Asclepius (Ancient Greek Ἀσκληπιός, Asklēpiós; Latin Aesculapius) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Son of Apollo and, in the earliest accounts, the mortal Coronis — or, in a Messenian tradition, Arsinoe — he was reared by the centaur Chiron and became the archetypal healer. His daughters (the Asclepiades) include Hygieia, Iaso, Aceso, Aegle, and Panacea; his sons Machaon and Podalirius appear as physician-princes in the Iliad. The rod of Asclepius, a staff entwined by a single snake, remains a symbol of medicine.
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I.Birth
Asclepius was the son of Apollo and, according to the earliest accounts, Coronis, a princess of Tricca in Thessaly. When she was unfaithful with the mortal Ischys, Apollo discovered the betrayal; Artemis killed Coronis, and as her body lay on the funeral pyre Apollo cut the infant from her womb. Ovid has Apollo learn of the betrayal through his raven, shoot Coronis, repent too late, and rescue the child from the flames.
A Delphian tradition places the birth in Apollo's temple, with Lachesis as midwife. An Epidaurian story has Coronis expose the infant on Mount Tittheion, where a goat suckled him and a watchdog guarded him until a goatherd found him amid divine lightning. Strabo and others locate the birth at Tricca. A Messenian claim makes him the son of Apollo and Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus; a Phoenician tradition maintains that Apollo bore him without a mortal mother.
II.Education and healing
Apollo taught the child medicine, then placed him with Chiron on Pelion, who instructed him in healing and hunting. A snake licked Asclepius's ears clean and taught him secret knowledge — or, in another tale, while confined over the dead Glaucus he watched a snake revive its mate with an herb and used the same plant to restore Glaucus. He thereafter bore a staff wreathed with a snake, the attribute of healing.
He was said to have cured Hermon of Thasos of blindness and then blinded him again when thank-offerings were withheld. John Tzetzes reports that he was originally called Hepius and took the name Asclepius after curing Ascles, a ruler of Epidaurus, of an eye disease. He is listed among the Argonauts and among the hunters of the Calydonian boar.
III.Family, death, and immortality
Asclepius married Epione and by her had daughters Hygieia, Iaso, Aceso, Aegle, and Panacea, and sons Machaon, Podalirius, and Telesphoros; he also sired Aratus with Aristodeme. Homer's Catalogue of Ships names Machaon and Podalirius as skilled leeches leading ships from Tricca, Ithome, and Oechalia.
When his art advanced to raising the dead — Tyndareus, Capaneus, Glaucus, Hymenaeus, Lycurgus, and others are named; Hippolytus is restored at Artemis's request — Hades complained to Zeus that his subjects were being stolen. Zeus struck Asclepius with a thunderbolt; at Apollo's request he was later placed among the stars as the constellation Ophiuchus (the Serpent-Holder).
IV.Cult and asclepieia
From the fifth century BC the cult of Asclepius grew widely. Pilgrims sought cure at asclepieia: Strabo ranked Tricca the most ancient; Epidaurus became the most famous sanctuary of the Classical period; Kos and Pergamon followed. Ritual purification and offerings preceded incubation (enkatalepsis) in the abaton, where dreams were reported to priests who prescribed therapy. Sacred Aesculapian snakes moved freely in the dormitories, and some temples used dogs to lick wounds.
The original Hippocratic Oath opened by swearing by Apollo the Physician, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea. Athens celebrated the Epidauria in his honour. The botanical genus Asclepias (milkweed) is named after him.