the later period, the sacred serpents were scarcely visible, meaning that they probably existed only figuratively.[94] Nothing was left but the hole in which the snake was said to dwell. There the [Greek: pelanoi/][1] were placed; later the obolus was thrown in. The sacred cavern in the temple of Kos consisted of a rectangular pit, upon which was laid a stone lid, with a square hole; this arrangement serves the purpose of a treasure house. The snake hole had become a slit for money, a "sacrificial box," and the cave had become a "treasure." That this development, which Herzog traces, agrees excellently with the actual condition is shown by a discovery in the temple of Asclepius and Hygieia in Ptolemais:
"An encoiled granite snake, with arched neck, was found. In
the middle of the coil is seen a narrow slit, polished by usage,
just large enough to allow a coin of four centimeters diameter at
most to fall through. At the side are holes for handles to lift the
heavy pieces, the under half of which is used as a cover."—Herzog,
Ibid., p. 212.
The serpent, as protector of the hoard, now lies on the
treasure house. The fear of the maternal womb of
death has become the guardian of the treasure of life.
That the snake in this connection is really a symbol of
death, that is to say, of the dead libido, results from the
fact that the souls of the dead, like the chthonic gods, appear
as serpents, as dwellers in the kingdom of the mother
of death.[95] This development of symbol allows us to recognize
easily the transition of the originally very primitive
significance of the crevice in the earth as mother to the
- ↑ Ritual sacrificial food offered to the gods.
