Snakes, dragons, and hydras: the Indo-European terminology for serpent

Abstract

The article deals with an analysis of some Indo-European words for serpent from a linguistic and philological point of view. We offer an overview of the most debated Indo-European roots from which nouns for serpent developed, and we hypothesize that the terms derived from roots such *V(n)gwhi-, *serp-, *dr̥k̑-, etc. are not to be regarded as synonymous units. Rather, they seem to designate different kinds of serpents. Indeed, the great number of words for this animal seems to be due to a taboo mechanism that enriched the terminology referring to the snake. Thanks to this kind of analysis, it appears possible to find numerous parallels between the Indo-European cultural traditions taken here into account.