The god of healing, Aesculapius, did not immediately settle in Rome. When a plague epidemic began in the city, the Romans, not knowing how to get rid of this misfortune, turned to the oracle for advice. He ordered them to bring a statue of the god Aesculapius from the Greek city of Epidaurus. The Romans sent a sacred embassy to Epidaurus, headed by Quinotus Ogulnius and with instructions to deliver Aesculapius to Rome. But when the ambassadors arrived at the place, they saw a huge statue of God, which, no matter how hard they wanted, was impossible to transfer to the ship. While they stood at a loss, not knowing what to do, a snake slithered from the face of the statue from nowhere. But for some reason this didn’t scare anyone. And the snake descended to the floor of the sanctuary, climbed out into the street and calmly, majestically crawled through the city towards the port. Having reached the port, she crawled onto the ship and hid in the tent of the head of the embassy. Everyone understood that Aesculapius himself was on the ship in the guise of his sacred snake. The sailor raised the anchor, and the ship glided along the sea surface to the shores of Italy.
When the travelers approached the city of Antium, the snake slid overboard and swam across the sea to the nearest sanctuary of Aesculapius. Everyone was upset that they could not deliver God to Rome. Just in case, Ogulny ordered the sailors not to weigh anchor for several days. And indeed, after some time the snake returned, to the great joy of everyone on the ship. Then the ship resumed its journey. Having entered the mouth of the Tiber, they climbed up the river all the way to the city itself. The ship was already approaching the island on the Tiber when the snake slid back into the water and swam to its shores. God clearly chose this island for his new home. The Romans built the temple of Aesculapius on this island.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru