John R. Salverda Writes:
....
The Serpent
Although the serpent Ladon is associated with the
tree in the Greek myth, it is apparently the tree of life, and not the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. As noted the Greek serpent is not enticing
people to pick from the tree, but like the Cherubim in the Scriptural account,
he is portrayed as guarding it; "So he drove out the man; and he placed at
the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Genesis 3:24 KJV).
Accordingly the quest for immortality by Herakles required him to kill the
serpent before he could receive the apples. "the serpent Ladon, a son of
the Libyan soil, had kept watch over the golden apples in the Garden of Atlas,
while close at hand and busy at their tasks the Hesperides sang their lovely
song. But now the snake, struck down by Herakles, lay by the trunk of the
apple-tree. (Apollonius Rhodius, "Argonautica" 4. 1390 ff.).
"Some say, however, that he did not take the apples from Atlas, but killed
the snake that guarded them, and picked them himself." (Apollodorus,
"Bibliotheca" 2. 121). Thus Herakles (however blasphemous you may
consider the idea to be) is portrayed as fulfilling the "Messianic"
promise; "God said unto the serpent, ... I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:14,15 KJV). "Jupiter, in
admiration of their struggle, placed it among the stars; for the Draco has its
head erect, and Hercules, resting on his right knee, tires to crush the right
side of its head with his left foot." (Hyginus, "Astronomica" 2.
6, citing a work now lost called "the Heraclea" by a Greek poet of
the 5th century BC. named Panyassis). "The huge Draco, Typhon’s son, which
used to guard the golden apples of the Hesperides, he (Herakles) killed near
Mount Atlas" (Hyginus, Fabulae 30). "Atlas, mindful of an oracle
since by Themis, the Parnassian, told, recalled these words, `O Atlas! mark the
day a son of Jupiter [Zeus] shall come to spoil; for when thy trees been
stripped of golden fruit, the glory shall be his.' Fearful of this, Atlas had
built solid walls around his orchard, and secured a dragon, huge, that kept
perpetual guard, and thence expelled all strangers from his land." (Ovid,
"Metamorphoses" 4. 617 ff.). Take note, how an ancient prophecy (here
called an "oracle") had promised the eventual arrival of an avenging
son of god (Zeus); when he came he famously killed the serpent; the labor was
immortalized in the Heavens, where a constellation was described by Hyginus, as
Herakles crushing the serpent's head with his foot.
Apparently the Scriptural "Leviathan,"
already linked by many scholars with the "Lotan" of the Ugaritic myth
of Baal, is the source for the Greek serpent Ladon. Yahweh defeats the, many
headed, Leviathan (as Baal does the seven headed Lotan, and Herakles Ladon):
"It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the
creatures of the desert." (Psalm 74:14) "An immortal serpent guarded
them, the child of Typhon and Ekhidna, with one hundred heads which spoke with
voices of various types." (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 113). Take note
that Apollodorus makes the serpent Ladon to be immortal, having one hundred
heads, and like the one in Eden, it has the ability to speak. In regards to
Leviathan serving "as food to the creatures of the desert,"
Apollonius Rhodius bemoans the unfortunate fate of the flies that feed upon the
dead "serpent Ladon, a son of the Libyan soil"
("Argonautica" 4. 1390 ff.).
This battle is sometimes expressed as if in
fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy, depicting a future victory over the
"serpent" Leviathan; "In that day the Lord with His severe
sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan
that twisted serpent; He will slay the reptile that is in the sea."
(Isaiah 27:1). Ladon himself was not thought to be a sea serpent as such
however, he is often associated with the sea, and did live in the sea in the
sense that his home, in the Garden of Hesperides, was, at least sometimes,
thought to be on an island of the sea; "The Hesperides who guard the rich,
golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Okeanos."
(Hesiod, Theogony 215 ff.); "Over the waves and the waves and the deep
brine they came to the beautiful island of the gods, where the Hesperides have
their homes" (Stesichorus, Geryoneis Fragment S8, from Oxyrhynchus Papyrus
2617 C6th to 7th BC.). He sleeps and will, one day be awoken; "those who
are ready to rouse Leviathan." (Job 3:8). The Scriptures make an
unambiguous identification of the Messianic adversary in the apocalyptic
literature; "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called
the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." (Rev. 12:9).
As a Messianic prerequisite, eliminating the
serpent is the determinant method of acquiring eternal life. It is so in the
case of many mythical gods and heroes that the prophetic requirement, "her
seed … shall bruise thy head" (Genesis 3:15), is a kind of Messianic
identifier. It is the individual qualifying characteristic, attribute, or
activity, by which the Messiah would be recognized and distinguished. In the
Scriptures it is the cherub’s job to guard the way to the tree of life, however
as we have seen, there is a well known and wide spread mythological equivalent.
For not only is a serpent guarding the way to the “golden” apples of the
Hesperides, but also the way to the “golden” fleece is guarded by a dragon.
Gold, a most valued commodity indeed, is often a mythological substitution for
the most valued possession of all, “life.” We can thereby identify the cherub
as it appears in many other myths such as the winged gryphon (of the
“Scythians”) whose job it is to guard “gold” in general. However life is not
always symbolized by gold, there are many myths that use no symbol for it and
use the term “life” literally or prosaically. Cerberus keeps us from gaining
immortality, or rather, life after death. Heracles was seeking immortality as
an Olympian when he crushed the head of the hydra and stepped upon the “crab,”
wounding his foot, (Heracles sought life for everyone in capturing Cerberus, he
also destroyed the serpent that guarded the aforementioned “golden” fruit of
the famous tree in the ancient garden of Hesperides.) and the “scarab” is a
well known Egyptian symbol of eternal life. (The “gryph” in gryphon is an
evident shibboleth of “cherub” as is the “serp” in serpent, the “Cerb” in
Cerberus, the “scorp” in scorpion, as well as the words “crab,” “scarab,” and
“harpy.”).
Ezekiel, in a much speculated, and very enigmatic
statement, hints that there may have been some justification for imagining a
connection between the serpent and the cherub; "Thou hast been in Eden the
garden of God; … Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set
thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down
in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day
that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of
thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast
sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I
will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."
(Ezekiel 28:13-16 KJV). Christianity has traditionally linked this reference to
the fall of Satan. The Hebrew word, here used twice as an adjective,
"covereth" and "covering," to describe the cherub, is
"sakak" (saw-kak'), is from a primitive root the primary, proper, use
of which is "to entwine" as a screen (a serpent "entwined"
on a tree?) by implication to fence in, cover over, (figuratively) protect:
cover, defend, hedge in, join together, set, shut up. This is quite comparable
to the word rendered "keep" in the KJV of Genesis 2:15 and 3:24,
shamar (shaw-mar'), to hedge about, that is, guard; generally to protect,
attend to, etc. It seems to me, that there is something missing in the
Scriptural narrative, that should explain the relationship between the serpent
and the cherub. I balk at using mythology to fill in the blank, so I'll just
leave it at that.
….
For full discussion, see: http://genesisflood-amaic.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/re-our-post-prophet-elijah-as-greek.html
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