god
Aesculapi
also: Aesculapius
Greek Asklepios, god of healing, son of Apollo. His celebrated temple at Agrigentum housed a statue of Apollo inscribed with the god's name in tiny silver letters — among the works stripped by Verres (In Verrem 2.4).
Reading notes
- On Divination §2.123 Aesculapius
The healing god (Greek Asclepius), in whose temples the sick slept (incubation) to receive cures revealed in dreams. Cicero denies that any god prescribes medicine through sleep.
- On the Nature of the Gods §3.83 the golden beard of Aesculapius at Epidaurus
Aesculapius, the healing god, had a famous sanctuary at Epidaurus. The tyrant Dionysius stripped the gold beard from his statue with the joke that the son should not be bearded when his father Apollo was shown beardless; the god, Cotta notes, did not punish him.
- Tusculan Disputations §2.38 the sons of Aesculapius fill the colonnades with their wounded
The 'sons of Aesculapius' are Machaon and Podalirius, the physician-brothers in the Greek army at Troy, here overwhelmed with casualties. Aesculapius (Greek Asclepius) was the god of healing.