 Image via Wikipedia |
| House of the Evil Eye, Antakya, Turkey |
The scorpion, aka the akrep (Turkish) or aqrab (Arabic), is a lot like the snake. It has a dual meaning.
An akrep can be a symbolic embodiment of evil or sexuality. (I'll let you extrapolate what a woman might mean when she claims to be "stung by a scorpion".) Yet the akrep is also protective design embroidered into the hem of a women's dress, or worn as an amulet to keep general evil at bay.
I suppose it's like fighting fire with fire. For example, in the mosaic at right, the evil eye is being attacked by all sorts of things associated with badness - snake, dog, pitchfork, centipede, jackal (I think), crow, and of course, the scorpion. Even the little demon is pointing a strategic part toward the eye. KAI CY means "and you", so the message is : If you put your evil eye on me, I'm sending the evil back out after you.
Remember in the depictions of Mithras, there's a scorpion grabbing the sacrificial bull by his - Well, I guess evil and sexually are intertwined in both of these examples. Let's try another.
Sufi mystics like to use the akrep as a symbol of their mastery over evil. Some Sufis even claim immunity, treating bite victims and performing ritual-like scorpion handling demonstrations.
Yeah...Some people may treat scorpions like pets, but I'm still not keeping any around. Where's my lavender?
Related articles
