Home›Serpents›TraditionBrowse ByTraditionThis page groups mythical creatures by the wider artistic and religious tradition that pictures them. Wikipedia notes that "in medieval art, animals, both real and mythical, played important roles." Browsing by tradition lets a visitor read every creature from one cultural tradition together.FactsLearn MoreTraditionSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedGreat snakes and snake-beings, collected by body-form as the comparative folklore indexes collect them. The serpent carries opposite values between traditions, so the group is a shape and not a meaning. 2Peoples and Traditions CoveredWell-attestedEuropean: the basilisk descends from a Latin natural-history report - Pliny's serpent of Cyrenaica - and lives in books and bestiaries rather than in any cult. 3Peoples and Traditions CoveredWell-attestedGreek: the Hydra of Lerna is a many-headed water-snake killed by Herakles as the second of his labours. 4Peoples and Traditions CoveredWell-attestedHindu: nagas are serpent beings of waters, treasure and the underworld who receive cult, and they appear in Buddhist and Jain narrative as well as Hindu. 5Peoples and Traditions CoveredWell-attestedNorse: Jormungandr, the Midgard serpent, encircles the inhabited world and is Thor's adversary at Ragnarok. 6DirectoryCategoryWell-attestedMythical Creatures 1Learn MoreThe Serpents This group holds mythical serpents, the great snakes and snake-beings that recur across the world's mythologies as figures of chaos, wisdom, fertility, guardianship or cosmic threat. The serpent is one of the most widespread and charged symbols in religious imagination. The browser will find the serpent figures the atlas gathers. The entries describe each creature's mythological role, noting the very different meanings serpents carry between traditions.TraditionFilter Results6 entriesCreature kindAllWorld-Serpents of the Chaoskampf Myth (3)Region of OriginAllEgypt (1)Scandinavia (1)Attested In RegionAllGreece (1)Associated WithAllHera (1)Shiva (1)Vishnu (1)Attested InAllRig Veda (1)HistoricityAllLegendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record (4)Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being (2)Adherents Today MaximumAll5,000,000 (1)1,200,000,000 (1)Adherents Today MinimumAll4,000,000 (1)1,200,000,000 (1)Basis of the Membership FigureAllIndependent Survey (1)National Census (2)Scholarly or Demographic Estimate (2)Era of Decline End YearAll400 (1)529 (1)550 (1)1200 (1)Era of Decline Start YearAll380 (3)1000 (1)Establishment StatusAllVaries by Province (1)How the Expectation Is EnforcedAllCustomary Norm (1)Obligation to Support, No Set Rate (1)Membership Figure As OfAll2001-01-01 (1)2006-01-01 (1)2010-01-01 (1)2011-01-01 (1)2012-12-18 (1)2020-01-01 (1)2021-01-01 (1)2025-01-01 (1)Origin Period End YearAll3000 BCE (1)700 BCE (1)500 BCE (2)400 BCE (1)800 (1)Origin Period Start YearAll3300 BCE (1)1500 BCE (1)1400 BCE (1)750 BCE (1)600 BCE (1)500 BCE (1)Practice StatusAllDiscontinued as a state religion (4)Living, and practised in varied local forms (1)Partly restricted: some elements are closed to outsiders (1)Status TodayAllHistorical; not practised continuously (4)Living tradition, practised today (2)TheologyAllMonistic: one ultimate reality behind all appearance (1)Non-theistic: no creator god is central (1)Panentheistic: the divine both within the world and beyond it (1)Polytheistic: many gods (5)Show ResultsBrowseCompareAncient Egyptian ReligionTradition1 entryAncient Greek ReligionTradition1 entryHinduismTradition3 entriesJainismTradition1 entryNorse PaganismTradition1 entryRoman ReligionTradition1 entrySources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 1Category: Mythical Creatures2. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books and Local Legendstier 1Stith Thompson, Indiana University Press, 1958B0-B99, Mythical Animals3. Naturalis Historia (Natural History)tier 1Pliny the ElderBook 8, on the basilisk of CyrenaicaView the Source4. The Library (Bibliotheca)tier 1Pseudo-Apollodorus, (various editions)the second labour of HeraclesView the Source5. Encyclopedia of Hinduismtier 1Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.), Routledge, 2008the article on nagas and serpent-worshipView the Source6. Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefstier 1John Lindow, Oxford University Press, 2001the entry on JormungandrView the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.