SERPENT CULTS. Common belief associated serpents, dragons and other monsters with the guardianship of treasure or wealth; comp., e.g., the golden apples of the Hesperides, and the Egyptian Osiris, and the Indian Krishna and Indra. Serpents adorned with necklaces of jewels or with crowns were familiar in old susperstition, and the serpent with a ruby in its mouth was a favourite love-token. Many stories tell of the grateful reptile which brought valuable gifts to a benefactor. According to a common Indian belief a wealthy man who dies without an heir returns to guard his wealth in the form of a serpent, and it was an Italian superstition that a serpent's skin brought luck. The serpent is often associated with metallurgy, and to serpent deities have been ascribed the working of metals, gem-cutting and indeed culture in general. The Ophites (q.v.) actually identified the serpent with Sophia ("Wisdom") ; the old sage Garga, one of the fathers of Indian astronomy, owed his learning to the serpent-god Sesha Naga ; and the Phoenician •yEpwv '041wv wrote the seven tablets of fate which were guarded by Harmonia (Baudissin, Stud. z. Rel. Gesch., i. 255-292 [on Semitic serpent cults]). The Aztec Quetzalcoatl taught metal lurgy and agriculture, gave abundance of maize, also wisdom and freedom from disease. The Babylonian Ea, who sometimes has serpent attributes, introduced—like the American serpent Votan knowledge and culture. The half-serpent Cadmus brought know ledge of mines, agriculture, and the "Cadmean" letters, while Ce crops inculcated laws and ways of life and was the first to establish monogamy. Although the reptile is not particularly intelligent, it has become famed for shrewdness and wisdom, whether in the Garden of Eden (Gen. iii. 1; 2 Cor. xi. 3) or generally (cf. Matt. x. 16) : "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Serpents in Healing.—In one form or another the healing powers of the serpent are very familiar in legend and custom. Siegfried bathed in the blood of the dragon he slew and thus became invulnerable ; the blind emperor Theodosius recovered his sight when a grateful serpent laid a precious stone upon his eyes ; Cadmus and his wife were turned into serpents to cure human ills. In 1899 a court in Larnaca, Cyprus, awarded £8o (Turkish) as damages for the loss of a snake's horn which had been lent to cure a certain disease. It was popularly believed that medical skill could be gained by eating some part of a serpent ; the idea that its valuable qualities would thus be as similated belongs to one of the fundamental dogmas of primitive mankind (cf. Porphyry, De abst. ii. 48). Serpents were tended in the sanctuaries of the Greek Aesculapius (Asklepios), the famous god of healing. (See AESCULAPIUS.)
At Emesa in Syria, watered by the Orontes, an image, the lower part of which was a scorpion, cured the sting of scor pions and freed the city from snakes. Constantinople was simi larly protected by the serpent-trophy of Delphi which Constantine removed thither; an emperor was said to have performed an enchantment over the monument well known in Greek history.
In modern India a walking-stick from a species of cane in the neighbourhood of a certain serpent-shrine protects against snake bite. At Fernando Po, when there was an epidemic among chil dren, they were brought to touch a serpent's skin which hung on a pole. The same ideas underlie the story of the Brazen Serpent which cured the Israelites of the bites of the serpents in the Wilderness (Num. xxi. 6-9). The object, however, was no tem porary device; centuries later, long after the founding of the temple of Jerusalem, the Brazen Serpent was at last regarded as unorthodox by the reforming king Hezekiah, and the historian who relates its overthrow ascribes its origin to the founder of Israelite national religion (2 Kings xviii. 4).
In Wells and Lakes.—According to primitive thought, rivers, lakes, springs and wells are commonly inhabited by spirits which readily assume human or animal form. Here the serpent and its kind are frequently encountered (Frazer's notes on Pausanias, vol. v. pp. 44 sqq.). In India the serpent-godlings are very often associated with water, and, even at the digging of a well, worship is paid to the "world serpent," and the Salagrama (spiral am monite), sacred to Vishnu, is solemnly wedded to the Tulasi or basil plant, representative of the garden which the pool will fertilize. It is often supposed that the Naga (serpent) chiefs rule countries in or under the water, and in Kashmir a submarine serpent-king became a convert and built churches. Especially common are the popular stories connecting serpents with sub marine palaces and treasures (Crooke i. 45) ; and one submarine realm in the Ganges was reputed to possess "the water of strength." In Palestine and Syria, where demoniacal beings are frequently associated with water, local opinion is sometimes un certain whether the water is under the care of a jinn or of a patron-saint. Several springs are named after the serpent, and the sacred fountain of Ephca at Palmyra, whose guardian in the early Christian era was appointed by the god Yarhibol, is still tenanted by a female serpent-demon which can impede its flow. Jerusalem had the stone Zoheleth (possibly "serpent," Kings i. 9) and also its Dragon Well (Neh. ii. 13) ; and in mod ern times the curative Virgin's Spring or St. Mary's Well has its dragon which, when awake, swallows the intermittent flow of the water.