Note 836 — Chapter XVI · GRECIAN MYTHES, AS UNDERSTOOD, FELT AND INTERPRETED BY THE GREEKS THEMSELVES.
Reading edition
See the song to the potters, in the Homeric Epigrams (14):—
Εἰ μὲν δώσετε μίσθον, ἀείσω, ὦ κεραμῆες· Δεῦρ᾽ ἄγ᾽ Ἀθηναίη, καὶ ὑπείρεχε χεῖρα καμίνου. Εὖ δὲ μελανθεῖεν κότυλοι, καὶ πάντα κάναστρα Φρυχθῆναί τε καλῶς, καὶ τιμῆς ὦνον ἀρέσθαι. ... Ἦν δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀναιδείην τρεφθέντες ψευδῆ ἄρῃσθε, Συγκαλέω δὴ ᾽πειτα καμίνῳ δηλητῆρας· Σύντριβ᾽ ὅμως, Σμάραγόν τε, καὶ Ἄσβετον, ἠδὲ Σαβάκτην, Ὠμόδαμόν θ᾽, ὃς τῇδε τέχνῃ κακὰ πολλὰ πορίζει, etc.
A certain kindred between men and serpents (συγγένειάν τινα πρὸς τοὺς ὄφεις) was recognized in the peculiar gens of the ὀφιογενεῖς near Parion, who possessed the gift of healing by their touches the bite of the serpent: the original hero of this gens was said to have been transformed from a serpent into a man (Strabo, xiii. p. 588).