中西方思想 蛇在西方文化中的象征意义

1、Snakes ' Imagei Western MythologyAbstract: All the myths in human' history give us the inspiration, meditati on, and year ning no matter in China or foreig n coun tries And many celebrities have seen them as literary sources Truly, any national literature has its own source which can be trac

2、ed back to their an cie nt myth with no exce pti on、 Myth, as rich and excelle nt cultural heritage, has its unique role and characteristics But it varies in different stories, and you have to won der that in differe nt mythology we can see the shadow of sn akes Moreover, the more bizarre fact is th

3、at the images they rep rese nt have a certa in similarityKey words: Myth; snake; literature; bibleSnakes ' ImageWestern MythologyIn Bible, the sn ake was regarded as the in stigator luri ng the huma nancestorsAdam and Eveto eat the forbidde n fruit of Eden、 The story is that one day,the Lord God

4、 took the man and put him in theGarden of Eden to tend and keep it And the Lord God manded the man, say ing, "Of every tree of the garde n you may freely eat; but of the tree of the kno wledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die、 ” However,

5、 Eve was cheated by the snake and she p icked an apple from the tree of evil to Adam Fin ally, both of them have eate n the apples which were p rohibited by God, and they felt shameful after look ing each others body Because of this, both Adamand Eve were exp elled from Ede n, and they were puni she

6、d with theresponsibility to take birth、What' worse, they had to suffer the pain of pregnancy、On the other hand, the sn ake which watw ined aro und the wisdom tree represents not only "seX , but alsthe origin of life, and it was advocat ing for rep roducti on、 In additi on, sn akes should sh

7、ed every year, which is seen as the process of restoration and renewal In ancient times, esp ecially those Hosp itals arra nged with the medical spa regarded sn akes as the sacred It is said that once an cie nt Roma n had suffered p lague ep idemic, and people there in vited to Y axibisi, who was th

8、e personi ficati on of a snake As a result, the p lague disa pp eared immediately with help of him、In ancient Egypt, the snake was known asthe pr otecti on of God、It could also be see n on the P haraoh's crow n, theWest Thebes Valley of the Ki ngs tombTherefore sn akes are quoted in many mytholo

9、gies as followsFirstly, in Egyp tia n myth, since God had two eyes, he turned one of them into a cobra as the sun's eye using it to p rotect people and himselffrom enemy' attacksHence, the image of Cobra has bee the incarn ati on of God who p rotects huma n beings and it has bee n p assed do

10、w n from gen erati on to gen erationHowever, it has bee n see n in most mythologies that sn akes are the symbol of evil and mystery、 What Sn ake brings to huma ns is aworldwide catastr op he, but the sn ake usually haunt out of the crypt and hide in shadow、 So, the an cestors put it as n egative thi

11、ngSecon dly, such as beauties with the body of sn ake in the wester n stories, those snake wome n are a symbol of evil and they are rep rese ntative of a mysterious force, which ofte n imp ress people with bad feeli ngs、For exa mp le, in Greek mythology, the beauty, who is n amedGorgon Medusa and wh

12、ose hair is wrapped aro und a bunch of sn akes, has a pair of magic eyes which can turn people into a hard stone And the term of "Gorg on tribute" is a gen eral n ame of three sisters who are very similar to the app eara nee of sn ake, in clud ing Si Xi na Sthe no (it means overlooki ng),

13、Uribe Allie Euryale (po wer), Gorgon Medusa (theQuee n)、In those three sisters, only Medusa has the body of huma n, however, Allie Si Xina and Uribe are mon stersAs we know that in Greek mythology, those families who po ssess the body of half man and half snake have few positive images For exa mp le

14、, Hydra, the mon ster with nine water sn ake heads and a large body, is very terrible、 He ofte n lands along the shore, ravagi ng the fields and teari ng an imals limbs、 The other exa mple is Lamia Asia n, who has the face of a human being but body like a snake After killing his own childre n, he hurts other chi