Asclepius the god of medicine
Asclepius is the fruit of the love between the god Apollo and a mortal woman, whose name varies according to local traditions. Pindar, in Pythionikos for Hieron of Syracuse, delivers the story of the birth of Asclepius, fruit of the love of the god of divination for Koronida, daughter of the Thessalian king Phlegyas.
She, while expecting her child and against the will of her father who wanted another marriage, was given to Ischis, son of Elatos and brother of Caineus. And Apollo cursed the barber who brought him the news and turned her from white to black. As for Koronida, he killed her for her infidelity.
But just as Zeus could not let his son Dionysus burn with his mother Semele and pulled the child from her womb, so did Apollo snatch the baby from his mother’s womb, while the body of Koronida was burned in the funeral pyre.
The Epidaurus version
To explain the strong presence of Asclepius in Epidaurus in the Peloponnese, the origin myth of the hero and god of medicine was slightly modified. Phlegya’s grandfather was a warlike bandit who came to the Peloponnese supposedly to visit and admire it, but in reality to ascertain the fighting of the inhabitants and how many there were, in order to formulate his plan to capture it.
He was accompanied by his daughter who had not revealed to him her pregnancy by Apollo. As soon as they reached the land of the Epidaurians, Coronis gave birth, at the foot of the mountain then called Myrtius, to Titius in the time of Pausanias.
The child she gave birth to left exposed on the mountain. And it survived thanks to a goat that nursed it and a dog that protected it from other animals.
The master of the two animals, the shepherd Arestanas, went out in search of the lost goat – because he found his animals missing in the count. Along with his goat, he also found the exposed child that he wanted to take to raise. But as soon as he got close, the child was surrounded by a flash of lightning. This terrified the shepherd, so much so that he left the child alone in the protection of the mystery that surrounded him.
The Messinian version
Asclepius’ mother is Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus and sister of Ilaira and Phoebe who were kidnapped by the Dioscuri. Pausanias considers this version to be a forgery, especially since the most prominent Asclepia were under the control of Epidaurus (2.26.7-8). However, mythographers, in an attempt to reconcile the traditions, asserted that the child was Arsinoe’s but was raised by Koronida.
Asclepius the physician
Like other mythological children, Asclepius was entrusted by his father Apollo to the Centaur Chiron, who raised him and taught him medicine and the art of hunting.
He even became a surgeon, and practicing his art for a long time not only prevented some from dying, but also raised the dead; for he took from Athena the blood that flowed from the veins of the Mermaid, and the blood that was shed from the left he used for the destruction of men because it was poison, whereas that which had flowed from the right veins for their salvation was beneficial, and thereby raised the dead.
In fact, Apollodorus mentions that he had discovered evidence of those resurrected by Asclepius, Capaneus and Lycurgus, as Stesichorus says in Eriphyle, Hippolytus, as the author of the Naupactis says, Tyndareus, as Panyassis says, Hymenaeus, as the Orphics say, Glaucus, the son of Minos, as Melisagoras mentions.
During his apprenticeship with Chiron, he learned the secret history of the gods from the centaur’s soothsayer daughter Okyrroi.
Death and immortality
The death of Asclepius came either from Zeus or from Pluto, and this because the cosmic balance was disturbed, as the life of mortals was prolonged with the various treatments, even the pursuit of immortality which was the prerogative of the gods, or because Pluto saw the population of its sovereign country to decrease.
His death was avenged by Apollo by killing the Cyclops who had benefited Zeus; in turn Apollo was punished by Zeus for killing those who had no part in the death of Asclepius the Cyclops. After his death Asclepius was transformed into the constellation Ophiuchus.