Mythology and Zoosemiotics: Exploring Snake Narratives in Greek, Aztec, and Amazonian Cultures

Abstract This paper presents zoosemiotic research as a useful field of study for investigating the relationship that culture has with myths concerning non-human animals. In particular, this work aims to analyze and explore ecological patterns of snakes through three distinct myths of different civilizations, such as Greek (the myth of Caduceus), Aztec (Quetzalcoatl), and Amazonian (Yacumama), and interspecific relation with humans and their culture. An analysis of how mythological narratives belong to an ecosystemic understanding of cultures’ relationship to their environment from an epistemological and biosemiotic perspective will be offered. The aim is to show how myths express a form of knowledge embodied in the environment through narrativity and non-human life forms.