Asclepius
n.
god of medicine (Greek Mythology)
Asclepius
For the Hermetic text of the same name, see the
Corpus Hermeticum .For the Alexandrian scholar, student of Ammonius Hermiae, see
Asclepius of Tralles. Asclepius (
Greek , transliterated Asklēpiós;
Latin Aesculapius) is the demigod of
medicine and healing in ancient
Greek mythology. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts, while his daughters
Hygieia,
Meditrina,
Iaso,
Aceso,
Aglæa/Ægle and
Panacea (literally, "all-healing") symbolize the forces of cleanliness, medicine and healing, respectively.
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Asclepius
[Greek] Asclepius was a Greek hero who later become the Greek god of medicine and healing. The son of Apollo and Coronis, Asclepius had five daughters, Aceso, Iaso, Panacea, Aglaea and Hygieia. He was worshipped throughout the Greek world but his most famous sanctuary was located in Epidaurus which is situated in the northeastern Peloponnese. The main attribute of Asclepius is a physician's staff with an Asclepian snake wrapped around it; this is how he was distinguished in the art of healing, and his attribute still survives to this day as the symbol of the modern medical profession. The cock was also sacred to Asclepius and was the bird they sacrificed as his altar. The mother of Asclepius, Coronis, was a mortal, the daughter of Phlegyas, a king of Thessaly. Coronis was unfaithful to Apollo, and Artemis, Apollo's twin sister, killed her for her unfaithfulness. Coronis was placed upon a funeral pyre. (One version says that Apollo cast her into the fires of his own anger.) As her body start...
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Aesculapius
Aesculapius Asklepios (Greek) God of healing and medicine, son of Apollo by Coronis, educated by the centaur Chiron. When Aesculapius brought the dead back to life, Zeus at the behest of Hades killed him with a thunderbolt.
He is often identified with Mercury, the divine healer or cosmic serpent, represented by the caduceus of Mercury; and in some of his functions he is the same as Ptah in Egypt, creative intellect or wisdom, and as Apollo, Baal, Adonis, and Hercules (SD 2:208; 1:353). Also called the serpent and the savior: "Esculapius, Serapis, Pluto, Knoum, and Kneph, are all deities with the attributes of the serpent. Says Dupuis, 'They are all healers, givers of health, spiritual and physical, and of enlightenment' " (SD 2:26). Thus Aesculapius is mystically the divine healer or healing power, the ray of divine wisdom emanating from the spiritual sun in man.