The
Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a snake or serpent swallowing its own
tail. The name "Ouroboros" comes from Greek roots and the
word literally means “he who
eats his own tail.”
The
Ouroboros forms a circle, and therefore suggests the cyclical nature of human
existence. We progress, we fall back, and we progress again…only to fall back.
We are both the eater, and the eaten.
Most
famously in cult-tv history, the Ouroboros is the symbol of the secretive
Millennium Group in Chris Carter’s twenty-year old Millennium (1996-1999). This “logo” of sorts appears on Frank Black’s
computer sign-in with the group, and suggests that at the end/beginning of each
Millennium, there is a potential for doomsday.
The
Ouroboros is actually a recurring symbol throughout the televised works of
Chris Carter. In The X-Files (1993 – 2002)
episode “Never Again,” Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) gets a tattoo of an
Ouroboros on her back, in an apparent act of rebellion against Mulder (David
Duchovny).
And
in Carter’s Amazon pilot, The After (2014) one of the strange
beings seen in the episode finale, in the woods, is seen to have an Ouroboros
inked on his inhuman flesh.
The
Ouroboros has also appeared in the opening credits of the adaptation of Stephen
King’s time travel story, 11.22.63 (2015), about the Kennedy
assassination. It’s an appropriate
image, because we learn that more than one time traveler has attempted to stop
the historical assassination, only to have to start over, or change time,
again.
Hemlock
Grove (2013 –
2015) featured something called “Project Ouroboros” at the mysterious Godfrey
Institute, and the symbol has also appeared on Teen Wolf (2011 – 2017)
too.
Recently,
a Fear
the Walking Dead (2015 - ) episode of the second season was titled “Ouroboros.” It featured a walker being eaten by crabs on a sandy island, while simultaneously the crabs were eating him.
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