Asclepius

(Ἀσκλήπιος).

1. A fabulous personage, said to have been a disciple of Hermes, the Egyptian Thot, who was regarded as the father of all wisdom and knowledge. Works A Greek dialogue (λόγος τέλειος) between Asclepius and Hermes (Hermetis Trismegisti Asclepius, seu de Natura Deorum Dialogus)

There existed in antiquity a Greek dialogue (λόγος τέλειος) between Asclepius and Hermes on God, man, and the universe; we now possess only a Latin translation of it, which in former times used to be attributed to Appuleius. It is entitled Hermetis Trismegisti Asclepius, seu de Natura Deorum Dialogus, and is evidently the production of a very late time, that is, of the age in which a reconciliation was attempted between the polytheism of antiquity and Christianity through the medium of the views of the New Platonists. (Bosscha in Oudendorp's edition of Appuleius, iii. p. 517; Hildebrand, de Vita et Scriptis Appuleii, p. 28, &c.) ὅρος Ἀσκληπίου πρὸς Ἄμμωνα βασιλέα

To the same Asclepius is also ascribed a work still extant, entitled ὅρος Ἀσκληπίου πρὸς Ἄμμωνα βασιλέα. Editions

This is printed together with a Latin translation by A. Turnebus in his edition of the Poemander ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus (Paris, 1554, 4to.), and in F. Patricius's Nova de Universis Philosophia, Ferrara, 1591, fol. The Latin translation of the work is contained in vol. ii. of the works (Opera) of Marsilius Ficinus, Basel, 1561.

2. A Greek grammarian of uncertain date, who wrote commentaries upon the orations of Demosthenes and the history of Thucydides; but both works are now lost. (Ulpian, ad Dem. Phililp. I; Schol. Bavar. ad Denm. de fals. leg. pp. 375, 378; Marcellin. Vit. Thuc. 57; Schol. ad Thuc. 1.56.)

3. Of Tralles, a Peripatetic philosopher and a disciple of Ammonius, the son of Hermias. He lived about A. D. 500. Works Commentaries on Aristotle's Metaphysics and on the ἀριθμητική of Nicomachus of Gerasa

Asclepius wrote commentaries on the first six or seven books of Aristotle's Metaphysics and on the ἀριθμητική of Nicomachus of Gerasa. Editions

These commentaries are still extant in MS., but only a portion of them has yet been printed in Brandis, Scholia Graeca in Aristot. Metaphys. p. 518, &c. Further Information

Comp. Fabr. Bibl. Graec. iii. p. 258; St. Croix in the Magasin. Encyclop. Cinquième Annee, vol. iii. p. 359. [L.S]

(Ἀσκλήπιος), a physician, who must have lived some time in or before the second century after Christ, as he is mentioned by Galen. (De Differ. Morb. 100.9. vol. vi. p. 869.) A person of the same name is quoted by the Scholiast on Hippocrates (Dietz, Schol. in Hippocr. et Gal. vol. ii. p. 458, n.. 470, n.) as having written a commentary on the Aphorisms, and probably also on most of the other works of Hippocrates, as he is said to have undertaken to explain his writings by comparing one part with another. (Ibid.; Littre, Oeuvres d'Hippocr. vol. i. p. 125.) Another physician of the same name is said by Fabricius to be mentioned by Aetius. [W.A.G]

(Ἀσκληπιός). See Aesculapius.