Eve Lost

Eve (1889) looks really lost on this painting by the French artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903).

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve a 1956 movie directed by Alberto Gout.

A Perfect Composition

Adam and Eve (c. 1620) by the Italian painter Guido Reni (1575-1642). This painting from the heyday of the baroque era is nearly perfectly composed. The two perfect bodies like a pair of scales, the evil snake in the center and the the fatal apple. The lion, the rey among the animals, seems already very upset.

Eternal Seductress

Cameron Diaz in the movie "Bad Teacher" (2011). She poses as the eternal seductress, the bad woman, offering the evil apple.

Good Old Snake Myth

This photo "les dompteuses" in numero 23 may 2001 by the fashion photographer Mert Alas is another new interpretation of the old snake seductress myth

Seduction

The Woman, the Man and the Serpent; (1911) by the English painter John Byam Shaw (1872-1919).

Fantasy Eve

A modern fantasy version of the old myth of the seductress by the artist Mutabor. I'm not surprised that she's a redhead.

Old Symbols still working

A Poster of the tv-series Desperate Housewives uses the old symbol of the apple which automatically includes seduction, the serpent and so on. That the housewives are dressed in red and black these old demonic colours isnt't surprising.

Eva Negra

The old snake-woman myth still proves useful selling movies. It's Eva and the snake, they are two sides of the same coin.

Seductive Eve

Adam and Eve by the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1533). Here Eve is downright feeding Adam and the snake seems her worthy companion.

Lost Paradise

Eve (1911) by the British painter John Collier (1850-1934).

Snake Girls

The British actresses Rachel Weisz and Rhona Mitra with snakes. Despite it looks quite fashionable it’s not least a modern interpretation of the old biblical myths od Eva, Lilith the Snake Goddess and the female evil. But probably that’s what it makes so interesting today.

Furthermore it should be noticed that the postures are entirely copied from 19th century paintings.

Treacherous Redhead

Eve (1896) by the French artist Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer (1865-1953). Levy-Dhurmer was a Symbolist/Art Nouveau painter and shows here a femme fatale who seems best friend with the devilish snake.

Sin thy Name Is Woman

The Sin (1893) by the German symbolist painter Franz von Stuck (1863-1928).

The snake and the women are here inseparably interwoven, they are only two faces of the same subject. The woman may be Eve, Lilith or the devil herself, she’s a dangerous seductress. After all that’s nothing new. Eve always has been a kind of demon, but at the end of the 19th century it seems that this is all what’s left.

Snake Goddess

Probably the most inconsistent and multifaceted icon of all bible women is the women with the snake. In her person are blending various myths and characters. At first there is Eve the first woman, the wife of Adam and the primordial mother of all mankind.

But Eve is already much more than this, she also seduces Adam and becomes therefore an ally of the serpent. So frequently she is painted with an apple as the symbol of temptation and the snake as the symbol of the devil. But in many cases these symbols are convertible. For example the apple alone is mostly already a symbol for Eve or the devil, as the snake can be a symbol for Eve and the seduction.

Probably this was from the beginning like this. Because the snake is made of various older mother and fertility goddesses like Ishtar or Astarte. The snake was a very old an powerful symbol of fertility and life, but also wisdom and medicine. The monotheistic and Jewish religion transformed these older female gods into lesser demons like Lilith, the legendary first wife of Adam.

Women with snakes are always seductive and at least a little evil. Maybe they are more orientated at Eve the mother, Eve the seductress or Lilith the demon.

Interesting is also that many modern interpretations, which pretend to be non or even anti Christian, are also depicting the snake women as demons. And because of that they reveal a much greater influence of the Old Testament than of that older oriental cults they pretend to renew. The ancient Snake Goddesses weren’t demons at all but chthonic, helpful deities.