The ancient Greek god of healing was Asclepius.The circumstances of his life are known thanks to numerous mythological sources. In 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 magic and empirical techniques.
Son of Apollo
There are several theories about the originAsclepius. 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 Arsino, daughter Leucippus. Nymph Coronis was the beloved of Apollo, but, being pregnant by God, betrayed him with mortal man Ishim. On Olympus, they decided to punish both. Ischia incinerated by lightning. The cheater Coronis Apollo hit 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 the education of the centaurChiron. He was very different from most of his relatives. Almost all centaurs were known for their drunkenness, rampage and dislike for people. Chiron was famous for his kindness and wisdom. When the Greek god of healing came to his upbringing, the centaur lived on Pelion, a mountain in the southeast of Thessaly.
Learning from Chiron
Although Asclepius is known as the god of healing inAncient Greece, at birth, he did not have any supernormal abilities. 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 treat people, and the inhabitants of the island of Kos even taught some of their secrets (Tatsit mentioned this in the Annals).
Deadly diseases also succumbed to Asclepius.While honing his art, Asclepius (the god of healing in ancient Greece) learned to resurrect people. Thanks to his help, the ordinary inhabitants of Hellas became immortal. The secret of Asclepius’s unique ability was in the blood of the Gorgon. The doctor received it from the goddess of war, Athena. Ferekid (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 — beganmassively resurrect mortals, his rituals caused outrage among the other gods. Thanatos, who lived on the edge of the world, who became the personification of death for the Greeks, went with a complaint about what was happening to the main Olympian Zeus. Resurrection violated the world order. Having received immortality, ordinary people are no longer different from the gods. This turn of events did not like most Olympians. The gods craved punishment.
After some thought, Zeus decided to punishAsclepius. The ancient god of healing was struck by the lightning thunder. Apollo, having learned about the death of his son, became enraged. He could not take revenge on the mighty Zeus and instead attacked the Cyclops, forged for that lightning. As a result, all these one-eyed creatures were killed.
Until now, Asclepius was still consideredmortal. Having died from the lightning of Zeus, he got to the spirits of fate Moira. They 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 inherited the Roman equivalent of Asclepius - the ancient Roman god of healing, Aesculapias.
Staff of Asclepius
In any mythology, patron gods of healinghave their own easily recognizable characters. At 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 God.healing. According to legend, Asclepius arrived in Crete to resurrect the son of the famous king Minos. Walking along the road, he stumbled upon a snake. The animal twined the staff, and Asclepius, without hesitating for a second, killed him. Immediately a second snake appeared with grass in its mouth, with which it miraculously resurrected the first. Surprised Asclepius began to look for a miracle cure, and after a while he found it. Since then, the god of healing among the ancient Greeks always had a medicine made from Cretan grass on hand. The staff of Asclepius is traditionally depicted as a wooden stick twined by a snake.
In modern medicine, the influence of the HellenicMythology was reflected not only in the form of graphic symbols. A significant part of medical terms has roots relating to the ancient Greek past. The origins of traditional medical techniques first appeared in the literature written in this ancient language. Even more important for modern international medicine is Latin, but the Romans owed much of their knowledge to the Greeks.
Cult
Like any other ancient greek cult, cultAsclepius was especially popular in a particular region of the country. With the greatest zeal, this deity was revered in Epidaurus, a city located in the northeast of the Peloponnese. Today only the ruins of the ancient theater and, most importantly, the temples of Asclepius remained in its place. There were also pools with healing thermal waters. They hid in the dungeon of the temple, built in the V century BC. e. famous architect Policlet Younger. The sanctuaries of Asclepius were most often built on the site of mineral springs and cypress groves that differed in the healing air. On the excavations at Epidaurus, the ruins of columns were found, on the steles of which descriptions of happy cases of healing of the sick were carved. In addition, the sanctuary was filled with rare artifacts - made from gold, silver and marble images of cured body parts (hands, feet, hearts, eyes and ears). They got to the temple as a fee for services.
The sanctuaries of Asclepius existed according to the codesacral rules. For example, they could not die. Because of this, the incurably sick (even those who arrived from the other end of the country) were not allowed into the temple. They had no right to go inside and mothers. The priests of Asclepius were guided by hard principles. For them, treatment was not a medical service, but rather a religious ritual, the rules of which were established according to a strictly defined 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 keeping of crystal clarity. Each newcomer should first wash in the source.
The first shrines in honor of Asclepius, Asklepaydon,appeared in Greece in the VI-IV centuries. BC e. In addition to Epidaurus and Kosa, the Thessalian Trikka was also the center of medicine. In total, sources of ancient authors, historians have found evidence of more than 300 sanctuaries of Asclepius, scattered throughout ancient Greece. Compared with modern medical institutions, they were more medical sanatoriums, not hospitals. In temples combined both magic and secular methods of treatment. In ancient Greek medicine, these two schools were not opposed to each other. For example, if a particularly heavy patient fell into the temple of Asclepius, the priests could consult with their secular colleagues who did not work in shrines.
Priests
The ancient god of medicine and healing hadown priests who took patients compatriots. People came to him for healing from all over Hellas. The health of the ancient Greeks was associated with sports, the poet still the same Epidaurus was famous for its stadium, gymnasium and competitions dedicated to Asclepius. There were temples of his daughter Hygiea, Aphrodite, Artemis and Themis. The rites of treatment were accompanied by animal sacrifices (most often roosters), therefore a large altar was an obligatory attribute of any sanctuary.
God of healing got his cultapproximately in the VII century BC. e. Historians believe that this mythological character had a real preimage - a doctor with the same name, Asclepius, who became legendary during the Trojan War. Moreover, he was also the king of Thessaly, as well as the creator of his own family medical school.
Ancient Greek medical education hadsome common features with modern. Archeologists and historians proved that the real medical schools took place in Pergamum and Kos. Those who gave a sacred oath and joined the community of the Asklepiades were allowed to serve in the temple. For the first time this term appeared in ancient Greek literature in the VI century BC. e.
Ancient greek medicine
Healing in temples combined magical andempirical tricks. The most common treatments have become medicines, water sources and gymnastic exercises. The ritual 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 reached with a special permission. The priests, with the help of narcotic substances and methods of hypnosis, injected patients into a state of artificial sleep. The ritual was famous for its theatrical performances (the appearance of sacred snakes or even of the god himself).
In 430 BC. e.Greece was struck by a terrible plague that claimed thousands of lives. Traditional medicine was powerless before the epidemic, so the population began to pay more and more attention to all sorts of magical practices. At the same time, the sacred serpent 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 force. Religious rituals brought enormous profits to the priests of Asclepius. The ancient temples of this god were distinguished by the outstanding wealth of their decoration.
It is curious that not all Greeks treatedincubation and fiction of priests with religious piety. In the famous comedy "Plutus" (388 BC), author Aristophanes tells of many bitter disappointments in the effectiveness of the ritual of magical sleep.
Place Asclepius in the ancient Greek pantheon
The mythological image of Asclepius with all hischaracteristic attributes has certain roots. The god of healing of Greece was often associated with the chthonic snake-healer. Throughout the ancient world, this animal was revered as a symbol of renewal, wisdom and the power of natural forces.
Другая сторона образа Асклепия – его belonging to the generation of children of gods (heroes) who encroached on the establishment of a new world order. The healer has learned to resurrect the dead, thereby breaking the global balance. The rules established by the Olympians were under threat, and it was for this that Asclepius paid for it. The god of healing with his destiny is reminiscent of other heroes who rebelled against their all-powerful parents.
Every god of the ancient Greek pantheon hadits "economy". 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 the hunt, she was also revered as a protector of women in labor, children and female chastity. The wife of Zeus, Hera took care of marriage and family well-being. Approximately the same is associated Hestia - the goddess of the home, happiness and health. It is impossible not to recall Hypnos. This god, who lived on the edge of the world, watched the full and healthy sleep of people.
Family and descendants
According to the legend, Asclepius married Epione, the daughter of the ruler of the island of Kos Merops. In ancient times, this place has become one of the most important centers of ancient medicine.
У Асклепия было несколько детей, также ставших famous characters of ancient Greek myths. The god of healing was the father of Machaon, the famous physician and surgeon. It is believed that he even participated in the Trojan War and brought with him 20 ships. Machaon not only fought on the side of the Greeks (Achaeans), but also healed the wounded. The surgeon helped the famous archer Philoktet, bitten by a poisonous snake. The wound was terrible, pus oozing from the leg. Those who besieged Troy, meanwhile, could not take the city. They desperately needed their best arrow. Then the gods rescued the Greeks. Apollo plunged the Trojan Coast into a magical dream, 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 which the Achaeans still captured the impregnable city. At the suggestion of biologist Carl Linnaeus, the common butterfly family was named Machaon in honor of Asclepius' son.
The eldest daughter of the god of healing Hygieia - the goddesshealth The Greeks depicted her as a young woman feeding a snake from a cup. The scientific discipline hygiene is named after Hygiea. In addition, the symbols of the cup and the snake have become the international attributes of medicine and pharmacy. Vessel Hygieia can be found in any pharmacy and hospital. Like the ancient Greek god of healing, he is associated with the snake - the traditional chthonic creature of ancient Greek mythology. The vessel of Hygieia again became known to Europeans at the end of the 18th century, when this symbol was engraved on a commemorative coin, ordered by the Paris Society of Pharmacy.
Asclepius' next daughter, Panakea, who becamepersonification of healing. By her name, a panacea is named - the legendary cure for any disease. Interest in the miraculous drug increased again in the Middle Ages. European alchemists of that era used ancient sources, trying to synthesize this unknown vaccine. Nobody found a panacea, but the idiom is preserved. Other lesser-known daughters of Asclepius - Iaso, Agley, Meditrina and Akeso. They all learned the art of healing from their wise father.
God of healing in ancient Greek mythologyconsidered a distant ancestor of many famous ancient doctors, whose existence is documented. A descendant of Asclepius was Hippocrates (he was born on Kosa in 460 BC) and even Aristotle (his father worked as a court physician to the Macedonian king).
Esculapias
В 293 году до н. э.in Rome, an epidemic of pestilence broke out. People died in the hundreds, and the city authorities could do nothing with a terrible natural disaster. Then the Roman sages advised to build on the banks of the Tiber the shrine of the ancient Greek god of healing Asclepius.
A magnificent embassy went to Epidaurus.The Romans managed to find a common language with the priests of an ancient deity. When the guests returned to their ship, they were followed by the sacred temple serpent, the symbol and personification of Asclepius. The animal was settled on a small Tiber island (Tiberin) located within the boundaries of Rome. In 291 BC. er on this piece of land built and consecrated the temple of Asclepius. The god of healing in Roman mythology received the name of Esculapius. At first his priests in Rome were Hellenes. Like many other gods of the Pantheon of the Eternal City, Aesculap borrowed many features from his Greek predecessor. For example, in the same way they sacrificed roosters to him. The god of healing among the Romans was especially popular among the people. His cult disappeared one of the last after Christianity was adopted by the Roman Empire.
