serpents

"Ezekiel in describing the necromantic ritual of the witches, says they fastened 'magic bands' (kesatot) on their wrists and with them 'trapped souls like birds' (Ezekiel 13:20). This rare word is related to the Sumerian KI-ShU, meaning some kind of magical imprisonment, but we have to look to Greek for its precise significance. In the form kiste, Latin cista, it appears as a container used in certain mystery rituals of the Dionysiac cult, supposedly for the carrying of secret implements. In fact, wherever the cista is graphically represented it is shown as a basket from which a snake is emerging. Thus on sarcophagi inscribed with Bacchic scenes, the cista is shown being kicked open by Pan and the snake raising itself from the half-opened lid. The snake is an important feature of the Dionysiac cult and imagery. The Maenads of Euripides' Bacchae have serpents entwined in their hair and round their limbs, and the snake was the particular emblem of the Phyrigian Sabazios (Sabadius) with whom Dionysos is identified." - John M. Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross