> >[1] In the OT, it is a snake, not Lucifer. I don't know how far back the
> >association between the snake and Satan goes, but the two are equated in
> >Milton, so the concept is at least a few hundred years old.
The snake was also a symbol of eternal life through rebirth (the snake
shedding its skin) in many of the matriarchal cultures that
Judeo-Christian patriarchy supplanted. Most of the trappings of Satan
come from pagan symbolism turned on its head. (The same thing Satanism
seeks to do with the Christian iconography, BTW.)
-Prof. Tim