Most people know the story of how Satan deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit of Eden in the Bible, and those people will also know that in order to do that, he takes the form of a serpent, or a snake. A lot of cultures fear and worship snakes, such as the Mayan Quetzalcoatl, a snake-like feathered creature, the Indian Nagas: half-man half-snake gods that can either be benevolent or extremely harmful, and the ubiquitous dragon. Snakes are always associated with negative characteristics, and the fear of snakes or ophidiophobia is one of the most common phobias in the world! Why are snakes so important to humans?
Humans evolved from apes that evolved from monkeys, and snakes aren’t particularly kind towards them. In fact, large snakes are among the top dangers for a monkey, so much that certain monkeys even have built-in alarms just for snakes. Humans and other primates have also evolved to identify snakes at a much larger capacity than most animals can. Snakes such as pythons still hunt small monkeys, and it seems that mentality hasn’t gone away from us yet.
This viper blends in perfectly with the leaves, and many animals wouldn’t actually notice it that well. However, our eyes are instantly drawn to the snake’s body. When our brains identify snakes, it’s registered as extremely dangerous no matter what.
Snakes are seen in both negative and positive aspects by many cultures. Let’s take the Naga of Hindu mythology, based on the three different species of cobra that inhabit the Indian subcontinent. These half-snake, half-human creatures have been recently called ‘aliens’ and ‘creatures of another dimension’ by certain people with questionable credentials, but in all likelihood they, like the multitude of other snake gods, were just figments of the superstitious monkey part of our otherwise intelligent brains. Nagas are very cunning and have ambivalent personalities, and are both feared and worshipped by many communities in India.
Similar to the Naga is the European and East Asian dragon, although dragons are usually painted as evil and greedy in Europe, and as good and wise in East Asian culture. The common factor here is the snake. Some people have pointed out that dragons, unlike Nagas, share factors of the three most dangerous predators for monkeys: eagles (the wings), leopards (the feet) and snakes (the body), showing that some things never really change, even in a million years. Really leads one to wonder what other prehistoric contingencies are programmed somewhere deep in our brain…
Anay Ganesh 