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T he snake is the sixth animal in the Chinese zodiac, and characteristics of people born in this year include charm, mystery and a knack for transformation. From the Biblical to classical mythology and the contemporary, the snake has been a source of fascination and inspiration to artists and tellers of myths for thousands of years, both in the East and the West, and its image oscillates between the positive and the negative. In honour of the Lunar New Year, we take a look at the various representations of the snake in art and popular culture.
At the intersection of art and mythology, one of the most enduring images of snakes in art may be the three petrifying Gorgon sisters. Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa – temptresses among the gods – had snakes for hair and could turn a human to stone with one glance. As the myth goes, Perseus, the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty, heroically slays Medusa by looking at her reflection in his shield, avoiding her deadly gaze until he is within reach to behead her. The story has been a great inspiration for artists throughout the centuries: for example, Caravaggio’s Medusa (1597), an arresting tondo of horror, and the even more bloody Medusa (c. 1618) by Peter-Paul Rubens, where the snakes continue to writhe on Medusa’s decapitated head. Sculptors were inspired too, including Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin who created Medusenschild (Shield with the Head of Medusa) in 1887. Medusenschild is a reference to the gifting of Medusa’s head to Athena, whose shield it then adorned.
Arguably, the clearest link formed between the snake and evil itself takes place in the Bible. In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, the snake makes its appearance as seducer, tempting Eve into ignoring God’s will and taking a bite of the forbidden apple. The scene is vividly depicted by Michelangelo in The Fall of Man (1510) on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The story is one of the clearest links formed between the snake and evil itself. Also housed in Vatican City, Laocoön and His Sons, is a mesmerising sculpture of the Trojan priest being attacked by sea serpents. Attributed to Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus of Rhodes, the sculpture was excavated in Rome in 1506. A masterpiece of the ancient world, Pliny wrote that “of all paintings and sculptures [it was] the most worthy of admiration.” The scene has since been recreated on paper, as sculpture and on canvas.
Throughout 19th century, Snakes featured in western art as symbols of mystery and intrigue. French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) returned to the motif repeatedly in his Orientalist paintings conjuring up the fantastical exoticism of the Middle East. The Snake Charmer (1879) may be the most renowned example, used on the front cover of Edward Said’s 1978 book Orientalism. Other works of art exemplifying Said’s concept of the oriental include Arthur Strasser’s (1854-1927) Snake Charmer sculpture and José Tapiró’s (1836-1913) painting The Snake Charmer.
On the silver screen, Hollywood invariably assumed that audiences would be predisposed to revile snakes, and acted accordingly. A case in point is The Jungle Book. In the 1894 stories by English author Rudyard Kipling, the century-old, 30 feet long python Kaa is a wise and intelligent character, a mentor to Mowgli. In the 1967 Disney animation, Kaa becomes an adversary, albeit an unsuccessful one. In fact, audiences were continually nudged in the direction of mild ophidiophobia (fear of snakes). Indiana Jones’ abhorrence of the reptiles was regularly referred to in the films: those with a sensitive stomach may not easily forget the “snake surprise” at the Maharaja’s banquet in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Lego’s successful Ninjago series features its share of serpentine villains, although most conflicts are resolved with a little empathy and understanding.
Turning to the world of fantasy novels, snakes play an ambiguous role in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories, with a few villainous serpentine characters and a fair amount of guilt by association. The main antagonist Voldemort was in Slytherin, one of the four Houses of Hogwarts and, upon his return to power, had a large, voracious snake as one of his servants. Many of the opposing forces to Harry are in Slytherin, which has a snake at the centre of its logo. However, as a recognition of the respect snakes are always accorded, Slytherin characters tend to be ambitious and cunning, just as the snake, even at its most malign, is respected for its resourcefulness and sly savoir-faire. In order to provide some balance, Harry has a pleasant chat with a snake at London Zoo, even inadvertently freeing it through use of his magical powers.
Historically, the snake’s image is far from being a pervasively negative one, however. In fact, one may argue that its positive connotations predate its negative ones. In ancient Egypt dating to approximately the third millenium BCE, royalty and deities wore the headdress known as the uraeus, depicted as an upright cobra, a symbol of the serpent goddess Wadjet.
The snake also draws associations with the practice of medicine. In Greek mythology, Asclepius, son of Apollo, represents healing. He is typically depicted with a rod entwined with a snake, and this combination remains the shop-sign for pharmacies in many parts of the world to this day. One theory for the symbolism of the snake is that the shedding of skin and renewal suggests rejuvenation and healing. In honour of Asclepius, non-venomous snakes often slithered across the floors of hospitals in the ancient world and were used in healing rituals.
In ancient Chinese mythology, snakes were inextricably linked with the gods; the benevolent god Fuxi and the mother goddess Nuwa have human heads and serpent bodies. Nuwa moulded humans from clay, whilst Fuxi brought fishing to mankind. They are generally depicted as one, clinging to each other with snake bodies and tails entwined.
The Tang dynasty Legend of the White Snake is an enduring popular Chinese story about loyal love, the struggle against societal norms and the triumph of hope over adversity. The idea of a snake and human union became an inspirational story adapted into operas, films and dances. A 2019 TV series starring Jingyi Ju as the female snake spirit Bai Suzhen and Menglong Yu as the human Xu Xian was made, following a 1992 Taiwanese series. The Legend of the White Snake’s hold over the public imagination has never wavered, and the story is featured in the Hong Kong Ballet’s sumptuous adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, most recently performed in December 2024, taking the place of the Arabian dance in Act II.
Where the snake is concerned, deliberately turning away from prejudice and history has a great deal of merit. Modern artists divested the snake from some of its cultural significance, focusing on the lines, contours and colours of the snake as a pure celebration of form. Examples include Alexander Calder’s Serpent au Vitrail (c. 1970), and the sculptor Henry Moore, who returned to the snake as inspiration throughout the decades from the 1920s to the 1970s. The snake’s uniquely flexible shape will always be iconic, and a means of describing a meandering, bendy form: The Serpentine lake in London’s Hyde Park for example, and its contemporary art gallery, The Serpentine which adjoins it.
Ultimately, despite the frightful associations, the story of the snake has been an uplifting one. Although Tetris made an appearance as a mobile phone game in 1994, it was Nokia’s 1998 game of Snake that is widely credited with being the true launchpad of mobile gaming into the public consciousness. Fittingly, in celebration of this Lunar New Year, fashion house Balenciaga has just launched its own mini gaming console — the Balenciaga Snake Game — as an affectionate homage to Snake’s memorable combination of simplicity and sheer addictiveness. Therefore, the snake, ancient creature that it is, has accompanied the journey of human progress through art, literature, TV, fashion and into the mobile phone era. For the new year of 2025, the snake is ready to step into the limelight once more.
