Sssee If You Can Spot the Snakes

In Western art, a snake most often represents the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, but in many cultures snakes are symbols of rebirth, fertility, and medical knowledge.

This beautifully illustrated page shows all the signs of the Chinese Zodiac and various other astrological charts. If you can read them, you'll know what animal presides over the year you were born. But can you find the snake?

In this painting by an unknown artist, the Hindu god Krishna raises a mountain with his little finger to protect humans and animals from a deluge sent by the angry sky god, Indra. But can you spot the snake among the beasts?

Here's our slippery friend in the undergrowth. In Hinduism, snakes are often associated with protection, a fitting symbol in this story of Krishna protecting the earth.

Asklepios, the hero of Ancient Greek myth known for his healing powers, is seen here receiving wine from his loving daughter, Hygieia. The emblem of Asklepios is a staff with a serpent coiling around it. He's relaxing without the staff here, but where's the snake?

Peter Paul Rubens depicts the complex and contorted bodies of faithless people, poisoned by God, in a dramatic and violent scene from the Old Testament. Can you spot the snake?

...and here's the 'brazen serpent' of the painting's title. In this Old Testament story, Moses pleads for mercy to be shown to the faithless. He receives a brass serpent on a cross from God, which heals all who look upon it, a symbol which echoes the Asklepios myth.

Another Rubens painting: this time a collaboration with his fellow Dutch master, Jan Brueghel the Elder. This vision of the Garden of Eden is full of beast and fowl and rich vegetation. But where is the infamous serpent?