The Serpent Within

Tales quidem secundem eos sententiae sunt, a quibus, velut Lernaea hydra, multiplex capitibus fera de Valentini schola generata est. Quidam enim ipsam Sophiam serpentem factam dicunt: quapropter et contrariam exstitisse factori Adae, et agnitionem homnibus immisisse, et propter hoc dictum serpentem omnium sapientiorem. Sed et propter positionem intestinorum nostrorum, per quae esca infertur, eo quod talem figuram habent, ostendentem absconsam generatricem serpentis figurae substantiam in nobis.  Sanctus Ireneaus Lugdunensis, Adversus Haereses, Lib I, Cap XXX.

Such are the opinions of these heretics, by whom, like the Lernæan hydra, a beast of many heads has been born from the school of Valentinus. For some of them assert that Wisdom herself became the serpent, on which account she was hostile to the creator of Adam, and implanted knowledge in men, and so the serpent was called wiser than all others. And on account of position of our intestines, through which the food passes, by the fact they have such a figure, since this is in the form of a serpent, it exhibits our hidden mother.   Saint Ireneaus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 1, Ch 30.