Etymology of a Serpent-Bearer

Etymology of a Serpent-Bearer is a performance and publication that shares something of my research into storytelling, snakes, origin stories, knowledge and the sky. The star I am working with is Rasalhague, the main star in the Ophiuchus constellation. Ophiuchus is commonly known as the Serpent-Bearer, depicting a man wrestling with a snake and intersecting with the Serpens constellation. 'Rasalhague' is often translated as 'The Head of the Serpent-Bearer' and in most texts, the constellation is connected to Asclepius, Greek god of medicine and the healing arts.

My research starts from the direct translation of the Arabic script for the name of this star: رأس الحوا or raʼs al-ḥawwā. This name could also be roughly translated at 'The Head of Eve' or 'The Head of Woman'. Working from this direct translation, my research imagines Ophiuchus, and its intersecting constellation Serpens, as Eve and the Snake from the Garden of Eden origin story found Abrahamic religions.

The performance uses humour and storytelling to unpack these ideas, while the publication goes deeper into my own biography and research of queering the figures of Eve, Lilith and the snaking and re-imaging relationships to knowledge, the body and healing. And trees.