Editing Serpent symbolism (section)

===Greek mythology===
{{See also|Dragons in Greek mythology}}
[[File:Centre Close Up of the West Pediment from the Temple of Artemis in Corfu.jpg|thumb|The [[Archaic Greece|archaic]] [[Gorgon]] at the [[pediment]] of the [[Temple of Artemis, Corfu|Temple of Artemis]] as shown at the [[Archaeological Museum of Corfu]]. She wears a belt of intertwined snakes, a fertility symbol.<ref name="Aglaia">{{cite book |last= Segal |first= Charles M. |title= Aglaia: The Poetry of Alcman, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides, and Corinna |year=1998 |publisher= Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8476-8617-9 |page= 91; 338 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JSVrgar7gScC}}</ref>]]

The [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[Snake Goddess]] brandished a serpent in either hand, perhaps evoking her role as source of wisdom, rather than her role as Mistress of the Animals (''[[Potnia Theron]]''), with a [[leopard]] under each arm.

Serpents figured prominently in archaic Greek myths. According to some sources, [[Ophion]] ("serpent", a.k.a. Ophioneus), ruled the world with Eurynome before the two of them were cast down by [[Cronus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]. The oracles of the Ancient Greeks were said to have been the continuation of the tradition begun with the worship of the Egyptian cobra goddess [[Wadjet]].

[[Typhon]], the enemy of the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian gods]], is described as a vast grisly monster with a hundred heads and a hundred serpents issuing from his thighs, who was conquered and cast into [[Tartarus]] by [[Zeus]], or confined beneath volcanic regions, where he is the cause of eruptions. Typhon is thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces. Serpent elements figure among his offspring; among his children by Echidna are [[Cerberus]] (a monstrous three-headed dog with a snake for a tail and a serpentine mane); the serpent-tailed [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimaera]]; the serpent-like chthonic water beast [[Lernaean Hydra]]; and the hundred-headed serpentine dragon [[Ladon (mythology)|Ladon]]. Both the Lernaean Hydra and Ladon were slain by [[Heracles]].

[[Python (mythology)|Python]] was the earth-dragon of [[Delphi]]. She always was represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent. Python was the chthonic enemy of [[Apollo]], who slew her and remade her former home his own oracle, the most famous in Classical Greece.
[[File:Statue of Asklepios NAMA 263 (DerHexer).JPG|thumb|upright|left|Statue of [[Asclepius]] ]]

The [[Gorgon|Gorgons]] - [[Stheno]], [[Euryale (Gorgon)|Euryale]], and [[Medusa]] - were three monstrous sisters with sharp fangs and living, venomous snakes for hair, and whose origins predate the written myths of Greece and who were the protectors of the most ancient ritual secrets. The Gorgons wore a belt of two intertwined serpents in the same configuration of the [[caduceus]]. The Gorgon was placed at the center, highest point of one of the pediments on the [[Temple of Artemis, Corfu|Temple of Artemis at Corfu]].

[[Asclepius]], the son of Apollo and [[Coronis (lover of Apollo)|Coronis]], learned the secrets of keeping death at bay after observing one serpent bringing another (which Asclepius himself had fatally wounded) back to life with healing herbs. To prevent the entire human race from becoming immortal under Asclepius's care, Zeus killed him with a bolt of lightning. Asclepius' death at the hands of Zeus illustrates man's inability to challenge the natural order that separates mortal men from the gods. In honor of Asclepius, snakes were often used in healing rituals. Non-poisonous snakes were left to crawl on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. The ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' claimed that [[Athena]] gave Asclepius a vial of blood from the Gorgons. Gorgon blood had magical properties: if taken from the left side of the Gorgon, it was a fatal poison; from the right side, the blood was capable of bringing the dead back to life. However, [[Euripides]] wrote in his tragedy [[Ion (play)|''Ion'']] that the Athenian queen [[Creusa of Athens|Creusa]] had inherited this vial from her ancestor [[Erichthonios]], who was a snake himself and had received the vial from Athena. In this version the blood of Medusa had the healing power while the lethal poison originated from Medusa's serpents.

[[Olympias]], the mother of [[Alexander the Great]] and a princess of the primitive land of [[Epirus]], had the reputation of a snake-handler, and it was in serpent form that Zeus was said to have fathered Alexander upon her.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/lucian_alexander.htm |title=Lucian of Samosata: Alexander the False Prophet |publisher=Tertullian.org |date=August 31, 2001 |access-date=December 7, 2012}}</ref> [[Aeëtes]], the king of [[Colchis]] and father of the sorceress [[Medea]], possessed the [[Golden Fleece]]. He guarded it with a massive serpent that never slept. Medea, who had fallen in love with [[Jason]] of the [[Argonauts]], enchanted it to sleep so Jason could seize the Fleece. (See [[Lamia]]).

When not driven by horses, the chariot of the [[Helios|Greek sun god]] is described as being pulled by fiery draconic beings.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Helios.html |title=HELIUS (Helios) - Greek Titan God of the Sun (Roman Sol) |website=www.theoi.com |access-date=15 March 2018}}</ref> The most notable instance of this is observed in the episode in which [[Medea]] is given her grandfather's chariot, which is pulled by serpents through the sky.

In artwork snakes are occasionally associated with [[Hecate]], the goddess of [[witchcraft]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Oskar Seyffert|title=A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities: Mythology, Religion, Literature and Art|url=https://archive.org/details/b3135841x/page/270/mode/2up?view=theater|publisher=[[William Swan Sonnenschein|Swan Sonnenschein and Co]]|edition=6|date=1901|page=271|access-date=2022-01-02}}</ref>