are often described as allegorical figures, Hygeia representing health,
and Panacea, medicine. Hygeia especially was widely worshipped by
Greeks, and when rich people recovered from an illness they often
had medals struck with her figure on the reverse. Pliny says it was
customary to offer her a simple cake of fine flour, to indicate the
connection between simple living and good health. Panacea was likewise
made a divinity. She presided over the administration of medicines.
Egrea and Jaso are but little known. The former (whose name signified
the light of the Sun) married a serpent and was changed into a
willow, while Jaso in the only known monument on which she appears, is
represented with a pot, probably of ointment, in her hand.