Janet:
The snake/well stuff seemed mostly to come from the Continent, esp Germany
and Scandianvia,
from what I remember. Including the well(s) at the root of Yggdrasill. But I
think it is in the Celtic areas of Britain, assuming that 'snake' and
'serpent' are more or
less interchangeable. Anne Ross (p. 348) refers to a serpent in a well in
Pembs recounted by
Giraldus Cambrensis, plus a 'serpent well' in Llanengan and a 'winged
serpent' at Brawdy, again Pembs. And a Scottish parallel, and 'numerous
early Irish stories of supernatural water serpents inhabiting lakes and
rivers'. She refers to a mother-healing type goddess in Gaul, portrayed with
a serpent in each hand, and a similar image of a river goddess found at
Ilkley (p. 345).
There are also snakes on a couple of fonts in Cornwall: Gwithian (possibly
recut) and Maker, originally at St Merryn. Or maybe they were intended to be
eels, too . . . (Used, as was said in the previous strand, to keep water
pure in Roman cisterns.) Which raises the possibly unanswerable question of
what species was the 'sacred snake' of the Asclepius sites; whether it was
happy to stay in the water permanently -- natural history not being my
strong suit, to say the least.
Christine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet Kaiser" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 1:42 AM
Subject: Re: Aesculapius
> Christine
>
> The only snake-like association with wells I know of
> (in the UK) is the eel.
>
> There were three (I think) "holy eels" at St. Cybi's
> Well in Llangybi, Gwynedd, North Wales.
>
> Apparently they were removed after a young girl died of
> shock when they wrapped around her doing their healing
> bit. As Cybi's well is an immersion pool with a
> constant flow leading directly into a stream, they must
> have been quite happy to stay there of their own accord
> before they were banned.
>
> Biblical associations there, what?
>
> Tristan Gray Hulse could give you more detail on that
> one. Perhaps you could ask him to embroider the detail
> and quote some sources, Janet*?
>
> Janet Kaiser (*referring to Janet Bord, not talking to
> myself!)
> Criccieth
> GB-Wales
>
> > Are there any Aesculapius sites in Britain?
>
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