Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Podalirius.
The gallery
Statue of Podalirius
Unknown (modern / classical reception sculpture), modern reception
A standing statue identified as Podalirius — the Asclepiad physician of the Trojan War, brother of Machaon. Reception sculpture keeps the healer-prince visible where vase-painters rarely named him alone.
In play
Iliad
Homer
Homer's Catalogue and battle books name Podalirius with Machaon as the two sons of Asclepius who heal the Achaeans — the physician-princes of the Trojan War.
Podalirius
Son of Asclepius who cured Philoctetes' wound in later epic — the healer whose name still marks medicine beside his father's staff.
Asclepius
Podalirius belongs to the Asclepiad line — brother of Machaon, heir to the healing art that Homer places in the Greek camp at Troy.
Iphiclides podalirius
The scarce swallowtail butterfly still carries Podalirius' name — a Linnaean afterlife for the Trojan healer.