Ouroboros

1 Historical representations

For other uses, see Ouroboros (disambiguation).

The Ouroboros or Uroboros (/jrbrs/;

1.1 Antiquity

Drawing by Theodoros Pelecanos, in a 1478 copy[1] of a lost

alchemical tract by Synesius.

Scarab on a fresco.

In ancient Egypt, the scarab (or dung beetle) was viewed

as a sign of eternal renewal and reemergence of life, a
reminder of the life to come. (See also "Atum" and
"Ma'at.)

/rbrs/, from the Greek taildevouring snake) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent
The ancient Mayans and Aztecs also took a cyclical view
or dragon eating its own tail.
of time.
The Ouroboros often symbolizes self-reexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re- In ancient Greece, the concept of eternal return was concreating itself, the eternal return, and other things such nected with Empedocles, Zeno of Citium, and most noas the phoenix which operate in cycles that begin anew as tably in Stoicism (see ekpyrosis).
soon as they end. It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting
1.1.1 Egypt
from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot
be extinguished. While rst emerging in Ancient Egypt, The rst known appearance of the ouroboros motif is in
the Ouroboros has been important in religious and mytho- the Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld, an ancient Egyplogical symbolism, but has also been frequently used in tian funerary text in KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun, in
alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular the 14th century BC. The text concerns the actions of the
nature of the alchemists opus. It is also often associated god Ra and his union with Osiris in the underworld. In
with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.
an illustration from this text, two serpents, holding their
Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an
archetypal signicance to the human psyche.[2] The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego dawn state, depicting the undierentiated infancy experience of both mankind and
the individual child.[3]

tails in their mouths, coil around the head and feet of an

enormous god, who may represent the unied Ra-Osiris.
Both serpents are manifestations of the deity Mehen, who
in other funerary texts protects Ra in his underworld journey. The whole divine gure represents the beginning and
the end of time.[4]
1

HISTORICAL REPRESENTATIONS

nothing beside him. Of design he created thus;

his own waste providing his own food, and all
that he did or suered taking place in and by
himself. For the Creator conceived that a being
which was self-sucient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as
he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it
necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had
he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his
spherical form which was designed by him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made
to move in the same manner and on the same
spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle.
All the other six motions were taken away from
him, and he was made not to partake of their
deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.[8][9]
In Gnosticism, a serpent biting its tail symbolized eternity
and the soul of the world. The Gnostic text Pistis Sophia
describes the disc of the sun as a 12-part dragon with his
tail in his mouth.[10]
Gnostic gem from Roman-era Egypt (1st century AD), with an
ouroboros surrounding a scarab and voces magicae, characters
representing magic words

1.2 Middle Ages

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 worlds periodic renewal.[5] The symbol
persisted in Egypt into Roman times, when it frequently
appeared on magical talismans, sometimes in combination with other magical emblems.[6] The 4th-century AD
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.[7]
1.1.2

Greece

Plato described the Ouroboros as the rst living thing a

self-eating, circular beingthe universe as an immortal,
mythologically constructed entity.
The living being had no need of eyes because there was nothing outside of him to be
seen; nor of ears because there was nothing to
be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have
been any use of organs by the help of which he
might receive his food or get rid of what he had
already digested, since there was nothing which
went from him or came into him: for there was

Engraving by Lucas Jennis, in alchemical tract titled De Lapide

Philosophico.

In Norse mythology, the ouroboros appears as the serpent Jrmungandr, one of the three children of Loki
and Angrboda, which grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth. In the legends of Ragnar Lodbrok, such as Ragnarssona ttr, the
Geatish king Herraud gives a small lindworm as a gift to

1.3

Alchemy

his daughter ra Town-Hart after which it grows into a

symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the
large serpent which encircles the girls bower and bites itclash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes
self in the tail. The serpent is slain by Ragnar Lodbrok
the secret of the prima materia which [...] unwho marries ra. Ragnar later has a son with another
questionably stems from mans unconscious.
woman named Krka and this son is born with the image
of a white snake in one eye. This snake encircled the iris The famous Ouroboros drawing from the early alchemical
and bit itself in the tail, and the son was named Sigurd text The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra dating to 2nd century
Snake-in-the-Eye.[11]
Alexandria encloses the words hen to pan, one is the all.
Its black and white halves represent the Gnostic duality of
existence. As such, the Ouroboros could be interpreted
1.3 Alchemy
as the Western equivalent of the Taoist Yin-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
Philosophers Stone.
As a symbol of the eternal unity of all things, the cycle of
birth and death from which the alchemist sought release
and liberation, it was familiar to the alchemist/physician
Sir Thomas Browne. In his A Letter to a Friend, a medical
treatise full of case-histories and witty speculations upon
the human condition, he wrote of it:
[...] that the rst day should make the last,
that the Tail of the Snake should return into its
Mouth precisely at that time, and they should
wind up upon the day of their Nativity, is indeed a remarkable Coincidence,
1.3.1 Chemistry
Early alchemical ouroboros illustration. From the work of
Cleopatra the Alchemist (Greco-Roman Egypt).

In alchemy, the Ouroboros is a sigil. Swiss psychologist

Carl Jung saw the Ouroboros as an archetype and the basic mandala of alchemy. Jung also dened the relationship of the Ouroboros to alchemy:[12]
Kekul's proposal for the structure of benzene (1872)

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 innity
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

August Kekul described the eureka moment when he realized the structure of benzene:[13]
I was sitting, writing at my text-book; but
the work did not progress; my thoughts were
elsewhere. I turned my chair to the re and
dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept
modestly in the background. My mental eye,
rendered more acute by the repeated visions of
the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation: long rows,
sometimes more closely tted together; all
twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But
look! What was that? One of the snakes had
seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled
mockingly before my eyes. As if by a ash of

3
lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent
the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.

1.4

IN THE MEDIA

this is the archetypal, cosmic tree of life^death whose

structural determination is ouroboric because, like the
serpent that eats its own tail, this tree grows in-throughand-out-of-itself, ad innitum.[15]

Kundalini Yoga

Ouroboros symbolism has been used to describe

Kundalini energy. According to the second century 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).
Another interpretation is that Kundalini equates to the
entwined serpents of the caduceus of the Greek god Hermes, the entwined serpents representing divine balance
in the west or, esoterically, human DNA.

3 In the media
In the Disney lm The Jungle Book, Kaa the snake takes
the posture of the Ouroboros by putting his tail in his
mouth whilst encircling Mowgli, and singing Trust in
Me.
On the TV series X-Files in the episode "Never Again",
Scully has an Ouroboros tattooed on her back to symbolize a new beginning in her life, after resolving to end her
cycle of dependence on father gures.

In the Japanese anime and manga series Fullmetal Alchemist, the homunculi carry Ouroboros tattoos on parts
of their bodies related to the sins they represent. GlutIt is a common belief among indigenous people of the tonys tattoo is located on his tongue, and Lusts tattoo
tropical lowlands of South America that waters at the is located on her sternum, just above her breasts. In the
edge of the world-disc are encircled by a snake, often an 2003 anime and lm, Conqueror of Shambala, the hoanaconda, biting its own tail.[14]
munculus Envy transforms into a serpentine dragon that
resembles the Ouroboros.

1.5

Other traditions

Figurative use

In the Japanese anime and video game series BlazBlue,

Hazama and Yki Terumi use a shapeshifting weapon
that resembles a snake, it goes by the name of Ouroboros.
In the Japanese anime Noein, the Ouroboros are interdimensional portals.
The symbol is also prominently featured in the Netix
original series Hemlock Grove.
The ouroboros is also the symbol of the Fox Series
Millennium.
The symbol also shows up as a tattoo on the main characters of the Amazon Studios show The After.
Ouroboros is also present in the cover of the The Eye of
the World, the rst book of The Wheel of Time, a series
of books by Robert Jordan.
In the BBC TV series "Red Dwarf", Dave Lister is found
as a baby in a cardboard box with Ouroborus written
on it. This is a message from his future self to symbolise
that he is his own father.

In the webcomic Homestuck Ouroboros symbolism features heavily in act six with relation to the mating habits
of cherubs when they transform into galactic serpents, as
well as on the lollypop that activates trickster mode. It is
also alluded to in act ve with the mobius double reach
around. The specic shape of the Ouroboros in Homestuck is a reference to the AURYN medallion from The
Seal of the Theosophical Society - Door decoration at Kazinczy
Never Ending Story.
Street 55, Budapest (Hungary).

In the game Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere from the Ace

The image of Ouroboros is used by Jadran Mimica in his Combat series, Ouroboros is both the name and the symanalysis of the Yagwoia psychology and worldview. E.g. bol of an underground terrorist organization which be-

5
lieves that humanity can ascend to a new plane of exis- 5 References
tence by uploading their consciousness to the cyberspace
know as the Electrosphere Network.
Notes
Referenced and shown in the television series Sleepy
Hollow, episode Magnum Opus"(air date 11/24/2014).
The Ouroboros marked a plaque that the Horseman of
Death took which led to an underground hiding place
of the Sword of Methuselah, which Ichabod Crane and
Abbey Mills needed to defeat Moloch.

See also

[1] The Codex Parisinus graecus 2327 in the Bibliothque

Nationale, France, referred to in alchemy, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2012,
ISBN 0199545561
[2] Eire, Carlos. (2010). A Very Brief History of Eternity.
Princeton University Press.
[3] Neumann, Erich. (1995). The Origins and History of Consciousness. Bollington series XLII: Princeton University
Press. Originally published in German in 1949.

Caduceus

[4] Hornung, Erik. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Cornell University Press, 1999. pp. 38, 7778

Causality

[5] Hornung, Erik. Conceptions of God in Egypt: The One and

the Many. Cornell University Press, 1982. pp. 16364.

Cyclic model

[6] Hornung 2002, p. 58.

Eternal return

[7] Servius, note to Aeneid 5.85: 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), as cited by Danuta Shanzer,
A Philosophical and Literary Commentary on Martianus
Capellas De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii Book 1 (University of California Press, 1986), p. 159.

Eternal return (Eliade)

[8] Plato, Timaeus, Jowett, Benjamin, trans, Hermetic

Cyclical pattern
Endless knot
Ens

Eternalism (philosophy of time)

Feedback
Historic recurrence
Hoop snake
Innite loop

[9] Plato, Timaeus, Perseus

[10] Hornung 2002, p. 74.
[11] Ouroboros. Crystalinks. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
[12] Carl Jung, Collected Works, Vol. 14 para. 513
[13] Read, John (1957). From Alchemy to Chemistry. ISBN
9780486286907. (Pages 179180)
[14] Roe, Peter (1986), The Cosmic Zygote, Rutgers University
Press.

Mircea Eliade 20th century modernist application

[15] Womb = Tomb = House = Body: Yagwoia Experience of

Blissful Self-dissolution. Proceedings of The Australian
and New Zealand Society of Jungian Analysts: The Uses
of Subjective Experience: 8298. 2008.

Recursion

Bibliography

Jrmungandr

Strange loop

Bayley, Harold S (1909). New Light On the Renaissance. Kessinger. reference pages hosted by the
University of Pennsylvania

Tsuchinoko

Hornung, Erik (2002). The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its

Impact on the West. Cornell University Press.

Serpent (symbolism)

Armadillo Lizard
AURYN
Valknut

6 External links
The Ouroboros Society, founded 1923

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Ouroboros Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros?oldid=640544139 Contributors: The Anome, Andre Engels, Shii, Heron, Mrwojo, Dayshuer, Michael Hardy, Erik Zachte, Dante Alighieri, Gaurav, Shimmin, Ihcoyc, Darkwind, Nikai, Andres, Palfrey, Pizza Puzzle,
Norwikian, Magnus.de, Dysprosia, Hyacinth, David Shay, AnonMoos, Carbuncle, Robbot, Cdang, Chocolateboy, Tualha, Wereon, Gwalla,
JamesMLane, DocWatson42, Gtrmp, Luis Dantas, Geeoharee, Wiglaf, Netoholic, Bnn, Lefty, Jfdwol, Ouroboros, Avsa, Naufana,
Mboverload, Siroxo, Innitysnake, Mackeriv, Geni, Antandrus, Cjewell, Andux, OwenBlacker, One Salient Oversight, Tothebarricades.tk,
Kuralyov, Egan Loo, B.d.mills, Klemen Kocjancic, Kjv31, Genesis, DanielCD, AlexG, Discospinster, KillerChihuahua, Cormacolinde,
Cfailde, Silence, Spoonboy42, Dbachmann, Paul August, Gonzalo Diethelm, Bender235, Rubicon, Violetriga, Aranel, Kwamikagami,
Kross, Edward Z. Yang, Shanes, RoyBoy, Richard Cane, Bobo192, Circeus, Meestaplu, PReDiToR, BrokenSegue, Cmdrjameson, ZayZayEM, Nesnad, VBGFscJUn3, Brainy J, Pearle, HiS oWn, Anthony Appleyard, Mark Dingemanse, Zapyon, KaranJ, Jaardon, Hu,
DreamGuy, Snowolf, Wtmitchell, ReyBrujo, Marcan, Maqs, Zopwx2, P Ingerson, Kyven, Ghirlandajo, RyanGerbil10, Zanduar, Feezo,
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RexNL, Ewlyahoocom, Robert Prummel, Stormwatch, SpectrumDT, Le Anh-Huy, Ghola8, Mordicai, Bgwhite, Former user 6, YurikBot,
Koveras, MarcMyWords, Hairy Dude, JustSomeKid, Xennik, RastNim, Chris Capoccia, Chuck Carroll, Limulus, Chensiyuan, Stephenb,
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