ishism to the pure religio

n of redemption. In the Old Testament, as in the case of the primal serpent Tiamat in Babylon, the serpent is the spirit of evil and of temptation. In Greece, as well, it is the merciless, devouring creature of the underworld: the Erinyes are encircled by snakes, and when the gods mete out punishment they

send a serpent as their e

• xecutioner. This ide
• a of the serpent as a destroyi
• ng force from the un
• derworld has found its m
• ost powerful and trag

ic symbol in the myth and in the sculpted group of Laocoon. The vengeance of the gods, wrought on their priest and on his two sons by means of a strangler serpent, becomes in this renowned sculpture o