Asclepius

For other uses, see Asclepius (disambiguation).
Asclepius
God of medicine, healing, rejuvenation and physicians

Symbol A serpent-entwined staff
Consort Epione
Parents Apollo and Coronis
Siblings Step-siblings of Asclepius
Children Hygieia (daughter)
Iaso (daughter)
Aceso (daughter)
Aglaea (daughter)
Panacea (daughter)
Machaon (son)
Podalirius (son)
Telesphoros (son)
Aratus (son)
Roman equivalent Vejovis

Asclepius (/æsˈkliːpiəs/; Greek: Ἀσκληπιός, Asklēpiós [asklɛːpiós]; Latin: Aesculapius) was a god of medicine in ancient Greek religion. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters are Hygieia ("Hygiene", the goddess/personification of health, cleanliness, and sanitation), Iaso (the goddess of recuperation from illness), Aceso (the goddess of the healing process), Aglæa/Ægle (the goddess of beauty, splendor, glory, magnificence, and adornment), and Panacea (the goddess of universal remedy). He was associated with the Roman/Etruscan god Vediovis. He was one of Apollo's sons, sharing with Apollo the epithet Paean ("the Healer").[1] The rod of Asclepius, a snake-entwined staff, remains a symbol of medicine today. Those physicians and attendants who served this god were known as the Therapeutae of Asclepius.

Etymology

The etymology of the name is unknown. In his revised version of Frisk's Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Greek Etymological Dictionary), R. S. P. Beekes gives this summary of the different attempts:

"H. Grégoire (with R. Goossens and M. Mathieu) in Asklépios, Apollon Smintheus et Rudra 1949 (Mém. Acad. Roy. de Belgique. Cl. d. lettres. 2. sér. 45), explains the name as 'the mole-hero', connecting σκάλοψ, ἀσπάλαξ 'mole' and refers to the resemblance of the Tholos in Epidauros and the building of a mole. (Thus Puhvel, Comp. Mythol. 1987, 135.) But the variants of Asklepios and those of the word for 'mole' do not agree.
The name is typical for Pre-Greek words; apart from minor variations (β for π, αλ(α) for λα) we find α/αι (a well known variation; Fur. 335-339) followed by -γλαπ- or -σκλαπ-/-σχλαπ/β-, i.e. a voiced velar (without -σ-) or a voiceless velar (or an aspirated one: we know that there was no distinction between the three in the substr. language) with a -σ-. I think that the -σ- renders an original affricate, which (prob. as δ) was lost before the -γ- (in Greek the group -σγ- is rare, and certainly before another consonant).
Szemerényi's etymology (JHS 94, 1974, 155) from Hitt. assula(a)- 'well-being' and piya- 'give' cannot be correct, as it does not explain the velar."[2]

Beekes suggested a Pre-Greek proto-form *Atyklap-.[3]

Mythology

Birth

He was the son of Apollo and, according to the earliest accounts, a mortal woman named Coronis.[4] His mother was killed for being unfaithful to Apollo and was laid out on a funeral pyre to be consumed, but the unborn child was rescued from her womb. Or, alternatively, his mother died in labor and was laid out on the pyre to be consumed, but his father rescued the child, cutting him from her womb. From this he received the name Asklepios, "to cut open."[5][6]

Education

Apollo carried the baby to the centaur Chiron who raised Asclepius and instructed him in the art of medicine.[7] It is said that in return for some kindness rendered by Asclepius, a snake licked Asclepius’ ears clean and taught him secret knowledge (to the Greeks snakes were sacred beings of wisdom, healing, and resurrection). Asclepius bore a rod wreathed with a snake, which became associated with healing. To this day a species of non-venomous pan-Mediterranean serpent, the Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus) is named for the god.

Asclepius became so proficient as a healer that he surpassed both Chiron and his father, Apollo. Asclepius was therefore able to evade death and to bring others back to life from the brink of death and beyond. This caused an influx of human beings and Zeus resorted to killing him in order to maintain balance in the numbers of the human population.

Wives and offspring

Asclepios with his daughter Hygieia

Asclepius was married to Epione, with whom he had five daughters: Hygieia, Panacea, Aceso, Iaso, and Aglaea,[8][9] and three sons: Machaon, Podaleirios and Telesphoros. He also sired a son, Aratus, with Aristodama. The names of his daughters each rather transparently reflect a certain subset of the overall theme of "good health".[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

At some point, Asclepius was among those who took part in the Calydonian Boar hunt.

Death

Zeus killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt because he brought Hippolytus back alive from the dead and accepted gold for it.[16] Other stories say that Asclepius was killed because after bringing people back from the dead, Hades thought that no more dead spirits would come to the underworld, so he asked his brother Zeus to stop him. This angered Apollo who in turn killed the Cyclopes who made the thunderbolts for Zeus.[17] For this act, Zeus suspended Apollo from the night sky[18] and commanded Apollo to serve Admetus, King of Thessaly for a year. Once the year had passed, Zeus brought Apollo back to Mount Olympus and revived the Cyclopes that made his thunderbolts.[15][19] After Asclepius' death, Zeus placed his body among the stars as the constellation Ophiuchus ("the Serpent Holder").[20]

Some sources also stated that Asclepius was later resurrected as a god by Zeus to prevent any further feuds with Apollo. It was also claimed that Asclepius was instructed by Zeus to never revive the dead without his approval again.

Sacred places and practices

Majestic Zeus-like facial features of Asclepius head (Melos)

The most famous temple of Asclepius was at Epidaurus in north-eastern Peloponnese, dated to the fourth century BC.[21] Another famous healing temple (or asclepieion) was built approximately a century later on the island of Kos,[22] where Hippocrates, the legendary "father of medicine", may have begun his career. Other asclepieia were situated in Trikala, Gortys (in Arcadia), and Pergamum in Asia.

From the fifth century BC onwards,[23] the cult of Asclepius grew very popular and pilgrims flocked to his healing temples (Asclepieia) to be cured of their ills. Ritual purification would be followed by offerings or sacrifices to the god (according to means), and the supplicant would then spend the night in the holiest part of the sanctuary - the abaton (or adyton). Any dreams or visions would be reported to a priest who would prescribe the appropriate therapy by a process of interpretation.[24] Some healing temples also used sacred dogs to lick the wounds of sick petitioners.[25] In honor of Asclepius, a particular type of non-venomous snake was often used in healing rituals, and these snakes — the Aesculapian Snakes — slithered around freely on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. These snakes were introduced at the founding of each new temple of Asclepius throughout the classical world.

The original Hippocratic Oath began with the invocation "I swear by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by Hygieia and Panacea and by all the gods ...".[25]

Asclepius - a fragment of mosaic bathroom in Kyustendil (Bulgaria), author Nikolai Zikov

Some later religious movements claimed links to Asclepius. In the 2nd century AD the controversial miracle-worker Alexander claimed that his god Glycon, a snake with a "head of linen"[26] was an incarnation of Asclepius. The Greek language rhetorician and satirist Lucian produced the work Alexander the False Prophet to denounce the swindler for future generations. He described Alexander as having a character "made up of lying, trickery, perjury, and malice; [it was] facile, audacious, venturesome, diligent in the execution of its schemes, plausible, convincing, masking as good, and wearing an appearance absolutely opposite to its purpose."[26] Justin Martyr, a philosophical defender of Christianity who wrote around 160 AD claimed that the myth of Asclepius foreshadowed rather than served as a source for claims of Jesus's healing powers.[27] In Rome, the College of Aesculapius and Hygia was an association (collegium) that served as a burial society and dining club that also participated in Imperial cult.

The botanical genus Asclepias (commonly known as milkweed) is named after him and includes the medicinal plant A. tuberosa or "Pleurisy root".

Asclepius was depicted on the reverse of the Greek 10,000 drachmas banknote of 1995-2001.[28]

In popular culture

Notes

  1. ↑ Mitchell-Boyask, p. 141
  2. ↑ Greek etymology database (online source requires login and is located at http://iedo.brillonline.nl/dictionaries/content/greek/index.html;jsessionid=02B0AB2A20E711C0F132C3A936DBC4E1);[] also in: R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 151.
  3. ↑ R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. xxv.
  4. ↑ Edelstein, Ludwig and Emma Edelstein. Asclepius: a Collection and Interpretation of the Testamonies. Vol. II. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998. pg. 68
  5. ↑ The Asklepios cult
  6. ↑ NIH U.S. National Library of Medicine
  7. ↑ Pindar, Pythian Ode 3.5ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric 5th century BC)
  8. ↑ Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments 939 (Inscription from Erythrai) (trans. Campbell) (BC)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Suidas s.v. Epione (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon 10th century AD)
  10. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.29.1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue 2nd century AD)
  11. ↑ Homer, Iliad 4.193 and 217ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic 8th century BC)
  12. ↑ Homer, Iliad 11.518ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic 8th century BC)
  13. ↑ Homer, Iliad 2.730ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic 8th century BC)
  14. ↑ Lycophron, Alexandra 1047ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet 3rd century BC)
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.71.3 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian 1st century BC)
  16. ↑ Philodemus, On Piety (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric IV Stesichorus Frag. 147 and Cinesias Frag. 774) (7th to 6th centuries BC)
  17. ↑ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.121 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer 2nd century AD)
  18. ↑ Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.610ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic 3rd century BC)
  19. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 49 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer 2nd century AD)
  20. ↑ Hyginus, Astronomica 2.14 (Latin Mythography 2nd century AD)
  21. ↑ Edelstein, Ludwig and Emma Edelstein. Asclepius: a Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies. Vol. 2. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1998. pg. 243
  22. ↑ Edelstein, Ludwig and Emma Edelstein. Asclepius: a Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies. Vol. 2. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1998. pg. 243
  23. ↑ Wickkiser, Bronwen. Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-century Greece: Between Craft and Cult. Johns Hopkins Press, 2008. pg. 106
  24. ↑ Sigerist 1987, pp. 63ff
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Farnell, Chapter 10, "The Cult of Asklepios" (pp.234-279)
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet (trans A.M. Harmon) (Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library, 1936), Lucian, vol IV. Accessible online at http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/lucian_alexander.htm
  27. ↑ CCEL.org First Apology 54:10
  28. ↑ Bank of Greece. Drachma Banknotes. 10,000 drachma note (pdf) – Retrieved on 26 July 2010.

References

External links