624.
(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.