AESCULAPIUS, the Latin form of ASKLEPIOS (' the name of the Greek god of medicine, the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. He probably came from Thessaly. The centaur Cheiron taught him the art of healing. At length Zeus, who, being afraid that he might render all men immortal, slew him with a thunderbolt (Apollodorus iii, ro; Pindar, Phthia, 3; Diod.. Sic. iv.
71). Homer mentions him as a skilful physician, whose sons, Machaon and Podaleirius, are physicians in the Greek camp before Troy (Iliad, ii. 731). Temples were erected to Asklepios in many parts of Greece, near healing springs or on high mountains. The practice of sleeping (incubatio) in these sanctuaries was very common, it being supposed that the god effected cures or pre scribed remedies to the sick in dreams. All who were healed offered sacrifice (especially a cock) and hung up votive tablets, recording their names, their diseases, and the manner in which they had been cured. Many of these tablets have been discovered at Epidaurus, the god's most famous shrine. Herodas (Mimes, 4) gives a description of one of his temples, and of the offerings made to him. The cult of Asklepios was introduced into Rome by order of the Sibylline books (293 B.c.), to avert a pestilence. The god was fetched from Epidaurus in the form of a snake and a temple assigned him on an island in the Tiber (Livy x. 47; Ovid, Metam. xv. 622). Asklepios is commonly represented standing, dressed in a long cloak, with bare breast ; his usual attribute is a club-like staff with a serpent coiled round it. He is often accompanied by Telesphorus, the boy genius of healing, and his daughter, Hygieia, the goddess of health. Votive reliefs representing such groups have been found near the temple of Asklepios at Athens.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—L. Dyer, The Gods in Greece (1891) ; Jane E. Bibliography.—L. Dyer, The Gods in Greece (1891) ; Jane E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (19°3) ; R. Caton, Temples and Ritual of A. at Epidaurus and Athens (1900) ; articles in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyklopadie, Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; T. Panofka, Asklepios and die Asklepiaden (1846) ; Alice Walton, "The Cult of Asklepios," in Cornell Studies in Classical Philology, iii. (1894) ; W. H. D. Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings (1902) ; Mary Hamilton, Incubation (Igo6) ; L. R. Farnell, Greek Hero Cults (1921) ; W. A. Jayne, The healing Gods of Ancient Civilizations (1925).