Snake Culture

Snakes have made their mark in many different cultures throughout history.

Christians associate snakes with man's fall from grace, claiming that the serpent tempted Eve to disobey God's order to forgo the forbidden fruit and caused her and Adam to be banished from the Garden of Eden. Irish Catholics honor St. Patrick for ridding Ireland of troublesome snakes. In Appalachia, some Christians handle poisonous snakes to test their faith in God's ability to protect them.

Not all cultures associate snakes with evil. The Aztecs of Central America worshipped the snake Quetzalcoatl as the "Master of Life." Some African cultures revere rock pythons as sacred, while aborigines in Australia attribute the creation of life to a giant rainbow serpent. In China, the snake is considered lucky and a sign of good fortune. Catawba Indians in the U.S. used the blacksnake as a symbol to denote powerful warriors. Nagas in India are believed to be powerful half-snake half-human beings. A Greek myth claims that medicine was discovered by observing one snake use herbs to bring another back to life; this myth is likely the source of the 'caduceus,' the symbol of two snakes wrapped around a staff, which is used in modern medicine.