The Serpent and Origins
In the mythology of many peoples a serpent is linked to the origin of the world and to creation; it is the primordial material or the primordial being. According to an ancient tradition of the druids (priests among the Celtic peoples) the world originated from an egg that came from the mouth of a serpent. Various of the oldest Egyptian gods were thought of as serpents: as, for example, Atum before he ascended from the primeval ocean, and Amun of Thebes, who was also called Kematef ("he who has fulfilled his time"). In the philosophical speculations of the ancient Near East on creation, serpents and dragons symbolized that which had not yet been made manifest: the still undivided unity that held sway before the creation of the world. Only after the Babylonian god Marduk had overcome the dragonlike monster Tiamat could he form heaven and earth from the latter's body. In the Old Testament one frequently finds the motif of God's struggle against the serpentlike or dragonlike monster of chaos that lives in the water; it is with the victory over Rahab that the mighty waters of the primeval deep are dried up (Is.
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