# Art > Art & Art History >  Stags and Snakes in Classical art

## TheOnyxDragon

Hi everyone,

I'm currently an undergraduate in my final year of university. I am studying Art History and am starting work on my dissertation. Without going into too much detail, I'm looking at how the stag and snake (or dragon where appropriate) came to represent the conflict between Christ and the Devil, as it is depicted in a number of mosaics and written in various bestiaries and the _Physiologus_ etc. What I am struggling with is finding evidence of this conflict in a pre-Christian context. As far as I'm aware, Aristotle made no reference to it in his _Historia Animalium_ (though he does mention other enmities existing between beasts that are also reflected in Christian iconography - the eagle and the snake, for example). A few hundred years later, the conflict seems to be the invention of Pliny, and Aelian also later writes about it. They talk of how the stag lures snakes out of their lairs with their breath, before presumably trampling or consuming them. In a Christian context, the stag thirsts for streams of water as the soul longs for Christ (Psalm 42); according to the _Physiologus_, for example, he drinks from the stream and spits the water into the snake's lair to draw it out and destroy it. Of course, this scenario is reminiscent of the behaviour Pliny and Aelian describe, but their writings do not seem to suggest that the struggle between the two refers to some sort of turbulence between Greco-Roman deities or the like.

My question is, is anyone aware of any artefacts that depict conflict between the stag and snake (or simply just feature both animals) in a pre-Christian context? I've looked but as of yet have failed to find any, other than the fact that these animals appear flanking (presumably) Cernunnos on the Gundestrup Cauldron. However, I'm primarily interested in their appearances in classical art, literature and mythology, and so far all I have to go on is what's written in _Naturalis Historia_ and _De Natura Animalium_. So if anyone has any ideas of where I could look for enlightenment, I would be very grateful  :Smile:

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## Pompey Bum

Greetings OnyxDragon and welcome to the site. That is one tough question. As far as classical art in the West goes, obviously the snake/dragon is often associated with Apollo and stags (or does) with Diana. That doesn't help much, I know. If you want to look as far as East Asia, there is a kind of mythological beast called a Kirin (Qilin) that had a dragon's head with stag-ish horns. I know none of those show the fighting motif you are talking about, but perhaps they can point you in a helpful direction (I think Apollo was associated with one of the demons of hell in Medieval Europe). Or maybe my colleague LitNetters can do a better job than I have. Good luck!

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## TheOnyxDragon

Thanks for the welcome  :Smile:  I've had a look at the Qilin as you suggested, it seems that many chinese dragons are also depicted with antlers, interesting. I'll look into that. I had previously thought of the Diana and Apollo associations, which is all the more fascinating since they were siblings, performed similar roles and were considered lunar and solar deities respectively. As far as I'm aware though they never fought - I think there's one reference to Apollo tricking Artemis into killing Orion, but I'm not sure what came of that. I believe the snake was also a symbol of Apollo's son Asclepius, but he was destroyed by Zeus who's most prominent symbol is the eagle. I recently read Rudolf Wittkower's 1939 article on the iconography of the eagle and snake - that motif is seemingly everywhere! In that instance though, the eagle often represents the sun, whereas the serpent often represents darkness. Also, eagles have been known to prey on snakes for countless centuries - I wonder just where Pliny got this idea of the snake and stag as enemies. I'm sure there has been the odd occasion where a deer might have accidentally trampled a snake or might have ventured too close as to take a bite, but I'd have thought they'd generally avoid each other. As such, I'm not really surprised any images of this conflict seem non-existent, but the scenario many bestiaries describe are surely too similar to what Pliny and Aelian mention to be coincidental.

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## Pompey Bum

I've given it some more thought, and you may want to consider the idea of eclipse or day/night iconography as you investigate this. Apollo, as you point out, is a solar deity. His relationship to the serpent/dragon is combative one (as in the Delphic myth of Python). Solar deities are sometimes associated with rebirth (Sol Invictus, for example, the "Undefeated Sun" and 4th century poor man's Jesus) or order/goodness/light (the Egyptian Ra, for example). Ra's enemy is Apep/Apophis, the serpent god of darkness and chaos. Also, I'm sure it's off limits in your research, but I think there is some Mayan iconography that shows a serpent eating the sun, apparently in reference to a solar eclipse. (That would probably get a Jungian all fired up, although I'm not sure it is what you are looking for).

In any case, you've got cosmic battles between light/order/goodness and dark/chaos/evil in which darkness is depicted as a serpent. (And obviously the serpent became symbolic of evil in Biblical traditions). So what you need to look for, it seems to me, are iconographic depictions of the sun as a stag that might have been influential on Pliny. I think there may be some Celtic iconography to that effect, showing stags with the sun held in their antlers. That's what I'd look into if I were you.

Okay, I hope I did better by you after a little thought. It's a fascinating subject, so please let us know what you find.




> I recently read Rudolf Wittkower's 1939 article on the iconography of the eagle and snake--that motif is seemingly everywhere!


Everywhere!  :Smile: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vzGHOucTxY8

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## Pompey Bum

Another suggestion (now that you have got me thinking) is to see if your school library can set you up with a lit search on Plutarch. Believe it or not, Plutarch sometimes goes off on tangents about nature and betrays ancient attitudes about certain creatures, which aren't always obvious to moderns (especially in the Moralia, where he's often just happily rambling on). You might be able to do it yourself on Persius if you have any Greek (he wrote in koine, so he's pretty easy). I can't promise you anything, but you might hit gold. And he lived around the same time as Pliny. Good luck in any case.  :Smile:

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## TheOnyxDragon

Marvellous! Thank you for your suggestions. I'm not familiar with Plutarch's works, so I looked up the full text of Moralia online and there is a small reference:

"But let these examples suffice to show that sea animals are not entirely unrelated to us or cut off from human fellowship. Of their uncontaminated and native intelligence their caution is strong evidence. For nothing that swims and does not merely stick or cling to rocks is easily taken or captured without trouble by man as are asses by wolves, bees by bee-eaters," cicadas by swallows, and snakes by deer, which easily attract them".

(Please excuse the lack of referencing, but it's late and a huge text file - I'll seek the book out in the library tomorrow).

I will be discussing my progress with my supervisor tomorrow, and will mention these ideas to him. Thanks again!

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## Pompey Bum

> Marvellous! Thank you for your suggestions. I'm not familiar with Plutarch's works, so I looked up the full text of Moralia online and there is a small reference:
> 
> "But let these examples suffice to show that sea animals are not entirely unrelated to us or cut off from human fellowship. Of their uncontaminated and native intelligence their caution is strong evidence. For nothing that swims and does not merely stick or cling to rocks is easily taken or captured without trouble by man as are asses by wolves, bees by bee-eaters," cicadas by swallows, *and snakes by deer, which easily attract them"*.


Yeah baby! I am so psyched that that came up for you. So it was a belief among some educated men in the 1st century. Another approach would be to look in old annotated editions of the Moralia and see if any classical scholar has indicated any naturalistic basis for the belief. But at least you know that it wasn't just Pliny. 

Carry on, Sir (or Madame)! I look forward to hearing about your further progress!

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## TheOnyxDragon

Small update. I've not been able to find any convincing associations of deer/stags with the sun as of yet. Certainly, I know there are instances in Christian iconography where the cross appears between their antlers - you can also see this on bottles of Jägermeister, haha  :Smile:  However, I've found a reference to the conflict that even predates Pliny. It comes from Lucretius in _De Natura Rerum_. Again, I need the book to be sure of the proper referencing, since I only just found this online:

Let none believe that in these regions stands 
The gate of Orcus, nor us then suppose, 
Haply, that thence the under-gods draw down 
Souls to dark shores of Acheron- as stags, 
The wing-footed, are thought to draw to light, 
By sniffing nostrils, from their dusky lairs 
The wriggling generations of wild snakes. 
How far removed from true reason is this,
...

I tried posting the link to the website, but the post was denied - seems that one link was one too many :/

The text goes on but the stag and snake are not referred to again by name. What I find most interesting about this source though is the fact Lucretius seems doubtful about this behaviour, whereas Pliny, Plutarch and Aelian seem to be presenting it as truth. In any case, this tradition apparently emerges a little earlier than I thought.

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## Ecurb

The second and third labors of Herakles are the Lernaean Hydra (a snake) and the Ceryneian Hind (a stag). There must be paintings that depict these labors.

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## Pompey Bum

> I've found a reference to the conflict that even predates Pliny. It comes from Lucretius in _De Natura Rerum_. Again, I need the book to be sure of the proper referencing, since I only just found this online:
> 
> Let none believe that in these regions stands 
> The gate of Orcus, nor us then suppose, 
> Haply, that thence the under-gods draw down 
> Souls to dark shores of Acheron- as stags, 
> The wing-footed, are thought to draw to light, 
> By sniffing nostrils, from their dusky lairs 
> The wriggling generations of wild snakes. 
> ...


Don't worry about Lucretius' skepticism (in the non-philosophical sense). He was an Epicurean (_in_ the philosophical sense) advancing ideas about randomness as an essential aspect of nature, so he sometimes likes to shoot down what other authors think they know. The point is that he attests the tradition about snakes and stags as early as the 1st century BC.

Meanwhile I have found a modern Druid webpage that references quite a bit of folklore about stags, including European and Anatolian traditions about stags and does bearing the sun in their antlers. 

Here is the link:

http://www.druidry.org/library/animals/stags-and-deer

And here is an interesting passage:

_The symbol of the cosmos and the mother of the sun was symbolised as a large horned female doe. The great horned doe often was shown carrying the sun in her horns, in some cases the sun itself was symbolised as a stag the son of the doe of the legend. The Hungarian regos (bards) tell a story that illustrates the stag as the carrier of the sun.
The hind represents not the sun, but it's mother, the heavenly firmament, the cosmos, which carries the stars, the sun and the moon in its ‘horns’. For these reasons the Scythian stags often represented the horns of the stag like flames._ 

Some of the other information on this page may be helpful, too. I can't vouch for the scholarship, but you could check it out. Their sources may be okay--but of course you can't assume anything. It's exciting, though.

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## TheOnyxDragon

Small update to answer my original question. A deer - possibly a fawn, maybe a hind - can be seen sucking up a snake from its lair on a plate from the 4th-century Mildenhall treasure hoard discovered in the 1940s. This dish and others are saturated in Bacchic iconography, I believe it is being used here to supplement the idea of using one's breath as a means to charm others, as Pan and the maenad accomplish with their music. 

- Unfortunately I still cannot post URLs, but the plate can be found on the British Museum website.

Dissertation is coming along slowly, but well I think so far. Lucretius is still the earliest I can place the source of the motif back to in literature, and it is also referenced by Martial, Lucan, Oppian and Pseudo-Oppian. Absolutely nothing from Aristotle - he believed the snake to reserve its hatred specifically for the eagle, buzzard, mongoose, tortoise, pig and locust, and didn't refer to any enemy of the deer by name. As far as I can tell, it seems to have been a Roman invention.

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## Pompey Bum

Welcome back OD, and thanks for the update. Martial surprises me. I don't remember anything like that from the epigrams, although I haven't looked at them in many years. Was it from De Spectaculis?

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## TheOnyxDragon

It is from Epigrams, Book XII, XXIX:

"Hermogenes is as great a thief, Ponticus, of napkins as I hardly imagine even Massa was of money. You may watch his right hand and hold his left, he will discover some method of withdrawing a napkin. So a stag's breath sucks up a clammy snake, so Iris plucks up the waters that will afterwards fall from on high". 

Sorry for the late response - been so preoccupied with work and revision recently!

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## Melanie

"Snakes (or serpents) get plenty of attention in the Bible, which mentions them over 80 times. Snakes show up in Pharaohs court (Exodus 7:12), in the wilderness (Numbers 21:7), on the island of Malta (Acts 28:3), and, of course, in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1). They are almost always pictured as loathsome creatures, associated with poison and craftiness. As amoral creatures, snakes are not evil in themselvesbut they are a handy metaphor for evil in many passages.

It started in the Garden. The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made (Genesis 3:1). In some way, the serpent was used by Satan to lie to Eve and lead her into disobedience. Adam soon followed. As God was meting out punishments, He cursed the snake: Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life (Genesis 3:14). Every time we see a snake slithering, limbless, on the ground, we have a reminder of the Fall of man and the effects of sin.

Ever since Satan spoke his lies through the serpent to Eve, the snake has been associated with sin. The prophets liken the wicked to those who hatch vipers eggs (Isaiah 59:5), to a serpent [who] has swallowed us . . . and then has spewed us out (Jeremiah 51:34), and to those who will lick dust like a snake (Micah 7:17). The poetic books speak of evil men making their tongues as sharp as a serpent's; the poison of vipers is on their lips (Psalm 140:3), of liars having venom . . . like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears, that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be (Psalm 58:45), and of alcohol eventually biting like a snake and poison[ing] like a viper (Proverbs 23:32). Jesus and John the Baptist both condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees by calling them a brood of vipers and snakes (Matthew 3:7; 12:34; 23:33).

The snake, as a symbol of Satan, has wound its way around the human heart and filled us with its poison. Try as we might, we cannot rid ourselves of its influence. As the wicked King Macbeth discovered, serpents are hard to kill: We have scotchd the snake, not killd it. (Macbeth, III:ii). In fact, by the time we get to the book of Revelation, the serpent in the Garden has become a raging dragon bent on world domination. Following a battle in heaven, the great dragon was hurled downthat ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him (Revelation 12:9).

We need help in our battle against the ancient serpent. Fortunately, from the very beginning, God has promised us a Savior: speaking to the serpent in the Garden, God says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel (Genesis 3:15). This is the protoevangelium, or first gospel. God promised that the Seed of the woman would crush the serpents heada prophecy that the virgin-born Son of God would win a decisive victory over the power of the devil.

Jesus said that He had come to save us all from the serpents bite: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him (John 3:1415; cf. Numbers 21:69).

The Lord Jesus is our serpent-crusher. He is our dragon-slayer. And one day, when He establishes His kingdom on this earth, all of creation will be restored to its original, harmless statesnakes included. The infant will play near the cobras den, and the young child will put its hand into the vipers nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:89)."

Read: The Serpent of Paradise by Erwin Lutzer and Logos Bible Software.

The Stag might have originated in several scriptures in Revelations when the Bible tells us that when Jesus returns after the Tribulation, he will be riding a white horse

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## Pompey Bum

Welcome back and not to worry about the delay. I may have something for you this time! I've found a web page showing early 6th century mosaics (according to one of the mosaics, from 539) at a small museum in Libya. Although the mosaics are apparently associated with a Christian church, they include some earlier "pagan" subjects, such as satyrs, nymphs, and male water spirits, including river gods. Since you seem to be looking for an interface between Greco-Roman and later Christian iconography, it seems like a happy hunting ground. 

Now, check out the 20th mosaic down, labeled as "Stag devouring a snake." It seems to be the very sort of snake sucking Martial was describing 500 years earlier!

https://www.temehu.com/Cities_sites/...qasr-libya.htm

The page contains links to newspaper articles about the mosaics from the time of their discovery in 1957. I haven't read these yet, but perhaps they can provide you with further leads. Good luck!  :Smile:

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## TheOnyxDragon

Ah, you refer to Qasr el-Lebia! Yes, I am familiar with those mosaics, in fact they are what sparked my interest in the subject in the first place  :Smile:  A friend of mine wrote her PhD on the mosaic floors of that church, which also provided me with some inspiration.

I have completed my dissertation now and have handed it in. I don't know if I can post it up here, but I can give a rundown of what I went through:

Introduction
I briefly introduced Wittkower's article on eagle and snake iconography to distinguish my hypothesis from his own: he believed that as the motif spread and diffused across cultures over thousands of years, it retained the fundamental elements of its original meaning (i.e. it often represents some form of cosmological tension, no matter where it is to be found). By contrast, the stag and snake motif seems to have originated as a rather mundane and non-allegorical anecdote of Graeco-Roman natural history, which was adopted by Christianity and imbued with a whole new level of religious symbolism.

Chapter One - Manuscripts
Here I spoke about the appearance of the stag and snake motif in bestiary manuscripts of the 12th- and 13th- centuries, discussing how such manuscripts deployed animals as symbols of how to lead a virtuous Christian life. The prototype of the bestiary was the _Physiologus_, which appears to have been a very popular and widely disseminated text. Here, the stag was said to destroy the serpent (or dragon) with the waters of 'indescribable wisdom' - an allusion to Psalm 42. Clearly, the stag stood for Christ and the serpent stood for Satan.

Chapter Two - Mosaics
Here I went back further in time, looking at how stags and snakes have been portrayed in mosaics from late antiquity up to the 12th century. I started with the apse mosaic at San Clemente, which likens the Church of Christ to the vine. Two stags drink from the four rivers of Paradise in this mosaic - another allusion to Psalm 42, 'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul for thee O God'. So here I looked at the two animals individually, establishing the stag as a symbol of the catechumen about to be baptised, and the snake as a malevolent force of wickedness and temptation. Unfortunately, the 9,000 word limit meant I couldn't go into such detail as *Melanie* described above - thank you for that by the way!  :Smile:  - but I covered the essentials. I then brought the two animals back together by looking at mosaics of their conflict from sites such as Qasr el-Lebia, Henchir Messaouda and the Great Palace of Constantinople. I found these more difficult to interpret, since the primary source material for their creation is not immediately clear - _Physiologus_? Pliny? Etc.

Chapter Three - Metamorphoses
So this chapter established the pre-Christian heritage of the motif, tracing it back to scholars and poets such as Lucretius, Pliny, Plutarch, Aelian etc. It concluded that the belief that stags eat snakes was merely an accepted 'fact' of natural history which did not require explanation through etiological myth. It demonstrated how the stag was not necessarily a positive symbol in ancient Greece and Rome - indeed, it seems to have been regarded as a timid, proud, vain, lustful and jealous beast most of the time - hardly appropriate characteristics for what would become an agent of Christ! On the other hand, the snake was a much more positive symbol during this time - a symbol of Asclepius, the god of healing and medicine, among other gods such as Athena, Apollo and Hermes. It was often kept in the Roman domicile as a pet, where it was no-doubt perceived as a protector of the household. This seems evident in Pompeii, where it was closely associated with the _Lares_ on lararium shrines. 

Conclusion
Essentially, I wanted to demonstrate how the 'symbolic trajectories' of the stag and serpent changed significantly as the motif of their conflict diffused from Graeco-Roman paganism to Christianity. The whole intention was to show how original meanings associated with forms can often be drastically altered as they are adopted by exterior cultures. In summary, the stag went from being viewed as a timid beast to a noble animal associated with baptism and Christ, whereas the snake went from being a revered and respected animal to a symbol of the ultimate evil. The Graeco-Roman idea of the snake-eating stag probably seemed like a godsend to early Christians who were keen to spread the word of the Lord and demonstrate the power of Christ over the force of darkness!

Man does it feel good to finally be finished writing this thing! I have only three exams remaining before my degree is complete. I'm looking forward to a bit of a break from studying! Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

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## Pompey Bum

Congratulations! I'm glad you already knew about the Libyan mosaics. Wasn't it weird to see that satyr in a mosaic from a Christian church? I know artistic motifs can hang on for some time, but that one seemed to be pushing the envelope to me. In any case, enjoy your break and please don't be a stranger around this place. It's been great to have someone to talk with about the Western Classical Antiquity. Congratulations again.  :Smile:

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## TheOnyxDragon

Thank you! It is indeed odd to see the four river of Paradise represented by river deities among other classical motifs. This is why I'm not convinced that the stag and snake motifs at Qasr el-Lebia relate to baptism or the fight between good and evil (there is a second stag and snake motif in the same church in case you were not aware - the one on display on the museum's website was from the nave, whereas a second was found in an adjacent chapel. It depicts the conflict rather than the outcome). Also, there are other themes of animal violence at Qasr el-Lebia which do not seem to make any sense in a Christian context - an eagle preying on a gazelle/antelope, for example. 

My supervisor has been running a series of extra-curricular weekly seminars over the past year. Recently, we have been discussing mosaics that he and a group of my friends saw on a recent trip to Morocco (unfortunately I could not join them). The image of a tortoise being released from a trap by a putto in one such mosaic (I forget the location) sparked interest into what the animal stood for. There are a few instances in early Christian art where the tortoise is paired with the rooster, perhaps in an antagonistic fashion, not unlike the stag and snake have been - an example can be seen in the floor mosaic of the basilica of Aquileia. Perhaps a future project (read: sequel) is in the works somewhere?  :Smile:

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## Pompey Bum

I'm looking forward to the sequel.  :Smile:

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