Aesculapius
- the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis, deified after his death on account of his great knowledge of medicine, Cic. N. D. 3, 22; Cels. 1 praef. He had a temple at Rome, on the island in the Tiber. Upon the kind of worship paid to him, and his attributes, v. Festus, p. 82. Huic gallinae immolabantur, id. ib. The principal seat of his worship in Greece was Epidaurus. In his temple there was a magnificent statue of ivory and gold, the work of Thrasymedes, in which he was represented as a noble figure, resembling that of Zeus. He was seated on a throne, holding in one hand a staff, and with the other resting on the head of a dragon (serpent), and by his side lay a dog. There were also other representations, one even as beardless, very common at an earlier period, Müll. Archaeol. d. Kunst, S. 534 and 535. Serpents, prob. as symbols of prudence and renovation. were everywhere connected with his worship; cf. Spreng. Gesch. d. Medic. 1, 205.☞ Adj.: anguis Aesculapius, Plin. 29, 4, 22, § 72.
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 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.