Snakes in Ancient Greece

Hey dear community, at the beginning I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a day that brought some interesting experiences into your life! Today I would like to talk a little about ancient Greece and hope you can learn new things about this interesting topic.

A good example of art of blacksmithing can be seen here and this work is supposed to represent a snake that has been made of bronze and originally this work of art probably comes from the city of Olympia from the time between the 5th and 4th centuries BC. It was a great pleasure for me to photograph this artwork recently and in ancient Greece the snake generally had an important meaning and was also considered a protector and in this context it appears as a protector of the underworld and was closely linked to the interior of the earth. In Athens, snakes were also regarded as guardians of temples and through the ability to shed their skin, it was also linked to the ability to regenerate and as a protector the snake also often appears in the form of mythical creatures like Ladon which was supposed to protect the apples of the hesperides and is often depicted as dragon or snake-like creature and also other mythical creatures with attributes of a snake are mentioned in Greek mythology such as Hydra. Snakes were also linked to creative abilities and considered as a sign of fertility as well as transformation and it was also often regarded as a link between two worlds and was often also seen as an occult animal. Snakes were considered very wise animals that had some supernatural abilities and in ancient Greece it was considered a typical symbol of immortality or healing and it was also associated with the god of healing Asclepius who had a staff that was enveloped by a snake and is nowadays it is one of the most important symbols in medicine. It also appears with other deities and so the god Hermes who also had a staff which was wrapped in two snakes and other deities such as Hecate or Medusa often appear in connection with snakes and it was an important oracle animal that could help establish contact with the ancestors and was considered a carrier of secret knowledge and generally revered as a powerful animal.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about greek history! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.