Ivory diptych of Asclepius
Asclepius, from an ivory diptych, 5th century ce; in the Liverpool City Museum, England.
Asclepius
Greco-Roman god
Also known as: Aesculapius, Asklepios
Asclepius, Greco-Roman god of medicine, son of Apollo (god of healing, truth, and prophecy) and the mortal princess Coronis. The Centaur Chiron taught him the art of healing. At length Zeus (the king of the gods), afraid that Asclepius might render all men immortal, slew him with a thunderbolt. Apollo slew the Cyclopes who had made the thunderbolt and was then forced by Zeus to serve Admetus. Homer, in the Iliad, mentions him only as...
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