Editing Snakebite (section)

== Society and culture ==
{{See also|Serpent (symbolism)}}
[[File:Benczur-kleopatra.jpg|thumb|right|According to tradition, [[Cleopatra|Cleopatra VII]] famously committed suicide by snakebite to her left breast, as depicted in this 1911 painting by Hungarian artist [[Gyula Benczúr]].]]
Snakes were both [[Snake worship|revered and worshipped]] and [[Ophidiophobia|feared]] by early civilizations. The [[ancient Egyptians]] recorded prescribed treatments for snakebites as early as the [[Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt|Thirteenth Dynasty]] in the [[Brooklyn Papyrus]], which includes at least seven venomous species common to the region today, such as the [[Cerastes (genus)|horned vipers]].<ref name="Schneemann2004">{{cite journal | vauthors = Schneemann M, Cathomas R, Laidlaw ST, El Nahas AM, Theakston RD, Warrell DA | title = Life-threatening envenoming by the Saharan horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) causing micro-angiopathic haemolysis, coagulopathy and acute renal failure: clinical cases and review | journal = QJM | volume = 97 | issue = 11 | pages = 717–727 | date = November 2004 | pmid = 15496528 | doi = 10.1093/qjmed/hch118 | quote = This echoed the opinion of the Egyptian physicians who wrote the earliest known account of the treatment of snake bite, the Brooklyn Museum Papyri, dating perhaps from 2200 BC. They regarded bites by horned vipers 'fy' as non-lethal, as the victims could be saved. | doi-access = free}}</ref> In [[Judaism]], the [[Nehushtan]] was a pole with a snake made of copper fixed upon it. The object was regarded as a divinely empowered instrument of God that could bring healing to Jews bitten by venomous snakes while they were wandering in the desert after their [[exodus from Egypt]]. Healing was said to occur by merely looking at the object as it was held up by [[Moses]].{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Historically, snakebites were seen as a means of execution in some cultures.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilcox |first=Christie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUsBCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 |title=Venomous: How Earth's Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry |date=2016-08-09 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-71221-1 |language=en}}</ref> Reportedly, in [[Southern Han]] during [[China]]'s [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period]] and in [[India]] a form of capital punishment was to throw people into [[snake pit]]s, leaving people to die from multiple venomous bites.<ref name="Anil2004" /> According to popular belief, the Egyptian queen [[Cleopatra|Cleopatra VII]] committed suicide by letting herself be bitten by an [[Asp (reptile)|asp]]—likely an [[Egyptian cobra]]<ref name="Schneemann2004" /><ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web | vauthors = Crawford A |title=Who Was Cleopatra? Mythology, propaganda, Liz Taylor and the real Queen of the Nile |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/biography/cleopatra.html |date=1 April 2007 |website=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |access-date=4 September 2009}}</ref>—after hearing of [[Mark Antony]]'s death, while some contemporary ancient authors rather assumed a direct application of poison.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nk5AgAAQBAJ&pg=PP179 |title=Cleopatra: Cleopatra |date=2011-07-14 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-1-78022-114-4 |language=en}}</ref>

Snakebite as a surreptitious form of murder has been featured in stories such as Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''[[The Adventure of the Speckled Band]]'', but actual occurrences are virtually unheard of, with only a few documented cases.<ref name="Anil2004">{{cite journal| vauthors = Anil A |year=2004 |title=Homicide with snakes: A distinct possibility and its medicolegal ramifications |journal=Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology |volume=4 |issue=2 |url=http://www.geradts.com/anil/ij/vol_004_no_002/others/pg001.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070718031431/http://www.geradts.com/anil/ij/vol_004_no_002/others/pg001.html |archive-date=18 July 2007}}</ref><ref name="Warrell2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Warrell DA | title = Commissioned article: management of exotic snakebites | journal = QJM | volume = 102 | issue = 9 | pages = 593–601 | date = September 2009 | pmid = 19535618 | doi = 10.1093/qjmed/hcp075 | doi-access = free}}</ref><ref name="Straight1994">{{cite journal | vauthors = Straight RC, Glenn JL |year=1994 |title=Human fatalities caused by venomous animals in Utah, 1900–90 |journal=[[Great Basin Naturalist]] |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=390–4 |url=https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/ojs/index.php/wnan/article/viewFile/545/1430 |access-date=4 September 2009 |quote=A third unusual death was a tragic fatality (1987), recorded as a homicide, which resulted when a large rattlesnake (''G. v. lutosus'') bit a 22-month-old girl after the snake had been placed around her neck (Washington County). The child died in approximately 5 h. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008073525/https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/ojs/index.php/wnan/article/viewFile/545/1430 |archive-date=8 October 2011 |doi=10.5962/bhl.part.16607 |doi-access=free}}</ref> It has been suggested that [[Boris III of Bulgaria]], who was allied to [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]], may have been killed with snake venom,<ref name="Anil2004" /> although there is no definitive evidence. At least one attempted suicide by snakebite has been documented in medical literature involving a [[Bitis arietans|puff adder]] bite to the hand.<ref name="Strubel2008">{{cite journal | vauthors = Strubel T, Birkhofer A, Eyer F, Werber KD, Förstl H | title = [Attempted suicide by snake bite. Case report and literature survey] | language = de | journal = Der Nervenarzt | volume = 79 | issue = 5 | pages = 604–606 | date = May 2008 | pmid = 18365165 | doi = 10.1007/s00115-008-2431-4 | trans-title = Attempted suicide by snake bite: Case report and literature survey | quote = Ein etwa 20-jähriger Arbeiter wurde nach dem Biss seiner Puffotter (''Bitis arietans'') in die Hand auf die toxikologische Intensivstation aufgenommen. Zunächst berichtet der Patient, dass es beim "Melken" der Giftschlange zu dem Biss gekommen sei, erst im weiteren Verlauf räumt er einen Suizidversuch ein. Als Gründe werden Einsamkeit angeführt sowie unerträgliche Schmerzen im Penis. | s2cid = 21805895}}</ref>

In [[Jainism]], the goddess [[Padmavati (Jainism)|Padmāvatī]] has been associated with curing snakebites.<ref>Slouber, Michael. 2017. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Early_Tantric_Medicine/tGl4DQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Tvarit%C4%81&pg=PA99&printsec=frontcover Early Tantric Medicine: Snakebite, Mantras, and Healing in the Garuda Tantras]. Page 99. [[Oxford University Press]].</ref>