"JSscuLAPius, (Affxfy-ios,) the god of the medical art, in the 

 Homeric poems, not considered a divinity, and without descent, is 

 mentioned as the father of Machaon and Podaleirius. (II., ii. 731, 

 iv. 194, xi. 518.) . But Homer also calls those who practice the heal- 

 ing art descendants of Paeeon, and, as Podaleirius and Machaon are 

 called the sons of JSsculapius, it has been inferred that ^Esculapius 

 and Paee'on are the same being, and consequently a divinity. As in 

 Homer's opinion all physicians were descended from Paee'on, he pro- 

 bably considered JEsculapius in the same light. This is corroborated 

 in later times by the fact that Paee'on was identified with Apollo, 

 -(Esculapius being universally described as a descendant of Apollo. The 

 two sons of JEsculapius, in the Iliad, were the physicians in the 

 Greek army, and ruled over Tricca, Ithome, and Oechalia. The more 

 common tradition was that the god himself was a son of Apollo and 

 Coronis, the daughter of Phlegyas, a descendant of Lapithes." (Apol- 

 lod., iii. 10, g 3; Pind. Pyth., iii. 14, with the Schol.) 



For the story of the babe JSsculapius, saved from the flames by 

 Hermes, of the vengeance of Apollo, and the tragical death of his 

 mother Coronis, and her lover, see Pind., Ov., Horn., Paus., Hygin., 

 Apol., Strab., etc Hermes gave the boy to Cheiron, (the Centaur,) 

 who instructed him in the art of healing and in hunting. The shep- 

 herd Aresthanes saw the boy surrounded by a lustre like that of 

 lightning, and from his dazzling splendor, or from his having been 

 rescued from the flames, he was called, by the Dorians, atyhar/p. 

 Of his youth and the wonderful power of his manhood, until the full- 

 developed divinity assumed the proper functions of his sphere, saving 

 life and raising the dead, many astonishing traditions fill the records 

 of classical history, from the gift of Athena in the blood of Gorgo, 

 to the secret of the serpents in the house of Glaucus. 



" These legends, about one of the most important and interesting 

 divinities of antiquity, are full of significance. Various hypotheses 

 have been brought forward to explain the origin of his worship in 

 Greece ; and, while some consider JEsculapius to have been origin- 

 ally a real personage, whom tradition had connected with various 

 marvelous stories, others have explained all the legends about him 

 as mere personifications of certain ideas. The serpent, the perpetual 

 symbol of ^Esculapius, has given rise to the opinion that the worship 

 was derived from Egypt, and that ^Esculapius was identical with the 

 serpent Cnuph, worshiped in Egypt, or with the Phoenician Esmun. 

 (Euseb. Praep. Evang., i. 10; comp. Paus., vii. 23, $ 6.) But it does 

 not seem necessary to have recourse to foreign countries in order to 

 explain the worship of this god." 

 482 



