A word must be said about the phallic explanation of the origin of serpent-worship. Mr. Cox, an excellent writer on mythology, is friendly to this theory. After speaking of the phallus as a symbol, he says: “When we add that from its physical characteristics the Ashêrah, which the Greeks called the phallus, suggested the emblem of the serpent, we have the key to the tree- and serpent-worship.”[260] Beyond question, a phallus-serpent comes frequently into view in studying mythology, but it would be very hard to prove that every serpent met with had its prototype in the phallus. It is to be regarded as beneficent, a life-giving power. The Agathodæmon is frequently so represented. Probably the possibility of charming serpents has had something to do with the remarkable uses to which these animals have been put. A person who could handle without danger a venomous reptile, and control its actions at pleasure, might easily lead many to believe him to be possessed of some miraculous power. Aaron resorted to this artifice when he appeared before Pharaoh with his cataleptic serpent, in the form of a rod.[261] The reason just given seems better than the one Plutarch gives for the association of the serpent with certain great men, when he says, in his “Life of Cleomanes,” that it was from a belief that after death evaporation of “the marrow”[262] produces serpents;[263] that the ancients appropriated the serpent, rather than any other animal, to heroes. I believe it is vain to attempt to trace the origin of serpent-worship to one and the same source. This appears plain when it is remembered that some serpents represented good, while others stood for the opposite, evil. The Bible furnishes a marked instance of contrasts: in one place a serpent was used, as has been pointed out, as a symbol of God, or Christ, while elsewhere one represents cunning, envy, lying, and even “the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.”[264] In the nature of things, one would expect the same species of reptile to produce a very similar impression on primitive peoples everywhere. This, probably, accounts largely for the resemblance to one another of most serpent-legends. The different impressions produced by different species would, to some extent, explain the unlike significance of serpent-symbols among different peoples. The signification, however, was often of very fanciful origin, as, for example, where a serpent in the form of a circle symbolized eternity, or, rather, endless life. CHAPTER X. VARIOUS ATTRIBUTES OF ÆSCULAPIUS. In this chapter I will speak briefly of various attributes, more or less generally accorded to Æsculapius. Some of them are decidedly significant, but none so much so as the staff and serpent of which I have fully treated.