SOURCE: "The Scarlet Citadel" by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, January 1933)
"The Valley of the Worm" by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, November 1934)

DESCRIPTION: "Then I went alone through that primordial twilight jungle until an
overpowering fetid odor assailed my nostrils, and from the rank vegetation in front of me, Satha reared up his hideous head, swaying lethally from side to side, while his forked tongue jetted in and out, and his great yellow terrible eyes burned icily on me with all the evil wisdom of the black elder world that was when man was not. I
backed away, feeling no fear, only an icy sensation along my spine, and Satha came sinuously after me, his shining eighty-foot barrel rippling over the rotting vegetation in mesmeric silence. His wedge- shaped head was bigger than the head of the hugest stallion, his trunk was thicker than a man's body, and his scales shimmered with a thousand changing scintillations. I was to Satha as a mouse is to a king cobra, but I was fanged as no mouse ever was. Quick as I was, I knew I could not avoid the lightning stroke of that great triangular head; so I dared not let him come too close. Subtly I fled down the runway; and behind me the rush of the great supple body was like the sweep of wind through the grass." ("The Valley of the Worm" by Robert E. Howard)

From Conan the Barbarian (1982)

NOTES: Satha is an unknown creature from some primordial age. A gigantic snake like a cobra, its venom is so strong that it can melt stone. The Stygians would eventually worship Satha as Set. The giant snake in the dungeons of The Scarlet Citadel is also one of these creatures.

HISTORY: Robet E. Howard and snakes--kinda like apes--just go together. That's why they had to have him in the movie, even though he looked like a puppet. Maybe it was because Howard lived in rattlesnake country, maybe he was stuck on a train with snakes (No, that was Indiana Jones!).

Frank Brunner's comic book version from The Savage Sword of Conan #30 (June 1978)

---