Asclepius: The Art Of Medicine

Asclepius Myth Asclepius is the son of Apollo and the god of medicine. He was born between Apollo and Coronis. According to Scholia in Pindarum, “There is a legend that the raven revealed to Apollo the intercourse of Ischys with Coronis.” For this reason, Pindarus said that Apollo let Artemis murder Coronis by her golden arrows. As Coronis, however, was burnt on a funeral pyre, Apollo took the unborn child out from her womb. Then, Pindarus argue that Apollo brought his son to centaur Chiron to teach Asclepius the art of medicine. Therefore, Asclepius had been brought up by Chiron, learning how to heal diseases. After grown up by Chiron, He won a fame not only to heal all kinds of sick, but even to raise the dead. His deed was spread out
Louise Wells argues, “His healing cult flourished in the Mediterranean world from the fifth century BC to the Fourth Century Ad, and was so widespread.” Asclepius opened the hospital with his family in Epidaurus, and then his family and he gained great fame to heal the sick here. A substantial number of people visited Epidaurus to heal their diseases, and, over time, Epidaurus became the shrine of the healing art, interlocking with deifying Asclepius and his healing power. According to Rene Jesef Ruttimann, “Asclepius has to be considered the most important healing deity among the many healers and healer gods known in the Greco-Roman world.” In this idea, it is clear that the Asclepius cult was a favorite folk belief dominating Greco-Roman world. Therefore, a lot of sanctuary of Asclepius was built over Greco-Roman world from the beginning of the Asclepius cult in
The number of physicians could not cover every people. In this situation, Asclepius and his family started to heal people, and this helped them to get divine authority from people by their healing activities. Ruttimann argues, “A religion was expected to provide healing for the sick: “In the ancient world it was almost universally believed that the function of a religion was to heal disease” From the harsh world moved by fate given by the god, people could felt emotional healing and the sense of freedom in the healing of the Asclepius cult. Riley argues, “Asclepius was the kindly god of healing and as such could evoke some of the warmest emotions among his worshipers of any of the Greco-Roman deities.” In this setting, Christianity faced social expectations and needs, so they were placed on situation to attest whether Jesus has a capacity to heal as a real god. Hence, Christianity focused on healing to compete with the Asclepius cult. According to Justin, “But when we say he made well the lame and paralytics and those blind from birth and that he raised the dead, our saying these things will seem to be like the things said to have been done by Asclepius” Like this, Christianity and the Asclepius cult were rivals to each other through healing ministry. However, Christianity finally superseded Asclepius