![]() ![]() A subsequent study, in which pictures of koalas replaced the flowers, yielded similar results. The monkeys, who grew up in snake-less captivity, recognized the snake among the flowers faster than the flower among the snakes. They showed the monkeys an image of a snake among pictures of flowers and vice versa. In a 2009 study, researchers examined the ability of Japanese macaque monkeys ( Macaca fuscata) to pick out the unusual image from among several images. ![]() Even monkeys raised in captivity, without ever encountering a snake, recognize snakes more quickly and easily than other objects. Indeed, humans and other primates specialize in detecting snakes any snake-like shape or movement in our field of vision causes us to react rapidly. A primate that can quickly identify and respond to snakes has a higher chance of survival and producing offspring than a less vigilant one. Primates and their ancestors were prey for snakes the threat they posed was one of the factors leading to the development of primates’ good vision. Isbell of the University of California, Davis, speculates that the predisposition to fear snakes, as well as the ability to quickly and easily detect them, developed during primate evolution. The curse supposedly explains humans’ fear of snakes, and perhaps the fact that this fear is even more prevalent among women.įear of snakes can also be seen in other primates and seems to predate the appearance of humans. God says to the serpent: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). God punishes the serpent, but as in the story of Medusa, its victims – the man, and especially the woman – are also punished. In the Jewish myth of the Garden of Eden, the serpent reveals the truth about the Tree of Knowledge and seduces Eve, who does not know good from evil, to eat its fruit. In ancient Egypt, the giant serpent deity Apep embodied chaos and was the sworn enemy of the sun god, Ra. Medusa’s hair of living snakes in Greek mythology keeps people away from her and underscores the terrifying and repulsive monstrosity of the previously attractive girl. It is a primal fear that is expressed in various mythologies. About 3% has snake phobia: An extreme, paralyzing, and persistent fear called ophidiophobia, from ophis, the Greek word for snake. Some 50% of the world’s population reports being afraid of snakes. Medusa by Carlos Schwabe A snake lurks in the grass Hair of venomous snakes and a gaze that will turn you into stone. The cursed Medusa represents at least two horrifying things – venomous snakes and petrification. The tale of the unfortunate Medusa is recounted here not because the Davidson Institute has taken up mythology, but rather, on the occasion of All Saints’ Eve, or Halloween, celebrated tonight around the world, and associated with both horror stories and monsters. Athena cursed Medusa, turning her hair into squirming venomous snakes, and her face, probably more beautiful than that of the envious goddess, became so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. ![]() After Poseidon left, the goddess unleashed her wrath on the poor girl. Athena, the eternal virgin, was shocked by the desecration of her temple, and hid her eyes behind her shield in order not to see. Poseidon captured Medusa in the temple and violated her. Fleeing from him, Medusa came to the temple of Athena (Minerva), goddess of wisdom. Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea, also noticed the girl – Medusa – and decided she would be his. According to Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid, many years ago, there lived a beautiful maiden, “the jealous aspiration of many suitors.” All who saw her face swore they had never seen a lovelier face, and more than all of her beautiful features, were enchanted by her lush golden wavy hair. ![]()
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