CHAPTER II. 



flYGEIA, 



Or the father of Hygeia, ^Esculapius, many accounts and 

 interpretations have been given by classical writers, as we 

 have seen. Leonard Schmitz announces his critique of the 

 fable thus : 



" His story is undoubtedly a combination of real events 

 with the results of thoughts or ideas, which, as in so many 

 instances in Greek mythology, are, like the former, con- 

 sidered as facts. The kernel, out of which the whole myth 

 has grown, is perhaps the account we read in Homer ; but 

 gradually the sphere in which JEsculapius acted was so ex- 

 tended, that lie became the representative or the personi- 

 fication of the healing powers of nature, which are natu- 

 rally enough described as the son (the effects) of Helios, 

 Apollo, or the Sun." Epione, the wife of the god of medi- 

 cine, had a number of children who were highly gifted and 

 distinguished, " most of whom are only personifications of 

 the powers ascribed to their father," and among whom was 

 the radiant daughter, "goddess of health." 



Here, then, appears Hygeia, a " virgin, dressed in a long 

 robe, with the expression of mildness and kindness," "the 

 goddess of physical health, also the giver or protectress of 

 mental health," the " mens sana," (in corpore sano,) giving 

 her name fD^'eia health,) to the "department of medical 

 science which treats of the preservation of health." Being 

 the "mens sana," or sound mind, on this subject, she must, 

 of course, preside over the following fields of labor, or dif- 

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