Haudenosaunee TraditionCreature
Horned Serpent
- Takes human form
- Poisons waters
- Lives beneath lakes
The great horned serpent of the deep waters in Seneca tradition, able to take the form of a handsome man to lure people away, and the chief enemy of the Thunderer.
About Horned Serpent
Beneath the lake
Parker lists the Horned Snake (Gas'hais'dowänen) among the monster beasts of Seneca tradition: a serpent of the underwaters that can transform itself into a man. In tale 26 of his collection such a serpent appears as a graceful young man in fine clothing and lures a girl away to a lodge beneath a lake, full of trophies that turn out to be the skins of great serpents. When she realises what her husband is and flees, the serpent pursues her, and the Thunderer kills it with an arrow of lightning.
The Thunderer's enemy
The hostility between the Thunderers and the horned serpents runs through Haudenosaunee and other Northeastern and Great Lakes traditions: the powers of the sky strike down the powers of the deep waters. Parker's tale ends with the Thunderer showing the people that the serpent's power can be contained, which ties the story to medicine practice; this site does not describe that practice.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Arthur C. Parker, Seneca Myths and Folk Tales
- Arthur C. Parker, Seneca Myths and Folk Tales
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
The danger rating is an editorial shorthand for how the myths portray the creature, not a claim made by the sources.