This sculpture, which is conserved in the Acropolis Museum, originates from Athens, Greece in the 6th century BC. The constituent material is predominantly Parian marble, rendering the snake with a distinctive texture profile that contrasts the smoothly polished surfaces with the carefully detailed scales. Despite the long-term effect of the elements, remnants of the original paint application are observable. This element offers insight into the original coloration, contributing to the object's life-like qualities.
The symbolic perception of snakes by ancient Greeks depicts them as emblems of wisdom, recovery, and healing, with common correlations with key figures in their mythos such as Asclepius, the god of healing, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare. This artifact bears critical religious significance, once serving as the pediment of the Hekatompedos, Athena's earliest temple on the Acropolis, which was the antecedent to the Parthenon.
