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Article OPHIOLOGY AND SERPENT SYMBOLISM. ← Page 2 of 9 →
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Ophiology And Serpent Symbolism.
the idea . Ignorance produced wonder , Avonder generated aAve and terror , as the latter produced fear and veneration , that fruitful cause of superstition . " Primus in orbe Deus fecit timor . atqne error jussit inanis Agricolas primos Cereri dare messis honores .
Palmitibus plenis Bacchum vincire . Palemque Pastorum gatidere manu : natat obrutus , omni Septimus demersus aqua ; Pallasque eavernas Yindicat : et votietus , qui re vendidit orbem Jam sibi quisque Deos aAddo certamine fingit . "
From slavish fear the dreadful gods arose , Who still on tim ' rous fools strange laws impose , —¦ Vain Error first the husbandman eompell'd To give the autumn-honours of the field To yellow Ceres ; Bacchus , hence diA'ine , Had his head crown'd with the full clust'ring vine ; Misled by Error's powerful command ,
Pales grew glad from the dull shepherd's hand ; Blue Neptune rul'd thro all the rolling waves , And Pallas chaueng'd all the gloomy caA es . The perjur'd wretch and traytor now combine , To purge their guilt by forming gods divine . And ev ' ry one , with avarice and lies , Contend to multiply the brood of spurious deities . Capt . Ayloffe .
Notwithstanding , however , such inducements to terror , the varied properties of the animal still left sufficient in a differing view and in its multiplied species to raise for it a certain degree of fond affection and the kindlier regards of attached devotion , without which it coidd scarcely have taken that universal hold of the minds of mankind which Ave find pervading both the old
and the new hemispheres . Many of the species were remarkably beautiful , and their gliding motion , though differing from that of man and animals , gave to the artistic eye of the Greeks and Romans every grace of ciuve , every line of beauty ; in a certain sense it approached the gentle undulations of their deitiesAvhose feet being mostly concealed—a curious fact
, , , repeatedly found in the modern mythology of the North , —may be considered more especially figured by the serpent , which has none , as thus Virgil ( - / En . lib . 1 . 404 ) describes Venus appearing to iEneas : — " ¦ ¦ pedes vestis defmxit ad imos , Et vera incessu patrdt Dea . "
Theocritus ( xvii . 25 ) calls them VETTOSCC Avithout feet ; and Milton ( " Paradise Lost , " ) describes the idea most beautifully : — "As in ah smooth , gliding without step . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ophiology And Serpent Symbolism.
the idea . Ignorance produced wonder , Avonder generated aAve and terror , as the latter produced fear and veneration , that fruitful cause of superstition . " Primus in orbe Deus fecit timor . atqne error jussit inanis Agricolas primos Cereri dare messis honores .
Palmitibus plenis Bacchum vincire . Palemque Pastorum gatidere manu : natat obrutus , omni Septimus demersus aqua ; Pallasque eavernas Yindicat : et votietus , qui re vendidit orbem Jam sibi quisque Deos aAddo certamine fingit . "
From slavish fear the dreadful gods arose , Who still on tim ' rous fools strange laws impose , —¦ Vain Error first the husbandman eompell'd To give the autumn-honours of the field To yellow Ceres ; Bacchus , hence diA'ine , Had his head crown'd with the full clust'ring vine ; Misled by Error's powerful command ,
Pales grew glad from the dull shepherd's hand ; Blue Neptune rul'd thro all the rolling waves , And Pallas chaueng'd all the gloomy caA es . The perjur'd wretch and traytor now combine , To purge their guilt by forming gods divine . And ev ' ry one , with avarice and lies , Contend to multiply the brood of spurious deities . Capt . Ayloffe .
Notwithstanding , however , such inducements to terror , the varied properties of the animal still left sufficient in a differing view and in its multiplied species to raise for it a certain degree of fond affection and the kindlier regards of attached devotion , without which it coidd scarcely have taken that universal hold of the minds of mankind which Ave find pervading both the old
and the new hemispheres . Many of the species were remarkably beautiful , and their gliding motion , though differing from that of man and animals , gave to the artistic eye of the Greeks and Romans every grace of ciuve , every line of beauty ; in a certain sense it approached the gentle undulations of their deitiesAvhose feet being mostly concealed—a curious fact
, , , repeatedly found in the modern mythology of the North , —may be considered more especially figured by the serpent , which has none , as thus Virgil ( - / En . lib . 1 . 404 ) describes Venus appearing to iEneas : — " ¦ ¦ pedes vestis defmxit ad imos , Et vera incessu patrdt Dea . "
Theocritus ( xvii . 25 ) calls them VETTOSCC Avithout feet ; and Milton ( " Paradise Lost , " ) describes the idea most beautifully : — "As in ah smooth , gliding without step . "