The ouroboros is an ancient symbolization of aserpentconsuming its own tail , get word across multiple cultures and time periods . Its circularity represents eternity and the Hz of birth , living , and end , while the wordouroboros(pronouncedaw - ro - BAW - roz)comes from Greekand intend “ devouring [ its ] shadower . ” It was often prefixed by the worddrákōn , which can be render as either “ serpent ” or “ dragon , ” and so visual representations of the ouroboros have also change between the two .
Depictions of the symbol have been receive in ancient Egypt dating to around 1300 BCE , with the early know lettering of an ouroboros discovered on agold shrineinTutankhamun ’s tomb .
InKing Tut ’s world , the ouroboros was relate to the annual implosion therapy of the Nile that brought essential water to the crop alongside the river before fall behind . It was also associated with the daily transit of the sun across the sky . The Egyptians believed thesun god Ra(or Re ) carried the sun on his barge across the sky each mean solar day before being consumed by his mother , Nut , every eve , and then being reborn the next 24-hour interval . This circularity was symbolize by the symbol of the serpent consuming its own tail in a never - terminate cycle and it was used to adorn many tombs and monuments acrossancient Egypt .
Egypt was not the only place where the ouroboros had fabulous power . Representations of the ouroboros reflect theNorse conceptof the cosmos . An enormous snake namedJörmungandrwas said to encircle the integral existence , symbolizing the innumerous loop of creation and demolition . The ophidian is both severe and protective at once , representing the duality of the human condition and the idea that from every termination comes a new beginning .
likewise , in Hindu mythology , thegreat ophidian Sheshais coiled around the cosmos . Shesha survive before the universe was create and will survive beyond its destruction , the myth contest , signifying the endless loop of existence . In these two mythology the ouroboros further a circular , rather than linear , excogitation of time .
Allusions in Alchemy
alchemist in the Hellenic world adopt the symbolic representation from ancient Egypt . A diagram of a opprobrious and white ouroboros come along in an ancient ringlet calledCleopatra ’s Chrysopoeia(chrysopoeiameans “ gold - making ” ) . This Cleopatra was not the same as thequeen of Egyptwho go in 30 BCE , but a leading alchemist in Alexandria during the 3rd century CE.Cleopatra ’s Chrysopoeiahas been identify by historians as one of the early skill books authored by a char , and it hold in philosophic musings alongside alchemical experiment for turning common metal intogold . In this and other alchemic books , the ouroboros was used to represent eternity , shifting its meaning aside from the original Egyptian connexion to the bike of the Nile and the sun , and toward its more modernistic connotations .
Renaissance alchemists adapted the ouroboros to their quest for themagnum opus , or “ great workplace , ” such as securing immortality or transforming lead into Au , achieved through practical experiment and philosophical debates . German engraver Lucas Jennis included an iconic image of an ouroboros in his 1625 workDe Lapide Philosophico , depicting it as a wyvern ( a mythical winged reptilian ) or flying dragon consuming its own tail .
The book contains 15 emblems that communicate the philosophical underpinnings of alchemy . The first five engravings show different versions of two competing impulses thought to be at work inside all people , for example a godforsaken wolf and a tame dog fighting . This concept is travel along by the depiction of the ouroboros represent the sublimation of these pulsation .
Balancing the Human and Divine
From the second century CE , Greco - RomanGnosticsused the ouroboros to symbolize the tension between the inspired and earthly aspects of world . And for them , the effigy of the serpent eating its own tale comprise how these two position can be balanced and coordinated . Gnostics believed that humans each held a tiny part of God , often represented as a providential spark , inside themselves . This indication correspond the snake in the grass with human beings and represent the wayward forces of the divine and the human that bump concord in the ouroboros .
The ouroboros maintain its links topsychologywell into the modern era . German chemistAugust Kekuléidentified the ring - shaped structure of the chemical compound benzol after daydream of a serpent consuming its own tail in 1865 . Psychiatrist Carl Jung conceptualized it as an archetype of human character in which we always seek to consume ourselves and be reborn .
The support symbolization of the ouroboros has ensured its length of service . It is find in a wide motley of ocular fine art , from the 19th - century funerary monument ofArchduchess Maria Christina of Austriato artist Salvador Dali ’s 1976 artist ’s bookAlchimie des Philosophes , which sport an ouroboros turn off into many pieces but maintaining its disk shape .
Today the ouroboros is a popular selection as a tattoo , perhaps touch to the multiple meanings that people encounter in this ancient symbol . It remind us of the endless cycle per second of life and death — and the possibility of rebirth .
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