Mythology and Cult

Asclepius was known as the son of the god Apollo and the mortal woman Coronis. According to Graeco-Roman mythology, Apollo killed Coronis out of jealousy, but he saved Asclepius from her womb. He then gave Asclepius to the centaur Chiron to raise (Pindar, Pythian 3.5; Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.542–648). Chiron’s daughter, Ocyrrhoe, prophetically called him the “great physician of the world” (Metamorphoses 2.542–555). Zeus killed Asclepius as a consequence of raising a dead man to life (Pindar, Pythian 3.55–60). Asclepius was later given divine status by Zeus and was worshiped and prayed to for healing (Justin Martyr, First Apology 21.2).

Asclepius’ wife, Epione, and daughters, Aigle, Akeso, Iaso, and Panaceia (among others), were associated with the cult built around him. Asclepius also had two sons, Podilarius and Machaon, who were physicians at Troy (Homer, Iliad 2.729–33).

Although Asclepius was probably an earth-god worshiped in Tricca (Homer, Iliad 2.729), a popular cult dedicated to him emerged in the fifth century bc, primarily in Epidaurus but eventually spreading to Athens (around 420 bc), Pergamum, and Corinth (among others). The cult in Athens flourished under the patronage of Sophocles (Inscriptiones Graecae II, 4960a). Worship of Asclepius continued until at least the third century ad. The Roman historian Livy claims that Asclepius was brought in the form of a serpent to Rome during a plague in 293 bc (Livy, History of Rome 10.47). In Epidaurus, the statue of Asclepius was half as large as that of Olympian Zeus in Athens and made of ivory and gold. He is seated, holding a staff in one hand, while the other is stretched out over the head of a serpent (Pausanias, Description of Greece, Descriptions of Greece 2.27.2).

Asclepius also features prominently in a text, simply called Asclepius, found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt.