Æsculāpius

, son of Apollo by Coronis, or as some say, by Lari a daughter of Phlegias, was god of medicine. After his union with Coronis, Apollo set a crow to watch her, and was soon informed that she admitted the care es of Ischys of Æmonia. The god, in a fit of anger, destroyed Coronis with lightning, but saved the infant from her womb, and gave him to be educated to Chiron, who taught him the art of medicine. Some authors say, that Coronis left her father to avoid the discovery of her pregnancy, and that she exposed her child near Epidaurus. A goat of the flocks of A res than as gave him her milk, and the dog which kept the flock stood by him to shelter him from injury. He was found by the master of the flock, who went in search of his stray goat, and saw his head surrounded with resplendent rays of light. Æsculapius was physician to the Argonauts, and considered so skilled in the medicinal power of plants, that he was called the inventor as well as the god of medicine. He restored many to life, of which Pluto complained to Jupiter, who struck Æsculapius with thunder, but Apollo, angry at the death of his son, killed the Cyclops who made the thunderbolts. Æsculapius received divine honours after death, chiefly at Epidaurus, Pergamus, Athens, Smyrna, . Goats, bulls, lambs, and pigs were sacrificed on his altars, and the cock and the serpent were sacred to him. Rome, A.U.C. 462, was delivered of a plague, and built a temple to the god of medicine, who, as was supposed, had come there in the form of a serpent, and hid himself among the reeds in an island of the Tyber. Æsculapius was represented with a large beard, holding in his hand a staff, round which was wreathed a serpent: his other hand was supported on the head of a serpent. Serpents are more particularly sacred to him, not only as the ancient physicians used them in their prescriptions; but because they were the symbols of prudence and foresight, so nece ary in the medical profe ion. He married Epione, by whom he had two sons, famous for their skill in medicine, Machaon and Podalirus; and four daughters, of whom Hygiea, godde of health, is the most celebrated. Some have supposed that he lived a short time after the Trojan war. Hesiod makes no mention of him. Homer , Iliad , bk. 4 , li. 193 ; Hymn to Æsculapius .— Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 10 .— A poll on i us , bk. 4 , Argonautic a .— Hyginus , fable 49.— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 2 , fable 8.— Pausanias , bk. 2 , chs. 11 & 27; bk. 7 , ch. 23 , . — Diodorus , bk. 4 .— Pindar , Pythian , poem 3.— Lucian , Dialog i de Salt at i one .— Valerius Maximus , bk. 1 , ch. 8 .— Cicero , de Natura Deorum , bk. 3 , ch. 22 , says there were three of this name; the first, a son of Apollo, worshipped in Arcadia; second, a brother of Mercury; third, a man who first taught medicine.