Slaying the Serpent - The BAS Library

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A stamp seal excavated in 2022 by the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in northern Israel, under the direction of Igor Kreimerman and the late Amnon Ben-Tor, offers a tantalizing glimpse of a widespread mythological theme: the battle between a hero and a seven-headed serpent. This motif is attested throughout the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean, with reverberations in both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Barely 1.5 inches wide and dating to the eighth century BCE, the seal bears a depiction of a seven-headed serpent on the far right, where it is held at bay by a hero who […]

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Endnotes

1. See Christoph Uehlinger, “Mastering the Seven-Headed Serpent,” Near Eastern Archaeology 87.1 (2024), pp. 14–19.