Serpent Temples:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/wos/wos09.htmThe decline of Serpent Worship:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/wos/wos10.htmThe serpent's role in many of the ancient cultures:
1. BABYLON. Of Babylon we know little beyond the fact, that "they of the city worshipped
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a dragon," whom Daniel the prophet destroyed by his prayers.
2. PERSIA. Less accurate information as to circumstances, but equally certain as to the principal fact, is found in the history of Persia. How far the worship of the Host of Heaven may have superseded that of the serpent in the time of Cyrus, who governed both Babylon and Persia, is unknown.
3. HINDÛSTAN. Far different was the case in Hindûstan. There fable and history alike teem with the perpetual conflicts of the sun and serpent. Surya is ever the enemy of Budha. The latter, under the hateful form of a serpent, had carried off the daughter of the son of Manna, and stolen the sacred books of Crishna, the incarnate son of Brahma. One of his family had also seized upon a horse which the son of Ramah had designed to be sacrificed to the sun 1. The race of Budha was therefore proscribed; and the children of Surya, i.e. the worshippers of the sun, and the children of Crishna, i.e. the votaries of the incarnate Son of God, felt themselves called upon to execute the sentence. The offences imputed to the serpent Budha are remarkable. The abduction of the woman, and the stealing of the sacred books of the incarnate God,
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indicate the events in Paradise as the remote and traditional cause of the animosity.
4. CHINA, BURMAH, and SIAM. These countries retain but few impressions of their primeval superstitions.
5. In ARABIA, the worship of the serpent was very early overthrown, and gave way to the adoration of the Host of Heaven. But if any traces of this superstition lingered among the innumerable idolatries of a land which was once divided between AUR and AUB, the sword and the Koran made an equal end of all.
6. SYRIA. The Syrian Ophites when scattered by the victorious arms of Joshua 2, preferred, for the most part, to resign their country rather than forsake their creed. Those of the Hivites
