FIG. 4. ANCIENT STATUE OF THE GOD AESCULAPIUS IN THE BERLIN MUSEUM.
(From Holländer’s Plastik und Medizin, with the author’s permission.)
FIG. 5.
HEAD OF THE MARBLE STATUE OF THE GOD AESCULAPIUS IN THE NAPLES MUSEUM.
In the illustration which has here been reproduced (Fig. 4), a viper, as clearly shown by the shape of his head and neck and by the unusual length of the jaw, has twined himself about the staff and is close to the god’s hand, so close that in an instant’s time the fatal bite might readily be inflicted. But Aesculapius shows by his countenance, by the unconcerned manner in which he allows his right hand to remain near the serpent’s head, and by the easy pose of his whole body, that he is not at all concerned about the danger which appears to threaten his life. In the estimation of the ancient Greeks this fearlessness was undoubtedly attributed to the supernatural power which they believed Aesculapius to possess over dangerous serpents as well as over diseases of all kinds.
So far as now appears, all the statues of the god that have been dug up in Greece or its nearest colonies represent the serpent as of the size commonly observed in that part of the world. Hollaender, however, furnishes (on page 118 of his work) an illustration which represents—as he believes—the god Aesculapius in the presence of an enormous snake, evidently a python. (Fig. 6.) As this variety of serpent is not to be found in Greece, or indeed at any point further north than the Mediterranean coast of Africa, it is fair to assume that the bas-relief which depicts this scene must have been made for exhibition in an Asclepieion located at Cyrene or at the relatively near city of Alexandria, where patients, who were more or less familiar with this serpent and realized its power of crushing people to death, would have occasion to witness this suggestive work of art. And, furthermore, as if it were for the express purpose of emphasizing the great protective power of the god, the sculptor has introduced, on one side of the scene, the figures of three women, two young children and a lamb. The women nearest to the monster have folded their arms and do not manifest the least sign of fear. The children also appear to be unaware of the presence of a deadly danger. In short, the proximity of the god Aesculapius has instilled into the minds of these human beings the most complete sense of fearlessness; he himself, as in the case of the statue of Aesculapius shown in Fig. 4, exhibiting a complete absence of fear in the presence of the dangerous monster. Neither death by poisoning nor death by constriction has any terrors for him to whom the patient is about to appeal for relief from disease.
That pythons were a terror in former times to the people who inhabited the coast regions near Cyrene is evident from a statement which Aristotle makes in his History of Animals (Book VIII., Chapter xxviii.). It reads as follows:—
In Libya (Africa) the serpents, as has been already remarked, are very large. For some persons say that, as they sailed along the coast, they saw the bones of many oxen, and that it was evident to them that they had been devoured by the serpents. And, as the ships passed on, the serpents attacked the triremes, and some of them threw themselves upon one of the triremes and overturned it.