The usual and, doubtless, the right reading makes Pœnigenam, Phœbigenam.
The opinion that Æsculapius was essentially the same as Anubis among the early Egyptians has been advanced. Both were viewed as simply divine personifications of Sirius, or Sothis, the dog-star.[304] This view is well presented by M. Pluche.
A study of the name[305] Æsculapius may or may not afford evidence in favor of the idea that there was originally a connection between the god and the dog-star. Although decidedly a Grecian god, Asklepios does not appear to be a Greek word. Keightly goes so far as to say, “Of his name no satisfactory derivation has as yet been offered.”[306] He ventures, however, to suggest that it may be from the root σχάλλω, the original meaning of which may have been to cut, whence the Latin scalpo and our own word scalpel. Mr. Keightly forgot that the name was not necessarily Greek; for that, like nearly all others, was largely a derivative language. In the Greek as well as the Latin form, it may be Hebrew, or, what was essentially the same, Phœnician. Taking it to be compounded of esh, aish, isch, or ish,[307] a man, and caleb,[308] caleph, or culap, a dog, the literal meaning of it is vir-canis, or man-dog. But, as some remarks already made indicate, it may be interpreted to mean goat-dog.[309]
Anubis, Anup, or Anupu, who in very early times was possibly the same as Thoth, was regarded as symbolic of that brightest of the fixed stars, Sirius, “the burning,” whose first appearance in the morning was the signal of the advent of the warm season, and the Etesian or periodic wind from the north, as well as the beginning of the year.[310] The rising of this notable star heliacally—that is, with the sun[311]—told the Egyptians to prepare at once for the overflow of the waters of the Nile. By many it was believed to be the cause of the flood. The watch-dog was evidently a very appropriate symbol for this star of warning. Then, from the fact that Sirius gave warning of danger, and thus saved the lives of the people, to the symbols of it the serpent, the life-symbol, was often and very properly attached. “On this account it was,” says Pluche, “that Anubis and Æsculapius passed for the inventors of physic and the preservers of life.”[312]
Others besides the Egyptians regarded Sirius with favor;[313] as, for example, the Parsis, to whom it was “Tystria, the bright and glorious star.”[314] In Greece, however, it was not regarded as propitious. To it were attributed certain diseases. Thus, Homer, who calls it Orion’s dog, says:—
“His burning breath
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.”[315]
Remembering the medical history of Sirius, it is worth while recalling that the “dog-days,” those extending from about the 22d of July to the 23d of August, are often spoken of as the physician’s holiday.
