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Asclepius

Son of Apollo and "healer of sicknesses", born of Coronis daughter of Phlegyas; taught by Chiron, he raised the dead with the Gorgon's blood and was struck down by Zeus's thunderbolt for it. Apollodorus and Pausanias each record three birth stories; Epidaurus claimed him as its own.

Why this wins its question: Lays out the three birth traditions Pausanias himself ranks, and binds the thunderbolt, the raised dead and the serpent to their passages.

Key takeaways

  • Son of Apollo and Coronis in the Hymn; Apollodorus and Pausanias both know rival mothers and birthplaces (Dotian plain, Epidaurus, Messenia).
  • The dead he raised are listed by Apollodorus with the poet who vouches for each (Apollod. 3.10.3).
  • Killed by Zeus's thunderbolt for making men too hard to kill; the Cyclopes paid for it (Apollod. 3.10.4).
  • The staff and the serpent are attested in Pausanias's description of the Sicyonian cult (Paus. 2.10.3).

Claims

Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.

  1. The Hymn: "Asclepius, son of Apollo and healer of sicknesses. In the Dotian plain fair Coronis, daughter of King Phlegyas, bare him, a great joy to men, a soother of cruel pangs" (HH16 1–4).

    confidence 0.95The Homeric Hymns — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  2. Apollodorus gives two mothers: Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus, or — "some affirm" — Coronis, who "preferred and cohabited with Ischys"; Apollo turned the tale-bearing raven black, killed Coronis, snatched the baby from the pyre and gave him to Chiron, "by whom he was brought up and taught the arts of healing and hunting" (Apollod. 3.10.3).

    confidence 0.93Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  3. He raised the dead with Athena's gift: "he had received from Athena the blood that flowed from the veins of the Gorgon … he used the blood that flowed from the right side for salvation, and by that means he raised the dead" — Capaneus, Lycurgus, Hippolytus, Tyndareus, Hymenaeus, Glaucus, each with the author who says so (Apollod. 3.10.3).

    confidence 0.92Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  4. "Zeus, fearing that men might acquire the healing art from him and so come to the rescue of each other, smote him with a thunderbolt"; Apollo in anger killed the Cyclopes who made it, and was sentenced to a year as Admetus's herdsman (Apollod. 3.10.4).

    confidence 0.93Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  5. Pausanias gives the Epidaurian story — Phlegyas's daughter bore him secretly in Epidaurian territory and exposed him on Mount Myrtium, where a goat suckled him, a dog guarded him and the herdsman Aresthanas "saw lightning that flashed from the child" — then a second version in which Artemis killed Coronis and Hermes snatched the child from the pyre, and rejects the Arsinoe version as "a fiction invented by Hesiod, or by one of Hesiod's interpolators, just to please the Messenians", citing a Delphic oracle (Paus. 2.26.3–7).

    confidence 0.92Pausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  6. His image at Sicyon is "a beardless figure of gold and ivory made by Calamis. He holds a staff in one hand, and a cone of the cultivated pine in the other"; the Sicyonians said the god came from Epidaurus "in the likeness of a serpent" (Paus. 2.10.3); at Argos "Health" stands beside his seated image (Paus. 2.23.4).

    confidence 0.9Pausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition · primary

Questions answered

Who are the parents of Asclepius?
The Hymn: "Asclepius, son of Apollo and healer of sicknesses. In the Dotian plain fair Coronis, daughter of King Phlegyas, bare him, a great joy to men, a soother of cruel pangs" (HH16 1–4). source
Who was Coronis?
Apollodorus gives two mothers: Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus, or — "some affirm" — Coronis, who "preferred and cohabited with Ischys"; Apollo turned the tale-bearing raven black, killed Coronis, snatched the baby from the pyre and gave him to Chiron, "by whom he was brought up and taught the arts of healing and hunting" (Apollod. 3.10.3). source
Did Asclepius raise the dead?
He raised the dead with Athena's gift: "he had received from Athena the blood that flowed from the veins of the Gorgon … he used the blood that flowed from the right side for salvation, and by that means he raised the dead" — Capaneus, Lycurgus, Hippolytus, Tyndareus, Hymenaeus, Glaucus, each with the author who says so (Apollod. 3.10.3). source
Why did Zeus kill Asclepius?
"Zeus, fearing that men might acquire the healing art from him and so come to the rescue of each other, smote him with a thunderbolt"; Apollo in anger killed the Cyclopes who made it, and was sentenced to a year as Admetus's herdsman (Apollod. 3.10.4). source
Where was Asclepius born?
Pausanias gives the Epidaurian story — Phlegyas's daughter bore him secretly in Epidaurian territory and exposed him on Mount Myrtium, where a goat suckled him, a dog guarded him and the herdsman Aresthanas "saw lightning that flashed from the child" — then a second version in which Artemis killed Coronis and Hermes snatched the child from the pyre, and rejects the Arsinoe version as "a fiction invented by Hesiod, or by one of Hesiod's interpolators, just to please the Messenians", citing a Delphic oracle (Paus. 2.26.3–7). source
What is the symbol of Asclepius?
His image at Sicyon is "a beardless figure of gold and ivory made by Calamis. He holds a staff in one hand, and a cone of the cultivated pine in the other"; the Sicyonians said the god came from Epidaurus "in the likeness of a serpent" (Paus. 2.10.3); at Argos "Health" stands beside his seated image (Paus. 2.23.4). source