cyberslinger: Snake Women in Religion and Mythology

Doing more research on Aida Wedo I discovered a lot more interesting info on the combination of women and snakes in religion and mythology:

In the story in Genesis 3:1-5,Eve is tempted by a creature referred to as "He" and described simplyas a serpent. Its only unusual features in the story are that it couldspeak and presumably didn't yet crawl (it was made to crawl on itsbelly only after being cursed by God).

Frequently in art the serpent isrepresented as female. In a fresco by Michelangelo, for example, theserpent is shown with the upper body of a woman and snake-like lowerparts.

female serpent
detail of the Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve, 1510
Michelangelo. Fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome

Google Image Result for http://witcombe.sbc.edu/eve-women/images/michelangelotemptation.jpg

The ancient Greeks feared similar creatures, notably Lamia,a demoness with the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of asnake. In one version of the legend, Lamia was one of Zeus' mortallovers. Filled with anger and jealousy, Zeus' wife, the goddess Hera,made Lamia insane so she would eat all her children. Once Lamiarealized what she had done, she became so angry that she turned into animmortal monster, sucking the blood from young children out of jealousyfor their mothers.

Google Image Result for http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/vampire-lamia.jpg

Two figurines of the Snake Goddess were found here at Knossos. Both depict her withbare bosom, open bodice pulled together at the top and bottom pushing herbreasts together in a globular cluster, prominent nipples protruding from thetwo masses of flesh. In the smaller of the figurines, the goddess has a snake ineach of her upheld hands, and in the larger one, the snakes are coiled about heroutstretched arms. Her face is wide-eyed, severe.Minoan society was noted for its perpetual peace,and one wonders about this society which was older than the Mycenaean andretained its reliance on female goddesses instead of male.