The ouroboros is an esoteric representation of infinity; being an ancient symbol present in several mythologies around the world.
It is commonly depicted as a snake or dragon eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition. It was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism and Hermeticism and, most notably, in alchemy.
Origin[]
In nature, snakes occasionally eat their own tail by accident, thus giving the impression of being "infinite".
The first appearance of the Ouroboros was in the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. In the Egyptian religion, the Ouroboros was seen as a formless deity that represents the infinite. The name Ouroboros was given by the Greeks, the name Ouroboros in ancient Greek is "οὐροβόρος", that is the combination between the words, οὐρά oura 'tail' and -βορός -boros '-eating'.
Mythology[]
Ancient Egypt and Rome[]
One of the earliest known ouroboros motifs is found in the Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld, an ancient Egyptian funerary text in KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun, in the 14th century BCE. The text concerns the actions of Ra and his union with Osiris in the underworld. The ouroboros is depicted twice on the figure: holding their tails in their mouths, one encircling the head and upper chest, the other surrounding the feet of a large figure, which may represent the unified Ra-Osiris (Osiris born again as Ra). Both serpents are manifestations of the deity Mehen, who in other funerary texts protects Ra in his underworld journey. The whole divine figure represents the beginning and the end of time.
The ouroboros appears elsewhere in Egyptian sources, where, like many Egyptian serpent deities, it represents the formless disorder that surrounds the orderly world and is involved in that world's periodic renewal. The symbol persisted from Egyptian into Roman times, when it frequently appeared on magical talismans, sometimes in combination with other magical emblems. The 4th-century CE Latin commentator Servius was aware of the Egyptian use of the symbol, noting that the image of a snake biting its tail represents the cyclical nature of the year.
| “ | "according to the Egyptians, before the invention of the alphabet the year was symbolized by a picture, a serpent biting its own tail because it recurs on itself" (annus secundum Aegyptios indicabatur ante inventas litteras picto dracone caudam suam mordente, quia in se recurrit)
Servius, note to Aeneid 5.85
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Gnosticism and Alchemy[]
In Gnostic theology, the eternity is presented as a Serpent, in the Pitis Sophia (c. 400 CE), it describes the ouroboros as a twelve-part dragon surrounding the world with its tail in its mouth.
The famous ouroboros drawing from the early alchemical text, The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra (Κλεοπάτρας χρυσοποιία), probably originally dating to the 3rd century Alexandria, but first known in a 10th-century copy, encloses the words hen to pan (ἓν τὸ πᾶν), "the all is one". Its black and white halves may perhaps represent a Gnostic duality of existence, analogous to the Taoist yin and yang symbol. The chrysopoeia ouroboros of Cleopatra the Alchemist is one of the oldest images of the ouroboros to be linked with the legendary opus of the alchemists, the philosopher's stone.
A 15th-century alchemical manuscript, The Aurora Consurgens, features the ouroboros, where it is used among symbols of the sun, moon, and mercury.
World serpent in mythology[]
The concept of Ouroboros is present in different myths, in Norse mythology the Midgard serpent, Jörmungandr grew so much that he ate his own tail during his fight against Thor in Ragnarok.
In South America, several Indigenous people uses the representation of a world-disc as encircled by a snake, often an anaconda, biting its own tail.
In the Zohar, the Ouroboros was identified with the Leviathan, in where it was descripted as "its tail is placed in its mouth".
Connection to Indian thought[]
In the Aitareya Brahmana, a Vedic text of the early 1st millennium BCE, the nature of the Vedic rituals is compared to "a snake biting its own tail."
Ouroboros symbolism has been used to describe the Kundalini. According to the medieval Yoga-kundalini Upanishad: "The divine power, Kundalini, shines like the stem of a young lotus; like a snake, coiled round upon herself she holds her tail in her mouth and lies resting half asleep as the base of the body" (1.82).
Philosophy[]
Carl Jung[]
Carl Jung identified the Ouroboros as:
| “ | 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. The 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 'feedback' 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.
Carl Jung, Collected Works, Vol. 14 para. 513.
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Popular Culture[]
Literature[]
- In High School DXD, Ouroboros is the title of Ophis, the infinity dragon.
- In Tokyo Babel God, has a second episode called "Ouroboros".
- In Full Metal Alchemist, the homunculi are identified with an Ouroboros symbol.
Television[]
- In Ninjago, there exists a city named Ouroboros city.
- Ouroboros is the name of a Japanese Drama based on the manga of the same name.
- In the Marvel series Loki, there exists an episode called "Ouroboros", there is also a character named Ouroboros (played by Ke Huy Quan).
Video Games[]
- In the flash game Summoner Saga: Endless, Ourobos is an invocation.
- Ouroboros is a recurring character in the Megaten games.
Gallery[]
