Despite playing no meaningful practical role in the lives of the ancient Greeks, snakes are ubiquitous in their material culture and literary accounts, in particular in narratives which emphasise their role of guardian animals. This paper will mainly utilise vase paintings as a source of information, with literary references for further elucidation, to explain why the snake had such a prominent role and thus clarify its meaning within the cultural context of Archaic and Classical Greece, with a particular focus on Athens. Previous scholarship has tended to focus on dualistic opposites, such as life/death, nature/culture, and creation/destruction. This paper argues instead that ancient Greeks perceived the existence of a special primordial force living within, emanating from, or symbolised by the snake; a force which is not more—and not less—than pure life, with all its paradoxes and complexities. Thus, the snake reveals itself as an excellent medium for accessing Greek ideas about the divine, anthropomorphism, and ancestry, the relationship between humans, nature and the supernatural, and the negotiation of the inevitable dichotomy of old and new.

中文翻译：

---

蛇在古希腊世界中的意义

尽管在古希腊人的生活中没有扮演任何有意义的实际角色，但蛇在其物质文化和文学作品中无处不在，特别是在强调其守护动物角色的叙事中。本文将主要利用花瓶绘画作为信息来源，并为进一步阐明提供文学参考，以解释为什么蛇具有如此重要的作用，从而在古希腊和古典希腊的文化语境中阐明其含义，特别着重于雅典。先前的奖学金倾向于集中于二元对立面，例如生命/死亡，自然/文化和创造/毁灭。相反，本文认为，古希腊人认为存在一种特殊的原始力量存在于蛇中，由蛇发出或由蛇象征的情况。一种力量，它不比纯粹生活多，而且不少于它，并且具有所有悖论和复杂性。因此，这条蛇展现出了一种极好的媒介，可以用来获取希腊关于神，拟人与祖先，人与自然，超自然之间的关系以及新旧不可避免的二分法的观点。