Of the serpent

OF THE SERPENT

Taautus first attributed something of the divine nature to the serpent and the serpent tribe; in which he was followed by the Phœnicians and Egyptians. For this animal was esteemed by him to be the most inspirited of all the reptiles, and of a fiery nature; inasmuch as it exhibits an incredible celerity, moving by its spirit without either hands, or feet, or any of those external members, by which other animals effect their motion. And in its progress it assumes a variety of forms, moving in a spiral course, and darting forward with whatever degree of swiftness it pleases. It is moreover long-lived, and has the quality not only of putting off its old age, and assuming a second youth, but of receiving at the same time an augmentation of its size and strength. And when it has fulfilled the appointed measure of its existence, it consumes itself; as Taautus has laid down in the sacred books; upon which account this animal is introduced in the sacred rites and mysteries.

Gad Yaton: The serpent's ability to shed its skin—to appear to die and be reborn—made it, in the eyes of Taautus, the most inspirited of all creatures. The Greek myth of the ouroboros, the serpent that consumes its own tail, derives from this Phœnician observation. The Hebrews, by contrast, regarded the serpent as the embodiment of deception and the instrument of humanity's fall (Genesis 3). This theological interpretation has no basis in the observation of nature. It is a polemical inversion of the older Phœnician reverence. The serpent in Genesis is not a real animal but a theological device, created to explain human mortality and to discredit the older Canaanite wisdom traditions. The Phœnicians, who studied the serpent and saw in it a symbol of renewal, were closer to the truth than the Hebrews, who made it a villain in a story designed to justify the ways of their god to men.

Here ends the First Book of the Phœnician History of Sanchuniathon, as preserved by Eusebius and here revised in the euhemeristic spirit of the original by Gad Yaton.

BOOK II

The History of the Phœnician Cities and Colonies

Being a True Account of the Phœnician People from the Age of the Kings to the Persian Dominion, Restored from the Inscriptions, the Chronicles of the Cities, the Annals of Foreign Powers, and the Monuments of Archaeology

By Gad Yaton, in the spirit of Sakkun Yaton of Berytus