The phallic snake: a Sepedi creation narrative

Abstract

This article is a sequel to the paper entitled Dead and Yet Alive: The untold story of Northern Sotho Mythology which (re)constructs the myth of origin from a number of verbal expressions which have water as their central motif. The first article concludes that human life, according to Bapedi philosophy and cosmogony, is traceable from water, and the chthonic world. The present paper explores almost the same idea, but shifts its focus to another dimension. It credits not only the original waters, but also the aquatic snake for the potential of life-giving processes such as procreation and fertility.