Snakes
Chthonic animals were mysterious to the ancient Egyptians: their origin was unclear as if they had seemingly come into existence without a creator. They were life-creating themselves.
Serpents were even more puzzling than other denizens of the underworld. They shed their skin and became therefore symbols of rebirth after death.
The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the serpent Sata whose years are infinite. I lie down dead. I am born daily. I am the serpent Sa-en-ta, the dweller in the uttermost parts of the earth. I lie down in death. I am born, I become new, I renew my youth every day.The endlessness of the sea was symbolized by a snake biting its own tail. Similarly, the Ahay serpent stood for the cyclical nature of time.The Book Ani, translated by Budge
The attitude towards snakes was ambiguous. They were both destroyers and protectors. If the poisonous species, of which there are a few dozens in Egypt such as the cobra and the horned viper, were feared, the non-poisonous snakes were venerated for the role they played in the extermination of rodents.
Among the positive deities the four female goddesses of the ogdoad of gods sported serpent heads, the males had the form of toads, chthonic animals as well. Amen as primordial creator assumed the form of Kematef, a snake. Thermutis, the harvest goddess, was honoured in the form of a snake during the vintage and corn harvest. Uto, the protectress of Lower Egypt, was a fire-spitting snake, often called the fiery eye of Re. She is probably the origin of the uraeus, carried on their crowns by the pharaohs since the Middle Kingdom (see cobra). Nehebka was a double-headed serpent living in the Underworld ...
Let me fly like a hawk, let me cackle like a goose, let me lay always like the serpent-goddess Neheb-ka....and Re was protected on his journey through the dark by Mehen, depicted as a sinuous snake surrounding the god's cabin on his solar boat.The Book Ani, translated by Budge
One of the principal destructive beings was the dragonlike Apophis, a poisonous watersnake thirty cubits long, waylaying Re and held in check by Seth who was the only being unaffected by the stare of the snake. The realm of the Dead was inhabited by snake demons of many kinds, some winged, others standing up on legs (!). Some were spitting fire, some were armed with a knife.
In the Hymns to Re the fall of his enemies, among them the ass and various serpents, is celebrated
Thine enemy the Serpent hath been given over to the fire. The Serpent- fiend Sebau hath fallen headlong, his forelegs are bound in chains, and his hind legs hath Ra carried away from him.Among the 40 demons before whom the dead had to justify themselves was Amenti:
........
Thou in thy shrine hast joy, for the Serpent-fiend Nak hath been judged by the fire, and thy heart shall rejoice for ever.The Book Ani, translated by Budge
Hail, serpent Amenti who comes from the house of slaughter, I have not defiled the wife of a man.Strabo mentions a number of Egyptian animals in his writings and was especially impressed by the snakes:The Book of the Dead, chapter 125
The animals peculiar to the country (i.e. Egypt) are the ichneumon and the Egyptian asp, having some properties which those in other places do not possess. There are two kinds, one a span in length, whose bite is more suddenly mortal than that of the other; the second is nearly an orguia [six feet] in size, according to Nicander, the author of the Theriaca.In the Papyrus Lansing the life of the peasant is described unfavourably, as was the wont of scribes, and snakes are accused of destroying grain harvests.Strabo, Geography
Text scanned and modernized by J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton
He spends time cultivating, and the snake is after him. It finishes off the seed as it is cast to the ground. He does not see a green blade.Fear and ignorance reigned, and knowledge of snakes and their habits was - and still is in most quarters - slight. The Papyrus Insinger quotes a number of sayings concerning snakes:M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol.2, p.170
He who is bitten of the bite of a snake is afraid of a coil of ropeThe reactions of people to their appearance was often irrational and exaggerated. In the story of The Doomed Prince a snake drank itself into a stupor:
The hissing of the snake is more effective than the braying of the donkey.
A snake that is eating has no venom.
Death comes to the snake because of its love of biting.
The small snake has poison.
The snake on which one steps ejects a strong poison.M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol 3, p.170ff
Then his wife filled a [bowl] with [wine (?)] and another bowl with beer. Thereupon a [snake] came out [of its] hole to bite the youth. But his wife was sitting beside him, not sleeping. [She placed the bowls before (?)] the snake. It drank, it became drunk, it lay down on its back. Then [the woman had] it hacked to pieces with her axe.M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol.2, p.202
[ ] The picture from the grave of Djed-djehutefankh at Deir el Bahri courtesy Jon Bodsworth.
