Snake pit
Encyclopedia
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
warlord
Warlord
A warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
is said to have been thrown into a snake pit and died there, after his army had been defeated in battle by King Aelle II of Northumbria
Aelle II of Northumbria
Ælla was king of Northumbria in the middle of the 9th century. Sources on Northumbrian history in this period are limited. Ælla's descent is not known and the dating of his reign is problematic. He is a major character in the saga Ragnarssona þáttr .-Chronicles:Ælla became king after Osberht was...
. An older legend recorded in Atlakviða
Atlakviða
Atlakviða is one of the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda. One of the main characters is Atli who originates from Attila the Hun. It is one of the most archaic Eddic poems. It is preserved in the Codex Regius and the same story is related in the Völsunga saga...
and Oddrúnargrátr
Oddrúnargrátr
Oddrúnargrátr or Oddrúnarkviða is an Eddic poem, found in the Codex Regius manuscript where it follows Guðrúnarkviða III and precedes Atlakviða....
tells that Attila the Hun
Attila the Hun
Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...
murdered Gunnarr
Gunther
Gunther is the German name of a semi-legendary king of Burgundy of the early 5th century...
, the King of Burgundy
King of Burgundy
The following is a list of the Kings of the two Kingdoms of Burgundy, and a number of related political entities devolving from Carolingian machinations over family relations.- Kings of the Burgundians :...
, in a snake pit. In a medieval German poem, Dietrich von Bern is thrown into a snake pit by the giant
Giant (mythology)
The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
Sigenot - he is protected by a magical jewel that had been given to him earlier by a dwarf.
Nothing however supports the assumption, that snake pits were ever actually maintained or used for torture or execution. The necessary effort and the risks would have been far too big for something the effect of which could hardly been foreseen or controlled with sufficient precision.
The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit is a 1948 American drama film directed by Anatole Litvak. The film tells the story of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there, and stars Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, and Lee Patrick.The film was...
is a 1948 film which tells the story of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there. In common metaphorical usage, a snake pit can mean any institution (such as a school, prison, hospital, or nursing home) or organization led in an inept or inhumane way, or an institution containing many people who may be hostile, untrustworthy, or otherwise treacherous ("snakes").
Popular culture
A snake pit full of cobras is plot pointPlot point
In television and film, a plot point is a significant event within a plot that digs into the action and spins it around in another direction. It can also be an object of significant importance, around which the plot revolves. It can be anything from an event to an item to the discovery of a...
in Gunga Din
Gunga Din (film)
Gunga Din is a 1939 RKO adventure film directed by George Stevens, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, combined with elements of his novel Soldiers Three...
(1939).
Punishment using a snake pit is featured in the Film Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
(1981), in which Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
is trapped when he tries to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant. Another character, Marion, is then cast into the snake pit with him as punishment. Both make it out alive.
A similar method of execution was depicted in the film The Naked Prey
The Naked Prey
The Naked Prey is a 1966 adventure film starring Cornel Wilde, who also directed and produced. It was released by Paramount Pictures. Set in the South African veld, the film is a wilderness survival story loosely based on the experiences of explorer John Colter, who was pursued by Blackfoot...
(1966) after a group of elephant hunters offend a local African tribe who, in response, subject them various methods of cruel and torturous executions. One of the hunters is restrained to the ground with his head exposed to a cobra
Cobra
Cobra is a venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. However, not all snakes commonly referred to as cobras are of the same genus, or even of the same family. The name is short for cobra capo or capa Snake, which is Portuguese for "snake with hood", or "hood-snake"...
encircled with fire to provoke the snake.
Professional wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts
Jake Roberts
Aurelian Jake Smith, Jr. is a second-generation American professional wrestler, the son of former wrestler Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith...
had an interview segment on WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
TV shows called "The Snake Pit".
Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
, former lead guitarist of rock band Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
, formed a band called Slash's Snakepit
Slash's Snakepit
Slash's Snakepit were an American rock supergroup from Los Angeles, California, formed by then-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash in 1993. Though often described as a solo or side project, Slash stated that Snakepit was a band, with equal contributions by all members...
.
A form of Snake pit appears in Deltora Quest in which the hero, Lief, had to plunge into the pit in order to destroy an evil relic, the Sister of the North. The snakes did not harm him because the Ruby he had repelled snakes but the villain who pursued Lief was not so fortunate.
In the 1970s the Rock Creek Lodge of Clinton, Montana
Clinton, Montana
Clinton is a census-designated place in Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is part of the 'Missoula, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The CDP was named for General Sir Henry Clinton...
(home of the Testicle Festival and site of filming part of A River Runs Through It
A River Runs Through It (film)
A River Runs Through It is an Academy Award winning 1992 American film directed by Robert Redford and starring Brad Pitt, Craig Sheffer, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn, and Emily Lloyd...
on the Rock Creek) was called the Snake Pit because of multiple pet snakes the owner had on display for viewing in a back room area of the lodge. There is now an annual music festival
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
and motorcycle rally
Motorcycle rally
A motorcycle rally is a gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts. Rallies can be large or small, and one-time or recurring. Some rallies are ride-in events, whereas some like the Iron Butt Rally involve days of riding and an actual gathering only at the end of the ride.-North America:Notable annual...
at the lodge drawing artists, music enthusiasts, and riders from all over the northwest under the name of the sNaKe PiT Music and Motorcycle Connection.
Snakes also appear in two of the Fu Manchu films, notably in the Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), where a snake pit is used as a method of torture and execution. Fu Manchu has a disobedient captive bound to the rim of the snake pit, and another woman captive is hypnotised into feeding her to the snakes. She is then revived and made aware of what she has done. In addition, when ordered to release a prisoner, Fu Manchu responds " Send her to the snakes!"
Torture and death by snake venom also appears in The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), where it becomes almost mystical. A a legendary Mexican venomous snake found nowhere else except in a certain lost city enables women to murder with a kiss, once they have been bitten by the snake on the breast. The (male) victims go blind immediately after being kissed, and die on the full moon. Fu Manchu, who has discovered the secret, takes up residence in the lost city where the snakes are, and envenomates beautiful women, who are sent out to eliminate Fu Manchu's enemies with their kisses. Men just die on being bitten by the snakes, but women are immune, and become carriers.