This week's #MythologyMonday theme is healing. The God of Healing is #Apollon but there are other gods who share in a subset of his power. Apollon's son #Asklepios famously brought dead people back to life. Deified after his untimely death by Zeus' thunderbolt, he received a cult of his own, the Temples of Asklepios serving as hospitals. Asklepios had children of his own, among them Panacea (Cure-all), and Hygieia (Health).
But he is not the only healing god associated with Apollon.
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In fact, #Asklepios learned the art of medicine from #Chiron, a centaur raised and educated by #Apollon. Chiron in turn raised and educated many famous heroes in their youth, among them #Achilles, Apollon's son Aristaios, and Kokytos, whom Chiron had taught medicine and who cared for #Adonis when he was wounded by the wild boar.
Chiron was wounded by an arrow dipped in the blood of the hydra, giving up is immortality to end his agony. The healer could not heal himself. 😔
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An older god of healing who appears in the #Iliad as the Healer of the Gods is #Paian. In the Iliad, Paian heals #Ares after the latter is injured by #Diomedes and #Athena through medicine that produces instant relief. #Hades is healed in a similar fashion after #Herakles' arrow (thankfully without hydra blood) pierces him.
Paian is later reduced to an epithet of both #Apollon and his son #Asklepios.
A god that is not usually associated with medicine but has a healing aspect is #Dionysos.
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Dionysos Hygiates, Dionysos the Dispenser of Health, is Dionysos’ healing aspect. In #GreekMythology, he originally titled himself #Dionysos Iatros, (Doctor), but the Pythia of Delphi declared that he is not a doctor, but rather a dispenser of health. While #Apollon ensures the health of the city and the people, Dionysos spreads good health because wine has healing properties, as well as the vegetation he rules over.
Source: Forgetting Delphi between Apollo and Dionysus, by Marcel Detienne
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Today, the gods of healing are still alive in the Hippocratic Oath:
"I swear by #Apollon Iatros (the Doctor), and #Asklepios, and #Hygeia, and Panakeia (Panacea), and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath."
The original oath was written in Ionic Greek, between the fifth and third centuries BCE. It still influences current medical ethics and alternative modern versions of the oath like the Declaration of Geneva.
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