At Epidaurus his statue was of gold and ivory,[38] seated on a throne of
the same materials, with a long beard, having a knotty stick in one
hand, the other entwined with a serpent, and a dog lying at his feet.
The Phliasians depicted him as beardless, and the Romans crowned him
with a laurel, to denote his descent from Apollo. The knots in his staff
signify the difficulties that occur in the study of medicine. He had by
his wife Epione two sons, Machaon and Podalirius, both skilled in
surgery, and who are mentioned by Homer as having been present at the
siege of Troy, and who were very serviceable to the Greeks. He had also
two daughters, called Hygiaea and Jaso.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] Ovid, who relates the story of Coronis in his fanciful way, tells
us that Corvus, or the raven, who discovered her armour, had by Apollo,
his feathers changed from _black_ to _white_.
[33] From these tablets, or votive inscriptions, Hippocrates is said to
have collected his aphorisms.
[34] The Romans who sent for Aesculapius from Epidaurus, when their city
was troubled with the plague, say, that the serpent that was worshipped
there for him followed the ambassadors of its own accord to the ship
that transported it to Rome, where it was placed in a temple built in
the isle called Tiberina.
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