Epidaurus

“ It being reasonably certain that only one kind of serpent “was nourished in the land of the Epidaurians,” and regarded as sacred to Æsculapius, the following passage from Pliny is interesting: “The Æsculapian snake was first brought to Rome from Epidaurus, but at the present day it is very commonly reared, in our houses even; so much so, indeed, that, if the breed were not kept down by the frequent conflagrations, it would be impossible to make head against the rapid increase of them.” ”

“ The climate is very dry, and the beds of all the streams are waterless except after heavy rain. The hardy little holly-oak and a few dun-coloured shrubs are almost the only representatives of plant life. The eye of the traveller is wearied by the grey monotony of these arid mountains and desert tablelands, and his feet are cut and bruised by the sharp stones over which he has painfully to pick his steps. Nowhere else in Greece, probably, is the scenery so desolate and forbidding.
XXVI. Epidaurus.—The city of Epidaurus was five Roman miles distant from the sanctuary of Aesculapius. ”

“ Any one of ingenious mind could suggest several others just as worthy of acceptance. But, of course, such a mode of interpretation is decidedly illegitimate.
The idea has been advanced that the commonest of the species of serpent, Elaphis Æsculapii, described above, at Epidaurus, where the myth of the Grecian god of medicine first took definite shape, affords an adequate explanation of the association of the reptile with medicine. ”

“ At Epidaurus, according to Pausanias, live serpents were kept and fed regularly by servants, who, on account of religious awe, were fearful of approaching the sacred reptiles which in themselves were of the most harmless character. The statue of Æsculapius, at this temple, represented him resting one hand upon the head of a serpent, while his sister, Hygeia, had one twisted about her. It is reported that the god Æsculapius was conveyed by a woman named Nicagora, the wife of Echetimus, to Sicyon under the form of a serpent. ”

“ The people of Ægina crossed the water in a fleet of galleys, landed at Epidaurus, and, after committing various ravages, they seized these images, and bore them away in triumph as trophies of their victory. They set them up in a public place in the middle of their own island, and instituted games and spectacles around them, which they celebrated with great festivity and parade. The Epidaurians, having thus lost their statues, ceased to make the annual offering at Athens which they had stipulated for, in return for receiving the wood from which the statues were carved. ”

“ It is very active and can climb trees with facility. When attacked it will defend itself; but it is by nature gentle and is easily tamed.
In his brief description of it, Cuvier follows Shaw. He adds: “It is that which the ancients have represented in their statues of Æsculapius; and it is probable that the serpent of Epidaurus was of this species. (The Coluber Æsculapii of Linnæus [43] is of a totally different species, and belongs to America.) ” [44]
The Æsculapian serpent is closely related to the ringed snake (Natrix torquata) , the only British member [16] of the family ”

“ If the ground is clear beneath, the Epeira seldom falls, but moves quickly through a central passage from one to the other side. When still further disturbed, it practises a most curious manœuvre: standing in the middle, it violently jerks the web, which is attached to elastic twigs, till at last the whole acquires such a rapid vibratory movement, that even the outline of the spider's body becomes indistinct. ”

“ The Epeiridae, spinners of the round web, are certainly, as a rule, very dim-sighted creatures. A fly may be held within an inch of them, but, unless it buzz, it will excite no notice whatever. A careful observation of the performances of the large Garden-spider in securing her prey will soon convince the onlooker that she is guided almost entirely by appeals to her sense of touch communicated along the tremulous lines of her snare. ”

“ The Epeirae are monuments of patience in their lime-snare. With her head down and her eight legs widespread, the Spider occupies the centre of the web, the receiving-point of the information sent along the spokes. If anywhere, behind or before, a vibration occur, the sign of a capture, the Epeira knows about it, even without the aid of sight. She hastens up at once.
Until then, not a movement: one would think that the animal was hypnotized by her watching. At most, on the appearance of anything suspicious, she begins shaking her nest. This is her way of inspiring the intruder with awe. ”

“ Three species commonly attack man. Strangely enough, there are very few accurate data regarding their life history.
Pediculus humanus (fig. 65) , the head louse, is the most widely distributed. It is usually referred to in medical literature as Pediculus capitis, but the Linnean specific name has priority. In color it is of a pale gray, blackish on the margins. It is claimed by some authors that the color varies according to the color of the skin of the host. The abdomen is composed of seven distinct segments, bearing spiracles laterally. There is considerable variation in size. ”

“ Every path in the forest is barricaded with the strong yellow web of a species, belonging to the same division with the Epeira clavipes of Fabricius, which was formerly said by Sloane to make, in the West Indies, webs so strong as to catch birds. A small and pretty kind of spider, with very long fore-legs, and which appears to belong to an undescribed genus, lives as a parasite on almost every one of these webs. I suppose it is too insignificant to be noticed by the great Epeira, and is therefore allowed to prey on the minute insects, which, adhering to the lines, would, otherwise be wasted. ”

“ When the female spider is nearly full grown, there appears a hard, swollen place just in front of the opening of the ovaries, Fig. 1; and, after the last moult, the epigynum is uncovered at this place. The epigynum, Fig. 49, consists of two spermathecæ, E, which connect by two little tubes, H, H, with the oviduct near its mouth, and by two larger tubes, D, with the outside of the spider. The mouths of these larger [Pg 93] tubes are often surrounded by various hard appendages to support and guide the palpal organs when the latter are thrust into them. ”

“ Most of the common species belong to the genus Epeira and its allies, having rounded abdomens and stout legs, some of them with humps and spines and peculiar angular forms of the abdomen. The colors are often bright, and those of the abdomen arranged in a triangular or leaf-shaped pattern. In Meta (p. 190) and Argyroepeira (p. 191) the abdomen is more elongated and the form and marking more like Linyphia. In Tetragnatha (p. 201) the whole body is long and slender, the abdomen several times as long as the cephalothorax, and the maxillæ and mandibles, especially in the males, much elongated. ”

“ We will confine our attention to the second genus, Pediculus, which contains two species parasitic upon man— (Pediculus capitis) the hair-louse and (Pediculus vestimenti) the body-louse. Both of these are extremely difficult to rear in captivity, though in their natural state they abound and multiply to an amazing degree.
Wherever human beings are gathered together in large numbers, with infrequent opportunities of changing their clothes, P. vestimenti is sure to spread. It does not [3] arise, as the uninformed think, from dirt, though it flourishes best in dirty surroundings. ”

“ Like many [50] other apparently simple things in art, it may stand for a great deal more than one would suppose on first view.
The object encircled by a serpent held in the hand of the Æsculapian statue by Pyromachus, at Pergamus, is evidently a walking-stick. The Epidaurian statue has a similar object in one of the hands, and the same is the case in many others. Hence, as the representations of the gods of the ancients had rarely or never anything but significant attributes attached to them, it is pertinent to ask an explanation of its presence. ”

“ When the Epeira, or Garden Spider, sees an insect entangled in her great upright web, she hastens up and covers the captive with corded meshes and silk ribbons by the armful, making all resistance impossible. ”

“ A brood of young Epeira may often be seen looking like a ball of wool in the top of a bush, while below them, connected by threads to their roost, are the skins left at their second moult, and farther down, also connected by threads, the cocoon with the first skins. ”

“ The colors and markings are much as in sylvestris, but the abdomen is often darker, and the middle light stripe on the front more distinct. The epigynum has a larger middle lobe, and the lateral lobes are straighter and do not meet in the middle. The males are colored like the females and have the thorax wider and the legs longer. The palpi of the male have the tarsus short and round. ”

“ The health-giving serpent lay at the feet of Asklêpios and snakes were fed in his temple at Epidauros and elsewhere. That the ideas of mere terror and death suggested by the venomous or the crushing reptile could never have given way thus completely before those of life, healing, and safety, is obvious enough; and the latter ideas alone are associated with the serpent as the object of adoration. ”

“ A large Epeira of the same division with Epeira tuberculata and conica is extremely common, especially in dry situations. Its web, which is generally placed among the great leaves of the common agave, is sometimes strengthened near the centre by a pair or even four zigzag ribbons, which connect two adjoining rays. When any large insect, as a grasshopper or wasp, is caught, the spider, by a dexterous movement, makes it revolve very rapidly, and at the same time emitting a band of threads from its spinners, soon envelops its prey in a case like the cocoon of a silkworm. ”

“ This gregarious habit, in so typical a genus as Epeira, among insects, which are so bloodthirsty and solitary that even the two sexes attack each other, is a very singular fact.
In a lofty valley of the Cordillera, near Mendoza, I found another spider with a singularly-formed web. Strong lines radiated in a vertical plane from a common centre, where the insect had its station; but only two of the rays were connected by a symmetrical mesh-work; so that the net, instead of being, as is generally the case, circular, consisted of a wedge-shaped segment. All the webs were similarly constructed. ”

“ Even if his wooing is accepted, he has to beat a precipitate retreat after effecting his purpose, or he may fall a victim to his partner’s hunger.
This strange peril braved by the male in courting the female, which has, as far as is known, no parallel in any other department of the animal kingdom, is frequently mentioned as universal among spiders. It unquestionably exists, and may be verified by any patient observer in the case of the large Garden-spider Epeira diademata, but it has only been observed among certain species of the Epeiridae and Attidae. ”

“ The Epeirae, who occupy a distant retreat by day, cannot do without a private wire that keeps them in permanent communication with the deserted web. All of them have one, in point of fact, but only when age comes, age prone to rest and to long slumbers. ”

“ Vinson ('Aranéides des Îles de la Réunion,' pl. vi. figs. 1 and 2) gives a good instance of the small size of the male in Epeira nigra. In this species, as I may add, the male is testaceous and the female black with legs banded with red. Other even more striking cases of inequality in size between the sexes have been recorded ('Quarterly Journal of Science', 1868, July, p. 429) ”

“ Epeira thaddeus.—A small species resembling the young of insularis, but with less distinct markings on the back. Full-grown females are about quarter of an inch in length, with the abdomen large and round (fig. 401) . The colors are orange and light yellow like insularis. The two front pairs of legs have the femur, patella, and tibia orange, darker toward the ends. The third and fourth legs have the femur and patella orange. The other joints are white, with dark rings at the ends. The tibia of the fourth pair has a wide dark ring at the end. ”

“ Epeira parvula.—A common spider all over the country, with the abdomen wide in front and bluntly pointed behind, gray and brown colors and a great variety of markings. The length is quarter to three-eighths of an inch, with the abdomen two-thirds as long and as wide across the front. The abdomen is as high behind as it is in front, and the pointed end is sometimes turned a little upward, as it is in conica. The front of the head is narrow, not more than half as wide as the back of the thorax. The front legs are half longer than the body. ”

“ The ventral portion of the anteromedial process contacts medially with the parietal, and both form the anteroventral wall of the supratemporal fossa. The dorsal portion of the anteromedial process fits into a slot on the posterolateral region of the frontal, being excluded from the dorsal margin of the orbit. The anterior edge of the main body of the postorbital and of the descending process forms the entire posterior orbital rim (Figure 3) , as in Riojasaurus, Coloradisaurus, Massospondylus, Lufengosaurus and Adeopapposaurus. ”