http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/136.htm - a miracle of St. George and the dragon in Orthodoxy
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In Dante's "Age" is described by the monster, whose human face and body of reptiles, in the tail - as the personification of the sting of envy, jealousy, lies, who kept changing their appearance. The poet calls them "three spirits" evil.
"That's sharp-tailed beast, piercing the mountains
Prev by null and void and the wall, and the sword;
Here who poisoned expanses of the earth ...
And the hideous image of deceit, envy,
Paddling on the tail to itself not picking up,
Fell down to the shore the whole community by the mill.
It was clear face and majestic
Tranquility features friendly and clean,
But the rest of the snake was.
Two hairy paws and claws;
His back and belly, and flanks --
In the pattern of spots and sites florid "[42].
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In the culture of the Renaissance, which has absorbed the Christian symbolism, the snake meant poisonous thoughts, and they eat snake meat. The Latin word draco means and the snake, and dragon, and they both represent the devil. Often, Satan's a draconian features, and his body parts are depicted on the canvases of artists, festooned with snakes. In Plutarch we learn that one version of the death of Cleopatra came to the fact that its bitten by a snake. In the triumphal processions were the image of Queen of clinging to her hand like a snake. Poets, writers, historians have pointed out that Cleopatra was one of the envious women.
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K. Jung analyzed the libidinal character of a snake. He wrote that in art is often a sin, sin in the form of sensuality depicted in the image of a naked female body, garlanded with snakes. Libido is not only the devil, but a deity, and so the metamorphosis of snakes associated with the symbol itself of the human soul - its contradictory [29]. "Although the character - writes Jung - in terms of reality and deceptive, but psychologically it is - the truth, because he has always been a bridge leading to all the greatest achievements of the human spirit" [30]. Vyach. Ivanov is in this context pointed out that the snake because one is a myth, in another - other entities. "But then - writes Ivanov - that connects all the symbolism of the snake, all the values of a snake is a symbol of the great cosmogonic myth, in which every aspect of the serpent - a symbol finds its place in the hierarchy of plans of the divine unity" [31].
Thus, the snake in paradise, according to K. Jung, conceived mainly in the female image, and because old artist is depicted as a snake woman [32]. The symbol of a snake with a tree - the epitome of a renewed earth flowering. The snake was the attributes of Minerva - goddess of wisdom and Asclepius - the god of medicine. Ability to change the snake skin allowed, apparently, see it as very different incarnation of envy.
D. Norman, author of the study "The symbolism of mythology," writes that the image of a snake or a dragon wrapping around the tree, depending on the circumstances can be interpreted in different ways. "They may be related either to the movement upward to a higher state, or down to the lower. Instead of unconditionally separate serpentine forms of "good" and "evil", sometimes they are better regarded as the embodiment of both good and evil, as the elevation above or beyond the limits of both of these concepts [33].
http://www.philos.msu.ru/vestnik/phi...ndr_zavist.htm
Gargona and Gargony
... Echidna, in Greek mythology - the woman with the body of a snake. Medusa Gargona and other unpleasant characters - all children Tachyglossidae. Brood of vipers frequently mentioned in the Bible to refer to people snake species.