The worship of Æsculapius was begun by the Romans 291 B.
Zeus, who killed him by a flash of lightning, or to Pluto, both of whom were thought to have feared that Æsculapius might by his skill gain the mastery over death.
The deification of Æsculapius and of Melampus added much to the prestige of doctors in Greece, where they were always held in honour; but in Rome the practice of medicine was not considered a highly honourable calling.
When Menelaus was wounded, a messenger was sent for Machaon, who extracted the barbed arrow, sucked the wound and applied a secret ointment made known to Æsculapius by Chiron the Centaur, according to tradition.
These rooms are adorned with the gods of healing, Æsculapius with an acolyte holding a cock, the Dioscuri and their horses, the head of Serapis, and a headless statue of Apollo.
A College of Æsculapius and of Health was established 154 B.
The system in vogue in the temples of Æsculapius in Greece and Rome has already been described in this book, but the temples of Saturn served the same purpose in Egypt four thousand years before Christ.
Tradition states that when Æsculapius was in the house of his patient, Glaucus, and deep in thought, a serpent coiled itself around his staff.
Duessa descends to Erebus and obtains the aid of Night, who conveys the wounded Saracen in her chariot to Æsculapius to be healed of his wounds.
According to one tradition Æsculapius was born in Epidaurus of a beautiful Dalmatian, Jupiter being his father.
Books are piled upon a table; the serpent of Æsculapius carries the motto-ribbon on which are the words, Respice finum.
Below the name the serpent of Æsculapius twined about the rod is placed between retorts, and herbs growing in flower-pots.
The shield rests against a boulder, and is shaded by a poplar tree; the serpent and rod of Æsculapius lie on the ground, and the name is given on a ribbon.
Above this an oval medallion presents a picture of the efficacy of Nature’s cures; a wounded stag with the arrow still in his side has come to Æsculapius for healing.
Proserpina found an Æsculapius who declared that he had seen her eat seven pomegranate seeds.
Hiraux had his Æsculapius who declared that he had seen him stealing at nightfall on tiptoe from the dispensary.
Of Æsculapius himself, it is said that he employed the trumpet to cure sciatica; he claimed that its continued sound made the fibres of the nerves to palpitate, and the pain vanished.
If the modern physician still recognizes Æsculapius as his patron saint, he must have great respect for mental healing.
Hence the provocation given by the healing skill of Æsculapius and the humane theft of fire by Prometheus.
In the Mysteries of Eleusis, that Constellation was placed in the eighth Heaven: and on the eighth day of those Mysteries, the feast of Æsculapius was celebrated.
In consequence of this story the form of a ship was given to this end of the island, and its bow may still be seen at the end of the convent garden, with the famous serpent of Æsculapius sculptured upon it in high relief.
Galen says that Æsculapius wrote comic songs to promote circulation in his patients; and Hippocrates tells us that "a physician should have a certain ready humour, for austerity is repulsive both to well and ill.
Elian[534] attests that the same Æsculapius joined on again the head of a woman to her corpse, and restored her to life.
For there is every appearance that the dead people resuscitated by Æsculapius were only persons who were dangerously ill, and restored to health by that skillful physician.
Clearly, then, Æsculapius is not the place for non-combatants.
Now, I know as a matter of fact that preparations have been made for holding Æsculapius as long as possible.
The temple of Æsculapius perished with all its inmates; and along with it was lost to Rome and to the world a vast treasury of wealth.
What Æsculapius has brought you back from the dead?
From this period, which was about the year of Rome 462, the worship of Æsculapius was introduced in the city, and to him recourse was had in cases of disease, and especially in times of pestilence.
Later authors, whom Ovid here follows, added, that Æsculapius restored him to life, and that he afterwards appeared in Italy under the name of Virbius.
Rome being wasted by a pestilence, the Delphian oracle is consulted; and the answer is given, that to cause it to cease Æsculapius must be brought to Rome.
The priests were called Asklepiadi, and alleged their direct descent from Æsculapius himself.
The temples of Æsculapius became so numerous in time that they were to be found in almost every Greek city.
Exaggeration, so natural to ignorant minds, afterward did the rest, and magnified the healing and restoring powers of Æsculapius to such an extent that it is not to be wondered at that he should have been looked upon as a divine being.
Indeed, who can tell if Æsculapius himself, not yet deified, may not have deposited there a model of the instrument he had invented!
As the Greeks always carried the encomiums of their great men beyond the truth, they feigned that Æsculapius was so expert in medicine, as not only to cure the sick, but even to raise the dead.
This is the new way; and thus Æsculapius has left his beloved powders, and writes a recipe for a wife at sixty.
In a word, his fortune was the same with that of the statuary, who fell in love with the image of his own making; and the unfortunate Æsculapius is become the patient of her whom he lately recovered.
When Æsculapius had finished his complaint, Pacolet went on in deep morals on the uncertainty of riches, with this remarkable exclamation; "O wealth!
There was no time for this, however, for in a moment Æsculapius himself appeared.
It is a village of moderate size, in which is preserved the Æsculapius of Colotes, a statue of ivory, of admirable workmanship.
They show in the Gerenian territory a temple of Æsculapius Triccæus, copied from that at the Thessalian Tricca.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "sculapius" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
