The Serpent Symbol in Tradition PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download The Serpent Symbol in Tradition PDF full book. Access full book title The Serpent Symbol in Tradition by Charles Dailey. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Charles Dailey
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1914208692
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 646
Get Book Here
Book Description
Serpent and dragon symbolism is ubiquitous in the art and mythology of premodern cultures around the world. Over the centuries, conflicting hypotheses have been proposed to interpret this symbolism which, while illuminating, have proved insufficient to the task of revealing a singular meaning for the vast majority of examples. In The Serpent Symbol in Tradition, Dr. Dailey argues that, in what the symbolist Rene Guenon and the historian of religions Mircea Eliade have called 'traditional' or 'archaic' societies, the serpent/dragon transculturally symbolizes matter, a state of being that is constituted by the perception of the physical world as chaotic in comparison to what traditional peoples believed to be the 'higher' meta-physical source of the physical world or 'nature.' In the course of Dr. Dailey's investigations into the meaning of traditional serpent/dragon symbolism, the following contributions have proved invaluable: 1) Guénon's interpretation of the language of traditional symbolism and the metaphysics that underlies it, as well as his interpretation of the terminology of the 'Hindu Doctrines,' 2) Eliade's interpretation of traditional/archaic societies by means of his concepts of chaos, creation, Axis Mundi (World Axis), and 'Sacred and Profane,' and 3) the insights of various other researchers of serpent/dragon symbolism. Beyond purporting to resolve some of the mystery of the ancient and varied symbolism of the serpent/dragon, The Serpent Symbol in Tradition strives to serve the related functions of interpreting the symbolic meanings of a wide variety of premodern artifacts and narratives as well as providing a study of the origination, and ancient human awareness, of the mentioned state of matter.
Author: Charles Dailey
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1914208692
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 646
Get Book Here
Book Description
Serpent and dragon symbolism is ubiquitous in the art and mythology of premodern cultures around the world. Over the centuries, conflicting hypotheses have been proposed to interpret this symbolism which, while illuminating, have proved insufficient to the task of revealing a singular meaning for the vast majority of examples. In The Serpent Symbol in Tradition, Dr. Dailey argues that, in what the symbolist Rene Guenon and the historian of religions Mircea Eliade have called 'traditional' or 'archaic' societies, the serpent/dragon transculturally symbolizes matter, a state of being that is constituted by the perception of the physical world as chaotic in comparison to what traditional peoples believed to be the 'higher' meta-physical source of the physical world or 'nature.' In the course of Dr. Dailey's investigations into the meaning of traditional serpent/dragon symbolism, the following contributions have proved invaluable: 1) Guénon's interpretation of the language of traditional symbolism and the metaphysics that underlies it, as well as his interpretation of the terminology of the 'Hindu Doctrines,' 2) Eliade's interpretation of traditional/archaic societies by means of his concepts of chaos, creation, Axis Mundi (World Axis), and 'Sacred and Profane,' and 3) the insights of various other researchers of serpent/dragon symbolism. Beyond purporting to resolve some of the mystery of the ancient and varied symbolism of the serpent/dragon, The Serpent Symbol in Tradition strives to serve the related functions of interpreting the symbolic meanings of a wide variety of premodern artifacts and narratives as well as providing a study of the origination, and ancient human awareness, of the mentioned state of matter.
Author: James H. Charlesworth
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300142730
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 742
Get Book Here
Book Description
The serpent of ancient times was more often associated with positive attributes like healing and eternal life than it was with negative meanings. This groundbreaking book explores in plentiful detail the symbol of the serpent from 40,000 BCE to the present, and from diverse regions in the world. In doing so it emphasizes the creativity of the biblical authors' use of symbols and argues that we must today reexamine our own archetypal conceptions with comparable creativity.--From publisher description.
Author: John Bathurst Deane
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Serpent worship
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: C. Staniland Wake
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3744890473
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Get Book Here
Book Description
The subject to be discussed in the present chapter is one of the most fascinating that can engage the attention of anthropologists. It is remarkable, however, that although so much has been written in relation to it, we are still almost in the dark as to the origin of the superstition in question. The student of mythology knows that certain ideas were associated by the peoples of antiquity with the serpent, and that it was the favourite symbol of particular deities; but why that animal rather than any other was chosen for the purpose is yet uncertain. The facts being well known, however, I shall dwell on them only so far as may be necessary to support the conclusions based upon them. We are indebted to Mr. Fergusson for bringing together a large array of facts, showing the extraordinary range which serpent-worship had among ancient nations. It is true that he supposes it not to have been adopted by any nation belonging to the Semitic or Aryan stock; the serpent-worship of India and Greece originating, as he believes, with older peoples. However this may be, the superstition was certainly not unknown to either Aryans or Semites. The brazen serpent of the Hebrew exodus was destroyed in the reign of Hezekiah, owing to the idolatry to which it gave rise. In the mythology of the Chaldeans, from whom the Assyrians seem to have sprung, the serpent occupied a most important position. Among the allied Phoenicians and Egyptians it was one of the most divine symbols. In Greece, Hercules was said "to have been the progenitor of the whole race of serpent-worshipping Scythians, through his intercourse with the serpent Echidna;" and when Minerva planted the sacred olive on the Acropolis of Athens, she placed it under the care of the serpent-deity Erechthonios.
Author: Erica Wright
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501348736
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 161
Get Book Here
Book Description
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Feared and worshiped in equal measure, snakes have captured the imagination of poets, painters, and philosophers for centuries. From Ice Age cave drawings to Snakes on a Plane, this creature continues to enthrall the public. But what harm has been caused by our mythologizing? While considering the dangers of stigma, Erica Wright moves from art and pop culture to religion, fetish, and ecologic disaster. This book considers how the snake has become more symbol than animal, a metaphor for how we treat whatever scares us the most, whether or not our panic is justified. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic.
Author: Ephraim George Squier
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Leslie S. Wilson
Publisher: Globe Pequot Publishing Group Incorporated/Bloomsbury
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Get Book Here
Book Description
The serpent symbol has been a part of western culture since antiquity. Throughout time, it has been misunderstood and misrepresented. The Serpent Symbol in the Ancient Near East is the first comparative study of the origins of the serpent symbol from its first attestations in Dravidian South India through Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East including, Egypt, Classical Greece, and as far west as ancient Carthage. The role of the serpent as the agent of life, death, and healing is demonstrated in the various cultures both individually and in combination, in order to clearly understand the symbol.
Author: Donald K. Sharpes
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9780820478494
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 422
Get Book Here
Book Description
Lords of the Scrolls analyzes ancient literary sources to show how biblical and gospel scribes borrowed and imitated themes from earlier literature to create heroic legends around Hebrew figures and Jesus. Comparisons between the Epic of Gilgamesh; Enuma Elish; Canaanite, Egyptian, and Greek legends; Homeric epics; the histories of Herodotus; and selected biblical and gospel passages reveal thematic and literary similarities. Tracing literary classics from the birth of writing to the first millennium of the modern era, this book demonstrates that Hebrew scribes used previous literature to establish a national identity, and that gospel scribes borrowed heavily from Homer to create epic legends around the person of Jesus.
Author: René Guénon
Publisher: Sophia Perennis
ISBN: 9780900588655
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Symbolism of the Cross is a major doctrinal study of the central symbol of Christianity from the standpoint of the universal metaphysical tradition, the 'perennial philosophy' as it is called in the West. As Guernon points out, the cross is one of the most universal of all symbols and is far from belonging to Christianity alone. Indeed, Christians have sometimes tended to lose sight of its symbolism of its symbolical significance and to regard it as no more than the sign of a historical event. By restoring to the full spiritual value as a symbol, but without in any way detracting from its historical importance for Christianity, Guenon has performed a task of inestimable importance which perhaps only he, with his unrivaled knowledge of the symbolic languages of both East and West, was qualified to perform.
Author: Robert Hazel
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527542920
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 567
Get Book Here
Book Description
This two-volume publication offers an in-depth analysis of ophidian symbolism in Eastern Africa, while setting the topic within its regional and historical context: namely, with regards to the rest of Africa, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Greek world, ancient Palestine, Arabia, India, and medieval and pre-Christian Europe. Through the ages, most of those areas have connected with Eastern Africa in a broad sense, where ophidian symbolism was as “rampant” and far-reaching, if not more so, as anywhere else on the continent, and perhaps in past civilisations. Much as in the wider context, snakes were held to be long-lived, closely related to holes, caverns, trees, and water, life and death, and credited with a liking for milk. Even though ophidian symbolism has always been developed out of the outstanding biological and ethological features of snakes, the process of symbolisation, which plays a crucial role in the elaboration of cultural systems and the shaping of human experience, was inevitably at work. This first volume deals with snakes as a zoological category; snake symbolism as perceived by encyclopaedists and psychologists; and ophidian symbolism as it occurred in ancient civilisations. It explores the traditional African scene in general with a view to set the scene for a more proximate baseline for comparison. The divide between animals and humans was porous, and snakes had a more or less equal footing in both the animal realm and the spiritual world. Key features of snake symbolism in traditional Eastern Africa are then examined in detail, especially phantasmagorical snakes, the rainbow serpent, snake-totems, and snake-related witches and ritual leaders, among others. In Eastern Africa, the meanings attributed to snakes were multifaceted and paradoxical. Overall, the two volumes of this publication show that African snake symbolism broadly echoed the diverse representations of ancient civilisations. The widely acknowledged assimilation of snakes to death and Evil is therefore unrepresentative, both historically and culturally.
