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87-508: Draco is the Greco-Latin word for serpent , or dragon . Draco or Drako most often refers to: Draco or Drako may also refer to: Serpent (symbolism) In some cultures, snakes were fertility symbols. For example, the Hopi people of North America performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth (a Sky spirit) and Snake Girl (an Underworld spirit) and to renew

174-583: A timber rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike. Beneath the rattlesnake are the words Dont Tread on Me . Some modern versions of the flag include an apostrophe. The flag is named after Christopher Gadsden , a South Carolinian delegate to the Continental Congress and brigadier general in the Continental Army , who designed the flag in 1775 during the American Revolution . He gave

261-749: A British griffin . In December 1775, Benjamin Franklin published an essay in the Pennsylvania Journal under the pseudonym "American Guesser" in which he suggested that the rattlesnake was a good symbol for the American spirit and its valuation for vigilance, assertiveness, individualism, unity, and liberty: [...] there was painted a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, "Don't tread on me." [...] she has no eye-lids. She may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders [...] The Rattle-Snake

348-564: A Texas rally carrying a version of the flag with the snake in the shape of a human uterus . This design was created by Anne Lesniak. The Gadsden flag has also been used by groups and individuals on the right. The Gadsden flag was featured prominently in a report related to the January 6, 2021, attack of the United States Capitol . Beginning in 2009, the Gadsden flag was widely used as

435-588: A citizen. The Millers reportedly placed the Gadsden Flag on the corpse of one of the officers they killed. In March 2013, the Gadsden flag was raised at a vacant armory building in New Rochelle, New York , without permission from city officials. The city ordered its removal and the United Veterans Memorial & Patriotic Association, which had maintained the U.S. flag at the armory, filed suit against

522-441: A coiled rattlesnake with thirteen rattles along with the motto " Don't Tread on Me ." This is the first recorded mention of the flag's symbolism. Gadsden decided that the American navy needed a distinctive flag and took it upon himself to make one in 1775. He gave Commodore Esek Hopkins a yellow rattlesnake flag to serve as his personal standard on USS Alfred , the flagship of America's first navy squadron. Gadsden intended

609-932: A general protective emblem. It seems to have originally been the attendant of the underworld god Ninazu , but later became the attendant to the Hurrian storm-god Tishpak , as well as, later, Ninazu's son Ningishzida , the Babylonian national god Marduk , the scribal god Nabu , and the Assyrian national god Ashur . Snake cults were well established in Canaanite religion in the Bronze Age , for archaeologists have uncovered serpent cult objects in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Megiddo , one at Gezer , one in

696-558: A magical protective entity. A dragon-like creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian period until the Hellenistic period (323 BCE–31 BCE). This creature, known in Akkadian as the mušḫuššu , meaning "furious serpent", was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as

783-457: A part of Arabian folklore and are said to live near the Arabian Sea. These snakes are believed to have the ability to fly, and their name "Arabhar" means "Arab snake." The Islamic serpent generally follows in the tradition of earlier Abrahamic myths as a symbol for the seductive draw of wisdom. This symbolism is reflected in various stories and parables, such as the tale of the snake-catcher and

870-491: A protest symbol by protesters who supported the American Tea Party movement . It was also displayed by members of Congress at Tea Party rallies. In some cases, the flag was ruled to be a political, rather than a historic or military, symbol due to the strong Tea Party connection. In 2014, the flag was used by Jerad and Amanda Miller, the perpetrators of the 2014 Las Vegas shootings who killed two police officers and

957-699: A replica of a serpent on a pole, the Nehushtan , mentioned in Numbers 21:8. In many myths, the chthonic serpent (sometimes a pair) lives in or is coiled around a Tree of Life situated in a divine garden. In the Genesis story of the Torah and biblical Old Testament , the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is situated in the Garden of Eden together with the tree of life and the serpent . In Greek mythology, Ladon coiled around

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1044-548: A serpent came and ate the plant. The snake became immortal, and Gilgamesh was destined to die. Ningizzida has been popularized in the 20th century by Raku Kei ( Reiki , a.k.a. "The Way of the Fire Dragon"), where "Nin Giz Zida" is believed to be a fire serpent of Tibetan rather than Sumerian origin. "Nin Giz Zida" is another name for the ancient Hindu concept Kundalini , a Sanskrit word meaning either "coiled up" or "coiling like

1131-473: A ship from Georgia entered Boston Harbor flying a version of the Gadsden Flag with 15 stars on it signifying the 15 slave states. The captain removed the flag after a large and angry crowd gathered, who then destroyed it. For historical reasons, the Gadsden flag is still popularly flown in Charleston, South Carolina, the city where Christopher Gadsden first presented the flag and where it was commonly used during

1218-586: A snake banisher. The serpent Hydra is a star constellation representing either the serpent thrown angrily into the sky by Apollo or the Lernaean Hydra as defeated by Heracles for one of his Twelve Labors. The constellation Serpens represents a snake being tamed by Ophiuchus the snake-handler, another constellation. The most probable interpretation is that Ophiuchus represents the healer Asclepius. Occasionally, serpents and dragons are used interchangeably, having similar symbolic functions. The venom of

1305-451: A snake". "Kundalini" refers to the mothering intelligence behind yogic awakening and spiritual maturation leading to altered states of consciousness. There are a number of other translations of the term, usually emphasizing a more serpentine nature to the word—e.g. "serpent power". It has been suggested by Joseph Campbell that the symbol of snakes coiled around a staff is an ancient representation of Kundalini physiology. The staff represents

1392-406: A version of the flag with the snake and motto placed over a rainbow flag . Following the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting , posters containing a rainbow Gadsden flag inscribed with "#ShootBack" were placed around West Hollywood . The Gadsden flag has been used by supporters of Argentine right-libertarian president Javier Milei . During Milei's inauguration, there were Gadsden flags flown which

1479-473: A woodcut of a snake cut into eight sections. It represented the colonies, with New England joined as the head and South Carolina as the tail, following their order along the coast. This was the first political cartoon published in an American newspaper. In 1774, Paul Revere added Franklin's iconic cartoon to the nameplate of Isaiah Thomas 's paper, the Massachusetts Spy , depicted there as fighting

1566-524: Is a recurrent motif in Islamic thought, appearing in both sacred texts representing evil and works of art. The creature is often seen as a symbol of evil and punishment. The serpent is a complex figure in Islamic thought, appearing as both a symbol of evil and a figure of wisdom. Djinn, which are likewise figures of great potential mixed with danger, are also believed to appear in the form of snakes on occasion. The Arabian Flying Snakes, also known as Arabhar , are

1653-402: Is a spirit of fertility, rainbows and snakes, and a companion or wife to Dan, the father of all spirits. As Vodou was exported to Haiti through the slave trade, Dan became Danballah , Damballah or Damballah-Wedo. Because of his association with snakes, he is sometimes disguised as Moses, who carried a snake on his staff. He is also thought by many to be the same entity of Saint Patrick , known as

1740-459: Is depicted as a half snake being. The Minoan Snake Goddess brandished a serpent in either hand, perhaps evoking her role as source of wisdom, rather than her role as Mistress of the Animals ( Potnia Theron ), with a leopard under each arm. Serpents figured prominently in archaic Greek myths. According to some sources, Ophion ("serpent", a.k.a. Ophioneus), ruled the world with Eurynome before

1827-532: Is repeated in the First Navy Jack of the US Navy. Serpents are connected with venom and medicine. The snake's venom is associated with the chemicals of plants and fungi that have the power to either heal or provide expanded consciousness (and even the elixir of life and immortality) through divine intoxication. Because of its herbal knowledge and entheogenic association, the snake was often considered one of

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1914-568: Is said to sleep while floating on the cosmic waters on the serpent Shesha . In the Puranas Shesha holds all the planets of the universe on his hoods and constantly sings the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. He is sometimes referred to as "Ananta-Shesha," which means "Endless Shesha". In the Samudra manthan chapter of the Puranas, Shesha loosens Mount Mandara for it to be used as a churning rod by

2001-441: Is solitary, and associates with her kind only when it is necessary for their preservation [...] 'Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and yet how firmly they are united together, so as never to be separated but by breaking them to pieces. [...] The power of fascination attributed to her, by a generous construction, may be understood to mean, that those who consider

2088-629: Is the Aegypto-Greek ourobouros . It is believed to have been inspired by the Milky Way , as some ancient texts refer to a serpent of light residing in the heavens. The Ancient Egyptians associated it with Wadjet , one of their oldest deities, as well as another aspect, Hathor . In Norse mythology the World Serpent (or Midgard serpent) known as Jörmungandr encircled the world in the ocean's abyss biting its own tail. In Hindu mythology Lord Vishnu

2175-517: Is the cause of eruptions. Typhon is thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces. Serpent elements figure among his offspring; among his children by Echidna are Cerberus (a monstrous three-headed dog with a snake for a tail and a serpentine mane); the serpent-tailed Chimaera ; the serpent-like chthonic water beast Lernaean Hydra ; and the hundred-headed serpentine dragon Ladon . Both the Lernaean Hydra and Ladon were slain by Heracles . Python

2262-478: Is the companion of Dumuzi (Tammuz), with whom it stood at the gate of heaven. In the Louvre , there is a famous green steatite vase carved for King Gudea of Lagash (dated variously 2200–2025 BCE) with an inscription dedicated to Ningizzida. Ningizzida was the ancestor of Gilgamesh , who, according to the epic , dived to the bottom of the waters to retrieve the plant of life. But while he rested from his labor,

2349-492: Is the penalty for killing one, even by accident. Danh-gbi has numerous wives, who until 1857 took part in a public procession from which the profane crowd was excluded; a python was carried round the town in a hammock, perhaps as a ceremony for the expulsion of evils. The rainbow-god of the Ashanti was also conceived to have the form of a snake. His messenger was said to be a small variety of boa , but only certain individuals, not

2436-513: The Shahnameh is an infernal creature with two snakes on his shoulders. This replacement might be due to communication between the inhabitants of Iran and believers in Abrahamic religions , and beyond that the conversion of matriarchy into patriarchy as the social structure of Iranian plateau cultures. In Chinese creationism mythology, Nüwa is the mother goddess who created humans from clay. She

2523-540: The Asuras and Devas to churn the ocean of milk in the heavens in order to make Soma (or Amrita ), the divine elixir of immortality. As a churning rope another giant serpent called Vasuki is used. In pre-Columbian Central America Quetzalcoatl was sometimes depicted as biting its own tail. The mother of Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec goddess Coatlicue ("the one with the skirt of serpents"), also known as Cihuacoatl ("The Lady of

2610-788: The Culpeper Minutemen flag, among others. In the 21st century, the Gadsden Flag has been used by supporters of the Tea Party movement . George Washington established the Continental Navy in 1775 as Commander in Chief of the Continental Forces, before Esek Hopkins was named Commodore of the Navy. The first ships were used to intercept incoming transport ships carrying war supplies to the British in

2697-496: The United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Bronze Age and Iron Age metallurgical centre of Saruq Al Hadid has yielded probably the richest trove of such objects, although finds have been made bearing snake symbols in Bronze Age sites at Rumailah , Bithnah and Masafi . Most of the depictions of snakes are similar, with a consistent dotted decoration applied to them. Although the widespread depiction of snakes in sites across

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2784-566: The caduceus of Hermes , the Rod of Asclepius , the Staff of Moses , and the papyrus reeds and deity poles entwined by a single serpent Wadjet , dating to earlier than 3000 BCE. The oldest known representation of two snakes entwined around a rod is that of the Sumerian fertility god Ningizzida , who was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head, eventually becoming a god of healing and magic. It

2871-669: The fertility of Nature . During the dance, live snakes were handled, and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee good crops. "The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of the clouds, the thunder and the lightning, that the rain may fall on the growing crops." To the Hopi , snakes symbolized the umbilical cord , joining all humans to Mother Earth . The Great Goddess often had snakes as her familiars —sometimes twining around her sacred staff, as in ancient Crete —and they were worshiped as guardians of her mysteries of birth and regeneration. The anthropologist Lynne Isbell has argued that, as primates ,

2958-467: The sanctum sanctorum of the Area H temple at Hazor , and two at Shechem . In the surrounding region, serpent cult objects figured in other cultures. A late Bronze Age Hittite shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a serpent in one hand and a staff in the other. In 6th-century Babylon , a pair of bronze serpents flanked each of the four doorways of the temple of Esagila . At

3045-404: The spinal column , with the snake(s) being energy channels. In the case of two coiled snakes, they usually cross each other seven times, a possible reference to the seven energy centers called chakras . In Ancient Egypt , where the earliest written cultural records exist, the serpent appears from the beginning to the end of their mythology. Ra and Atum ("he who completes or perfects") became

3132-497: The 12th century CE onward was that of the Buddha , sitting in the position of meditation, his weight supported by the coils of a multi-headed nāga that also uses its flared hood to shield him from above. This motif recalls the story of the Buddha and the serpent king Mucalinda : as the Buddha sat beneath a tree engrossed in meditation, Mucalinda came up from the roots of the tree to shield

3219-473: The 1970s, libertarians began using the Gadsden flag as a symbol to represent individual rights and limited government. The flag's prominent yellow or gold color is also strongly associated with libertarianism. The libertarian Free State Project in New Hampshire uses a modified version of the flag with the snake replaced by a porcupine, a symbol of the libertarian movement. Other libertarian variants of

3306-628: The American Medical Association (AMA). Christian Tradition also identifies Satan as a talking serpent in the Old Testament's Garden of Eden who had tempted Eve with a fruit from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil . Eve, as well as her consort Adam, were then punished by YHWH for their disobedience to commandments outlined prior to this; had lifespan decreased, for women to suffer in birthing, as well as other torments. The serpent

3393-563: The American Revolution." Its design proclaims an assertive warning of vigilance and willingness to act in defense against coercion. This has led it to be associated with the ideas of individualism and liberty . It is often used in the United States as a symbol of right-libertarianism , classical liberalism , and small government , as well as for distrust or defiance against authorities and government. Many variations of

3480-505: The Babylonian New Year's festival, the priest was to commission from a woodworker, a metalworker and a goldsmith two images, one of which "shall hold in its left hand a snake of cedar, raising its right [hand] to the god Nabu ". At the tell of Tepe Gawra, at least seventeen Early Bronze Age Assyrian bronze serpents were recovered. Significant finds of pottery, bronze-ware and even gold depictions of snakes have been made throughout

3567-451: The Biblical text is put on a pole and used for healing. Book of Numbers 21:9 "And Moses made a snake of copper, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a snake had bitten any man, when he beheld the snake of brass, he lived." When the reformer King Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah in the late 8th century BCE, "He removed the high places, broke the sacred pillars, smashed

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3654-430: The Buddha from a tempest that was just beginning to arise. The Gadsden flag of the American Revolution depicts a rattlesnake coiled up and poised to strike. Below the image of the snake is the legend, "Don't tread on me." The snake symbolized the dangerousness of colonists willing to fight for their rights and homeland, and was also symbolic of their separation from Europe, as it was an animal unique to America. The motif

3741-693: The Buddha in seven coils for seven days, so as not to break his ecstatic state. The Vision Serpent was a symbol of rebirth in Maya mythology , with origins going back to earlier Maya conceptions, lying at the center of the world as the Mayans conceived it. "It is in the center axis atop the World Tree . Essentially the World Tree and the Vision Serpent, representing the king, created the center axis which communicates between

3828-715: The Congress William Henry Drayton . Gadsden's presentation of the rattlesnake flag was recorded in the South Carolina congressional journals on February 9, 1776: Col. Gadsden presented to the Congress an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander in chief of the American Navy; being a yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattlesnake in the middle in the attitude of going to strike and these words underneath, " Don't tread on me ." In 1861,

3915-446: The Gadsden flag exist. The motto may or may not include an apostrophe in the word "Don't"; the typeface used for the motto may or may not use a serif typeface. The rattlesnake is sometimes shown as resting on a green ground; representations dating from 1885 and 1917 do not display anything below the rattlesnake. The rattlesnake usually faces to the left, and the early representations mentioned above face left. However, some versions of

4002-453: The Indian serpent nāga was equated with the lóng or Chinese dragon . The Aztec and Toltec serpent god Quetzalcoatl also has dragon-like wings, like its equivalent in K'iche' Maya mythology Q'uq'umatz ("feathered serpent"), which had previously existed since Classic Maya times as the deity named Kukulkan . In Africa the chief centre of serpent worship was Dahomey , but the cult of

4089-525: The Northern Flinders Ranges reigns the Arkaroo , a serpent who drank Lake Frome empty, refuges into the mountains, carving valleys and waterholes, earthquakes through snoring. The serpent, when forming a ring with its tail in its mouth, is a clear and widespread symbol of the "All-in-All", the totality of existence, infinity and the cyclic nature of the cosmos. The most well known version of this

4176-662: The UAE is thought by archaeologists to have a religious purpose, this remains conjecture. In the Hebrew Bible the serpent in the Garden of Eden lured Eve with the promise of being like God, tempting her that despite God's warning, death would not be the result, that God was withholding knowledge from her. The staff of Moses transformed into a snake and then back into a staff ( Exodus 4:2–4). The Book of Numbers 21:6–9 provides an origin for an archaic copper serpent, Nehushtan , by associating it with Moses. This copper snake according to

4263-614: The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reversed the decision and called for a careful investigation. The EEOC issued a statement clarifying that it did not make any decision that the Gadsden flag was a "racist symbol," or that wearing a depiction of it constituted racial discrimination. In 2023, a seventh grader at The Vanguard School in Colorado Springs was removed from school for wearing several patches that were "in violation of

4350-458: The city. A federal judge dismissed the case, rejecting the United Veterans' First Amendment argument and ruling that the flagpole in question was city property and thus did not represent private speech. In 2014, a US Postal Service employee filed a complaint about a coworker repeatedly wearing a hat with a Gadsden Flag motif at work. Postal service administration dismissed the complaint, but

4437-653: The colonies in order to supply the Continental Army, which was desperately undersupplied in the opening years of the American Revolutionary War . Continental Colonel Christopher Gadsden represented South Carolina in the Congress, and he was one of seven members of the Marine Committee outfitting the first naval mission. Paul Aron described Gadsden as a "leading advocate of an American navy." The first Marines carried drums painted yellow and depicting

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4524-565: The design to serve as a physical symbol of the American Revolution's ideals. The rattlesnake was seen in Charleston, South Carolina as a "noble and useful" animal that gave warning before it attacked. Before being appointed to lead the Navy, Hopkins had led The United Companies of the Train of Artillery of the Town of Providence , a unit that flew a flag similar to Gadsden's. He unfurled the Gadsden flag on

4611-539: The egg of a cock . Outside Eurasia, in Yoruba mythology , Oshunmare was another mythic regenerating serpent. The Rainbow Serpent (also known as the Rainbow Snake) is a major mythological being for Aboriginal people across Australia , although the creation myths associated with it are best known from northern Australia. In Fiji, Ratumaibulu was a serpent god who ruled the underworld and made fruit trees bloom. In

4698-419: The embodiment of the wisdom transmitted by Sophia was an emblem used by gnosticism , especially those sects that the more orthodox characterized as " Ophites " ("Serpent People"). The chthonic serpent was one of the earth-animals associated with the cult of Mithras . The basilisk , the venomous "king of serpents" with the glance that kills, was hatched by a serpent, Pliny the Elder and others thought, from

4785-439: The first reference to the rattlesnake in a satirical commentary published in his Pennsylvania Gazette . It had become the policy of the British Parliament to send convicted criminals to Britain's North American colonies (primarily the Province of Georgia ), so Franklin suggested that Americans thank Parliament by sending rattlesnakes to Britain. In 1754, during the French and Indian War , Franklin published Join, or Die ,

4872-468: The flag have changed the words "Don't Tread On Me" to "Don't Tread On Anyone", in one version replacing the single snake with multiple snakes of different colors, or in other cases with a porcupine. In the mid-1970s, the New Left People's Bicentennial Commission used the Gadsden flag symbolism on buttons and literature. Following Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , which struck down Roe v. Wade , abortion rights activists were seen at

4959-415: The flag show the snake facing to the right. The timber rattlesnake can be found in the area of the original Thirteen Colonies . Like the bald eagle , part of its significance is that it was unique to the Americas, serving as a means of showing a separate identity from the Old World. Its use as a symbol of the American colonies can be traced back to the publications of Benjamin Franklin . In 1751, he made

5046-411: The flag to Commodore Esek Hopkins , and it was unfurled on the main mast of Hopkins' flagship USS Alfred on December 20, 1775. Two days later, Congress made Hopkins commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy . He adopted the Gadsden banner as his personal flag, flying it from the mainmast of the flagship while he was aboard. The Continental Marines also flew the flag during the early part of

5133-418: The idols, and broke into pieces the copper snake that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. ( 2 Kings 18:4 ) In the Gospel of John 3:14–15, Jesus makes direct comparison between the raising up of the Son of Man and the act of Moses in raising up the serpent as a sign, using it as a symbol associated with salvation : "As Moses lifted up

5220-428: The latter, it blocks rivers and other water sources in exchange for human sacrifices and/or material good offerings. 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. In some Abrahamic traditions ,

5307-416: The liberty and blessings which America affords, and once come over to her, never afterwards leave her, but spend their lives with her. The rattlesnake symbol was first officially adopted by the Continental Congress in 1778 when it approved the design for the seal of the War Office. At the top center of the seal is a rattlesnake holding a banner that says, "This we'll defend". This design of the War Office seal

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5394-407: The main mast of USS Alfred on December 20, 1775, while the ship was at anchor in Chesapeake Bay . Whenever he was aboard, Hopkins flew the flag from the mainmast of the flagship as his personal banner. Alfred was also the first recorded ship to fly the Grand Union Flag , the first national flag of the United States, when Senior Lieutenant John Paul Jones hoisted it on December 3, 1775, while

5481-501: The psychoanalyst Joseph Lewis Henderson and the ethnologist Maude Oakes have argued that the serpent is a symbol of initiation and rebirth precisely because it is a symbol of death. Using phylogenetical and statistical methods on related motifs from folklore and myth, French comparativist Julien d'Huy managed to reconstruct a possible archaic narrative about the serpent. In this Paleolithic "ophidian" myth, snakes are connected to rains and storms, and even to water sources. In regards to

5568-444: The python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By the conquest of Whydah the Dahomeyans were brought in contact with a people of serpent worshipers, and ended by adopting from them the beliefs which they at first despised. At Whydah , the chief centre, there is a serpent temple, tenanted by some fifty snakes. Every python of the danh-gbi kind must be treated with respect, and death

5655-445: The revolution, along with the blue and white crescent flag of pre-Civil War South Carolina . The Gadsden flag has become a popular specialty license plate in several states. As of 2022 , the following states offer the option of obtaining a Gadsden flag specialty license plate: Alabama , Arizona , Florida , Kansas , Maryland , Missouri , Montana , Oklahoma , South Carolina , Tennessee , Texas , and Virginia . In

5742-422: The same god, Atum , the "counter-Ra", associated with earth animals, including the serpent: Nehebkau ("he who harnesses the souls") was the two-headed serpent deity who guarded the entrance to the underworld. He is often seen as the son of the snake goddess Renenutet . She often was confused with (and later was absorbed by) their primal snake goddess Wadjet , the Egyptian cobra , who from the earliest of records

5829-430: The school’s dress code policy" including a Gadsden flag patch. After high-profile backlash against the decision, including criticism from Governor Jared Polis, the school reversed its decision. Street Patrol, a 1990s queer self-defense group affiliated with Queer Nation/San Francisco , used as its logo a coiled snake over a triangle holding a ribbon with the motto "Don't Tread on Me". Some libertarian circles use

5916-429: The serpent as a symbol of death is built into our unconscious minds because of our evolutionary history. Isbell argues that for millions of years snakes were the only significant predators of primates, and that this explains why fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias worldwide and why the symbol of the serpent is so prevalent in world mythology; the serpent is an innate image of danger and death. Furthermore,

6003-453: The serpent from Rumi , which uses the serpent as a symbol for the sensual soul within human beings. Another story from Arabian mythology features the giant serpent Falak , which is said to live below the fish known as Bahamut and is mentioned in the One Thousand and One Nights as a dangerous monster. It is said that Falak only fears God's greater power, which prevents it from consuming all of creation. Serpents are sacred and powerful in

6090-406: The serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life ". In ancient Egypt and the Middle East, the serpent or snake also represents knowledge and a knowledge of advanced genetics (the strands of DNA, which also affects lifespan) in those times, hence its inclusion in the Bible and 2 snakes on a staff as a symbol of

6177-453: The serpent is thought to have a fiery quality similar to a fire-breathing dragon. The Greek Ladon and the Norse Níðhöggr (Nidhogg Nagar) are sometimes described as serpents and sometimes as dragons. In Germanic mythology , "serpent" ( Old English : wyrm , Old High German : wurm , Old Norse : ormr ) is used interchangeably with the Greek borrowing "dragon" (OE: draca , OHG: trahho , ON: dreki ). In China and especially in Indochina ,

6264-938: The serpent represents sexual desire . According to some interpretations of the Midrash , the serpent represents sexual passion. In Hinduism , Kundalini is a dormant energy lying like a coiled serpent. Serpents are represented as potent guardians of temples and other sacred spaces. This connection may be grounded in the observation that when threatened, some snakes (such as rattlesnakes or cobras ) frequently hold and defend their ground, first resorting to threatening display and then fighting, rather than retreat. Thus, they are natural guardians of treasures or sacred sites which cannot easily be moved out of harm's way. At Angkor in Cambodia , numerous stone sculptures present hooded multi-headed nāgas as guardians of temples or other premises. A favorite motif of Angkorean sculptors from approximately

6351-710: The serpent"). Quetzalcoatl's father was Mixcoatl ("Cloud Serpent"). He was identified with the Milky Way, the stars, and the heavens in several Mesoamerican cultures. The demigod Aidophedo of the West African Ashanti people is also a serpent biting its own tail. In Dahomey mythology of Benin in West Africa, the serpent that supports everything on its many coils was named Dan. In the Vodou of Benin and Haiti , Ayida-Weddo (a.k.a. Aida-Wedo, Aido Quedo, "Rainbow-Serpent")

6438-742: The ship floated in the Delaware River near Philadelphia . By winter 1775, the South Carolina Provincial Congress expected that British forces would attack Charleston and recalled Gadsden home from Congress in Philadelphia to command the 1st South Carolina Regiment . By January 14, Gadsden had both his orders to return home and permission from the Continental Congress to leave. On Friday, February 9, 1776, he presented an example of his yellow rattlesnake flag to president of

6525-503: The spiritual and the earthly worlds or planes. It is through ritual that the king could bring the center axis into existence in the temples and create a doorway to the spiritual world, and with it power." Sometimes the Tree of Life is represented (in a combination with similar concepts such as the World Tree and Axis mundi or "World Axis") by a staff such as those used by shamans . Examples of such staffs featuring coiled snakes in mythology are

6612-508: The symbolic concept of the serpent was corrupted in the cultures of the Iranian plateau over time by Western influence. In Abrahamic traditions , the serpent represents sexual desire, as he lured Eve with the promise of forbidden knowledge in the Garden of Eden . As a result of such influence, Aryan religions call the serpents diabolic; Azhi Dahake in the Avesta is a scary serpent, and Zahhak in

6699-504: The thought of prehistoric cultures of Iran , having been portrayed as patrons of fertility, water and wealth in the ancient objects of Iran. They seem to have been worshipped along with the fertility goddesses from the fourth to first millennia BC, when their presence as mighty patrons and source of life and of immortality is seen in the art of Tall-i Bakun , Chogha Mish , Tepe Sialk , Jiroft culture , Shahr-e Sukhteh , Shahdad , Elamite art, Luristan art, etc. However, it seems that

6786-568: The tree in the garden of the Hesperides protecting the golden apples. Similarly Níðhöggr (Nidhogg Nagar), the dragon of Norse mythology, eats from the roots of the Yggdrasil , the World Tree. Under yet another tree (the Bodhi Tree of Enlightenment), the Buddha sat in ecstatic meditation. When a storm arose, the mighty serpent king Mucalinda rose up from his place beneath the earth and enveloped

6873-620: The two of them were cast down by Cronus and Rhea . The oracles of the Ancient Greeks were said to have been the continuation of the tradition begun with the worship of the Egyptian cobra goddess Wadjet . Typhon , the enemy of the Olympian gods , is described as a vast grisly monster with a hundred heads and a hundred serpents issuing from his thighs, who was conquered and cast into Tartarus by Zeus , or confined beneath volcanic regions, where he

6960-575: The war. The rattlesnake was a symbol of the unity of the Thirteen Colonies at the start of the Revolutionary War, and it had a long history as a political symbol in America. Benjamin Franklin used it for his Join, or Die woodcut in 1754. Gadsden intended his flag to serve as a physical symbol of the American Revolution's ideals. The flag has been described as the "most popular symbol of

7047-472: The whole species, were sacred. In many parts of Africa the serpent is looked upon as the incarnation of deceased relatives. Among the amaZulu , as among the Betsileo of Madagascar, certain species are assigned as the abode of certain classes. The Maasai , on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe. In ancient Mesopotamia , Nirah , the messenger god of Ištaran ,

7134-416: The wisest animals, being (close to the) divine. Its divine aspect combined with its habitat in the earth between the roots of plants made it an animal with chthonic properties connected to the afterlife and immortality. The deified Greek physician Asclepius , as god of medicine and healing, carried a staff with one serpent wrapped around it, which has become the symbol of modern medicine. Moses also had

7221-456: The written myths of Greece and who were the protectors of the most ancient ritual secrets. The Gorgons wore a belt of two intertwined serpents in the same configuration of the caduceus . The Gorgon was placed at the center, highest point of one of the pediments on the Temple of Artemis at Corfu . Gadsden flag The Gadsden flag is a historical American flag with a yellow field depicting

7308-574: Was carried forward—with some minor modifications—into the subsequent designs as well as the Department of the Army's seal, emblem and flag . As such, some variation of a rattlesnake symbol has been in continuous official use by the US Army for over 243 years. Other American flags that use a rattlesnake motif include The United Companies of the Train of Artillery of the Town of Providence , the First Navy Jack , and

7395-508: Was represented as a serpent on kudurrus , or boundary stones . Representations of two intertwined serpents are common in Sumerian art and Neo-Sumerian artwork and still appear sporadically on cylinder seals and amulets until as late as the thirteenth century BCE. The horned viper ( Cerastes cerastes ) appears in Kassite and Neo-Assyrian kudurrus and is invoked in Assyrian texts as

7482-472: Was the earth-dragon of Delphi . She always was represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent. Python was the chthonic enemy of Apollo , who slew her and remade her former home his own oracle, the most famous in Classical Greece. The Gorgons - Stheno , Euryale , and Medusa - were three monstrous sisters with sharp fangs and living, venomous snakes for hair, and whose origins predate

7569-403: Was the patron and protector of the country, all other deities, and the pharaohs. Hers is the first known oracle . She was depicted as the crown of Egypt, entwined around the staff of papyrus and the pole that indicated the status of all other deities, as well as having the all-seeing eye of wisdom and vengeance. She never lost her position in the Egyptian pantheon. The image of the serpent as

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