Serpents and Connection to the Feminine

Coiled around the arms of queens, carved into the temples of ancient goddesses, and etched onto the earliest artifacts of civilization — the serpent is one of humanity’s most enduring symbols. Serpents have always embodied power: the feminine energy of renewal, protection, and transformation.

Goddess Tiamat — Mesopotamia

Long before it was demonized in biblical texts, the serpent was revered as sacred. In Mesopotamian myth, Tiamat emerged as the primordial goddess of salt water and chaos. She was often imagined as a colossal sea-serpent or dragon, embodying the womb from which all life emerged. When her body was slain and split apart in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enuma Elish, her rib cage became the sky and her lower body the earth. In this story of violent creation, it is the feminine serpent who literally becomes the world — matter, fertility, and the cycles of life.

Tiamat represents a truth carried across cultures: the serpent as the source of both chaos and creation, destruction and renewal. She is not only the origin but the cycle itself — a reminder that feminine power is vast, untamed, and foundational.

Goddess Wadjet — Ancient Egypt

In Egypt, the serpent held an equally sacred role. The Uraeus cobra rose from the crowns of pharaohs, symbolizing the goddess Wadjet, protector of Lower Egypt. Wadjet was believed to spit fire at enemies, a blazing defence of the land and its ruler.

The serpent here was a guardian — fierce, maternal, and divine. Archaeological remains show Uraeus emblems across jewellery, statuary, and temple walls, always connected to feminine goddesses of protection. The serpent was not only power, but sovereign feminine power — the shield of a nation embodied in the image of a coiled cobra.

The Minoan Snake Goddess — Anatolia & the Aegean

Across Anatolia and the Aegean, serpents appear again, intimately tied to feminine figures. At Çatalhöyük, one of the oldest known settlements (7,000 BCE), archaeologists uncovered goddess figurines flanked by serpents — protectors of hearth and womb.

In Crete, the famous Minoan Snake Goddess statues (circa 1600 BCE) show a bare-breasted woman holding serpents in each hand, a striking image of fertility, life, and death cycles. Scholars suggest that the snake’s shedding skin made it a natural symbol of regeneration and immortality, while its underground dwelling linked it to the mysteries of the earth and afterlife.

The fact that these snakes are consistently held by female figures tells us something vital: ancient people associated serpents with feminine force, transformation, and the mysteries of nature.

The Feminine Symbolism of the Serpent

Why the serpent, and why women? The answer lies in what serpents represent:

Regeneration: Shedding skin and beginning anew — a mirror of childbirth, menstruation, and the cycles of the womb.

Fertility: Guardians of sacred trees and sources of life — symbols of fertility and abundance across myth.

Wisdom & Intuition: Silent, sensitive, connected to vibration and the unseen — aligned with the intuitive feminine.

Power over life and death: Venom could heal or kill, embodying the dual edge of creation itself.

Later patriarchal narratives recast this sacred creature into an enemy. In Eden, the serpent tempting Eve became a symbol of sin rather than sovereignty. Yet this rewriting only confirms its original power: the serpent was too closely tied to the feminine not to be demonized once control shifted.

The Ouroboros: Eternity in a Circle

Among the most profound serpent symbols is the Ouroboros — the serpent devouring its own tail. First appearing in Egyptian funerary texts around 1600 BCE, it represented the eternal cycle of death and rebirth, the unity of all things. Later adopted by Greek alchemists and Gnostic mystics, the Ouroboros became a symbol of wholeness, infinity, and the eternal feminine cycle.

In the Ouroboros, we see the serpent as self-sufficient, eternal, and sovereign. It has no beginning or end — an image of continuity, and endless becoming. Today, the Ouroboros remains a powerful symbol, a talisman of infinite cycles worn on the body as protection and reminder.

Archaeological Echoes: Serpents as Ornament

The serpent was not only carved into temples — it was wrapped directly onto the body. Archaeological finds reveal serpent bracelets, rings, and arm cuffs across Bronze Age and Classical civilizations, proving that serpents were worn as talismans of protection, fertility, and eternal renewal.

Bronze Age Anatolia & Mesopotamia (c. 2000–1000 BCE): Excavations in Anatolia and Assyria uncovered serpent-shaped bracelets and amulets, often buried with the dead. These objects suggest the serpent was not only a living ally but a guardian of the afterlife, ensuring safe passage into the next world.

Egypt (c. 1600 BCE onward): Coiled serpent rings and cuffs appear in elite burials, echoing the power of Wadjet. Gold Uraeus amulets were worn for protection, regeneration, and divine favour, invoking the cobra goddess who crowned pharaohs as the shield of sovereignty.

Syria — The Goddess Atargatis (c. 300 BCE onward): In the ancient Syrian city of Hierapolis, the goddess Atargatis was worshipped as a great mother and protector, often linked with water, fertility, and serpents. Coins and reliefs from her temples depict serpentine motifs beside her image, reinforcing her role as guardian of life’s cycles. Jewellery and amulets dedicated to Atargatis often bore snake designs, uniting feminine divinity with the serpent’s powers of protection and regeneration.

Persia & the Hellenistic World (6th–3rd century BCE): The Achaemenid Persians crafted snake-headed bracelets in gold and silver, worn by nobility as symbols of fertility and divine guardianship. In Macedonia, Olympias — mother of Alexander the Great — was so closely associated with serpents through Dionysian cults that legends claimed Alexander was fathered by a serpent deity, cementing the link between serpents, royalty, and feminine power.

Scythians of the Steppe (7th–3rd century BCE): Nomadic queens were buried with gold plaques adorned with serpent heads, their jewellery embodying both wealth and cosmic guardianship. These finds, unearthed in burial mounds across the Black Sea, testify that serpent ornament was not confined to the Mediterranean but stretched deep into the Eurasian world.

Across time, the serpent has been chosen again and again as a talismanic presence, alive with meaning.

From Ancient Symbol to Modern Power

Why does serpent jewellery still resonate today? Because it speaks to truths that never die. In a world that continues to challenge feminine power, the serpent rises again as protector, guide, and emblem of strength.

To wear a serpent cuff or choker today is to align with this lineage — with Tiamat’s chaotic creativity, with Wadjet’s protective fire, with the Minoan goddess’s fearless command of life and death. It is to carry on your body a reminder that power is cyclical, regenerative, and eternal.

At The Bow Jewelry, serpent adornments —like the Ouroboros Earrings and Le Serpent Necklace are created as modern talismans and armour. They are continuity of the serpents as the symbol of feminine power.

The Serpent as Feminine Symbol — Conclusion

The serpent has always belonged to the feminine: as creator and destroyer, as protector and guide, as emblem of infinite cycles. Across the ancient world, women and goddesses held serpents in their hands, wore them on their arms, and crowned themselves with their power.

To adorn yourself in the serpent is to remember an ancient truth. The serpent is the mirror of your feminine power: fierce, regenerative, eternal.