The Choice

[JustLikeYou]

I was watching Planet Earth last night, and Nile crocodiles entered the scene. The crocs will sneak up to where a herd of other animals are drinking, snatch one, and bring it into the water to drown before the herd even has a chance to react. It was a violent display of the dangers of stepping into the river. When a crocodile clamps down on a creature, it will not let go. It just keeps pulling the creature until it is underwater, where the creature will drown.

I have previously tended toward an interpretation of this symbol through Egyptian mythology (as Jade mentions above), but now I'm not so sure. It seems to me that the Egyptians thought of the crocodile in the water as the mortal danger hidden from sight. I have to think they they would classify bodies of water into two groups: those with crocodiles and those without. The rivers without crocodiles were safe, but less abundant with fish; whereas the ones with crocodiles were unsafe but abundant. Given that crocodiles were probably the only water creature that would prey on the Egyptians themselves (no sharks in the river), it seems to me that this symbol represents danger more than it does either fear or protection. I don't think crocs are known to protect anything in general; rather, they are known to feed on the unsuspecting. Additionally, the fear of crocodiles is what prevents people from entering the river in the first place. If you have entered, then you are already facing the fear. So fear is probably involved (if you know the river has crocs), but danger still seems to be at the center of the symbol.

The crocodile is the monster in the house---a monster which appears over and over in our fictional narratives. Some examples from film: Jaws, Tremors, Jurassic Park, Alien, Event Horizon, Sunshine, Kujo, It, etc. In each of these fictional narratives, the characters find themselves in an enclosed space where a voracious monster threatens their lives. I think this is what the crocodile represents.