ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -It can represent death, destruction, evil, a penetrating legless essence, and/or poison. In the Christian tradition, Satan (in the guise of the serpent) instigated the fall by tricking Eve into breaking God’s command. Thus the serpent can represent temptation, the devil, and deceit.

Detailed explanation-2: -Historically, serpents and snakes represent fertility or a creative life force. As snakes shed their skin through sloughing, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing. The ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and continual renewal of life.

Detailed explanation-3: -Ever since Eve’s transgression in the Garden of Eden, snakes in Christian tradition have been associated with lies, evil and temptation. But in other cultures, as far-flung as ancient Greece and Egypt and indigenous North America, snakes symbolize fertility, rebirth, renewal and even immortality.

Detailed explanation-4: -Nagas, “the demon cobra” and naginis were human-headed snakes whose kings and queens who lived in jewel-encrusted underground or underwater paradises and who were perpetually at war with Garuda the Sun-bird. In Egyptian myth, every morning the serpent Aapep (symbolising chaos) attacked the Sunship (symbolizing order).

Detailed explanation-5: -The snake primarily represents rebirth, death and mortality, due to its casting of its skin and being symbolically “reborn". Over a large part of India, there are carved representations of cobras or nagas or stones as substitutes.