Snake worship Snake worship Snake worship is devotion to serpent deities. The tradition is present in several ancient cultures, particularly in religion and mythology, where snakes were seen as entities of strength and renewal. In Africa the chief centre of serpent worship was Dahomey, but the cult of the python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By the conquest of Whydah the Dahomeyans were brought in contact with a people of serpent worshippers, and ended by adopting from them the beliefs which they at first despised. At Whydah, the chief centre,
Lion with a Snake and was the first bronze installed in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia the following year, where it is known as Lion Crushing a Serpent. Lion with a Snake Lion with a Snake (French: "Lion au serpent") is an 1832 sculpture by Antoine-Louis Barye. It measures . The original plaster was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1833 and is in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon. It was cast in bronze using the lost-wax process in 1835 by . The original cast was acquired by Louis Philippe I and - after being exhibited in the Tuileries Gardens from 1836 to