Asclepius

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Asclepius

Asclepius (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, transliterated Asklepiós; Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
Aesculapius) is the god of medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and healing in ancient Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts, while his daughters Hygieia

Hygieia

In Greek mythology, Hygieia or Hygeia was a daughter of Asclepius. She was the goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation and afterwards, the moon....
, Meditrina, Iaso

Iaso

Iaso or Ieso was the Greek mythology of recuperation from illness. The daughter of Asclepius, she had five sisters: Aceso, Aglaea, Hygieia, Meditrina, and Panacea ....
, Aceso

Aceso

she was a healerAceso was the Greek mythology goddess of the healing process. She was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione....
, Aglæa/Ægle

Aglaea

Aglaea or Agla?a is the name of five figures in Greek mythology....
and Panacea

Panacea

In Greek mythology, Panacea was the goddess of healing. She was the daughter of Asclepius, god of medicine, and the granddaughter of Apollo, god of healing ....
(literally, "all-healing") symbolize the forces of cleanliness, medicine, and healing, respectively.

Etymology
The etymology of the name is unknown.

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Etymology

The etymology of the name is unknown. In his revised version of Frisk's

Hjalmar Frisk

Hjalmar Frisk was a Sweden linguist in Indo-European studies and rector of G?teborg University 1951-1966.External links*...
Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, R.S.P. Beekes

Robert S. P. Beekes

Robert S. P. Beekes ['beik?s] is Emeritus Professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the University of Leiden and the author of many books about Proto-Indo-European language, the reconstructed parent language of most of the European languages and of the languages of Central Asia and India ....
gives this summary of the different attempts:

"H. Grégoire (with R. Goossens and M. Mathieu) in Asklépios, Apollon Smintheus et Rudra 1949 (Mém. Acad. Roy. de Belgique. Cl. d. lettres. 2. sér. 45), explains the name as 'the mole-hero', connecting 'mole

Mole (animal)

Moles are the majority of the members of the mammal family Talpidae in the order Soricomorpha. Although most moles burrow, some species are aquatic or semi-aquatic....
' and refers to the resemblance of the Tholos

Tholos

As a generic term tholos tomb is an alternative name for a Beehive tomb from the late Bronze Age.It is also the name given to several Ancient Greece structures and buildings:...
in Epidauros

Epidaurus

Epidaurus was a small city in ancient Greece, at the Saronic Gulf. The modern town Epidavros , part of the prefecture of Argolis, was built near the ancient site....
and the building of a mole

Molehill

A molehill is a conical mound of loose soil raised by small burrowing mammals, including mole s, but also similar animals such as mole-rats, marsupial moles and voles....
. (Thus Puhvel

Jaan Puhvel

Jaan Puhvel is an Estonian-United States Indo-Europeanist. As a student of Georges Dumezil, he also specializes in comparative mythology.He is known for his Hittite language Etymological Dictionary....
, Comp. Mythol. 1987, 135.) But the variants of Asklepios and those of the word for 'mole' do not agree.

The name is typical for Pre-Greek words; apart from minor variations ( for , for ) we find (a well known variation; Fur. 335 - 339) followed by or , i.e. a voiced velar

Voiced velar plosive

The voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g....
(without ) or a voiceless velar

Voiceless velar plosive

The voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k....
(or an aspirated

Aspiration (phonetics)

In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of Earth's atmosphere that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents....
one: we know that there was no distinction between the three in the substr. language

Substratum

In linguistics, a stratum or strate refers to a language that influences, or is influenced by another through language contact. A substratum is a language which is influenced by another, while a superstratum is the language that exerts the influence....
) with a . I think that the renders an original affricate, which (prob. as ) was lost before the (in Greek the group is rare, and certainly before another consonant); .

Szemerényi's

Oswald Szemerényi

Oswald John Louis Szemer?nyi was a Hungarian people Indo-Europeanist with strong interests in comparative linguistics in general.He was educated in Hungary, at E?tv?s College, and he studied at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin....
etymology (JHS
Journal of Hellenic Studies

The Journal of Hellenic Studies or JHS is a peer reviewed British journal which contains articles that pertain to Hellenic Studies, i.e. the language, literature, history and archaeology of the ancient Greek world, and also reviews of recent books of importance to Hellenic studies....
94, 1974, 155) from Hitt.

Hittite language

Hittite or Nesili is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas in north-central Anatolia ....
assula(a)- 'well-being' and piya- 'give' cannot be correct, as it does not explain the velar."

wonyi's etymology (Hitt. asula- + piya-) does not account for the velar, it is perhaps inserted spontaneously in Greek due to the fact that the cluster -sl- was uncommon in Greek: so, *Aslapios would become *Asklapios automatically.

Associated with the Roman/Etruscan god Vediovis.

Mythology

Birth

He was the son of Apollo

Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
and Coronis. His mother was killed for being unfaithful to Apollo and was laid out on a funeral pyre to be consumed, but the unborn child was rescued from her womb. From this he received the name Asklepios "to cut open."

Apollo carried the babe to the centaur

Centaur

In Greek mythology, the centaurs are a race of creatures composed of part human and part horse. In early Attica Pottery of ancient Greece, they are depicted with the torso of a human joined at the waist to the horse's withers, where the horse's neck would be....
Chiron

Chiron

In Greek mythology, Chiron or Cheiron was held as the superlative centaur among his brethren. Like the satyrs, centaurs were notorious for being overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, given to violence when intoxicated, and generally uncultured delinquents....
who raised Asclepius and instructed him in the art of medicine

Wife

Epione

Children

Sons

Makhaon and Podaleirios

Podalirius

In Greek mythology, Podalirius or Podalarius was a son of Asclepius. With Machaon, his brother, he led thirty ships from Thessaly in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks....

Daughters

Iaso

Iaso or Ieso was the Greek mythology of recuperation from illness. The daughter of Asclepius, she had five sisters: Aceso, Aglaea, Hygieia, Meditrina, and Panacea ....
, Aigle

Aglaea

Aglaea or Agla?a is the name of five figures in Greek mythology....
, Panakea

Panacea

In Greek mythology, Panacea was the goddess of healing. She was the daughter of Asclepius, god of medicine, and the granddaughter of Apollo, god of healing ....
(Panakeia), and Hygeia

Death

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt because he raised the dead and accepted gold for it. Other stories say that Asclepius was killed because after bringing people back from the dead, Hades thought that no more dead spirits would come to the underworld, so asked his brother to remove him. This angered Apollo who in turn murdered the cyclops

Cyclops

In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, a cyclops , is a member of a primordial race of giant , each with a single eye in the middle of its forehead....
who made the thunderbolt for Zeus. For this act, Zeus banned Apollo from the night sky and commanded Apollo to serve Admetus

Admetus

In Greek mythology, Admetus /?d 'mi: t?s/ was a king of Pherae in Thessaly, succeeding his father Pheres after whom the city was named. Admetus was one of the Argonauts and took part in the Calydonian Boar hunt....
, King of Thessaly

Thessaly

Thessaly is one of the 13 Peripheries of Greece of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 Prefectures of Greece. The capital of the periphery and traditional Regions of Greece is Larissa....
. After Asclepius' death, Zeus placed Asclepius among the stars as the constellation

Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
Ophiuchus

Ophiuchus

Ophiuchus is a large constellation located around the celestial equator. Its name is Greek language for 'snake-holder', and it is commonly represented as a man grasping the snake that is represented by the constellation Serpens....
("the Serpent Holder").

Cult

Asclepius' most famous sanctuary was in Epidaurus

Epidaurus

Epidaurus was a small city in ancient Greece, at the Saronic Gulf. The modern town Epidavros , part of the prefecture of Argolis, was built near the ancient site....
in Northeastern Peloponnese

Peloponnese

The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a large peninsula and Regions of Greece in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth....
. Another famous "asclepieion" was on the island of Kos

Kos

Kos or Cos is a Greece island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of G?kova. It measures 40 km by 8 km, and is only 4 km from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria....
, where Hippocrates

Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Cos II or Hippokrates of Kos - ancient Greek: ; Hippokr?tes was an Ancient Greece physician of the Age of Pericles, and was considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine....
, the legendary doctor, may have begun his career. Other asclepieions were situated in Trikala

Trikala

Trikala is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece. It is the capital of the Trikala Prefecture, and is located NW of Athens, NW of Karditsa , Greece, E of Ioannina and Metsovo, S of Grevena, SW of Thessaloniki, and W of Larissa....
, Gortys (in Arcadia), and Pergamum in Asia.

In honor of Asclepios, snakes were often used in healing rituals. Non-venomous snakes were left to crawl on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. Starting about 300 BC, the cult of Asclepios grew very popular. His healing temples were called asclepieion

Asclepieion

In ancient Greece, an asclepieion was a healing temple, sacred to the god Asclepius.Starting around 300 BC, the cult of Asclepius became increasingly popular....
; pilgrims flocked to them to be healed. They slept overnight and reported their dreams to a priest the following day. He prescribed a cure, often a visit to the baths or a gymnasium.

It is also written by Lewis Farnell, that some healing temples used sacred dogs to lick the wounds of the sick petitioners.

The original, ancient Hippocratic Oath

Hippocratic Oath

The Hippocratic Oath is an oath traditionally taken by physicians pertaining to the ethical practice of medicine. It is widely believed that the oath was written by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, in the 4th century BC, or by one of his students....
begins with the invocation "I swear | by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by Hygieia and Panacea and by all the gods ..." Scholars have written that this oath may not have been written by Hippocrates, but by or with others in his school, or followers of Pythagoras

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionians Ancient Greeks mathematician and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mysticism and scientist; however some have questioned the scope of his contributions to mathematics and natural philosophy....
.

Some later religious movements claimed links to Asclepios. In the 2nd Century AD The False Prophet Alexander

Alexander of Abonutichus

Alexander of Abonutichus was a Greece mystic and the founder of the Glycon cult that briefly achieved wide popularity in the Roman Empire world....
claimed that his god Glycon

Glycon

Glycon was a snake god, according to the satirist Lucian, who provides the only literary reference to the deity. Lucian claimed Glycon was created in the mid-second century by the Greek prophet Alexander of Abonutichus....
was an incarnation of Asclepios.

The botanical genus Asclepias
Asclepias

Asclepias Carolus Linnaeus , the milkweeds, is a genus of herbaceous perennial plant, dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species....
(commonly known as milkweed), is named after him, and includes the medicinal plant A. tuberosa or "Pleurisy root".

Footnotes

cf. L.R. Farnell, Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality, Chapter 10, "The Cult of Asklepios" (pp.234-279), p.240 cf. L.R. Farnell, Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality, Chapter 10, "The Cult of Asklepios" (pp.234-279), p.269: "The famous Hippocratean oath may not be an authentic deliverance of the great master, but is an ancient formula current in his school."