The Ouroboros is often depicted as a serpent or dragon eating its own tail, forming a circle. This circular representation symbolizes the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It suggests that life is a continuous process of renewal and regeneration, with no true beginning or end.
The German organic chemist August Kekulé described the eureka moment when he realized the structure of benzene, after he saw a vision of Ouroboros: “…But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.”
