The Serpent Map

Land of Ophiussa

Author’s drawing

So, I’ve made this map. I live in Portugal, and we were colonized four thousand years ago by the Romans. We mostly forgot the land-based culture that emanates from this place, even though we get some fragments from oral traditions and rural folk tales. This territory has been populated since paleolithic times. There are cave paintings and rock carvings all over the region.

From ancient Greek, this land was known to be the land of the dead, part of the sacred geography that connects different dimensions of reality. The people who lived here were the Ophids, or people of the Snakes. This whole land ends in the ocean, at the utmost west point of the continent, Finisterre — a place of ancient rock memories, death ceremonies, and whispering snakes — .
We have many megalith’s remains, some still painted or carved. In our folk tales, we have an ancient being called the “Mouras”, old chthonic forces of the land guarding potent and special places. They come out in the solstices and equinoxes, or at midnight. They are usually women who transmorph into snakes mostly, but also into large black dogs or ox. Local people always have a tale for megalith remains, remembering a sacred being guarding the place.

Although these tales have been Christianized, and most of these beings have been demonized, they still endure being present in oral mythology.
In this map, two snakes following the megalith trail meet in Alentejo, an area with many ancient constructions. I used the ancient alphabet found here also, and the symbols are from archeological rock carvings from the northern part of the land and an idol found in the southern part.

Ancient Tales for Modern Times