Ophiuchus and Serpens (constellations)

Originally posted to Shrubbery, 15 Sept 2003

A long time ago there was a doctor by the name of Aesculapius. There are a few different versions of his story, but this is the one I like...

One day Aesculapius was out working in his garden, as most doctors did in those days of herbal medicine. While he was weeding and mucking about he noticed a snake slithering down one of the rows. Not being especially fond of snakes, he killed it with his staff. Then he took his knife, sliced the snake's head off, and threw the body off in a corner of the garden.

As he went back to work he noticed another snake working its way through the garden, but this time he decided to stop and watch what it was doing. The snake soon came upon the body of the first snake... and then it did something very curious. It went to a corner of the garden which was a bit weedy, pulled some leaves off of one of the weeds, and headed back to the other snake's body with the leaves in its mouth. The snake put some of the leaves in the dead snake's mouth, some of them on the severed neck, and then nudged the head back to the body. As the doctor watched, the head and body grew back together! The two snakes wound their way out of the garden, leaving the doctor to look for the plant the snake had used. He picked a few leaves and put them in his bag, thinking he'd have a closer look at them later.

Just then, a woman from down the street came running and calling for Aesculapius. Her son had suffered a terrible accident, and she begged the doctor to come and help him. The two went back to the woman's house but by the time they got there the son had already died of his injuries. The poor woman was inconsolable and pleaded with the doctor to do something to save her boy. Aesculapius knew there was nothing his medicine could do, but then he remembered the snake's plant. Making no promises, he carefully placed leaves on the boy's wounds. Nothing happened. Then the doctor remembered that the snake had also placed leaves in the other snake's mouth. He opened the boy's mouth, placed a leaf on his tongue... and the boy's wounds quickly healed over. When he opened his eyes to find his mother in tears, he innocently asked what was wrong!

After that the doctor's reptutation grew. He had always been well repected for his healing powers, but now that he could raise the dead -- well, you can imagine that everyone from far and near sought him out. He was always fair and kind, using his own methods whenever possible but always keeping a small amount of the snake's plant on hand for the cases that would have been hopeless otherwise.

This went on for some time until the gods started to take notice. One god in particular was quite put out by the lack of deaths. His name was Hades, king of the Underworld, and he was annoyed to no end that a mere mortal had assumed command over life or death. Finally he went to his brother Zeus, king of all the gods, and demanded that something be done.

"See that doctor down there? He and his plant are taking away all my customers. Since when does a mortal hold sway over the kingdom you gave me, brother?"

Zeus had also been watching the doctor but had been reluctant to do anything since he knew Aesculapius acted only out of kindness. He had to admit, though, that the lack of death was starting to affect the balance of the earth. If it went on there would soon be too little room for all of the people. He told Hades that the problem would be taken care of and sadly called for one of his thunderbolts. Zeus aimed his throw carefully, and in a flash (literally) the good doctor was gone.

Zeus didn't want all of Aesculapius's good deeds to be forgotten, however, so he took care to place him up in the sky where he can be seen holding the snake that gave him his powers even now. You might also notice that to this day doctors use the symbol of the staff and the snakes (the caduceus) for their craft.