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while the sacrifice is the pig (offered to the chthonic deities, not to those of the heavens, as was Zeus),, and the seated deity is identified with Zeus Meilichios, the deity of the snake tablet just described (Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. 17-28, Cambridge, 1908). On another tablet the huge snake, this time not bearded, is figured with worshipers, and this, too, is inscribed " to Zeus Meilichios." It will be recalled that A;aculapius (Asklepios) is usually represented'as carrying a staff on which a snake is twined. A votive tablet found in the Asklepieion and now in the Athens museum shows the god standing in front of a huge serpent, while worshipers, apparently a single family, bring a lamb as sacrifice. Here the anthropomorphic transition is already made, but the snake still remains. In other votive offerings the snake is present, but greatly reduced in size. In sanctuaries in other cities evidently belonging to a god of healing, probably &wulapius, representations of snakes are commonly the votive offerings. According to Pausanias (II., xi. 8), serpents of Xsculapius were fed at Sicyon, and the same author (III., xgiii. 7) reports that at Epidaurus the statue of A:sculapius holds its hand over a serpent and (II., xxviii. 1) a yellow serpent is sacred to him, while the legend of Sicyon (II., a. 3) is to the effect that he came to that city in the form of a serpent. Epidaurus Limera was built, according to the tradition (Pausanias, III., xxiii. 7), where a serpent brought from Epidaurus disappeared in the earth (which the oracle had foretold as the omen by which to found the city), and altars to the god of healing are there, while the same story is told of the founding of Sosipolis (VI., xx. 5). The connection of the snake with lEsculapius is indirectly confirmed by the narratives of cures on the steles found at Epidaurus. In several cases the beneficiaries of the healing shrine dreamed of snakes (Mary Hamilton, Incubation, p. 22, no. 17, p. 26, no. 38, p. 27, no. 40, London, 1906), and snakes were often sent from Epidaurus to be the agents of healing elsewhere (ib. pp. 30-31), as is shown by the satirical Pdoutos of Aristophanes (ib., p. 35). The cases of Zeus and 1Esculapius make it probable that in other instances, at least in Greek environment (and the general law suggests the same among other peoples), where the serpent accompanies the representation of the deity, worship of the animal lies in the background.

Other examples in the Grecian world worthy of notice are that at Hierapolis the serpent was a god and was employed in the mysteries of Leto and Kom. This animal figured in the Bacchic orgies,

also in the Mithraic (see bel'ow). Sera. Ancestor pents were sacred to Trophonius (PauCults and sanias, IX., xxxix. 3). It will be re-

while on an altar to the hero Aristeandroa snake's were carved. This may have to be related to ancestor-worship also. There will occur to the reader here the instance of Aneas sacrificing to his father's manes (,ffneid, v. 84), when a snake appeared and the worshipers were uncertain whether this were the " genius of the place " or an " attendant " (famulus) of Anchises. The advanced thought of the time transmuted the primitive reincarnation of the dead in a snake (see on folk-lore, below) into this more advanced form. The Ophites (q.v.) kept a tame snake which they induced to encircle the bread of the sacrament and worshiped as the king of heaven (Epiphanius, Haer., xgxvii.; Tertullian, Haer., ii., ANF, iii. 650).

At Rome the instances of well-attested serpentworship are few, and this accords with the less fanciful, more restrained, and sharper legal turn of mind of the Romans. The cult seems to

and Baby- A. u. c. (291 B.c.), if one may follow Ionia. the indications in Ovid, Metamorphoses, xv. 5. At Lanuvium (16 m. a. of Rome) there was a temple of Juno and a great cave, in which was a huge snake to which worship was offered. The animal was used as an oracle also, maidens being taken there to prove their virginity, which was regarded as established if the snake received the offerings presented. Similarly, testimony which makes for serpent-worship in Babylonia is present. On Babylonian seals, serpent gods are figured, the lower parts consisting of serpent coils, with worshipers in front. Sometimes the, serpentdeity is represented introducing the devotee to the god to whom worship is to be offered. The name of this deity is given as Ningishzida (cf. W. H. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, chap. xviii., Washington, 1910). In the Marduk. temple E-sagil at Babylon an image of a horned serpent was kept (Schrader, KAT, p. 504; cf. the references there, e.g., to the Ninib hymn II Rawlinson, 19, no. 2); for the Babylonian snake-deity 7tiru cf, Schrader, ut sup., pp. 504-505, this god being known as " Lord of life." Such a title is ambiguous; it is applied in India to the cobra because of its deadly power; it might also mean the giver or, source of life with reference to the frequent connection of the snake with water and fertility. Diodorus Siculus (ii. 70) affirms that in the temple of Bel (Marduk) at Babylon there was an image of " the goddess Rhea, . . . at her knees two lions, and near her very large serpents of silver, . . also an image of Juno, holding in her hand the head of a serpent." This probably indicates the remains of adoration of the animal.

For Phenicia and Syria Macrobius (Saturnali orum conviviorum libre VIL, i. 9) affirms that the Tyrians worshiped Janus under the figure of a serpent with its tail in its mouth, and there is good reason to believe that they employed

and Egypt. under symbolism, below). It seems probable that the serpent was sacred to the Phenician deity Esmun, who was in all probability a god of healing since he is identified with Xsculapius (Baudissiu, ZDMG, lix., 1905, pp. 459