Since the beginning of time, certain animals have always been used in fiction to represent how evil or how good an individual or concept can be. From dogs and dragons to unicorns and pigs, animals have been used in various ways to represent human feelings and actions. But there is no animal that comes close to the symbolism of snakes in fiction. Almost every culture and religion on earth have its own belief regarding snakes which they portray in their literature. Generally, snakes are associated with something sinister and evil. However, snakes can be used to symbolize something more rather than just evil.

According to an ancient belief called Ouroboros, the drawing of a snake eating its tail is a symbol of eternity. There is also another popular belief that considers the ability of a snake to shed its skin as a symbol of rebirth. In certain cultures, snakes are seen as a symbol of the underworld, the home of the dead. From culture to culture and continent to continent, snakes are used to represent not just evil but different concepts and human feelings. So, why are snakes considered deadly and scary in most fiction and legends?

                 

              Photo by Paul Seling: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-animal-figure-3117799/

 The evil symbolization of snakes began in the Christian Bible. According to the Bible, the snake was the first animal the Bible associated with evil. Snakes are among the most hated animals in the world, together with leeches and other scary crawling creatures. People usually see snakes as creatures to hate and fear. A major reason for this is that animals like snakes and spiders are typically venomous and can kill. Many people believe that snakes can’t be good unless they are dead. The cunning nature of snakes and their slithering movement also seem to make many other cultures recognize them as a symbol of evil.

Mankind has created many myths to support its beliefs about snakes. These myths have crept into works of literature, theatre, and even religions. A typical myth about snakes is the popular western myth of Medusa. According to the legend, Medusa was a priestess of Athena, renowned for her beauty. She broke her celibacy vow by having an affair with Poseidon, the sea god. To punish her, Athena turned Medusa into a revolting hag by transforming her hair into writhing snakes and her skin into a greenish hue. She was also cursed so that anyone that met her eyes would be turned into stone.

 

                                                               Source : http://m.zwbk.org/lemma/90952

  Another popular myth in the east is the Chinese folktale, the legend of the White Snake. According to the legend, a boy named Xu Xian purchased some tangyuan from one of the eight immortals, Lü Dongbin, pretending to be a tangyuan seller. Xu Xian couldn’t digest the tangyuan as they were immortality pills, so he couldn't eat for three days. He went back to complain to Lü Dongbin, who made him vomit the pills into a lake. A white snake staying in the lake and practicing Taoist magical arts ate the pills and gained enormous magical powers. She was grateful to Xu Xian and felt indebted to him. A tortoise spirit (terrapin) staying in the lake becomes jealous of the white snake because of her newfound powers. One day the white snake saw a beggar on a bridge who caught a green snake and wanted to dig out the gall of the snake to sell. The white snake transforms into a woman and saves the green snake by buying it from the beggar. The green snake was grateful and began to see the white snake as her elder sister.

After eighteen years, the white and green snakes changed into two women named Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing. One rainy day, they met Xu Xian, who gave them his umbrella to keep them dry from the rain. With time Bai Suzhen falls in love with Xu Xian. They got married and opened a medicine shop in Zhenjian.  

The Terrapin spirit finally gained enough powers and changed to a human Buddhist monk named Fahai. He then proceeds to destroy the happiness of Bai Suzhen first by revealing her true form to Xu Xian, who died upon learning of her true nature. Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing were able to resurrect Xu Xian using a magical herb they got from Mount Emei. Despite knowing her true form, Xu Xian still remained in love with Bai Suzhen. Fahai made another attempt to separate the couple by capturing Xu Xian and keeping him imprisoned at the Jinshan Temple. Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing tried to rescue Xu Xian from Fahai. After a fierce battle that saw Bai Suzhen flood the temple and kill many innocent people as collateral damage, she couldn’t save her husband. This was because she couldn’t use her full powers because she was pregnant with Xu Xian's child. After some time, Xu Xian escapes and finds his way to his wife. After returning home, Bai Suzhen gave birth to a son named Xu Mengjiao. Fahai finds the couple, defeats Bai Suzhen, and captures and imprisons her at Leiden Pagoda. However, Xiaoqing escapes promising to take revenge for her sister.

She was finally able to take her revenge after twenty years spent increasing her powers. She defeated Fahai and rescued Bai Suzhen, who went back to her husband and son. Fahai, on the other hand, escapes and hides in the stomach of a crab.

Another lesser-known myth about snakes is the Cambodian myth of the legend of the Keng Kang snake. The myth describes that there was only one specie of snake and how it gave rise to the many different species of snakes in the world today. According to the myth, a god snake falls in love with a married woman named NY. The couple lived in the middle of a forest, but the husband was rarely at home because of his business. The husband only comes home a few times per year. One day the woman lost her husband’s machete in a cave belonging to a king cobra. The cobra promises to give her back the machete if only she loves him. Ny accepts the offer because she fears her husband and because the machete is important to their survival in the jungle.

The cobra begins to visit Ny every night until she becomes pregnant. After she became pregnant, her husband began to suspect that the child wasn’t his. His suspicions were confirmed when he came home one night without telling her. The next morning, he followed the cobra and killed Keng Kang in his cave, cutting it into three parts. He hung the head of Keng Kang at the house and brought back the body as meat to his wife. Not knowing the source of the meat, Ny prepares a soup with it. As she eats beside her husband, a parrot screams, 'Look at that woman, eating her own husband.' However, it was too late, and she began to cry when she realized what she was eating and what her husband had done. Her husband takes her to a lake in the jungle and kills her. He then cut open her stomach and womb, releasing thousands of baby snakes into the water. And this is how the many different species of snakes came from one specie.

                                   

                                                            Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308478/

 

The legend of the Keng Kang snake has inspired several movies, with the most popular one being The Snake Man or the Snake King’s Wife, produced in 1970. The movie was a commercial success in Cambodia, and it went further to show that snakes are not just a symbol of evil, but they can serve as symbols of human desires, as in the case of the lonely wife, and a symbol of revenge as in the case of the jealous husband. The movie also has several sequels, all of which are inspired by the Cambodian myth of the Keng Kang snake.

This myth is the major inspiration for my horror story involving snakes which appears in Book Three of The Horror Wedding Series. Stay tune for the release of the last book of The Horror Wedding Series, which will be the most intense and imaginative horror stories I have ever written.

 

References

https://cambodia1.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/the-son-of-the-snake-an-erotic-cambodian-symbol/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snake_King%27s_Wife

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_White_Snake

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros

https://environment.des.qld.gov.au/wildlife/animals/living-with/snakes/importance