The ancient Greek god of healing was Asclepius. The circumstances of his life are known thanks to numerous mythological sources. During the heyday of ancient Greece, there were about 300 temples of Asclepius in the country, where the priests treated their compatriots with the help of magical and empirical techniques.
Son of Apollo
There are several theories about the origin of Asclepius. According to the most common of them, the god of healing was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. Other sources call the mother Arsinoe, the daughter of Leucippus. The nymph Coronis was the beloved of Apollo, but, being pregnant by God, she cheated on him with the mortal man Ischius. On Olympus, they decided to punish both. Ischias was incinerated by lightning. The traitor Coronis was struck down by Apollo with one of his solar arrows. Then he burned the nymph, after snatching the baby from the womb. This was the god of healing Asclepius.
Apollo gave the boy to be raised by the centaur Chiron. He was very different from most of his relatives. Almost all centaurs were known for their drunkenness, rampage and dislike of people. Chiron was famous for his kindness and wisdom. When the Greek god of healing came to him for upbringing, the centaur lived on Pelion, a mountain in the southeast of Thessaly.
Training from Chiron
Although Asclepius is known as the god of healing in Ancient Greece, he did not possess any superpowers at birth. His patron Chiron began to teach the boy medicine, and soon he achieved amazing success. At some point, Asclepius even surpassed the wise centaur in his skill. He began to travel around Greece and heal people, and even taught the inhabitants of the island of Kos some of his secrets (Tacitus mentions this in the Annals).
Asclepius also succumbed to fatal diseases. Honing his art, Asclepius (the god of healing in Ancient Greece) learned to resurrect people. Thanks to his help, ordinary inhabitants of Hellas gained immortality. The secret of Asclepius's unique ability lay in the blood of the Gorgon. The doctor received it from the goddess of war, Athena. Pherekides (one of the most revered ancient Greek seven sages) mentioned in his writings that Asclepius resurrected all the inhabitants of Delphi, where the temple of his father Apollo was located.
Death
When Asclepius - the god of healing among the Greeks - began to massively resurrect mortals, his rituals aroused indignation among the other gods. Thanatos, who lived at the end of the world, became the personification of death for the Hellenes, went with a complaint about what was happening to the chief Olympian Zeus. The resurrections disrupted the world order. Having received immortality, ordinary people ceased to differ from the gods. This turn of events did not sit well with most Olympians. The gods craved punishment.
After some thoughtZeus decided to punish Asclepius. The ancient god of healing was struck by the thunderbolt's lightning. Apollo, having learned about the death of his son, was furious. He could not take revenge on the powerful Zeus and instead attacked the Cyclopes, who forged lightning for that. As a result, all these one-eyed creatures were killed.
Until now, Asclepius was still considered mortal. Having died from the lightning of Zeus, he came to the spirits of fate Moira. It was they who determined the moment of birth and death of each person. After the death of Asclepius, they decided to bring him back to life. So the resurrected son of Apollo became a god. Later, the common biographical features were inherited by the Roman counterpart of Asclepius - the ancient Roman god of healing Aesculapius.
Staff of Asclepius
In any mythology, the patron gods of healing have their own easily recognizable symbols. In Asclepius, his staff, entwined with a snake, became such a sign. From the ancient Greeks, this image passed to the Romans, and then spread to most of human civilization. Today the staff of Asclepius is an international medical symbol.
His story is connected with one of the myths about the god of healing. According to legend, Asclepius arrived in Crete to resurrect the son of the famous King Minos. While walking along the road, he came across a snake. The animal wrapped around the staff, and Asclepius, without a second's hesitation, killed him. Immediately a second snake appeared with grass in its mouth, with the help of which it miraculously resurrected the first. Surprised, Asclepius began to look for a miraculous medicine and after a while found it. Since then, the god of healing among the ancient Greeksalways had at hand a potion made from a Cretan herb. The staff of Asclepius is traditionally depicted as a wooden stick entwined with a snake.
In modern medicine, the influence of Hellenic mythology was reflected not only in the form of graphic symbols. A significant part of medical terms has roots related to the ancient Greek past. The origins of traditional medical practices first appeared in literature written in this ancient language. Latin is even more important for modern international medicine, but the Romans owed much of their knowledge to the Greeks.
Cult
Like any other ancient Greek cult, the cult of Asclepius was especially popular in a certain region of the country. With the greatest zeal, this deity was revered in Epidaurus, a city located in the northeast of the Peloponnese peninsula. Today, only the ruins of the ancient theater and, most importantly, the temples of Asclepius remain in its place. There were also pools with healing thermal waters. They hid in the dungeon of a temple built in the 5th century BC. e. famous architect Policlet the Younger. The sanctuaries of Asclepius were most often built on the site of mineral springs and cypress groves distinguished by their healing air. During excavations in Epidaurus, the ruins of columns were discovered, on the steles of which descriptions of happy cases of healing the sick were carved. In addition, the sanctuary turned out to be filled with rare artifacts - images of cured body parts (hands, feet, hearts, eyes and ears) made of gold, silver and marble. They were given to the temple as payment for services.
The shrines of Asclepius existed according to a set of sacred rules. For example, they could not die in them. Because of this, terminally ill patients (even those who arrived from the other side of the country) were not allowed into the temple. They had no right to enter inside and women in labor. The priests of Asclepius were guided by rigid principles. For them, treatment was not a medical service, but rather a religious ritual, the rules of which were formed according to a strictly specified canonical rite. In particular, the rules prescribed to exclude from the sanctuary everything related to birth and death. Another important feature of the temple of Asclepius is the observance of crystal purity. Every newcomer had to bathe in the spring first.
The first sanctuaries in honor of Asclepius, Asclepeidons, appeared in Greece in the VI-IV centuries. BC e. In addition to Epidaurus and Kos, the Thessalian Trikka was also the center of medicine. In total, in the sources of ancient authors, historians have found evidence of more than 300 sanctuaries of Asclepius, scattered throughout ancient Greece. Compared to modern medical institutions, they were more like sanatoriums than hospitals. The temples combined both magical and secular healing techniques. In ancient Greek medicine, these two schools were not opposed to each other. For example, if a particularly seriously ill patient got to the temple of Asclepius, the priests could consult with their secular colleagues who did not work in the sanctuaries.
Priests
The ancient god of medicine and healing had his own priests who received compatriot patients. Behindhealing people came to them from all over Hellas. He alth among the ancient Greeks was associated with sports, the same Epidaurus was famous for its stadium, gymnasium and competitions dedicated to Asclepius. There were also temples of his daughter Hygieia, Aphrodite, Artemis and Themis. Treatment rituals were accompanied by animal sacrifices (most often roosters), so a large altar was an obligatory attribute of any sanctuary.
The god of healing acquired his cult around the 7th century BC. e. Historians believe that this mythological character had a real-life prototype - a doctor with the exact same name, Asclepius, who became legendary during the Trojan War. Moreover, he was also the king of Thessaly, as well as the founder of his own family medical school.
Ancient Greek medical education had some common features with the modern one. Archaeologists and historians have proven that real medical schools took place in Pergamon and Kos. Those who took a sacred oath and joined the community of Asclepiads were allowed to serve in the temple. This term first appeared in ancient Greek literature in the 6th century BC. e.
Ancient Greek medicine
Healing in the temples combined magical and empirical techniques. The most common means of treatment were drugs, water sources and gymnastic exercises. The rite of sacred healing each time ended with an incubation ritual held in a long gallery along the walls of the temple, which could only be accessed withspecial permission. Priests with the help of narcotic substances and hypnosis techniques introduced patients into a state of artificial sleep. The ritual was famous for theatrical performances (the appearance of sacred snakes or even the god himself).
In 430 B. C. e. Greece was struck by a terrible plague that claimed thousands of lives. Traditional medicine turned out to be powerless before the epidemic, so the population began to pay more and more attention to all kinds of magical practices. At the same time, the sacred snake of Asclepius was transferred from Epidaurus to Athens, where a new temple was built in the Acropolis. The cult of the god of healing shone with unprecedented power. Religious rituals brought huge incomes to the priests of Asclepius. The ancient temples of this god were distinguished by the outstanding richness of their decoration.
It is curious that not all Greeks treated the incubation and inventions of the priests with religious reverence. In the well-known comedy "Plutos" (388 BC), the author Aristophanes tells about the numerous bitter disappointments in the effectiveness of the magic sleep ritual.
Place of Asclepius in the ancient Greek pantheon
The mythological image of Asclepius with all its characteristic attributes has certain roots. The god of healing in Greece was often associated with the chthonic healing snake. Throughout the ancient world, this animal was revered as a symbol of renewal, wisdom and the power of natural forces.
The other side of the image of Asclepius is his belonging to the generation of children of the gods (heroes) who encroached on the establishment of a new world order. The healer learned to resurrect the deadmost disturbing the world balance. The rules set by the Olympians were under threat, and it was for this that Asclepius paid the price. The god of healing resembles other heroes who rebelled against their all-powerful parents in their fate.
Each god of the ancient Greek pantheon had his own "household". Although Asclepius is associated with healing, some of his functions are characteristic of other Olympians. Apollo's sister Artemis was not only the mistress of animals and the patroness of hunting, she was also revered as the protector of women in childbirth, children and female chastity. The wife of Zeus Hera took care of the marriage and the well-being of the family. Approximately the same is associated with Hestia - the goddess of the hearth, happiness and he alth. It is impossible not to mention Hypnos. This god, who lived at the end of the world, watched over the full and he althy sleep of people.
Family and descendants
According to legend, Asclepius married Epione, the daughter of the ruler of the island of Kos Merops. In ancient times, this place turned into one of the most important centers of ancient medicine.
Asclepius had several children who also became famous characters in ancient Greek myths. The god of healing was the father of Machaon, a famous physician and surgeon. It is believed that he even participated in the Trojan War and brought 20 ships with him. Machaon not only fought on the side of the Greeks (Achaeans), but also treated the wounded. The surgeon helped the famous archer Philoctetes, who was bitten by a poisonous snake. The wound was terrible, pus was oozing from the leg. The besiegers of Troy, meanwhile, still could not take the city. They badly needed their best shooter. Then the gods rescued the Greeks. Apollo plunged the Trojan coast into a magical sleep, and his grandson Machaon operated on Philoctetes. Later, the recovered archer killed Paris and, in the company of his comrades, hid in the Trojan horse, with the help of which the Achaeans nevertheless captured the impregnable city. At the suggestion of the biologist Carl Linnaeus, the widespread family of butterflies was named Machaon in honor of the son of Asclepius.
The eldest daughter of the god of healing Hygieia is the goddess of he alth. The Greeks portrayed her as a young woman feeding a snake from a bowl. The scientific discipline of hygiene is named after Hygieia. In addition, the symbols of the bowl and the snake have become international attributes of medicine and pharmacy. The Vessel of Hygiea can be found in any pharmacy and hospital. Like the ancient Greek god of healing, he is associated with a snake - a traditional chthonic creature of ancient Greek mythology. The Vessel of Hygiea became known to Europeans again at the end of the 18th century, when this symbol was engraved on a commemorative coin commissioned by the Paris Society of Pharmacy.
The next daughter of Asclepius is Panacea, who became the personification of healing. A panacea is named after her - a legendary cure for any disease. Interest in the miraculous drug rose again in the Middle Ages. European alchemists of that era used ancient sources, trying to synthesize this unknown vaccine. No one has found a panacea, but the idiom has been preserved. Other lesser-known daughters of Asclepius are Iaso, Agleia, Meditrina, and Akeso. All of them were trainedthe art of healing from his wise father.
The god of healing in ancient Greek mythology was considered a distant ancestor of many famous ancient doctors, whose existence is documented. A descendant of Asclepius was Hippocrates (he was born on Kos in 460 BC) and even Aristotle (his father worked as a court physician for the Macedonian king).
Aesculapius
In 293 B. C. e. An epidemic of pestilence broke out in Rome. Hundreds of people died, and the city authorities could not do anything with the terrible natural scourge. Then the Roman sages advised to build a sanctuary of the ancient Greek god of healing Asclepius on the banks of the Tiber.
A magnificent embassy went to Epidaurus. The Romans managed to find a common language with the priests of the ancient deity. When the guests returned to their ship, they were followed by the sacred temple snake - the symbol and personification of Asclepius. The animal was settled on the small Tiber Island (Tiberine) located within the boundaries of Rome. In 291 BC. e. on this piece of land they built and consecrated the temple of Asclepius. The god of healing in Roman mythology was named Aesculapius. At first, its priests in Rome were Hellenes. Like many other gods of the pantheon of the Eternal City, Aesculapius borrowed many features from his Greek predecessor. For example, roosters were sacrificed to him in the same way. The god of healing among the Romans was especially popular among the people. His cult was one of the last to disappear after the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire.
