The benevolent serpent deities at the underworld book

Abstract EN

The serpent was a dominant theme in the culture of the ancient Egyptians.

In the physical world, serpents were feared and respected.

The ancient Egyptians were aware of the danger that serpents presented to their day-to-day life.

They could harm, paralyze or kill and they demanded the respect of the ancient Egyptians.

The Egyptian cobra, horned viper, and black-necked spitting cobra were all a very real danger to the ancient Egyptians.

Venom from any of these three snakes could lead to paralysis or death.

^([1])The serpent plays an extraordinarily important and extremely diverse role as a symbolic animal.

The primary characteristics that gave the serpent its symbolic significance were the special place it occupies in the animal kingdom (movement over the ground without legs, living in holes in the ground, yet slipping out of eggs like a bird), its cold, slick and shiny exterior, its poisonous bite and its venom that can be used for medicinal purposes, as well as its periodic shedding of its skin.

^([2])
([1])P.

F.

Houlihan, The Animal World of the Pharaohs (New York, 1996), 168.

([2])U.

Becker, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols (London, 1994), 343; A.

Alexandridis, Wenn Götter Lieben, Wenn Götter Strafen, Mensch und Tier in der Antike (Leipzig, 2008), 285-311.