Aesculapius
or
Asclēpius (
Ἀσκληπιός).
The god of the medical art. In Homer he is not a divinity, but simply the “blameless
physician” whose sons, Machaon and Podalirius, were the physicians in the Greek
army. The common story relates that Aesculapius was a son of Apollo and Coronis, and that when
Coronis was with child by Apollo she became enamoured of Ischys, an Arcadian. Apollo, informed
of this by a raven, killed Coronis and Ischys. When the body of Coronis was to be burnt, the
child Aesculapius was saved from the flames, and was brought up by the centaur Chiron, who
instructed him in the art of healing and in hunting. There are other tales respecting his
birth, according to some of which he was a native of Epidaurus, and this was a common opinion
in later times. After he had grown up, he not
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Aesculapius. (Berlin.)
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only cured the sick, but recalled the dead to life. Zeus, fearing lest men might
contrive to escape death altogether, killed Aesculapius with his thunderbolt; but, on the
request of Apollo, Zeus placed him among the stars. He was married to Epioné, by
whom he had the two sons spoken of by Homer, and also other children. The chief seat of the
worship of Aesculapius was Epidaurus, where he had a temple surrounded with an extensive
grove. Serpents were sacred to him, because they were a symbol of renovation, and were
believed to have the power of discovering healing herbs. The cock was sacrificed to him. At
Rome the worship of Aesculapius was introduced from Epidaurus in B.C. 293, for the purpose of
averting a pestilence. The supposed descendants of Aesculapius were called by the patronymic
name of Asclepiadae, and their principal seats were Cos and Cnidus. They were an order or
caste of priests, among whom the knowledge of medicine was regarded as a sacred secret, and
was transmitted from father to son in these families.
