[55\3: The chthonic character of Asklepios is shown specially by the fact that not only are snakes sacred and dedicated to him but that he himself was actually thought of as a snake (cf. Welcker, _Götterl._ ii, 734). ~o/phis, Gê=s pai=s~ (Hdt. i, 78); deities who dwell in the earth, and afterwards "Heroes" (in the later sense), appear in the form of snakes as ~chtho/nioi~. Since such earth-spirits generally have oracular powers the snake is an oracular animal; but that is a secondary development. The offer of a cock, too (as by Sokrates before his departure to the underworld), points to the chthonic character of Ask., for it was a sacrifice also made to Heroes. Thus the ~hêrô=|a~ at Athens were frequented by the priests of Asklepios (_CIA._ ii, 453 b); cf. Köhler, _Ath. Mitth._ vol. ii, 245 f. (Sacrificial pit, ~bo/thros~, for this chthonic worship in the Asklepieion at Athens? see Köhler, ib. 254.)] [56\3: The connexion between Amphiaraos and Asklepios is shown also by the fact that Iaso, one of the allegorical figures attached to Asklepios, though generally the daughter of Askl. (e.g. _EM._ 434, 17 ~Iasô/~ with Sylb.; cf. Herond. iv, 6), was probably also regarded as the daughter of Amph.: Sch. Ar., _Plut._ 701. Hesych. s.v. (her portrait in the temple at Oropos, Paus. 1, 34, 3). So, too, ~A/lkandros~ the son of Trophonios (Charax. ap. Schol. Ar., _Nub._, 508, p. 500 Bk.) seems to be the same as ~A/lkôn~, the Asklepiad daimon whose priest Sophokles was. The portraits of Trophonios followed the type of the Asklepios statues: Paus. 9, 39, 3-4. Troph. son of Valens (= Ischys) and Koronis, and brother of Asklepios: Cic., _ND._ iii, 56, acc. to the _theologi_. With good reason, considering their intrinsic affinity, Trophonios, Amphiaraos, Amphilochos, and the Asklepiadai are mentioned side by side by Aristid. i, p. 78 D.] [57\3: Sulla counted Amphiaraos a "god" and hence the territory belonging to his temple at Oropos was excepted from the lease for the collection of taxes granted to the Roman _publicani_. The Roman Senate allowed this to stand, ins. from Oropos ~Eph. Arch.~, 1884, p. 101 ff.; _Hermes_, 20, 268 ff.; the publicani had denied immortalis esse ullos qui aliquando homines fuissent, Cic., _ND._ iii, 49. Thus only the fact that he was _now_ a god was claimed by the other side--it was not denied that he had once been a mortal. Paus. again 8, 2, 4, mentions Amph. among the ~theoi/~ who ~egi/nonto ex anthrô/pôn~; so too Varro ap. Serv. _A._ viii, 275; cf. Apul., _D. Soc._ 15 fin.; also Philo, _Leg. ad Gaium_, § 78, ii, p. 557 M.] {{115}} CHAPTER IV HEROES § 1 When about the year 620 Drakon at Athens for the first time collected and committed to writing the customary law of his country he also ordained that the gods and the national Heroes should be honoured together according to ancestral usage.[1\4]