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The most important sense organ of most snakes is the tongue, which provides sense of smell and taste at the same time. The tongue is going in and out constantly to collect particles from outside and deliver them to the sense organ inside the mouth. Snakes actually use this to find their way in the world. Snake eyes in comparison are not as capable, some being almost blind while others can see enough to track movements. Most snakes can only see two colours, with only a few able to see colours, mostly sea snakes. As snake eyes do not have lids, they have special transparent scales covering their eyes, which are called Brille, which is the name for Eyeglasses in German and Nordic languages. Snakes are actually not poisonous, but venomous. The difference being that Venom is injected into victims via snake fangs, while poison isn’t. It’s also interesting that the majority of snakes are not venomous at all, but it’s the encounters with venomous snakes that are more memorable for obvious reasons. Snakes have Venom mostly for hunting, but will use it in self-defense. While generally considered to be vicious, most snake species would usually try to avoid any confrontation with larger animals, including highly venomous snakes whose venom is able to kill humans.

In human imagination and mythology, snakes have always played a very vivid role. One very famous symbolism of the snake is the Ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail, which is a symbol for the circle of life, which was known in many places although the oldest known image I from ancient Egypt. One version of the Ouroboros is Jörmungandr, the Midgard snake, which encircles the whole world. When it releases its tail from its mouth, the final battle for the world, Ragnarök will begin. Today, the image of the snake as a hideous, backstabbing and cunning creature is most commonly known, yet the mysterious creatures were and are worshipped by many religions as gods, with power over life and death, but also medicine. The staff of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, which has one or two snakes coiling around it is a symbol for medicine until today and in India, snakes are still worshipped today and even have their own festival, Nag Panchami.

In Chinese mythology the mother goddess who has created humans and taught culture to them, Nüwa 女媧, is classically depicted as a snake with a female humans head. In other Chinese stories there are snake spirits which can take the shape of humans. The most famous of these stories is The Legend of the White Snake 白蛇传, about a romance between such a snake and a human. At the end of the story, a Buddhist monk traps the white snake and her maid, the green snake, under the Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou, where they are said to be imprisoned until today. In the Chinese zodiac, people born in the year of the snake are considered to be highly intelligent and the most intuitive of all animal signs. They are great thinkers and are good at communication but say very little. They are also materialistic and enjoy the finer things.