d with banishment from P

aradise. Nevertheless, the serpent slithers back into a chapter of the Bible itself as an indestructible pagan symbol-as a god of healing. In antiquity the serpent likewise represents the quintessence of the most profound suffering in the death of Laocoon. But antiquity is capable also of transmuting the inconceivable fertility of the serpent-deity, representing Asclepius as a savior and as the lord of the serpent, ultimately