Great piece! The story of Eve and the snake is a way to discredit one of the sacred animals of the Queen of Heaven, the dominant deity in the region until Yahweh came along. It's a total scapegoat scenario to debase Ishtar/Astarte/Astoreth whose worship was so prevalent and so deeply a part of the culture that Astoreth is mentioned something like 27 times in the Bible, including when King Solomon is rebuked for forgetting "God" and instead returning to her worship. It's all spin and damage control as well as a way to justify making women into second class citizens.