Snakes Alive!

Tags

Asclepius, Bible, Caravaggio, Hipppocrates, Kos

 

The setting was a club for retired people in one of Jerusalem’s more prosperous and prestigious neighbourhoods. Most of its members are ladies of a certain age or more, well-dressed, well-coiffed and well-preserved, with a sprinkling of elderly gents. They spend their spare time engaging in activities which help to cultivate the mind and the body (learning languages, making ceramic vases, painting, exercising), and attend a weekly lecture on a subject of general interest.

 This particular weekly lecture (one of a series of four) was on ‘The Origins of Civilisation in the Ancient Near East.’ After devoting some time (illustrated copiously with slides) to the development of prehistoric man, the lecturer began to expound on man’s progression from hunter-gatherer to cultivator of crops and animals.

 This brought him to talk about the change this had wrought in the prehistoric way of life and it was at this point that he turned to the audience and asked: “Which was the first animal to be domesticated by man?”

 Before anyone could formulate a reply, one dear old biddie shouted out “the snake!”

 The lecturer gave a polite shake of his head and turned to the next person who had raised her hand, and eventually someone came up with the correct answer, the dog, man’s best—and first—friend.

 I was there because of my connection with the lecturer, though I suppose as far as age (though not my area of residence) is concerned I could be considered eligible to belong. When the lady in the row in the front row shouted out ‘the snake!’ I was at first stunned, then bemused and finally amused. In fact, I had to devote the next half-hour to maintaining my composure and preventing myself from laughing out loud. Heaven forfend that I should offend a single one of those old dears!

 Later, I began to wonder why the snake should have been the first creature to spring to anyone’s mind. Of course, it is the first creature mentioned in the Bible, where it is called the serpent, and is even given the gift of speech. I wonder what happened to that attribute of snakes. And then I began to wonder about the other attributes of snakes.

 Snakes seem to have had a hypnotic effect on mankind since time immemorial. This is probably connected with our subconscious, as the snake is easily recognizable as a phallic symbol. In fact, Freud pointed this out in his ‘Interpretation of Dreams,’ while Jung regarded dreaming of snakes as representing some kind of inner conflict.

 The snake wound round a stick is universally recognized as a symbol of medicine, and may still be seen to this day to denote the location of pharmacies in many countries. This goes back to the ancient Greeks, who regarded snakes as sacred and used them in healing rituals. Snake venom was thought to be remedial, and the fact that snakes shed their skin was seen as a symbol of rebirth and renewal.

 A snake wound round a rod was the emblem of Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing in the ancient Greek religion. In fact, the original temples of healing were known as aclepeieion and were to be found on the Island of Kos. Non-venomous snakes were allowed to crawl around freely on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. Kos was also the home of Hippocrates, the legendary ‘father of medicine’ and originator of the Hippocratic oath that is still in use today in the graduation ceremony of medical students, and the original Hippocratic oath began with the invocation ‘I swear by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by Hygieia and Panacea and by all the gods…’

 Today, however, snakes are generally despised and feared. Caravaggio’s painting of ‘Madonna and Child with Saint Anna’ (the grandmother) shows the (uncircumcised) infant Jesus and his mother treading on—and presumably killing—the snake which in this context represents evil and possibly also original sin (remember the phallic symbol?).

 It is a natural human reaction to recoil from something that appears at first sight to be ugly, evil and even disgusting (though many snakes have a beauty of their own), and it seems that this particular picture attributes all those characteristics to the snake. This very human reaction goes back a long way in time, and may even be some atavistic memory that has remained imprinted on the human brain.

 So, while the lady in the audience was wrong to think that snakes were ever domesticated, they certainly have been accompanying mankind since time immemorial.

 

 

 

Ashdod and the Philistines

Tags

Babylon, Bible, Champollion, David, Goliath, Hebrews, hieroglyphics, Samson, Sea Peoples

  

 

In Biblical times (and probably before that, too) Ashdod was a stronghold of the people known as the Philistines, who were constantly getting into fights with the Hebrews residing in the Land of Canaan. Everyone remembers the story of David and Goliath, and of course Goliath was a Philistine warrior, probably the result of some kind of genetic mutation that had caused him to grow to gigantic proportions.

 Samson was another Biblical figure who had dealings with the Philistines. He was drawn to their womenfolk, had three Philistine wives, and was fatally attracted to Delilah. The Philistines got the better of him, with Delilah’s connivance, but the recovery of his phenomenal strength enabled him to bring their temple crashing down, causing the death of many of their number as well as his own, after they had blinded and enslaved him.

 Today Ashdod is a thriving modern city on Israel’s Mediterranean seaboard, with some 200,000 inhabitants and a thriving port (currently suffering from an ongoing labour dispute arising from the government’s plan to enable the construction of another port, to be managed by private enterprise). The town has its own cultural centre, an abundance of parks and open spaces, and impressive environmental sculptures at almost every corner.

 Ashdod also has a Museum of Philistine Culture. The name sounds like a contradiction in terms, as the word ‘philistine’ has come to mean someone who is totally without culture, but it seems that the original Philistines certainly did have a culture, and many artifacts deriving from the time when they were in control of the area have come to light in the sandy soil in and around Ashdod.

 A visit to the museum reveals a wealth of sophisticated pottery and figurines which tell us a great deal about the life and culture of that ancient civilization. It is surmised, on the basis of these artifacts, that the Philistines originated from the area of the Aegean. They were also known as the Sea Peoples, though what impelled them to leave their homes and travel eastwards is not known. It may have been defeat in battle, famine, floods or a natural disaster of another kind.

 On their voyage east the Sea Peoples brought some of their pottery with them, and these bear a strong similarity to those found in the Aegean region, giving credence to the view regarding their origin. Their religion involved the worship of male and female gods such as Dagon and Baal Zebuv, who are mentioned in the Bible, as well as the Greek goddess Pitgayah, together with Baal and Ashera, who were Canaanite gods. Thanks to our ability to understand hieroglyphics (first deciphered by Champollion), archaeologists have been able to gain considerable information about the Philistines, as they are mentioned in ancient Egyptian texts.

 Eventually, the Philistines were defeated and exiled to Babylon, together with the Jews, in the late 7^th century BCE, after flourishing as an independent culture for over 600 years. Unlike the Jews, however, they assimilated into Babylonian society, accepting their culture and religious practices, leading to their disappearance as a separate nation.

 The museum in Ashdod has recently been renovated, and alongside its many display cases with their ‘official’ labels are cute little cartoons depicting the Philistine way of life in a humorous way. There are also interactive exhibits, including one which enables the visitor to bring down the temple of Dagon in Gaza – virtually, of course – with appropriate visual and sound effects. That’s great fun, for kids and adults alike!

 Today all that remains of what was once a thriving society, with trade links to the rest of the ancient world, is what can be found on display in Ashdod’s Museum of Philistine Culture.