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The serpent in other ancient near Eastern literature (Genesis 3)

Throughout most of the ancient Near East, people revered and often wrshiped serpents. The serpent were the symbol of royalty, wisdom, healing, fertility, death, and other forces, both harmful and beneficient.
In ancient writings, serpents and serpentine creatures played the roles as adversaries of both humans and gods.
In the Egyptian myth of Osiris, the sungod Ra has to contend with Apothis, a demon serpent who attempts to overthrow Ra and thereby enfold the world in darkness.
The snake of the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh robs Gilgamesh of the plant of Rrjuvenation which, if eaten, would have given him eternal life.
Serpents similarly oppose hmans and gods in other Mseopotamian stories, such as the Etana myth, Enuma Elish and Ianna and the Huluppu tree.
In Ugarit’s Baal-Anat cycle, Baal and his consort, Anat, defeat the seveb headed twisting serpent, Lotan. The word Lotan is related to the word Leviathan.
Not even mentioning many legends and myhts about sea serpents and such like, it is obvious that many of these stories build on the biblical account of the serpent in the garden. We can see how the original story must have travelled and changed from generation to generation. The serpent is the evil one, and we should all stay away from him!