ViaCrucis
Confessional Lutheran
- Oct 2, 2011
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I think it would be more likely that, given the human propensity to tell tall stories about beasties and to embellish them, that myths and stories about monstrous snakes, or monstrous versions of other mundane creatures, are the source--and that we simply took these stories with us as we migrated and settled around the world.
It may be nothing more than snakes are scary, we will tell stories of scary snakes. We do this even today, even in different parts of the United States there are tall tales and stories of monsters. We like monster stories, and taking things that are already scary and making them scarier is kind of something we do.
One theory, for example, is that the origins of the centaur may be nothing more than stories of quick moving horse riders (Scythians). Horseback riding seems to have originated in the region that came to be known as Scythia, the Pontic Steppe just north of the Black Sea. Before that became more widespread as it spread to places such as Anatolia, Persia, the Balkans, etc seeing a horde of horse-backed warriors would have been terrifying. It's entirely possible that stories of Scythian, or at least some Steppe peoples, were the inspiration.
-CryptoLutheran
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