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Word Smith: Aesculapian

Staying at the Harvard Club in Boston for a few nights, I noticed that one of the meeting rooms had an unusual name. Instead of the Massachusetts Room or Alumni Room, it was labeled as the Aesculapian Room. Time to discover the origin of this label.

The name refers to followers of the practices of the Aesculapius, who was the Greek god of healing and medicine. According to mythology, he was taught the power of healing by Chiron, a centaur and the legendary tutor of many of the Greek heroes. His sanctuary on Kos Island was a center for medical learning and practice. The use of water therapy at springs around the world has revived the therapeutic aspects of water’s curative effect at spas today. Aesculapius had an abundance of children, all of whom became healers or healing gods. The legends add that Aesculapius had the power over life and death. Like Jesus and Lazarus, he had the ability to raise people from the dead.

Digging deeper, the mother of Aesculapius was a mortal woman, Coronis, who cheated on Apollo with a mortal lover. During her pregnancy, Coronis fell in love with another human named Ischys. Upon learning about their affair, Apollo sent his twin sister Artemis to burn Coronis at the stake. (When a crow reported to Apollo that Coronis was unfaithful, the sun god refused to believe the fowl and he turned all crows from white to black and gave them discordant voices. Yet the story rankled the god’s heart. When he investigated the crow’s rumor and found it to be true, Apollo killed Coronis with a mortal wound from one of his arrows.) As she writhed in death agony, he slit her open to rescue the son she bore (hence Aesculapius’ name means “to cut open”). Apollo then granted crows cleverness beyond other birds to make up for his anger towards them.

Like many other demigods, Aesculapius was raised as an infant and tutored by the centaur Chiron, a matchless teacher. Soon the pupil surpassed the teacher and it was rumored that snakes licked Aesculapius’ ears and taught him secret knowledge (to the Greeks snakes were sacred beings of wisdom, healing and resurrection). Aesculapius bore a rod wreathed with a snake, the image of which became associated with healing. 

Being the greatest healer in the world brought wealth and fame to the god, Aesculapius. He married Epione, the goddess of soothing. Altogether, they parented nine children: their names were Laso and Telesphorus, goddess and god of recuperation; Hygieia, goddess of cleanliness; Aglaea, goddess of good health; Panacea, goddess of remedy; Aceso, goddess of healing; Machaon and Podalirius, gifted healers of the Trojan War; and Aratus, a healer. Ultimately for Aesculapius, his success became his undoing. 

When he left Chiron, the centaur had given him two vials of blood—one from the left side and one from the right side of the gorgon, Medusa. The blood from the left side was fatal poison which caused ultimate agony (as Chiron himself experienced firsthand at his anguished destruction). The blood from the gorgon’s right side was a miraculous elixir which could bring the dead back to life. Aesculapius made good use of the right side vial, bringing well-known names back from the dead, including Hippolytus, Hymenaeus and Glaucus. Aesculapius began to accept gold to revive the dead and he drew the menacing attention of Hades. Afraid that the decisions of the gods would cease to hold terror for mortal kind, Hades begged his brother to make a final end of Aesculapius. Apollo was in full agreement and he burned Aesculapius to a cinder by casting a lightning bolt at him.

Post Script:

Aesculapius (sometimes spelled Asclepius or Asklepios) is known as a hero and god/demigod of medicine in ancient Greek religion and Olympian mythology.

There is a pan-Mediterranean serpent named after Aesculepius that is non-poisonous. To this day the image of two snakes crawling up and encircling a staff is a symbol that represents Aesculepius’ influence on health, medicine and healing.

The gods out there know that we need healing, whispers of wisdom, and life or death decision-making skills. It seems fitting that the oldest college and university in the USA has a room dedicated to the powers to help heal humanity and nurture new life.