Hello! I just discovered your blog and I really love your work because you layout all of your info in a really neat and organized way and I know this type of blog must take a lot of work to maintain and provide top quality information.
While I have been studying mythology and occultism and such for many years now, it was only in the past 2 years that I took interest in the serpent and anguiped and since then I've been periodically learning more and more about it. However, more of my interest lately lies in the research of whoredom/fertility and whatnot in mythology. This led me to begin researching on Lilith and serpent adjacent mythical figures. Recently I learned about a goddess(?) hypostasis(?) called Luxuria and I've noted that a lot of her imagery depicts two serpents being fed from her breasts. While this isn't specifically anguiped related, I was wondering if you had any wisdom regarding be it Luxuria or her associated imagery.
Thank you for running such a fantastic blog
Oh this is a great question! I’ve actually been meaning to post my research about this, and your question will probably inspire me to do that.
Let’s start with what “Luxuria” means. In the book Images of Lust, about the sexuality charged images on medieval Romanesque churches in Europe, the authors note that guides to monuments in France make a distinction between single and double tailed mermaids. The single-tailed mermaid is known as la conupiscence, or longing, while the double-tailed is known as la luxure, or lust.
On the imagery of women nursing two snakes: it’s usually suggested that this represents a punishment for women’s sin. Snakes and serpents in early medieval art are generally associated with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and the image of a woman nursing two snakes in common in Romanesque churches. There’s also Christian writing about this image:
“In a 9th- century Byzantine manuscript, the Virgin descends into hell, accompanied by the archangel Saint Michael, and discovers tortured women there: Two-headed reptiles were devouring their breasts. The Virgin asked the archangel, "Who are they and what is their sin?" And the archangel replied, "My Virgin, they are those who have given their bodies to prostitution, and it is in this way that they are condemned to Hell.”
Quote from: Guesuraga, Raphaël. “La Femme Allaitant Des Serpents et Ses Liens Avec La Luxure.” Bulletin Du Centre d’Études Médiévales d’Auxerre | BUCEMA, vol. 23.2, 2019. Title translated: Women breastfeeding snakes and her links with lust.
Online here:
Il y a bien longtemps que le motif roman de la femme allaitant des serpents a été associé à la luxure. Dans les années 1840, Arcisse de Caum
I’ve also gathered up some quotes from Christian writers linking sirens with prostitution, which in my opinion, is an easy way to diminish symbols of sexuality or fertility.
About 350 CE, St. Jerome, who considered the sirens “treacherous prostitutes.”
Isidore, Bishop of Seville, writing in the early seventh century, identifies sirens as “meretrices,” meretrix meaning “she who earns.”
Finally, there’s some two-tailed sirens nursing snakes in church art. Which I am need to do a post about. thanks for asking a great question!
the other book I mentioned—
Jerman, James; Weir, Anthony. Images of Lust : Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches. First ed. London: Routledge, 1999.
