Asclepius and the Art of Healing

c. 350 BCE

Asclepius was an important figure in Greek mythology who became the god of healing and medicine. In some stories, he is a man, in others a god. His father was Apollo, also associated with healing, and his mother was the mortal Coronis; she died either in childbirth or by the devices of Apollo. Asclepius was raised and tutored by the centaur Cheiron, wise and skilled in the arts of medicine, who passed on this knowledge to Asclepius.

Asclepius became knowledgeable in surgery and the uses of various drugs, potions, and healing incantations. He received from the goddess Athena a powerful potion made from the blood of the snake-haired Gorgons, whose appearance turned people to stone; the mixture had the power to heal or even bring the dead back to life, but it also could be a deadly poison.

With his great knowledge and skill, Asclepius became widely known and revered for his treatments. He took as his symbol the staff with an entwined serpent, which represents the duality of the physician’s work—life and death, sickness and health. Around 350 BCE, his followers initiated the cult of Asclepius and established centers for treatment, called asclepeia.

Those who sought treatment in asclepeia underwent a period of purification, drank the waters of a sacred fountain, and then spent one or more nights sleeping in special clothing in an underground chamber. There, Asclepius would reveal the cure of the illness, provide an oracular dream, or sometimes the dream itself would bring healing.

The cult of Asclepius indicates the historic connection between spirituality, religion, and medicine. The art of healing was considered sacred, and the practices were secret, passed from father to son. Asclepian medicine, with its dream therapy, also represents an early form of psychological treatment and thus is an important precursor to modern psychological medicine.

SEE ALSO Jungian Psychology (1913), Mind-Body Medicine (1993)

Temple of Asclepius in Villa Borghese, Rome, 2009.