For other uses: see Oroborus (disambiguation).

The Ouroboros (also spelled Oroborus, Uroboros or Uroborus) is an ancient symbol depicting a snake or dragon swallowing its own tail, constantly creating itself and forming a circle. It often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality.

Overview

The symbol is generally thought to represent the cyclical nature of things, eternal return and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. In some representations the serpent is shown as half light and half dark, echoing symbols such as the Yin Yang, which illustrates the dual nature of all things, but more importantly, that these opposites are not in conflict. It is often associated with alchemy, Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.

In alchemy, the ouroboros symbolises the circular nature of the alchemist's opus which unites the opposites: the conscious and unconscious mind.

It is believed to have been inspired by the Milky Way, as some ancient texts refer to a serpent of light residing in the heavens.

Throughout history

The name ouroboros (or, in Latinized form, uroborus) is Greek ("οὐροβóρος") and means "tail-devourer".

Antiquity

The serpent or dragon eating its own tail has survived from antiquity and can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 BC. However the pig dragons of the Hongshan culture (4700–2200 BC) of China are older and may have been transmitted in one way along the Silk Road. From ancient Egypt it passed to Phoenicia and then to the Greek philosophers, who gave it the name Ouroboros ("the tail-devourer").

Norse mythology

In Norse mythology it appears as the serpent Jormungand, one of the 3 children of Loki, who grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth. In the legends of Ragnar Lodbrok, such as Ragnarssona þáttr, the Geatish king Herraud gives a small lindorm as a gift to his daughter Þora Town-Heart after which it grows into a large serpent which encircles the girl's bower and bites itself in the tail. The serpent is slain by Ragnar Lodbrok who marries Þora. Ragnar later has a son with another woman named Kráka and this son is born with the image of a white snake in one eye. This snake encircled the iris and bit itself in the tail, and the son was named Sigurd Snake-Eye.

Other mythologies

It is also present in Hindu mythology, as the dragon circling the tortoise which supports the four elephants that carry the world. The serpent or dragon also appears in Aztec, Chinese, and Native American mythology. In Satanism, the Ouroboros represents the Demon-god Leviathan, the Serpent of the Void and Primal Chaos.

Christianity

Christians adopted the Ouroboros as a symbol of the limited confines of this world (that there is an "outside" being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere this-worldly existence (following in the footsteps of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes).

The Ouroboros is prominently displayed on the of the with the crown of John Sigismund and the powerful looking proud peace dove standing on the top of the Globe.

It could very well be used to symbolize the closed-system model of the universe of some physicists even today.

Alchemy

In alchemy, the ouroboros is a purifying sigil.

The famous Ouroboros drawing from the early Alchemical text The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra dating to 2nd century Alexandria encloses the words hen to pan "one, the all", i.e. "All is One". Its black-and-white halves represent the Gnostic duality of existence.

As a symbol of the eternal unity of all things, the cycle of birth and death from which the alchemist sought release and liberation, it was familiar to the alchemist/physician Sir Thomas Browne. In his A letter to a friend, a medical treatise full of case-histories and witty speculations upon the human condition, he wrote of it:

" that the first day should make the last, that the Tail of the Snake should return into its Mouth precisely at that time, and they should wind up upon the day of their Nativity, is indeed a remarkable Coincidence,"

It is also alluded to at the conclusion of Browne's The Garden of Cyrus (1658) as a symbol of the Circular nature and Unity of

"All things began in order so shall they end, so shall they begin again according to the Ordainer of Order and the mystical mathematicks of the City of Heaven".

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw the ourobouros as an archetype and the basic mandala of alchemy.

Jung also defined the relationship of the ouruboros to alchemy:

"The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the uroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. In the age-old image of the uroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. The uroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the uroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilises himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolises the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima materia which unquestionably stems from man's unconscious'. (Collected Works, Vol. 14 para.513)

Ouroboros in modern culture

Chemistry

The organic chemist August Kekulé claimed that a ring in the shape of Ouroboros that he saw in a dream inspired him in his discovery of the structure of benzene. As noted by Carl Jung, this might be an instance of cryptomnesia.

Film

The Ouroboros is featured prominently in the movie Darkness.

The movie Adaptation., directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman also makes some references to Ouroboros. It would be the basic symbol for Donald's movie, The 3, in which a killer, the cop and the victim are all the same person. The fun part is: in Adaptation, Donald is Charlie Kaufman's twin brother, actually meaning he is a part of Charlie's real life persona, who dies midway across the movie (i.e.: the snake devours its snake, becomes itself).

The Ouroboros is also a symbol for the film Adaptation as a whole. Adaptation depicts the actions of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman as he writes the screenplay for the movie Adaptation. Kaufman initially tries to write a screenplay based solely on the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. Unfortunately, Kaufman has artistic troubles in his attempt to create a film version of the book which result in a sort of writers block. Ultimately, he decides to make Adaptation the story of his own experiences as he attempts to write the screenplay for Adaptation. Within the film, he comments on this choice by saying,"I'm insane. I'm the Ouroboros. I've written myself into my own screenplay."

In the anime Noein, the Ouroboros is the embodiment of the time dimensions that resonate with each other. The Ouroboros' existence makes events happen again and again to infinite.

And let us not forget the memorable scene in the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, in which the swallowing act is carried beyond its logical extreme.

Games

The Ouroboros symbol appears in and influences the design of many video games.

The game Snake involves guiding a snake around the screen in such a way that it never encounters its own tail.

The adventure game The Longest Journey features the twin-snake form of the Ouroboros as a symbol of "The Balance", the force that binds two dimensions together.

The expansion symbol for Magic: The Gathering's Torment set (released in 2001) is an Ouroboros.

The Ouroboros also appears in the PlayStation game Xenogears from Squaresoft.

In Konami's "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" there is an Ouroboros enemy located in the Anti-castle's main gate entrance. The enemy is a flying serpent skeleton ridden by a flea-man. Once the mounted flea-man is destroyed, the Ouroboros turns golden and fights alongside the player, constantly circling itself.

The first stage boss in the Capcom video game Strider is called the Uroburos - a mechanical snake with arms carrying blades. Inexplicably, Ouroburos is the name given to one of Strider Hiryu's super moves in Marvel vs. Capcom, in which orbs appear around him which constantly hit for damage.

Capcom's Haunting Ground has the symbol of the Ouroborus turn after completing a puzzle and has an item referencing the symbol in its design.

In the computer game Star Trek: 25th Anniversary by Interplay, Oroborus is a deadly virus affecting the Vulcan/Romulan species.

Various poles decorated with an Ouroboros appear in the video game Legacy of

Jan Siegel's book Prospero's Children both features the Ouroboros, in the form of the world-encircling snake Nenheedra, and represents it; the story forms a closed loop and ends where it began, and the first line is also the last.

The Konami videogame Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is speculated to be entitled as a reference to the Ouroboros, as the end of the game 'swallows up' the beginning and greatly changes its meaning. Also, in the game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty the ouroboros can be seen in various places throughout the game, hinting that the game itself is just a reconstruction of the previous installment Metal Gear Solid.

Ouroboros is also the name of one of the superpowers in Ace Combat 3. They lead a coup d'etat to bring about the evolution of mankind by computerizing the human race.

The game Ouroboros was created by Tifu for The Game Creators competition 2004.

The Game Boy Advance release Gunstar Super Heroes features a serpentine creature named Valvalion which chases its tail, trapping the player inside a loop until the beast's head is destroyed.

In the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000, the symbol of the Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marine legion is the ouroborus.

The symbol of the Tzimisce clan of vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade was also the Ouroboros.

The "Circle of Orborous" is a new faction in the tabletop wargame "Hordes" by Privateer Press.

Apparently, in the trailer for the game .hack//G.U., one of the meanings of G.U. is "Gate to Uroboros".

Literature

E. R. Eddison wrote a fantasy novel titled The Worm Ouroboros, referring to the end of the story's return to its opening, and also to the "summoning of the worm" by the evil King of Witchland.

In Robert A. Heinlein's time travel story "—All You Zombies—" the Bartender wears a ring depicting the Ouroboros which is heavily symbolic to him. His later book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, also references the Ouroboros.

In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time book series, the Ouroboros is an ancient symbol representing the cyclic nature of time, and the Aes Sedai all wear a ring in the shape of an Ouroborus.

Yukio Mishima's Sun and Steel, his suicide letter/manifest talks about Ouroboros: about the body and the mind becoming one whilst somehow still being two.

Mark Fabi's "Wyrm", features serveral chapters which revolve directly around the meaning of the ourobouros. The plot of the storyline also revolves around the ourobous and shows itself at the climax of the novel.

Jeff Smith's "Bone", The first dragon, Mim, encircled the world and held it in balance by holding her tail in her mouth.

In Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, both Atreyu and Bastian use a wish granting talisman called an Auryn, which resembles a double Ouroboros in the original novel. The movie adaptation uses a more complex weaving pattern for the two snakes, but still uses the same central tail-eating concept.

Giorgio Manganelli's Centuria: One Hundred Ouroboric Novels is a collection of stories, each of which "construes itself into a kind of Moebius strip, in which time turns in a circle and bites its tail like the Ouroborous."

The artist Michael wrote "Ouroboro the unfinished book", which deals with the debate on whether life, technology, and mind can keep expanding forever. The futuristic background of the story revolves around a synthetic intelligence’s desire to expand until the galactic structures that it builds become the subatomic particles for a larger universe – thus creating the next universe and continuing the cycle of growth. This book comes with a 'Declaration of Public Domain' at

Music

The now defunct World Serpent Distribution, a British distribution company once synonymous with experimental and esoteric music, once used a Norse artwork inspired emblem as a logo, likely inspired by Jörmungandr.

The rock band The Alan Parsons Project used a metallic sculpture similar to an ouroboros in their album Vulture Culture, the only difference is the head is from a vulture and not a dragon.

The Ouroboros is featured on the cover of Norwegian death punk band Turbonegro's 2003 album Scandinavian Leather.

Societies

The Ouroborus figures prominently on the crest for The Book and Snake Society, one of the elite secret societies at Yale University.It is also prominently displayed in the Seal of the Theosophical Society.

Software

Oroborus is a brand of window manager software named after the symbol.

Television

The Ouroboros is very integral to the fictional organization known as the Millennium Group from the television program Millennium in which they have adopted the symbol to represent them, serving as a sign in their belief of the beginning and the end and can commonly be seen in things of their dealings. The symbol also serves as a part of the show's logo.

Ouroboros is the name of the 39th episode of the British science fiction comedy television series Red Dwarf (first aired January 31, 1997) in which David Lister discovers he is his own father. The box that Lister was found in as a child had the word Ouroboros written on it to indicate the neverending cycle perpetuated as a result of him being his own father (and grandfather, etc.).

Agent Dana Scully from The X-Files TV series got an Ouroboros tattooed in her lower back in Season's 4 episode 'Never Again'.

Mr. Lyle from The Pretender TV series, got an Ouroboros tattoo on his arm in the fourth season episode "The Agent Of Year Zero". This tattoo links Mr. Lyle to a former Cambodian colonel, named Thon who was one of Pol Pot's murderers. This tattoo "the Ouroboros" is said to be the Cambodian symbol for cannibalism

On the Sci-Fi show The Invisible Man, Darien Fawkes has an Ouroboros on his wrist to indicate his level of Quicksilver madness.

Ouroboros is the name of the 34th episode the American science fiction series Andromeda (first aired February 2, 2002), as well as the 20th episode of the Canadian/South African science ficton series Charlie Jade.

In the anime series Fullmetal Alchemist, the Homunculi each have an ouroboros tattooed somewhere on their body, Stefan Wojciechowski writes:

"Homunculi represent the seven deadly sins in the series and which were created by various alchemists in the attempt to bring humans back to life. This reflects an outstanding similarity to Jung's belief of Ouroboros as an archetype of death and rebirth, as the Homunculi themselves are reborn humans made by alchemists. It is also interesting to note that Homunculi have a tendency to come back to life after being killed, and furthermore bring about their own demise, thus a snake biting its own tail and recreating themselves. The tattoo itself has some special abilities as well when touched by an alchemist. On a related subject, all alchemists in the series use Alchemy arrays which are circular designs (again circulating power as a tenet of both the symbol of Ouroboros and Alchemy itself within the series). Some alchemists however, have the ability to clap their hands together thus forming a circle with their body and arms, once again manifesting the power of Alchemy through circulating power." (Collective Essays on Archetypes of Modern Culture)

In Fullmetal Alchemist, several characters adopt the symbol of a snake fixed on a cross. That symbol can be taken as the opposite of the Ouroboros. The winged snake on the cross representing the fixation of the volatile. As the Oroborus represents the cycle of birth and death, the snake on the cross represents fixed continuing life.

The Fullmetal Alchemist ouroborus contains another symbol within the circle. The symbol, in alchemy, is the seal of solomon. While the symbol has other obvious meanings, in the context of alchemy it represents the union of the fire symbol (up pointing triangle) and the water symbol (down pointing triangle). In alchemy the union of elements in opposition is symbolic of both transmutation and ultimately the quest for the Philosopher's stone.

In the Fullmetal Alchemist on the last episode, the Homunculi named 'Envy' eventually changes into the form of an Oroborus. Though in the episode this example isn't clearly shown, the movie Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala shows that Envy is captured and used as a literal ouroboros to open the gateway between worlds.

In the Babylon 5 episode "Comes the inquisitor" (21st of Season 2), the Inquisitor gives to Delenn two bracelets to wear in the form of the Ouroboros. He uses those bracelets to inflict pain upon her as part of his interrogation.)

See also

• Midgard serpent
• Vrtra
• Azhi Dahaka
• Apep
• Fullmetal Alchemist
• Pioneering organic chemist Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz's dream about an Ouroboros which inspired him as to the chemical structure of benzene
• Self-reflexivity

Ouroboros Uróboros Ouroboros אורובורוס Ouroboros ウロボロス Ouroboros Уроборос Uroboros