The worship of the serpent traced throughout the world, and its tradition referred to the events in Paradise: proving the temptation and fall of man by the instrumentality of a serpent tempter / [John Bathurst Deane].

  • John Bathurst Deane
Date:
1830
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The worship of the serpent traced throughout the world, and its tradition referred to the events in Paradise: proving the temptation and fall of man by the instrumentality of a serpent tempter / [John Bathurst Deane]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    kill serpents, you shall repeat the Zenda Vesta, and thence you will obtain great merit: for it is the same as if you had killed so many devils” The Zenda Vesta to be here “ repeated ” might, perhaps, be that portion of it above alluded to— the assumption of the serpent’s form by Ahri- man. Connected with which, doubtless, was the popular belief of the Persians, that in the place of torment in the other world, scorpions and serpents gnaw and sting the feet of the wicked. The God Mithras was represented encir- cled by a serpent: and in his rites, a custom was observed similar to that practised in the Mysteries of Sebazius #—A serpent was thrown into the bosom of the initiated, and taken out at the lower parts of his garments.']' In Mont- faucon, vol. v. are some plates of Mithras, with a lion’s head and a human body; and round him is coiled a large winged serpent. In the Supplement to vol. i. Montfaucon gives us a representation of a stone found at Lyons. It is a rude stone, exhibiting the head of a young and beardless man. Under it is the inscription, * Maurice Ind. Ant. iii. 199. + Arnobius, lib. v. p. 171. Jul. Firm. p. 23. E
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