The classical greek society was eminently a shamanic culture

Greek culture developed numerous serpentine cults and symbols that were based on the consumption of certain plants. Even today, in contemporary society, the staff of Aesculapius, a staff surrounded by two coiled snakes, is commonly used as a symbol of medicine.
The Greek god Aesculapius (Asclepius in Greek, Aesculaius in Latin, Castilianized Aesculapius) was a shaman or physician who lived in Thessaly, Greece, around 1200 BC.
Homer in The Iliad mentions him only as a skilled physician, then he was honored as a hero, and finally elevated to divine status. Over time he became the Greek deity of medicine, worshiped in hundreds of temples. In the mythology that was to develop in later times, he was considered the son of Apollo (God of Light, Truth and Prophecy) and the nymph Coronis. The centaur Chiron taught him the art of healing, but Zeus, fearful that he might return to immortal men, struck him with lightning.
The cult began in Thessaly but then spread to all Hellenic towns. It was introduced to Rome by Sibylline supposedly to alleviate a plague
in the year 293 B.C.
Aesculapius was depicted dressed in a long robe with bare chest. He had a staff (cane) with a coiled snake that would eventually become the symbol of medicine. The caduceus (or caduceus) (in Greek kerikeion) was a staff, staff, or staff that showed that the person carrying it was sacred and should be respected. It had intertwined wings and serpents that also appear on the magic wand of Hermes or Mercury.
The hundreds of Greek Aesculapius temples in Greece were used by sick people who went to sleep to be visited in dreams by Aesculapius or their priests. They slept in a place called abaton which was a sacred bedroom.
Diets are believed to have been used, most likely poppy (opium) and other healing and ceremonial plants, baths, and exercises as a healing method.
It is good to remember, on the other hand, that Hermes, the Mercury of the Romans, was a God closely connected with the deities of the vegetation (Bread and the nymphs), the deity of dreams to whom the faithful offered the last libation before go to sleep.
Demeter, the Mother Goddess, also known as Gaia, was the deity of plants and nature. In the images that remain of her, she usually appears carrying poppies, snakes and barley. Before being dedicated to Apollo, the Delphic oracle, the most important religious center in Greece, had been the object of the worship of Gaia and her daughter the Holy Serpent.
Then the Serpent was to be masculinized and transformed into a dragon-serpent called Python. The priestesses of the sanctuary, who for that reason were called fortune tellers, achieved transcendence through the ingestion of Sacred Plants, extracts of wines and ambrosias, specially prepared to achieve the cosmic connection with the deep essences. In particular, in their trances they entered into communication with Mother Earth, and with the ancient celestial serpent, as in the pre-Hellenic times of matriarchal societies.