|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ouroboros |
The Ouroboros (Greek Ουροβόρος, from ουροβόρος όφις "tail-devouring snake", also spelled Ourorboros, Oroborus, Uroboros or Uroborus, in English pronounced /ʊˈrɒbɔrɔs/ or /ˌjʊəroʊˈbɒrəs/), is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.
The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (See Phoenix (mythology)). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.
Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an archetypical significance to the human psyche. The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego "dawn state", depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.1
Contents |
Plato described a self-eating, circular being as the first living thing in the universe—an immortal, perfectly constructed animal.
"Coiled dragon" forms have been attributed to the Hongshan culture (4700 BC to 2900 BC). One in particular, in the shape of a complete circle, was found on the chest of the deceased.3
The notion of a serpent or dragon eating its own tail can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 BC. From ancient Egypt it passed to Phoenicia and then to the Greek philosophers, who gave it the name Ouroboros ("tail-devourer").
In Gnosticism, this serpent symbolized eternity and the soul of the world.
Christianity adopted the Ouroboros as symbols of the limited confines of the material world (that there is an "outside" being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere "worldly existence" of this world, following in the footsteps of the preacher in Ecclesiastes 3:9-14. G. K. Chesterton, in The Everlasting Man, uses it as a symbol of the circular and self-defeating nature of pantheistic mysticism and of most modern philosophy.
In Norse mythology, it appears as the serpent Jörmungandr, one of the three children of Loki and Angrboda, who grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth. In the legends of Ragnar Lodbrok, such as Ragnarssona þáttr, the Geatish king Herraud gives a small lindworm as a gift to his daughter Þóra Town-Hart after which it grows into a large serpent which encircles the girl's bower and bites itself in the tail. The serpent is slain by Ragnar Lodbrok who marries Þóra. Ragnar later has a son with another woman named Kráka and this son is born with the image of a white snake in one eye. This snake encircled the iris and bit itself in the tail, and the son was named Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.
In alchemy, the Ouroboros is a purifying sigil. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw the Ouroboros as an archetype and the basic mandala of alchemy. Jung also defined the relationship of the Ouroboros to alchemy:4
The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. Ouroboros, has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the Ouroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. The Ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima materia which [...] unquestionably stems from man's unconscious.
The famous Ouroboros drawing from the early alchemical text The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra dating to 2nd century Alexandria encloses the words hen to pan, "one is the all". Its black and white halves represent the Gnostic duality of existence.
As a symbol of the eternal unity of all things, the cycle of birth and death from which the alchemist sought release and liberation, it was familiar to the alchemist/physician Sir Thomas Browne. In his A letter to a friend, a medical treatise full of case-histories and witty speculations upon the human condition, he wrote of it:
[...] that the first day should make the last, that the Tail of the Snake should return into its Mouth precisely at that time, and they should wind up upon the day of their Nativity, is indeed a remarkable Coincidence,
It is also alluded to at the conclusion of Browne's The Garden of Cyrus (1658) as a symbol of the circular nature and Unity of the two Discourses:
All things began in order so shall they end, so shall they begin again according to the Ordainer of Order and the mystical mathematicks of the City of Heaven.
It is also present in some Hindu folk-myths, as a snake (Adisesha) circling the tortoise Maha kurma that supports the eight elephants which support the world on their backs. However, the snake does not bite its own tail, but instead is calling itself into being through what some literary theorists have called a performative speech act. It is telling the tale of its tail, perpetually bringing itself into the world, in a circular fashion.
Snakes are sacred animals in many West African religions. The demi-god Aidophedo uses the image of a serpent biting its own tail. The Ouroboros is also seen in fon or dahomean iconography as well as in yoruba imagery as Oshunmare.
The god Quetzalcoatl is sometimes portrayed as an Ouroboros on Aztec and Toltec ruins.
The organic chemist August Kekulé claimed that a ring in the shape of Ouroboros that he saw in a dream inspired him in his discovery of the structure of benzene. As noted by Carl Jung, this might be an instance of cryptomnesia.clarify
The flag of the short-lived Italian Regency of Carnaro featured the Ouroboros on it. The Ouroboros has been incorporated into the crests of the Hungarian and Romanian Unitarian churches.
On The X-Files, Agent Dana Scully gets an Ouroboros tattoo on her lower back in the 4th season episode "Never Again".
Canadian Progressive Rock band Rush used a depiction of a snake eating its tail on various album artwork for their 2007 album Snakes and Arrows.
In the 1999 Konami game Silent Hill, the player must collect 5 talismen to unlock a door, one of which is the Disk Of Ouroboros.
On Earth's LP "Hibernaculum", there is a track titled, Ouroboros is Broken
In the anime/manga, Fullmetal Alchemist, the Ouroboros is used as the symbol of the Homunculi.
A seventh series episode of the British Sci-Fi TV show Red Dwarf is titled "Ouroboros". In the episode, Lister discovers that he is his own father, and that he placed himself into a cardboard box underneath a pool table at a pub.
The album The Way of All Flesh by french death metal band Gojira includes a track titled "Oroborus".
A song on the album The Bedlam In Goliath by The Mars Volta is named Ouroboros.
The final episode of the sci-fi Canadian/South African produced television series Charlie Jade is titled "Ouroboros".
The song I Palindrome I by They Might Be Giants references the Ouroboros "I am a snake head eating the head of the opposite side"
In the MMORPG "City of Heroes" Ouroboros is an area that deals with time travel themed missions.
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, in an episode entitled "The Secret", it is revealed that Marguerite Krux came to the plateau in search of the other half of a medallion, the Ouroboros, which she needed to trade with a criminal called Shanghai Xan, who in return was to give her her birth certificate so she could learn her true identity.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game there is a card called "Cyber Ouroboros that, when requirement have been met, allows you to discard one card in your hand to allow you to draw one card from your deck.
Japanese Metal Band Dir en grey have titled their 2008 album Uroboros.
There is a Black Metal band from Finland named Circle of Ouroborus.
Psychedelic sonic overlords Mugstar have entitled their fourth coming album "Ouroboros", due 2009.
The Oroboros (Ourobors) is used as namesake and logo by Oroboros Instruments.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |