(11) Louis Dyer: Studies of the Gods in Greece, 1891, p.
221.
A word on the idea of the serpent as an emblem of the healing art which
goes far back into antiquity. The mystical character of the snake, and
the natural dread and awe inspired by it, early made it a symbol of
supernatural power. There is a libation vase of Gudea, c. 2350 B.C.,
found at Telloh, now in the Louvre (probably the earliest representation
of the symbol), with two serpents entwined round a staff (Jastrow, Pl.
4). From the earliest times the snake has been associated with mystic
and magic power, and even today, among native races, it plays a part in
the initiation of medicine men.
In Greece, the serpent became a symbol of Apollo, and prophetic
serpents were kept and fed at his shrine, as well as at that of his son,
Asklepios. There was an idea, too, that snakes had a knowledge of herbs,
which is referred to in the famous poem of Nikander on Theriaka.(12) You
may remember that when Alexander, the famous quack and oracle monger,
depicted by Lucian, started out "for revenue," the first thing he did
was to provide himself with two of the large, harmless, yellow snakes of
Asia Minor.
(12) Lines 31, etc., and Scholia; cf.
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