ADDER, a venomous serpent, more usually called the viper. In our translation of the Bible we find the word adder five times; but without sufficient authority from the original.
שפיפון, in Gen. xlix, 17, is probably the cerastes; a serpent of the viper kind, of a light brown colour, which lurks in the sand and the tracks of wheels in the road, and unexpectedly bites not only the unwary traveller, but the legs of horses and other beasts. By comparing the Danites to this artful reptile, the patriarch intimated that by stratagem, more than by open bravery, they should avenge themselves of their enemies and extend their conquests.--פתן, in Psalm lviii, 4; xci, 13, signifies an asp. We may perhaps trace to this the Python of the Greeks, and its derivatives. (See _Asp_.)--עכשוב, עכשוב found only in Psalm cxl, 3, is derived from a verb which signifies _to bend back on itself_. The Chaldee Paraphrasts render it עכביש, which we translate elsewhere, _spider_: they may therefore have understood it to have been the tarantula. It is rendered _asp_ by the Septuagint and Vulgate, and is so taken, Rom. iii, 13. The name is from the Arabic _achasa_. But there are several serpents which coil themselves previously to darting on their enemy; if this be a character of the asp, it is not peculiar to that reptile.--צפע, or צפעני, Prov. xxiii, 32; Isaiah xi, 8; xiv, 29; lix, 5; and Jer. viii, 17, is that deadly serpent called the basilisk, said to kill with its very breath. See COCKATRICE.
In Psalm lviii, 5, reference is made to the effect of musical sounds upon serpents. That they might be rendered tame and harmless by certain charms, or soft and sweet sounds, and trained to delight in music, was an opinion which prevailed very early and universally.
Many ancient authors mention this effect; Virgil speaks of it particularly, _Æn._ vii, v, 750.
_Quin et Marrubia venit de gente sacerdos, Fronde super galeam et felici comptus oliva, Archippi regis missu fortissimus Umbro; Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus hydris Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat, Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat._
“Umbro, the brave Marrubian priest, was there, Sent by the Marsian monarch to the war. The smiling olive with her verdant boughs Shades his bright helmet and adorns his brows; His charms in peace the furious serpent keep; And lull the envenom’d viper’s race to sleep: His healing hand allay’d the raging pain, And at his touch the poisons fled again.” _Pitt._