Hygieia
The
goddess of health here is portrayed with the snake. In many of the
medieval paintings, the snake symbolized medicine. This goes back
to biblical inference when God asked Moses to lift up a staff and put a
snake on it to heal the people of Israel:
"And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they
bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people
came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents
from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto
Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall
come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall
live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole,
and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, he lived." (Book of Numbers 21:6-9)
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