>>18150392
Unsurprising, the snake is not only a unique animal for being venomous and having an odd way of locomotion, but has a lot of potent mythic symbolism. The snake emerges with the sun from hibernation, becoming a symbol of solar rebirth. It swallows its prey whole, being seen as an all-consuming or devouring foce, or as cosmogenesis, as with the orphic myths. Its deadliness is not only evil but as a punishment for the wicked, like the binding of Loki under the dripping venom of vipers, and Nastrond, where oathbreakers suffer. They can be cthonic or aquatic, and caves/the underworld can be associated with enlightenment ie the katabatic journey, and the sea as pure chaos like leviathan. The snake is perhaps one of the most symbolically charged animals on the planet, too bad it’s been reduced to just bad or evil today