in the Greek language signifies a crow, hence another fable
arose importing, as we see in Lucian, that AEsculapius had sprung from an
egg of a bird, under the figure of a serpent. Whatever these fictions
may mean, AEsculapius being removed from the mount on which he was
exposed, was nursed by Trigo or Trigone, who was probably the wife of
the goat-herd that found him; and when he was capable of improving by
Chiron, Phlegyas (to whom he had doubtless been returned) put him under
the Centaur's tuition.

Being of a quick and lively genius, he made such progress as soon to
become not only a great physician, but at length to be reckoned the god
and inventor of medicine; though the Greeks, not very consistent in the
history of those early ages, gave to Apis, son of Phoroneus, the glory
of having discovered the healing art. AEsculapius accompanied Jason in
his expedition to Colchis, and in his medical capacity was of great
service to the Argonauts. Within a short time after his death he was
deified, and received divine honors: some add, that he formed the
celestial sign, Serpentarius.

As the Greeks always carried the encomiums of their great men beyond the
truth, they feigned that AEsculapius was so expert in medicine, as not
only to cure the sick, but even to raise the dead. Ovid says he did this
by Hippol{)i}tus, and Julian says the same of Tynd{)a}rus: that Pluto
cited him before the tribunal of Jupiter, and complained that his empire
was considerably diminished and in danger of becoming desolate, from the
cures AEsculapius performed; so that Jupiter in wrath slew AEsculapius
with a thunder-bolt; to which they added that Apollo, enraged at the
death of his son, killed the Cyclops who forged Jupiter's thunder-bolts:
a fiction which obviously signifies only, that AEsculapius had carried
his art very far, and that he cured diseases believed to be desperate.

AEsculapius is always represented under the figure of a grave old man
wrapped up in a cloak, having sometimes upon his head the _cal{)a}thus_
of Ser{=a}pis, with a staff in his hand, which is commonly wreathed
about with a serpent; sometimes again with a serpent in one hand, and a
_pat{)e}ra_ in the other; sometimes leaning upon a pillar, round which a
serpent also twines. The cock, a bird consecrated to this god, whose
vigilance represents that quality which physicians ought to have, is
sometimes at the feet of his statues. Socrates, we know, when dying,
said to those