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"Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?"

(The real) last words of Socrates

GREECE & ROME

Excerpts with Connecting Links

Delphi: Asklepieion: polygonal masonry of the Asklepieion from NW [Image] (6.49)

Statue of Asklepios. 
Plaster cast of the statue of god Asklepios, 
represented standing, with the sacred snake
curling up on his stick. The original is exhibited
in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Epidaurus - Juaguar Woman Website

Aesculapius

or Asclēpius (Asklêpios). The god of the medical art. In Homer he is not a divinity, but simply the “blameless physician” whose sons, Machaon and Podalirius, were the physicians in the Greek army. The common story relates that Aesculapius was a son of Apollo and Coronis, and that when Coronis was with child by Apollo she became enamored of Ischys, an Arcadian. Apollo, informed of this by a raven, killed Coronis and Ischys. When the body of Coronis was to be burnt, the child Aesculapius was saved from the flames, and was brought up by the centaur Chiron, who instructed him in the art of healing and in hunting. There are other tales respecting his birth, according to some of which he was a native of Epidaurus, and this was a common opinion in later times. After he had grown up, he not

Aesculapius. (Berlin.)

only cured the sick, but recalled the dead to life. Zeus, fearing lest men might contrive to escape death altogether, killed Aesculapius with his thunderbolt; but, on the request of Apollo, Zeus placed him among the stars. He was married to Epioné, by whom he had the two sons spoken of by Homer, and also other children. The chief seat of the worship of Aesculapius was Epidaurus, where he had a temple surrounded with an extensive grove. Serpents were sacred to him, because they were a symbol of renovation, and were believed to have the power of discovering healing herbs. The cock was sacrificed to him. At Rome the worship of Aesculapius was introduced from Epidaurus in B.C. 293, for the purpose of averting a pestilence. The supposed descendants of Aesculapius were called by the patronymic name of Asclepiadae, and their principal seats were Cos and Cnidus. They were an order or caste of priests, among whom the knowledge of medicine was regarded as a sacred secret, and was transmitted from father to son in these families.

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KOS or COS

Through most renowned for its magnificent theater, the Sanctuary of Epidaurus was an extensive therapeutic and religious center, dedicated to the healing god Asklepios.  A mortal physician deified by Zeus after his death for retrieving a patient from the underworld, Asklepios was depicted in his temple clutching a staff and flanked by a dog and a serpent -- symbols of natural wisdom.  This sanctuary was active from the 6th century BC until at least the 2nd century AD, when the traveler-historian Pausanias recorded a visit. The Asklepieion Most of the Asklepieion, or Sanctuary of Asklepios, is being reexcavated, and many of its monuments are off-limits.  One of the accessible sites is the propylaia, or monumental gateway, at the north edge of the sanctuary, its original entrance.  Also preserved are a ramp and some buckled pavement from the Sacred Way, which led north from the gateway to the coastal town of ancient Epidaurus.   At the northeastern end of the sanctuary stand the remains of the tholos, a circular building of uncertain function, whose concentric passages are thought to have been used either as a pit of sacred serpents, or possibly as the locale for rites by the cult's priests.  Patients slept in the enkoimitiria -- a hall north of the tholos where they would await a diagnostic dream or a visit from the harmless serpents.   Therapeutic mineral springs, which are still on tap beside the museum, also played a part in the curing of patients who were brought here.  Only the foundations of Asklepio's temple have survived, lying to the east of the tholos. Another undisturbed point is the late Classical stadium south of the tholos.  With intact rows of stone benches and a starting line still visible, this was used during the quadrennial festival in honor of Asklepios. The Romans built an odeion inside the Hellenistic gymnasium to host the festival's musical contests.

• Serpent of Epidaurus: Epidaurus snake, the serpent that represented the sun-divinity incarnate, in other words, the 'serpent of fire'. 

WOMEN'S LIFE IN GREECE & ROME

Religion

406. Cures of women's diseases, from the shrine of Asclepius in Epidaurus. First half of 4th cent. B.C. (IG IV.2. 121-22, exc. G)

From an inscription listing cures by Apollo and Asclepius, brought about as the result of 'incubation', or sleeping in the sanctuary.[1]

1. Cleo was pregnant for five years. After she had been pregnant for five years she came as a suppliant to the god and slept in the sanctuary. As soon as she came out of the inner sanctuary and was outside the temple the enclosure she gave birth to a son. This son as soon as he was born washed himself in the spring and walked around with his mother. After this experience she put up a votive offering: 'Wonder not at the greatness of this tablet but of the god, because he healed Cleo, after she had been pregnant and had carried the burden in her womb for five years, until she slept in the sanctuary.

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Alternate keys: Aesclepios Aesclepius Aesculapius Aeskulapius Agnitas Asclepius Askleipius Asklepieion

Site Catalog Name: Epidauros

Physical Description:

On the E coast of the Argolid, the health spa and religious center at Epidauros maintained a bath, hotels and dwellings for the priest-physicians as well as a tholos building, temples, stoas, gymnasium, palaestra, stadium and a theater. The theater is one of the best preserved ancient structures in Greece and is now used for modern presentations of ancient Greek drama. The Asklepieia (athletic and dramatic festival) was held every 4 years. Epidauros is claimed as the birthplace of Asklepios and it was the most celebrated center of his cult.

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Boston 01.7484: Asklepios (Aesculapius): view from right Photograph by Maria Daniels, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Oracles - Dream Oracle of Asclepius at Epidaurus

The most popular oracle that used dream oracles was the Oracle of Asclepius at Epidaurus.

The Oracle of Asclepius at Epidaurus was an oracle of healing. The oracle gave limited oracles of other sorts and rarely was sought to protect from shipwreck and other disasters. The inquirer here participated in the ritual of incubation.

Ambrosia of Athens, blind in one eye. This woman came as a suppliant to the god. Walking in the sanctuary, she mocked at certain of the cures, claiming it was unbelievable that lame and blind people should have recovered their health merely by experiencing a dream. She incubated in the sanctuary and had a dream: the god appeared right up close to her and told her that he would cure her, but that she would have to pay in sacrifice a silver pig as a memorial of her foolishness. So saying, he made an incision in her sick eye and poured in medicine. The next morning she departed, cured. (Zaidman, 131).

The oracle is believed to have contributed to the history of medicine. This oracle was popular in the fourth century because it provided a way for people to have a personal relationship with the divine that they were unable to find in the state religion (Oxford, 129).

These oracles were not always popular. After many years off requent use and consultation, the demand for oracles was declining. There was much speculation on the reason for this decline. One reason was stated in Plutarch's Obsolescence of Oracles:

And regarding the oracle here at Delphi, the most ancient in time and the most famous in repute, men record that for a long time it was made desolate and unapproachable by a fierce creature, a serpent; they do not however put the correct interpretation upon its laying idle, but quite the reverse; for it was the desolation that attracted the creature rather than the creature caused the desolation. (Plutarch, 373)

The reason outlined above seems to be a fairly common one throughout the oracles. The inquirers at these oracles sought other methods to contact the oracles for their needs. These methods included casting spells, similar to those found in the Greek Magical Papyri.

My Note:

Interesting idea I found on a web site about somebody's trip to Epidauros ... "the caduceus which is to this day the symbol of medicine and is the probable origin of the dollar-sign, but goes far back to the days when the serpent was the consort of the Great Goddess."

Makes Richard Avedon's "Nastassja Kinsi & The Serpent" (©1981 Neptune in Ophiuchus) look like The Real Thing. See Oph in Art page on this web site.

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Oracles - Bulfinch's Mythology, Thomas Bulfinch (1796–1867).  Age of Fable: Vols. I & II: Stories of Gods and Heroes.  1913.

THERE were numerous oracles of Æsculapius, but the most celebrated one was at Epidaurus. Here the sick sought responses and the recovery of their health by sleeping in the temple. It has been inferred from the accounts that have come down to us that the treatment of the sick resembled what is now called Animal Magnetism or Mesmerism.

Serpents were sacred to Æsculapius, probably because of a superstition that those animals have a faculty of renewing their youth by a change of skin. The worship of Æsculapius was introduced into Rome in a time of great sickness, and an embassy sent to the temple of Epidaurus to entreat the aid of the god. Æsculapius was propitious, and on the return of the ship accompanied it in the form of a serpent. Arriving in the river Tiber, the serpent glided from the vessel and took possession of an island in the river, and a temple was there erected to his honor.

THRACE ( Bulgaria )

SOFIA

“ Ever growing, never ageing"- this is the motto inscribed on the coat-of-arms of the Bulgarian capital – the city of Sofia.

Late last century Sofia totalled only 12,000 residents. In 1946 – 516,000 residents, and today - some 1,200,000 residents, i.e. 14 % of the country’s population. Drawing a balance, one sees that in the past 100 years the population multiplied 100 times.

This is one of the oldest towns not only in Bulgaria but also throughout Europe. “Sofia” is the fifth name of the town – following Serdica, Ulpia Serdica, Sredetz, and Triaditza. There are data on Serdica’s existence of 5,000 years ago, and the earliest written data for residents on the lands of Serdica date back to the middle of the first millennium BC. The history of today’s city of Sofia started with the founding of the Thracian town of Sardonopolis. “Serdica” (the emphasis being on the last syllable) is the oldest name of the town we know. The name originates from “Serdi” – one of the 22 Thracian tribes forming the numerous Thracian people.

Located in the fertile Sofia valley, in the very centre of the Balkan Peninsula, on the strategic crossroads between East and West, the town was a much-attractive centre for many tribes and nations, travellers and conquerors. This was why it repeatedly experienced periods of upheaval and decay, but always managed to revive anew from the ashes – like the Phoenix bird, even more magnificent and powerful.

Here people venerated especially strongly god Asclepius (or Aesculapius) since on the territory of Serdica there were numerous warm mineral water sources, called Thermi.

Serdica reached its peak under Emperor Constantine the Great (306 – 337 AD).

In 6 and 7 centuries Slavonic tribes started settling in the Balkans and in the Sofia plain.

In 809 AD khan Krum besieged and overtook Serdica. Ever since the town linked its fate for good with the Bulgarian state.

StudentHolidays.com - Bulgaria

COP AE 28 Asklepius stg. l.	COP AE 28 Hygeia stg r
Most of the provincial coins currently available on the market (and especially on eBay) come from Southeastern Europe. By looking at the following the map, you can see that most of the provincial coins come from the area in and around modern day Bulgaria, that is Thrace and Moesia Inferior. More coin info: Thrace Odessus ; Gordian III Provincial	COP -- Coiled serpent r. AE29 (12.68g 12)
map: Michael Grant, A Guide to the Ancient World (Barnes&Noble: 1997)
DENAURIUS (Silver Roman Coin)
RSC 325, S2475, RIC 129a SALVS AVGVSTI,  Salus stg. r., feeding snake held in both hands	unlisted denarius

Serpent column, now in Istanbul

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PERGAMUM (Turkey)

Pergamon, Pergamon, Precinct of Athena: View from NW corner of Precinct of Athena toward SW and the Asklepieion, View from the NW corner of temenos toward SW and the Asklepieion [Image] (6.31)

Asklepieion, Pergamon

• Region: Mysia
  Periods: Hellenistic, Roman
  Type: Sanctuary
  Summary: A major healing sanctuary, second only to Epidauros itself.

Excerpt from The Temple of Asklepios 380-375 B.C.

The Sanctuary of Asklepios

This was always under the management of the city. It lies SW of it, in the middle of the Argolid peninsula, near the modern town of Ligourio (9 km by the old road, 18 km by the new highway). It comprises 160 sq km in the verdant valley enclosed by Mt. Arachne together with the lower peak of Titthion which lies in front of it, and by Mts. Koryphaion and Kynortion. Here in archaic, perhaps even in prehistoric, times the god or hero Malos or Maleatas was worshiped. He had his own sanctuary, which is a little outside the Sanctuary of Asklepios on the slope of Mt. Kynortion above the theater. Long before the cult of Asklepios and his father Apollo was established the inhabitants of the area gathered at the Sanctuary of Malos in spring to celebrate the regeneration of nature and the end of winter. These festivals, as in Delphi and Delos, were associated with teleological and metaphysical ideas as well as with the operation of the temple as an oracle. The evident relation of this cult to that of Apollo very early allowed a merging of the two. In historic times, Apollo, already the dominant god in the precinct, took on the surname Maleatas.

Asklepios, the mythical hero-doctor, son of Apollo and Korone, learned medicine from the centaur Chiron. It is not known when the worship of Malos was superseded by that of Apollo and Asklepios. The contention of the Epidaurians that the worship of Asklepios was autochthonous there and not introduced from Trikka in Thessaly, a view which the poet Isyllos also tried to promote in the 4th c. B.C., is not proved. When other places, like Messenia, however, claimed the oldest cult, the temple of Delphi ruled for the Epidaurians (Paus. 2.26.7). Nevertheless, up to the present, the finds from the excavations in the Asklepieion are not older than the end of the 6th c. B.C.

In the last quarter of the 5th c. B.C. the cult of Asklepios enjoyed a sudden upsurge in Epidauros, to reach its peak in the 4th c. B.C. The Panhellenic Games and horse races, the Asklepieia, which were traditionally held every four years, were enriched around 400 B.C. by poetry and music contests (Pl. Ion 530). At that time the cult spread throughout the Greek world, so that more than 200 new Asklepieia were built, the most notable being in Athens (420 B.C.), in Kos, in Pergamon (4th c. B.C.), and in Rome (293 B.C.)--all under the patronage of the sanctuary in Epidauros. In the 4th c. B.C. the Hellenistic world, under the influence of radical internal and external changes now clung with especial fervor to this new philanthropic god, a healing doctor and savior. The manifest reverence towards the god resulted in the metamorphosis of the sanctuary's enclosure, which had been unadorned up to the 5th c. B.C., into a place filled with countless offerings and monuments, most of them remarkable examples of 4th c. B.C. Greek art. The prosperity of the sanctuary continued through the Hellenistic period. Treasures and choice works of art were ceaselessly heaped up in it. The treasures were looted by Sulla in 87 B.C. (Plut. Sull. 12.6; Paus. 9.7.5) and again by pirates in 67 B.C. (Plut. Pomp. 24.5).

The sanctuary enjoyed a new flowering in the 2d c. A.D. when, because of the reigning climate of spiritual anxiety, there grew a strong inclination towards religious salvation. In consequence of this inclination new gods were introduced into the sanctuary: Ammon, Sarapis, and Isis, as evidenced by the discoveries there of dedicatory inscriptions. In A.D. 163 the senator Sextus Julius Antoninus gave generously for the repair of many ruined buildings and for the erection of new ones to meet the needs of the sanctuary and of the worshipers. Among these was the Temple of Apollo and Asklepios under the Egyptian epithet (Paus. 2.27.7). It is worthwhile to note that even in the great days of the sanctuary in the 4th and 3rd c. B.C., and again in the 2d c. A.D., while the religious buildings were all of small dimensions, the buildings necessary for visitors and patients (enkoimetenon, baths, gymnasium, katagogeion, stoas, etc.) were two-storied and large, thus surrounding and hiding the others. In A.D. 395 the Goths under Alaric raided the sanctuary. The triumph of Christianity ended the sanctuary's rites in mid 5th c., but Christ and the saints took the place of the healer-god. In the N part of the sanctuary a five-aisled early Christian basilica was built in the end of the 4th c. A.D. Religious healing evidently continued there.

Ancient literary sources and relevant inscriptions found in the sanctuary give a great deal of information about the cures. Therapy was based on the belief that, since an individual's sickness had a psychosomatic origin, the power to restore health was likewise to be sought within him (Democr.: Diels, Dox. Graec. Vorsokr. II 183.7; 192.4; Galen: Diels II 339.5). The therapy of the doctor-priests, therefore, aimed at the rousing and augmentation of an inner power of restoring health, which was, in fact, the harmony of soul and body (Diels 451; II 463.25). This type of therapy was also practiced by the Pythagoreans, whose founder was held to be the son of Apollo. Although this therapy often led to superstition, it nevertheless presented a basis for scientific medicine and proved the importance of psychosomatic factors in the control of health. Consequently, in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, although the practice of medicine was generally taken away from religious control, doctors traced their lineage and inspiration to Asklepios, and called themselves his descendants.

The Message to the Church in Pergamum:

Revelation 2:12-17

The Compromising Church

The Commission to Write to the Church in Pergamum: ¹⁰⁰

"And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write"(2:12a):

The City of Pergamum:

Geographically: Pergamum was located in the western part of Asia Minor, north of Smyrna. It was about 15-20 miles from the Aegean Sea. It was not a port city. It had no harbor. Pergamum was not on any of the major trade routes. From Ephesus the road went about 35 miles to Smyrna; from Smyrna the road followed the coast for about 40 miles and then another 15 miles up the valley of the Caicus to Pergamum. Much of Pergamum was built on a large conical hill towering some one thousand feet above the plain. Sir William Ramsey commented, "Beyond all other sites in Asia Minor it gives the traveler the impression of a royal city." The ruins exist today in the Turkish city of Bergama.

Historically: The history can be traced back to the 5^th century B.C., but its superiority and headship in Asia began in 282 B.C. In that year Philetaerus threw off allegiance to King Lysimachus and founded the kingdom of Pergamum. For the next 149 years, Pergamum was the capital of a kingdom varying in size from only part of the Caicus Valley to the size summed up in the expression "all the land on this side of Tarsus." During the early years the Seleucid dynasty supported Philetaerus in opposition to Lysimachus, but later a rivalry began between the Seleucid and Pergamanian kings. The kings of Pergamum held the upper hand until 222 B.C. when Antiochus the Great restored the power to his dynasty. In 190 B.C. the Romans aided in the expulsion of Antiochus and again enlarged its boundaries to its largest extent. In 133 B.C. Attalus III bequeathed the whole kingdom to the Romans who formed it into the province of Asia. Pergamum would be the capital of Asia for two and one-half centuries.

Culturally: "Pergamum was a center of learning, medicine, and religious books, boasting a library of 200,00 volumes. It became the home of many princes, priests, and scholars who wished to study there." ¹⁰¹ "Pergamum's huge library was second only to that of Alexandria. According to legend, parchment (vellum) was invented by the Pergamenes to provide writing material for their library. Seeking to build a library rivaling the one in Alexandria, a third century B.C. Pergamene king attempted to lure the librarian of the Alexandrian library to his city. Unfortunately, the Egyptian ruler got wind of the plan, refused to allow the librarian to leave, and in retaliation prohibited the further export of papyrus to Pergamum. Out of necessity, the Pergamenes developed parchment, made out of treated animal skins, for use as writing material. The Pergamenes were responsible for its widespread use in the ancient world. In fact, the word parchment may derive from a form of the word Pergamum." ¹⁰² So impressive was Pergamum's library that Mark Antony later sent it to his lover, Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. The library was transported to Alexandria by Cleopatra and remained there until it was destroyed by the Saracens in A.D. 642. Pergamum was also the birth place of Galen, next to Hippocrates the most illustrious physician of the ancient world. It boasted a large medical school associated with the temple of Asklepius.

Economically: Pergamum was not a center of business. It was not a port city nor was it near a major trade route. It could not compete with Ephesus or Smyrna in the world of trade. It was known more as a center of learning and religion than for economics.

Religiously: Pergamum was a wealthy city with many temples devoted to idol worship. It was full of statues, altars, and sacred groves. There were temples to Zeus, Athena, Dionysius, and Asklepius, who were the chief local deities. Zeus and Athena represented Greek spirit and influence. On the other hand, Dionysius was the god of the royal family and had a mystic name, "Bull." Asklepius was more closely associated with the serpents. A medical school was attached to the pagan cult of Asklepius, and the well-known symbol of the medical profession, a serpent twined around a staff, was its insignia. People came from all over the world to be healed by the god Asklepius, who was worshiped in the form of a living serpent fed in the temple. The serpent was intimately connected with one of the ways in which cures were effected. Sufferers were allowed to spend the night in the darkness of the temple. In the temple there were non-poisonous snakes. If the sufferer was touched by the harmless snakes during the night (which was equivalent in their thinking to being touched by god himself) he would be healed. Pergamum was the first city to have a temple consecrated to Augustus (29 B.C.) and the goddess of Roma. A second temple was erected in the time of Trajan. Caesar worship was the most intense at Pergamum. In some cities the Christian was only in danger on the day of the year when a pinch of incense had to be burned. In Pergamum a Christian was in danger 365 days of the year.

The Kingdom of Pergamum, situated in modern-day Turkey approximately 85 kilometers north of Izmir and 25 kilometers east of the Aegean Sea, played a significant role in the Ancient Mediterranean stage. In 281 B.C. when Lysimachus, who had appropriated Western Asia Minor as a successor of Alexander the Great, was defeated by Seleucus of Syria, Philataerus whom he had appointed to direct his fortress perched on the rocky terrain over the Caicus Valley seized his chance to secure the fortress for himself.

Philataerus was succeeded by his nephew Eumenes who secured the fortress by driving back the Galatians, European Celts settled in north-central Anatolia by the Ionians. He then declared independence for the Kingdom of Pergamum.

The Attalids of Pergamum built an impressive metropolis boasting beautiful temples, roads, a library rivaling that of Alexander's in Egypt, and even a school of medicine founded in the fourth century BC , the Asclepeion, which survived over the centuries and continued as a spa into the second century after Christ, attracting all sorts of travelers and patients from the known world.

* * *

Pergamum seemed to have more influence on Rome than vice versa. Pergamum was completely Hellenistic in culture upon its appropriation, a culture which Rome prized and imitated, and Pergamum became the capital of the East for the Imperial Cult. Under Attalid rule, Zeus and Asclepius were worshipped, and in 29 BC Augustus allowed the Pergamenes to build a temple in his honor which became the center for his worship in Asia Minor.

Both Trajan and Hadrian contributed to Pergamum, renovating temples in their honor, and Pergamum remained a mecca of culture and beauty for the surrounding areas of Asia Minor, especially for those interested in medicine who could visit the Asclepeion and other spas. Two ancient sources who wrote of the Asclepeion, Aelius Aristides and Galen of the second century after Christ, laud its virtues and restorative powers.

Pergamum, Rosa Valderrama (with photos)

Read the whole paper (fascinating - more on the healing "dead water," the gorgon, Russian Myth and influence of the Greeks and Romans) The History of Geothermal Resources Use In Russia and the Former USSR, Valentina Svalova, May-June 2000 (pdf file)

The Black Sea

Some 10 main resorts of the Romanian Black Sea shore are stringing southwards along the coast, while Mamaia lies a few thousand metres north to Constanta. Romanian Sea resorts rank among the very few beaches in Europe which can offer all day long sunlight. Romanian beaches are sloping gently under the waters of the sea, thus allowing sea-bathing and walking on the sea. The sand beaches are generally natural ones, 400-500 m wide at Mangalia and Techirghiol, and 50-200 m wide on the rest of the littoral. But beaches are not the only assets of the Black Sea coast. The high intensity of solar radiation is said to have stimulating and healing effects. By storing it, the Black Sea influences the thermal aspect of local seasons along the coast, resulting in comparatively longer summers and mild autumns. The healing mud used in treatments is of a high therapeutic value. Last but not least, this entire complex of water, sand, air and sun is a beneficial one, with significant results in thalassotherapy and psamotherapy, which most often would work miracles for those come to restore their health.

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The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is one of the most saline lakes in the world. It is fed mainly by River Jordan in the north and by perennial springs and streams from the east and west. Having no outlet, the Dead sea is a "terminal lake" which loses huge amounts of water by evaporation into the hot dry air. This results in  high concentrations of salts and minerals in a unique composition that is particularly rich in chloride salts of magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, bromine and various others. The Dead Sea brine's chemical composition reflects erosion, as well as the recycling of older deposits.

Leaching of minerals from the geological strata  also contributes to the Dead Sea brine and to a number of thermomineral springs along its shores. In addition, alluvial deposits form the much valued Dead Sea mineral mud, also known as Dead Sea therapeutic black mud.

The uniqueness of the Dead Sea has been known for centuries. This is the only place in the world with this particular combination of exclusive spa benefits: peculiar sun radiation and climatic conditions, enriched oxygen atmosphere, mineral-rich salt sea, thermomineral springs, and mineral-rich mud.

Signs of Serpent Holder Influence in coastal Northern Britain

The brief answer must be: A tribe or coalition of tribes who inhabited, certainly, the coastal plains of Northern Britain, beyond the Tay Estuary up to the Moray Firth. You could add : They also, at some point in their collective history, occupied, or ruled over, Fife down to the Firth of Forth, and the coastal strip from the Moray Firth to the Pentland Firth, and the Orkneys.

The Picts first appear in history as such, in a Roman panegyric (fancy name for political propaganda, either verbal or published) composed in 297 CE, by Eumenius. He was complaining about the coalition of Northern tribes known collectively as the Hiberni (or Scoti) and the Picti, who were constantly upsetting the Romans' happy subjects, the Britanni. For some obscure reason, these Northern folk did not want to be slaves of the fabulous Roman Empire. 

The Scoti are known to have come from what is now Ireland, and occupied land in the West of Scotland, and the Picti were previously thought to have occupied Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, the North-East Coastal strip, Fife and Galloway. Nowadays, it is thought Galloway was Irish, and Fife may not have been a permanent Pictish territory. The problem hinges around whether you are talking about a people, or only their aristocratic rulers. For instance, most of what would become England and Wales, and the Southern half of Scotland were, for a while, part of the Roman Empire, but that did not make these people "Romans". (Except in the fevered imaginations of some Romans, perhaps)

What else did the Romans say about the Picti?
Roman historians said the Picti were some kind of Nordic hippy.
They "lived in tents, unclothed and unshod, sharing their women and bringing up all their children together."

* * * 

So where did this aristocracy come from? There is archaeological evidence that the British Isles have been settled for many thousands of years, which would give a long enough time-span for particular families to set themselves up as nobility, but the Venerable Bede, writing about 730CE, passed on the tradition that the Picts had come from Scythia (the area North and North-East of the Black Sea) and once they arrived in Northern Ireland, they took wives from there, and went on to settle on the East Coast of Scotland.

Could this belief explain the persistent rumour that the Pictish royalty favoured matrilineal succession? Did the leaders from Scythia take wives from some Irish noble family, and therefore their subsequent claims to aristocracy rested on descent from the original female lines? On the other hand, perhaps their religion made them seek succession through the female line. Could it be that they deliberately left their former homeland to seek out some special type of women, to start a new cult somewhere else? It might explain why we have difficulty with the mysterious symbols that do not seem to occur anywhere else. It is certainly a kinder thought than "You might never know who the father is, but you can always tell who the mother is."

Read the whole article at: So Who Were the Picts?

So did the Picts see the snake as a symbol of good, evil, or both?

At Canna, on the stone displayed outside Canna house, is a carving of a man wearing a short tunic and with bare legs. A snake rears up between his thighs. In Perth Museum, on another fragment, a pair of snakes bite the genitals of two men - perhaps symbolic of lust. Certainly their phallic shape would encourage that interpretation.

Christianity was definitely responsible for representing snakes as creatures of evil, from the serpent in the Garden of Eden to St. Patrick casting the snakes out of Ireland. But possibly the Picts viewed them, along with many other ancient peoples, as magical, wise, eternal creatures.

More cultural and symbol information at: Pictofile - Guide and Snakes and Serpents

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