In ancient Talmudic legend, the snake was a symbol of evil that walked upright and hd a brain superior to that of all other animals. It was envy of man that caused the snake to plot his downfall in the Garden of Eden, thereupon invoking the punishment, “upon thy belly shalt thou go.” prophecy of Isaiah (11:8): “And an infant shall play over the hole of an old snake and over the eyeball of an adder.”
—SNAKE-DRAGON, SYMBOL OF MARDUK, THE PATRON GOD OF BABYLON PANEL FROM THE ISHTAR GATE (31.25) — The Detroit Institute of Arts
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The greatest and so far most enduring, some would say near eternal fall in the history of humankind came about because of the now lowly snake. At one time it could walk and certainly had the gift of the gab, albeit with a vocation towards manipulation. With craftiness, subterfuge and a dose of the ruthless, the snake destroyed the Garden of Eden, the original seat of which we are trying, at least sometimes to rediscover and find our way home to.
Ultimately, The snake introduced the concept of death into nature, something which was non-existant, mortality, all because Eve befriended the snake, and tried to make it into a pet. Eve’s casual conversation with the snake led, to be totally under its power and control and Adam had the poor judgement to listen to Eve. We know the rest: one bad snake ruins a lot of apples.
—The Original Sin’ – Cornelius van Haarlem, 1592—To Adam G-d said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat of, cursed be the ground for your sake; with labor you shall eat of it all the days of your life. it will cause thorns and thistles to grow for you, and you shall eat the herbs of the field. In the sweat of thy face you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.”—
ADDENDUM:
In terms of the arts and literature, the snake and the world of evil that arose has been an unmixed blessing. For the rest:
(see link at end)… The world of the Tree of Knowledge which was so tempting to ingest was a world of duality and temporality.
Why did Eve choose this world? The serpent enticed her, saying, “Your eyes will be opened and you will be like G-d, knowing good-and-bad (duality).”
—’The Temptation’ – Hugo van der Goes, 1470—
What was the attraction of knowing something other than perfection? Eve saw that the fruit was good-to-eat and beautiful, but so were the other trees’ fruits. The additional element was that this tree suggested the quality of intelligence. Samson Rafael Hirsch observes, in his commentary on Genesis 3, that the animal with “cunning” (as in “kenning,” knowledge) came to point this out, because most animal-knowledge is instin
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