a potentially poisonous bite (Littleton, 2002).
Serpents also symbolised the primal elemental forces, and were similar in form to mythical rain-serpents in other areas of Africa. Of the eight chaotic elements existing before the world came into order, the four female deities of the Ogdoad or "group of eight" were serpents, or sometimes described as serpent-headed (Watterson, 1999).
Middle Eastern Dragons:
The dragons of the Middle East were fearsome serpents. Known to the Persians as the azhi, or "snake" in the Avestan tongue (Rose, 2000), they were likened with demons and the div, false gods that caused strife among the mortal world. The Armenian nhang or Persian crocodile was a close relative of the dragon, usually depicted as an evil water serpent with a crippling fear of crabs (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). Primarily composite creatures, many Middle Eastern dragons were multi-headed with the legs of lions and eagles, and massive wings that covered the sun and moon (Curtis, 1993). Their might was so great that Armenian mythology credits solar and lunar eclipses to dragons, who supposedly swallowed the celestial bodies (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). These dragons were universally hated; the Koran (Qu'ran) details how the Al-zakkum, the tree of knowledge, grows from the depths of hell and its fruit resembles the faces of devils and serpents (Mythaeum, 2004b), while human sacrifices were offered to the dragon in underground devil worshipping services in Christian Armenian society (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). Dragons were said to be full of khrafstra, the unclean animals such as snakes, toads, scorpions, frogs and lizards, and often assumed the form of these creatures in order to deceive (Allan, et al., 1999). Almost universally, a dragon's heart endowed the eater with the ability to speak the animal language (Mythaeum, 2004b), and the Middle Eastern serpent was believed immortal for its ability to shed its skin. When Gilgamesh2 tried to take the plant of eternal youth, a serpent-dragon rose from the dark pit in which the tree was growing and snatched it away, securing eternity for itself (Storm, 2002).
The 10th century Shahnameh and the holy Zoroastrian Avesta describe battles between prominent dragons and heroes, including the Persian Azhi Dahaka, who in the Shahnameh is anthropomorphisised into Zahak, alongside other dragons such as the yellow-green horned Azhi Sruvara, or the unusually-coloured white dragon Asdeev, who was slain by Rustam (Curtis, 1993; Rose, 2000). The struggles between dragons and heroes are numerous throughout religious texts, but there was always safety in the gods and their heroes, who promised the defeat of humankind's dark enemy (Allan, et al., 1999). Such dragons justified the existence of gods, and were physical embodiments of the world's natural temper, characterised and brought to life in the form of beasts that personified destruction. It is no surprise that many dragons are slain in poor weather; the sea dragon Labbu was killed in a storm raised by the gods (Fontenrose, 1959), and the creatrix Tiamat was destroyed with the aid of seven tempest winds (Mackenzie, year unknown). The slaying of such beasts was so widespread that an old song of a dragon-slaying deity, Vahagn, gave the hero the title "dragon-reaper" (VishapaXaY), while dragon-killers were believed to have been born from enchanted flowers. Strangely, dragons of this area were often deterred by fire and thunder. Though the representation of evil spirits, they held a great fear of the red flame (Ananikian & Werner, 1925).
Many dragons were associated with mountains, such as Mount Damavand, which served as the prison for the defeated dragon Azhi Dahaka (Allan, et al., 1999), while the mountain Azat or "venerable", was said to be the seat of dragons and fairies (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). Dragons were often used as emblems for stars on the maps of Arabic astronomers.
Dragons were also renowned for lairing in the darkness beneath the world. The divine hero Hibil-Ziwa was brought to life in order to conquer the dragon of darkness in the underworld, and to take the good spirits into the world above. Arevhat the "solar maiden" met a dragon prince in a deep pit, where he transformed into a handsome man to seduce her (Mythaeum, 2004).
Mythical Rain-Serpents (African Dragons):
The giant snakes of Africa were highly important in outlining comparisons in surviving African oral tradition. The mythical serpents were differentiated from their natural counterparts by size and colour; a publication by Dorothea Bleek states, "the Rainbow is yellow in that part which lies above; the piece which seems red lies below." (Le Quellec, 2004.) The rainbow was often thought of as a living entity, usually as a snake that stretched across the land. According to the Ewe people, it was seen as a heavenly image of the great serpent Anyiewo, who took Hzo from the skies and laired in anthills (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). Such serpents were covered with strange markings, and often had the heads of other animals, such as the recurring antelope-headed, horned snake. To demonstrate their size, a recorded description in 1905 by a San or Bushman woman in Southern Africa speaks of a horned snake 10 m (32 ft) in length, which took its repose in the water (Bahn, 1997; Le Quellec, 2004). Similar recounts have arisen across Africa, such as in the Matopo (or Matobo) Hills belief in a snake so large its head could be seen at the top of Bella Balla, while its tail stretched for 30 km (19 miles). During the first half of the 20th century, people of this region spoke of the 12 ft long serpent Muhlambela, who emitted a call like an antelope from its feathered head, thus tricking anyone who heard the sound to approach. This same tactic was applied by other antelope- (or bird) headed snakes in Matopo, who used the sound to lure people to them. In the tradition of the massive serpents, Zimbabwe tales mention a snake which carried mountains and men on its back, while a rock painting from the Matopo Hills, now in the Bulawayo museum, depicts a python from which animals come forth. Such belief is similar to Venda tradition; "originally, men and the whole of creation sat inside the belly of the Python, which vomited them out." These comparisons suggest an interaction between the two areas (Le Quellec, 2004).
African serpents were often referred to as "Elephant's face", Master of the Forest, or Mombo-wa-Ndlopfu. These serpents were credited with speech and though they had bad breath, weren't necessarily evil. Often associated with the flesh-eating maggots of corpses, ancestral spirits and ghosts favoured their form as a disguise (Ananikian & Werner, 1925). The African dragon-serpent has a long-standing enmity with the elephant; the 30 ft long dragon-serpents, known only as "Elephant killers" often hunt elephants, sometimes lying in wait in pairs and tripping their prey with knotted tails (Byrne [ed], 1979). During creation, when the God of the Masai came to the world, he met a Dorobo tribal member, an elephant and a serpent. Therefore, the serpent and elephant share a special level of creation, which perhaps partially explains the serpent's animosity for its fellow beast (Ananikian & Werner, 1925).
Much like the ouroboros, the rain snakes were given cosmological significance, as they had a long-standing connection with shooting stars. Horse-headed water snakes wore stars on their foreheads, which they used to guide themselves through the night while they combed the land for food (Le Quellec, 2004). As these stars attracted lightning, the serpents shed them and left them on the ground as a glimmering stone, such as a diamond. Should someone bold enough claim it, they would inherit its power. Some serpents have been depicted with "double-stars" on their foreheads with long tails flowing from the center. The Katkop mountain people speak of the serpent and the double-stars: "it sounds like a quiver. [Our mothers] said: we hear it as it sounds like rain pouring down, when it pours into the water pit, when it divides into the water pit." (Le Quellec, 2004.)
This symbolism was believed to have been inspired by a comet that passed over Africa in 1846 and broke into two pieces. However, while such an occurrence certainly had an impact on the water-snakes' standing in African tradition, the linkage between serpents and shooting stars or comets is common and certainly existed prior to 1846 (Le Quellec, 2004).
African rain-serpents were renowned shape-shifters, adopting the appearance of the horned rainbow snake likongoro while in water. Once on land, they show a startling likeness to the kudu. These serpents were interchangeable with other mythical animals; giant snakes were shown alongside winged, mythical alites, while a hairy hippo-snake (hippos were known as "water horses") described in the early 1870s involves the creature being dragged from the water in order to induce rainfall (Le Quellec, 2004).
In Drakensburg or "Dragon Mountains" (Morris, et al., 2001), we are again met with tales of a giant antelope-headed snake, Inkanyamba, who haunts the summit of Mount Mpendle and brings rain, traveling from mountain to mountain in order to copulate in water bodies (Le Quellec, 2004). Near Genaadeberg in South Africa, the multi-formed trickster Kaggen is known to have danced with a rain snake in order to induce wet weather. This is perhaps where the Transkei San ritual hunts originated, as they dove into water to drive out reptiles, whose body parts were used for medicinal purposes. To the San people of Lake Chrissie, one could only become a healer after they'd caught a snake, skinned it, and paraded it around in public (Le Quellec, 2004).
Post je objavljen 21.01.2006. u 02:46 sati.