My favorite snake deity is Coatlicue, whose epithets include “our mother”:
> Coatlicue is represented as a woman wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made of human hearts, hands, and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws and her breasts are depicted as hanging flaccid from pregnancy. Her face is formed by two facing serpents, which represent blood spurting from her neck after she was decapitated.
Not mentioned: other representations of her with an intact, skeletal face.
What's fun about the Coatlicue statute, currently located in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, is that the earth deity is on the bottom. This statue is so large that one wouldn't be able to "tip" it over to look. Yet, there it is... a carving on the underside where no one can see it. Of course, the museum has a cast of the image adjacent where modern viewers can look at it. More about this kind of fun stuff is in Claudia Brittenham's book, Unseen Art: Making, Vision, and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica (disclaimer: she's my lovey wife).
> As with previous Macedonian snake cults, the focus of worship at the temple was on fertility. Barren women would bring offerings to Glycon in hopes of becoming pregnant. According to Lucian, Alexander had less magical ways of causing pregnancy among his flock as well.
If I had a nickel for every time I've learned about a little-known snake deity with an idiosyncratic origin and methods of worship, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
The Old Testament has quite a few references to snakes, serpents, and seemingly dragon-like creatures.
It’s possible these were used as metaphors for other civilisations. Or perhaps they were genuinely fearful of such creatures and wanted their own god to protect them.
It’s one of my hobbies to invent threads that tie all these ancient stories together into an overarching narrative.
one of my favorites is the rainbow serpent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Serpent in australian aboriginal culture. pretty crazy how snakes and serpents are so pervasive in mythology globally.
> The Rainbow Serpent came from beneath the ground and created huge ridges, mountains, and gorges as it pushed upward. The Rainbow Serpent is understood to be of immense proportions and inhabits deep permanent waterholes and is in control of life's most precious resource, water. In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent is considered to be the ultimate creator of everything in the universe
.png){kind=link}
> Coatlicue is represented as a woman wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made of human hearts, hands, and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws and her breasts are depicted as hanging flaccid from pregnancy. Her face is formed by two facing serpents, which represent blood spurting from her neck after she was decapitated.
Not mentioned: other representations of her with an intact, skeletal face.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cōātlīcue