Asclepius (Aesculapius) - Myths of Ancient Greece
Asclepius (Aesculapius)
IN ancient Greek mythology- the god of healing, the son of Apollonai and the nymph Koronida (according to another version - Arsinoe, the daughter of Leucippus), whom Apollo killed for treason with a mortal. When the body of Koronis was burned on a funeral pyre, Hermes, at the request of Apollo, took out the baby Asclepius from her womb. Apollo gave him to be raised by the wise centaur Chiron, who taught the boy the art of healing. Asclepius reached such heights in this matter that he could not only heal the sick, but also raise the dead, thereby depriving Hades of new subjects. The wounded Hades complained to his brother Zeus, and he killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt. The sons of Asclepius were Podalirius and Machaon, who healed the Greeks during the siege of Troy. Among the children of Asclepius are the brilliant daughters of Hygieia, Panacea, the sons of Podalirius and Machaon, who participated in the Trojan War.
In Homer, Asclepius is a mortal, the husband of Epione. Disciple of Apollo and the centaur Chiron. Member of the campaign of the Argonauts. The cult and oracle of Asclepius were widespread in Epidaurus.
IN ancient roman mythology Asclepius corresponds to Aesculapius, or, more correctly, Aesculapius (Aesculapius, from the Greek Ασκληπιός) - the Greek god of medical art, naturalized among the ancient Romans, which, together with its divine representative, penetrated Rome at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. When in 293 BC, a severe pestilence visited Rome, turned for guidance to the Sibylline books, which made it clear that the epidemic would stop if the god Esculapius was transported to Rome from his Epidaurian sanctuary. After a one-day prayer, they equipped an embassy in Epidaurus for sacred snake a god who, according to legend, voluntarily followed the Romans to their ship and, upon arrival in Rome, chose the Tiber Island for her dwelling; this island is still dedicated to god, in memory of which, during the construction of the embankment, the shores of the island were given the form of a floating ship, decorated in front with a statue of Esculapius.
In 291, a temple was consecrated here in honor of Aesculapius; this temple and the services that took place with it resembled typical Greek Asclepius. As in Epidaurus, in the Tiberian temple of Aesculapius, a method of treating the sick was practiced through incubation, during which they received the necessary advice in a dream; those who recovered dedicated votive gifts and inscriptions of thanksgiving to God. Together with Aesculapius, the inscriptions very often mention a goddess related to him in cult - Hygiea or Salus (Health). Another temple of Aesculapius was located in Antium (in Latium), where, according to legend, the serpent of Aesculapius, upon returning to Rome equipped with an embassy in 293, landed on the shore and twisted around a tall palm tree in the grove of Apollo for three days. The cult of Aesculapius was Greek; the priests at the temple of the god were from the Greeks; like the Greek Asclepius, the Roman Aesculapius was dedicated from the animals of the snake, dog and rooster. In the person of Aesculapius, Greek medical art was officially adopted by the state, although the Romans, who generally looked at medicine with disgust, were inhospitable to the Greek doctors who settled in Rome. Later, medicine became the specialty of the Greeks, among whom there were always many charlatans. Superstition and suffering led people to Aesculapius; the cult of this god was among the most popular and persistent.
Asclepius The god of medicine in ancient Greek mythology. The ancient Romans called the god of healing Aesculapius. There are reasons to believe that we are talking about real person who lived in antiquity and was engaged in the treatment of compatriots. After the death of the great healer, who saved many lives, he was deified and canonized as a saint. The mention of Asclepius was found in some written sources, in particular, in the treatise "Hermetic", written by the theosophist, sage and thinker, the god of letters Hermes Trismegistus.
Biography
Asclepius was the son of Apollo, who was credited with the ability to forgive sins and cleanse the souls of murderers, as well as the talent of a healer god. The mother of Asclepius was Princess Koronida, who fell at the hands of her beloved. According to other information, the mother of the young man was Arsinoe. Myths and legends about the mother of Asclepius are contradictory; different sources provide completely different information. Socrates wrote that the parents of Asclepius are not known for certain, since they threw the baby out in the forest. The hunters who accidentally discovered him took the child and handed him over to be raised by Chiron, who taught his adopted son how to heal. According to another legend, Asclepius was born by a sinful mother who conceived a child from Apollo, and then fell in love with another, for which she was burned at the stake. However, before she burned down, a baby was removed from her womb, who did not have time to be born. Heron, who was given the boy to raise, was a noble, wise and kind centaur, unlike his brothers. He once learned from Apollo to read and write and the art of hunting. Chiron also knew how to heal. He passed on all his knowledge to his stepson, who greatly surpassed his teacher. Asclepius was married and had seven sons, who also followed in their father's footsteps and devoted their lives to medicine. Several legends are associated with the children of Asclepius. According to one of them, the son of Asclepius made dying girl bloodletting than saved her. This legend makes us understand that bloodletting began to be practiced even before our era. Another legend says that another son of the god removed an arrow from the body of a wounded warrior and sprinkled the wound with miraculous medicine. After that, the wound quickly healed and the warrior recovered. Asclepius knew how to heal many diseases and resurrect the dead who had passed away. Zeus did not like the activities of Asclepius, who violated the order of life. The healer angered Hades, who came with a complaint about the unauthorized healer to Zeus. Hades said that a mere mortal had violated the earthly laws that Zeus himself had introduced. Because of the self-willed healer, people ceased to be afraid of death and became immortal, although this was exclusively the prerogative of the gods. To prevent Asclepius from resurrecting mere mortals, the angry Zeus sent lightning bolts at him, which killed the healer himself. People were upset by such injustice and in order to perpetuate the memory of the healer, they deified him. They began to build temples everywhere, where they prayed to their defeated healer.
Depiction of Asclepius
In the earliest period of the cult of the god of healing in ancient Rome, Asclepius was depicted as a snake, and not as a man. Later, they began to depict him on coins in the form of a smart and wise old man (all other gods with a human face were depicted in much the same way). Images of Asclepius have survived to our time, dating, in all likelihood, to the 2nd-3rd century BC. These are the so-called initiatory reliefs - a dedication to a face on a stone, fragments of statues, works of glyptics, coins and coinage. Asclepius was depicted with his sacred animals (snakes and roosters). Later, when Asclepius began to be considered the patron saint of all physicians, it was the snake wrapping around the bowl that became the symbol of medicine. This symbol was chosen because of the image of Asclepius with a staff entwined with snakes. Before the Renaissance, Asclepius was also depicted surrounded by medical instruments and medicines because he was also considered the patron saint of apothecaries.
| Famous doctors of all time | ||
|---|---|---|
| Austrian | Adler Alfred Auenbrugger Leopold Breuer Joseph van Swieten Gaen Antonius Selye Hans Freud Sigmund | |
| antique | Abu Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna) Asclepius Galen Herophilus Hippocrates | |
| British | Brown John Harvey William Jenner Edward Lister Joseph Sydenham Thomas | |
| Italian | Cardano Gerolamo Lombroso Cesare | |
| German | Billroth Christian Virchow Rudolf Wundt Wilhelm Hahnemann Samuel Helmholtz Hermann Griesinger Wilhelm Grafenberg Ernst Koch Robert Kraepelin Emil Pettenkofer Max Erlich Paul Esmarch Johann | |
| Russian | Amosov N.M. Bakulev A.N. Bekhterev V.M. Botkin S.P. Burdenko N.N. Danilevsky V.Ya. Zakharyin G.A. Kandinsky V.Kh. Korsakov S.S. Mechnikov I.I. Mudrov M.Ya. Pavlov I.P. Pirogov N.I. Semashko N.A. Serbian V.P. Sechenov I.M. Sklifosovsky N.V. Fedorov S.N. Filatov V.P. | |
| French | ||
Asclepius(among the Romans - Aesculapius) in ancient mythology: the god of healing, the offspring of Apollo and the nymph Coronida, daughter of the king of the Lapiths Phlegius (according to another version, Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus), who was killed by Apollo for treason. When the body of Koronis was burned in Epidaurus on a funeral pyre, Apollo pulled the baby out of her womb. So, by the method of "Caesarean section" ("Caesarean", in other words, royal, they mean that Julius Caesar was born by the same method in 102 BC, which is also associated with the name of this operation), Asclepius was born.
Some evidence suggests that "the great and blameless physician" Ancient Greece Asclepius was real historical figure, then deified.
Wrapped in a shawl, Coronida is depicted on a copper coin of Pergamum, a city in Mysia with a temple of Asclepius, carved in 138 AD by order of the wife of the ruler Adrian Sabina. A village near Epidaurus is named in memory of Koronis.
ABOUT birth of Asclepius there are few versions. According to one of them, Koronida gave birth and left the little Asclepius a secret from her own father on the slopes of the Jura Tition. A goat grazing there fed the hungry baby with its milk, and the dog guarding the flock took care of it until Asclepius was found by the shepherd Arestan. On the bronze coin of Epidaurus of the period of Antoninus Pius (138-161), the scene of the meeting of the shepherd with Asclepius, who is fed by a goat, was reflected. The same scene is on one of the monuments of Epidaurus, which existed until the era of the Middle Ages. Around the head of Asclepius the baby is usually a divine halo.
According to another legend, Apollo brought him to be raised by the wisest and most learned centaur (half-man, half-horse) Chiron, who raised him on the slopes of Mount Pelion. The image of Chiron is placed on a copper Greek coin of the second century AD. Under his leadership, Asclepius became such a quality doctor that he was even able to outshine his own teacher. He recognized the power of the roots of the forest and the juices of herbs, fields and meadows. And he not only treated diseases, but even brought the dead back to life, which angered the ruler of the kingdom of the dead Hades and the Thunderer Zeus (his own grandfather), violating the order established by him on Earth. Enraged Zeus struck Asclepius with his own lightning.
Asclepius not only returned youth to people with the help of the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, killed by Perseus, but also life. One of the Greek legends tells how at one fine moment Asclepius was invited to the palace of Minos in Crete to revive his dead offspring Glaucus. He saw a snake on his staff and killed it. However, another snake appeared with a medicinal herb in its mouth and revived the dead one. Asclepius used the same herb, and the deceased Glaucus was resurrected. Asclepius really needed the experience, and he freed many people from ailments. Asclepius revived Hippolytus, Capaneus, and others. It is not clear whether it was for this feat or for something else, but the snake is accepted as a symbol of medicine.
Cult of Asclepius
People deified the quality healer Asclepius, erected a huge number of sanctuaries in his honor, and among them is the famous sanctuary of Asclepius in Epidaurus. The cult of Asclepius was especially popular in Epidaurus, where people flocked for healing from all over Greece. Epidavria is an Athenian feast in honor of Asclepius, celebrated on the 4th day of the Eleusinian mysteries.
In Rome, the temple of Aesculapius was also built on the Tiber Peninsula and consecrated on January 1, 291 BC. The cult set off according to the Greek standard, the priests were mostly Greeks. This was a notable innovation in Roman religious life, and the temple became very popular.
The famous sanctuary of Asclepius was located on the peninsula of Kos, the eminent doctors of the island of Kos were considered descendants of the god of healing and were called Asklepiads. According to legend, Hippocrates belongs to them. From Asclepius comes the name of the Greek specially equipped healing premises "asclepeions" for the reception and inpatient detention of the sick, created at the temple of Asclepius. On the coins of that time it was possible to see these premises.
Staff of Asclepius
A mandatory attribute of Asclepius was a snake (or even two), which received sacrificial offerings in the temple of Asclepius. The staff of Asclepius, around which the snake is wrapped, has always been depicted as an unfinished wooden stick with knots. In the early period of the cult of the god Asclepius, he himself was depicted as a snake (as, for example, on the coin of Antoninus Pius, issued on the occasion of the transfer of the sacred snake from Epidaurus to Rome in 191 BC).
In the deepest antiquity, the snake was the emblem of the Egyptian god Thoth, patron of doctors. Sacred snakes were kept in Egyptian temples. The goddess of life and health, Isis, was always depicted with snakes, symbolizing endless life. This is consistent with the belief of the Phoenicians that the snake has the power to rejuvenate the elderly. In ancient Babylon, the god of doctors Ningishzida had his own symbol of 2 snakes wrapped around a staff. With the snake, the Babylonians associated rejuvenation, recovery, health, longevity, wisdom. A thousand years before our era, the Greeks began to worship the cult of the snake. Their snake also symbolized the wisdom of science and knowledge. In one myth it was said that Zeus - the supreme god of the Greeks - gave people a wonderful rejuvenating remedy. Instead of carrying this priceless gift themselves, people put it on the donkey, and he gave it to the snake. Since that time, people bear the heavy burden of old age, and snakes enjoy endless youth. It is clear that snakes live for a long time and change their skin cover once a year. This ability led people to superstitious thoughts about the unchanging youth of the snake, shedding "old age" together with the skin. The most ancient sayings of many peoples reflect the recognition of the snake as the bearer of all knowledge, the highest wisdom: “Be wise, like snakes,” etc. Some peoples have preserved legends about snake-eaters, who acquired the gift of clairvoyance and knew medicinal characteristics many herbs.
According to many scholars, a well-formed cult of the snake as the personification of omniscience, healing and medical knowledge in Europe can be noted in Thessaly. Among the carriers of knowledge, in general, healers stood out earlier than others in an unusual group, because they were needed daily during childbirth, injuries, poisoning and other diseases. The snake remained their symbol, at first former symbol undifferentiated knowledge.
Images of Asclepius usually in human form middle age(similar to Zeus), also different moments associated with it are found on the coins of 162 cities of Ancient Greece (Kos, Phrygia, Athens, Epidaurus, etc.); on many coins of Old Rome, also the ruler of Postumus (258-268), the ruler of the seceded provinces - Spain, Gaul, Britain, where the famous healer is depicted with a staff entwined with a snake fed by Hygiea.
Children of Asclepius
Asclepius had seven kids - Telesphorus, Machaon, Podaliria, Hygieia, Panacea, Iazo and Ogle. In Homer's Iliad, Machaon and Podalirius are portrayed as warrior doctors enjoying the highest authority:
Late ancient tradition considered Machaon doctor, and Podaliriya- a therapist. There is a legend that Podaliriy, returning from the Trojan War, landed on the coast of Asia Minor. Then he found out that the daughter of the local king had fallen off the roof and had been lying unconscious for a number of days. He performed bloodletting on her, the patient perked up, and a grateful father gave her as a wife to a resourceful doctor. This shows that the origin of bloodletting as a therapeutic measure disappears in the mists of time. Unfortunately, it would become a mainstay of therapy right up to the middle of the 19th century.
Hygieia was the goddess of health (from her the name "hygiene"), Panacea- patroness of pharmaceutical healing, Iazo- goddess of healing and Ogle- the goddess of luxury. Telesphorus was considered a genius of recovery (the name in translation means “leading to good end»).
Asclepius was thought of as the hypostasis of Apollo; their common temples and attributes are known.
Doctors were called asclepiads, in other words, the heirs of Asclepius, which has survived to a certain extent to our times in the playful nickname "eskupp".
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Additional to the site:
Some evidence suggests that the "great and immaculate doctor" of ancient Greece, Asclepius (Aesculapius - among the Romans) was a real historical figure, later deified. According to Greek mythology, Asclepius is the god of healing, the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronida, the daughter of the king of the Lapiths Phlegius (according to another version, Arsinoe, the daughter of Leucippus), who was killed by Apollo for treason.
When the body of Koronis was burned in Epidaurus on a funeral pyre, Apollo took the baby out of her womb. So, by “Caesarean section” (“Caesarean”, that is, royal; it is assumed that Julius Caesar was born in the same way in 102 BC, with which the name of this operation is also associated), Asclepius was born. The shawled Coronis is depicted on a copper coin of Pergamum, a city in Mission with a temple of Asclepius, stamped in 138 AD. e. by order of the wife of Emperor Adrian Sabina.
A village near Epidaurus is named in memory of Koronis. There are several versions about the birth of Asclepius. According to one of them, Koronida gave birth and left little Asclepius a secret from her father on the slopes of Mount Tition. A goat grazing there fed her milk to a hungry child, and a dog guarding the herd protected him until Asclepius was found by the shepherd Arestan. On the bronze coin of Epidaurus of the period of Antony Pius (138-161), the scene of the meeting of the shepherd with Asclepius, who is being fed by a goat, was reflected.
The same scene is on one of the monuments of Epidaurus, which existed until the Middle Ages. Around the head of Asclepius the baby is usually a divine halo. According to another legend, Apollo brought him to be raised by the wise and learned centaur (half-man, half-horse) Chiron, who raised him on the slopes of Mount Pelion. The image of Chiron is placed on a copper Greek coin of the second century AD. e. Under his guidance, Asclepius became such a skilled physician that he even managed to surpass his teacher. He knew the power of the roots of the forest and the juices of herbs, fields and meadows.
And he not only healed diseases, but even brought the dead back to life, which angered the ruler of the kingdom of the dead Hades and the Thunderer Zeus (his grandfather), violating the order he had established on Earth. Enraged Zeus struck Asclepius with his lightning. Asclepius not only restored youth to people with the help of the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, killed by Perseus, but also life. In one of Greek myths tells how once Asclepius was invited to the palace of Minos in Crete to resurrect his dead son Glaucus.
He saw a snake on his staff and killed it. But another snake appeared with a healing herb in its mouth and resurrected the dead one. Asclepius used the same herb, and the deceased Glaucus was resurrected. The experience was very useful to Asclepius, and he saved many people from ailments. Asclepius resurrected Hippolytus, Capaneus, and others. It is not known whether it was for this feat or for something else, but the snake is accepted as the emblem of medicine. In ancient times, the snake was a symbol of the Egyptian god Thoth, the patron of doctors. The sacred snake was cultivated in Egyptian temples.
The Egyptian goddess of life and health, Isis, was always depicted with snakes, symbolizing eternal life. This is also consistent with the belief of the Phoenicians that the snake has the power to rejuvenate the elderly. In ancient Babylon, the god of doctors, Ningishzida, had as his emblem two snakes wrapped around a staff. The Babylonians associated rejuvenation, recovery, health, longevity, and wisdom with the snake. A thousand years before our era, the Greeks began to worship the cult of the snake. The snake also symbolized the wisdom of science and knowledge.
In one myth it was said that Zeus - the supreme god of the Greeks - gave people a wonderful rejuvenating remedy. Instead of carrying this priceless gift themselves, people put it on a donkey, and he gave it to a snake. Since then, people have been bearing the heavy burden of old age, and snakes have enjoyed eternal youth. Snakes are known to live long lives and change their skin every year. This ability led people to superstitious thoughts about the snake's constant youth, shedding "old age" along with its skin.
Ancient sayings of many peoples reflect the recognition of the snake as the bearer of all knowledge, the highest wisdom: “Be wise like snakes,” etc. Some peoples have legends about snake-eaters who acquired the gift of clairvoyance and knew healing properties many herbs. According to many scientists, the finalized cult of the snake, as the personification of omniscience, healing and medical knowledge in Europe, can be noted in Thessaly.
Among the holders of knowledge in general in special group earlier than others, healers were singled out, since they were needed daily during childbirth, injuries, poisoning and other diseases. Their emblem remained the snake, originally the emblem of undifferentiated knowledge. People deified the skillful healer Asclepius, erected many sanctuaries in his honor, and among them the famous sanctuary of Asclepius in Epidaurus. The cult of Asclepius was especially popular in Epidaurus, where people flocked for healing from all over Greece. Epidauria is an Athenian holiday in honor of Asclepius, celebrated on the fourth day of the Eleusinian mysteries.
In Rome, the temple of Aesculapius was also built on the Tiber Island and consecrated on January 1, 291 BC. e. The cult followed the Greek model, the priests were predominantly Greeks. This was a notable innovation in Roman religious life, and the temple became quite popular. On the island of Kos there was a famous sanctuary of Asclepius, famous doctors the islands of Kos were considered descendants of the god of healing and were called asclepiads.
According to legend, Hippocrates belongs to them. From Asclepius comes the name of the Greek specially equipped medical facilities "asclepeions" for the reception and inpatient maintenance of patients, created at the temple of Asclepius. These premises could be seen on the coins of that time. An indispensable attribute of Asclepius was a snake (or even two), which received sacrificial offerings in the temple of Asclepius.
The staff of Asclepius, around which a snake wraps, has always been depicted as an unfinished wooden stick with knots. IN early period In the cult of the god Asclepius, he himself was depicted in the form of a snake (as, for example, on the coin of Antoninus Pius, issued on the occasion of the transfer of the sacred snake from Epidaurus to Rome in 191 BC). Images of Asclepius, usually in the form of a man of mature age (similar to Zeus), as well as various moments associated with him, are found on the coins of 162 cities of Ancient Greece (Kos, Phrygia, Athens, Epidaurus, etc.; on many coins ancient rome, as well as the emperor Postumus (258-268), the ruler of the seceded provinces - Spain, Gaul, Britain, where the famous healer is depicted with a staff entwined with a snake fed by Hygiea.)
Asclepius had seven children - Telesphorus, Machaon, Podaliria, Hygieia, Panacea, Iazo and Ogle. In the "Iliad" of Homer, Machaon and Podaliriy are brought out as warrior doctors, enjoying high authority: - ... one skilled healer is worth many people. - ... he will cut the arrow and sprinkle the wound with medicine. The late ancient tradition considered Machaon a surgeon, and Podaliria a therapist.
There is a legend that Podaliriy, returning from the Trojan War, landed on the coast of Asia Minor. Here he learned that the daughter of the local king had fallen from the roof and lay unconscious for several days. He bled her, the patient came to life, and a grateful father gave her as a wife to a resourceful doctor. This shows that the origin of bloodletting as a therapeutic measure is lost in the mists of time.
Unfortunately, it would become the mainstay of therapy until the middle of the 19th century. Hygieia was the goddess of health (from her name "hygiene"), Panacea - the patroness drug treatment, Iazo - the goddess of healing and Ogle - the goddess of luxury. Telesphorus was considered a genius of recovery (the name in translation means "leading to a good end"). Asclepius was thought of as the hypostasis of Apollo; their common temples and attributes are known.
Greek mythology
is a collection of short stories written by the ancient Greeks. The main characters of these stories were, of course, the Greek gods. The twelve major Greek gods lived on Mount Olympus. At the head of all were the God Zeus and his wife Hera. Behind them were: Demeter, Poseidon, Hades, Hephaestus, Athena, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis and Hestia. This list of Olympic gods from different sources is different. But none of them, of course, mentions medical god Asclepius…
The fact is that Asclepius was not always a god. According to Greek mythology- the young man was born a mere mortal and only then became the god of medicine and healing.
But, despite this, the popularity of the god Asclepius was incredible, and not only in ancient Greece. Peoples of all countries of the basin mediterranean sea went to the temples of Asclepius to bow and ask him for help. The ruins of these magnificent buildings can be seen in our time.
Even the ruins of the temples of Asklepion are striking in their grandiosity.The story of the god Asclepius is quite interesting. Basically, it is a story about punishment.
How was the god Asclepius born?
God Asclepius was the son of the god Apollo and the mortal woman Koronis. The girl, being pregnant, fell in love with a young man named Ishis. When Apollo found out about them secret romance, he sent his sister Artemis to earth in order for her to kill Koronis. Artemis killed Koronis, and she was burned on a funeral pyre. However, Apollo, tormented by guilt over the unborn child, saved him by tearing him out of the womb of his already burning mother.
God Apollo, patron of medicine, father of Asclepius. Detail of the bas-relief of one of the walls of the temple of the god Zeus at Olympia, (approx. 460 BC)
It is believed that this was the first C-section in the history of mankind. Apollo entrusted the child to the centaur Chiron, a strange but wise creature, half-man, half-horse, who was known for his skills in medicine. Chiron accepted Asclepius and became his mentor.
The three main medical deities of Greek mythology are Apollo, the centaur Chiron, the god Asclepius. The image is on one of the walls that survived the eruption of Vesuvius, in Pompeii, (ca. 1st century AD).
Asclepius skills and abilities
In time the future god Asclepius became a famous healer, famous for his exceptional skills. In addition to the art of surgery, Chiron taught him efficient use various medical preparations(including aphrodisiacs), as well as spells.
Having already become a healer, Asclepius claimed that he received from the goddess Athena the blood of the Gorgon, which has magical properties.
A fragment of a bas-relief of the frontal part of the temple of the goddess Artemis on the island of Corfu (approx. 600 - 580 BC). Probably, the architects wanted, with the help of this bas-relief, to drive away evil spirits from the building, since it was believed that everyone, including evil spirits, turns to stone from the look of the Gorgon Medusa.
Gorgons are mythical monsters with the heads of women, snakes for hair, wings, claws and bronze eyes. These creatures could turn a person into stone. The blood from the left side of the gorgon killed everything alive, while the blood from the right side brought the dead person back to life. Thus, having in hand the most powerful tool healing, Asclepius went from city to city and healed people.
Rod of the god Asclepius
God Asclepius in ancient times, it was almost always depicted as a middle-aged man with a staff around which a snake was entwined. The snake symbolized the most serious disease, which, at that time, was almost impossible to cure, and a snake bite was considered such a disease.
However, Asclepius saved people from this scourge, as symbolized by his staff, later called the rod of Asclepius. . This wand (it is depicted on the site header) remains a symbol of doctors all over the world in our time.
Personal life of Asclepius
ABOUT privacy Very little is known about Asclepius. It can be said for certain that he was married to Epion and had nine children (three sons and six daughters). Children also had a penchant for healing. According to some evidence, the future God Asclepius participated in the Trojan War, on the Greek side, and there he saved Philoctetes, the famous ancient Greek hero, bitten by a snake.
God Asclepius. The figure is on the metope of the temple at Epidaurus (ca. 4th century BC).
Why did Asclepius die?
Asclepius, during the years of his medical practice, performed many miraculous healings and brought back to life countless people who had already died, making them immortal. This practice greatly resented God. underworld Aida. The god Hades believed that dead Souls rightfully belongs to him. Moreover, and Zeus, the chief olympic god, agreed with Hades, believing that the activities of Asclepius violate the normal state of things in nature. Because people are born to die, not to live forever. Having imagined the problems that would arise in the future if all people could live forever, Zeus, at the instigation of Hades, decided to punish Asclepius.
A bronze helmet emblazoned with an ancient medical symbol of two intertwined snakes. It was believed that such a helmet is able to provide magical protection to its owner (approx. IX - III century BC).
Once, when Zeus's patience ran out, he struck Asclepius with lightning, showing all people that any person, even one whose father is a god, has only one ending life path. And even more so, none of the mortals are allowed to cross the forbidden line beyond their competence. And whoever allows himself this will be ruthlessly punished. Zeus also showed people that, no matter how great a person is, between him and God lies an abyss that no mortal can overcome. However, Zeus was a fair enough god, he recognized the merits of Asclepius to mankind, and as a reward for them, he turned the healer into a constellation so that he could live forever in the sky.
Well, if all this is translated into modern language, then you can answer briefly - Asclepius died from.
Temples of Asclepius
After the death of Asclepius, people began to extol him as a god. It was believed that even the dead Asclepius was able to heal the sick, relieving them of torment. Grateful recovered patients began to build beautiful temples in honor of Asclepius. These temples were called Asklepions. These were the prototypes of future hospitals. Both the suffering and those who studied medicine hurried there in order to learn new secrets of healing. It is said that Hippocrates, the father of medicine, studied and began his medical career at Asklepion on the island of Kos.
Graphic reconstruction of the Temple of Asklepion.
God Asclepius was almost the only hope of sick people of that time. His cult began to weaken with the spread of Christianity. But even now you can still find the ruins of these once beautiful temples and meet those who believe that it was precisely God Asclepius.
Drawing on an ancient Greek bowl. The figure depicts the evil sorceress Circe and the navigator Ulysses. Circe had already given the magic potion to Ulysses' companions, and they turned into pigs. Now Cercea wants to turn Ulysses into a pig too. However, Circe's plan does not work because Ulysses received an antidote from the god Hermes.
Before Asclepius, all healers more often harmed people than cured them. The main representative of such "healers" was Circe, who practiced turning people into pigs.