ABSTRACT
The inspiration for this chapter was a reading of Mundkur’s path-breaking survey of ophidian symbolism worldwide, The cult of the serpent (1983, and see 1988). In this powerful work, Mundkur, a biologist, brings together evidence from ethnology, psychology, ethology, and biology to support his thesis that the snake has a special significance for Homo sapiens and probably all the primate species, a significance that is genetically inscribed in these species’ physiology. In human beings this special meaning takes the form of an attitude polarized between the emotions of fear and awe-hence, according to Mundkur, the near ubiquity of serpentine cults in human cultures, both past and present, around the globe. This massive body of cross-disciplinary evidence strongly suggests that the snake was the first, and remains the most fundamental, of all animal symbols.
