Serpents (Lat. serpere, 'to creep'), the more formal and old-fashioned term for all members of the genus Ophidia, more popularly known as Snakes (q.v.), under which heading the general characters and classification of the Ophidians are treated, as also snake-charming.
SERPENT-WORSHIP is one of the most ancient and wide-spread forms of primitive religion, and still exists amongst many savage peoples. The characteristic change of skin is easily associated with notions of resurrection and immortality; but it does not appear that the familiar notion of the serpent as a personification of evil is anything like universally spread, although we do find it early in the Apophis-serpent of the Egyptian Hades, represented on mummy-cases, as well as in the wicked Aji Dahaka of the Zoroastrians, which bears so close a relation to the subtle Serpent of Eden. The worship of Moses' brazen serpent in the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings, xviii. 4) shows that the idea was familiar to the Semitic mind. Serpent-worship appears prominently in early Indian Buddhism; we see traces of it in the great serpent which defended the citadel of Athens, fed every month with honey-cakes; in the Roman genius loci, which was usually supposed to assume this form; and in the kindly offices between men and snakes so common in European folk-tales. Among the Zulus certain harmless green or brown snakes which come fearlessly into the houses are thought to be amatongo or ancestors, and may often be identified by some scar or mark such as the man bore in life. Serpents are by many peoples regarded as common incarnations of deities, whether ancestral or other, such as the rattlesnake worshipped in the Natchez temple of the Sun; the serpent-symbol of the healing deity Æsculapius, in whose temple huge tame snakes were kept; the Phœnician serpent with its tail in its mouth, perhaps originally a mere mythic world-snake like the Scandinavian Midgard-worm, but in later ages adopted as an emblem of eternity. Nothing in the history of serpent-worship is more remarkable than its Christian revival, or rather survival, among the mystic vagaries of Gnosticism—the Ophites trained their tame snakes to coil themselves round the eucharistic bread. Snake-worship again comes into close touch with the doctrine of Totemism, and we see how the Sanskrit nāga ('serpent') has given the name to a race of snake-worshippers who claim descent from ancestral snakes. On no people has the mystery of the serpent (Prov. xxx. 19) weighed more than upon the Red Indians. It has given its name to rivers, like the Kennebec (Algonkin) and the Antietam (Iroquois); among the Dakotas, Shawnees, and Sacs the words for spirit and snake are similar; the Algonquins think the lightning an immense serpent, and the Caribs speak of the god of the thunderstorm as a mighty serpent. The Ojibways dread to kill a rattlesnake, and if they find one in their path they beseech it to go away and spare them and their families; the same worship was found among the Cherokees and many other tribes, as well as in the strange snake-dances practised among the Zuñis. In Mexico many sculptured images of serpents are found, almost vying in size and splendour with those found in India. The Vandoux of Hayti (q.v.) is a special case of serpent-worship.
See Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship (1868); Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology (1874) for its facts; E. B. Tylor's Primitive Culture (1871); also ANIMAL-WORSHIP, BEAST-FABLES, OPHITES, TOTEMISM, &c.