Asclepius - Asclepius (English spelling) Asklēpios

A hero and the god of medicine in Greek mythology. In his most famous birth story, he is the son of Apollo and Coronis. Apollo loved Coronis, the daughter of Phlegias, the king of Thessaly, and she became pregnant with a child. However, when Coronis had an affair with Ischys, the son of Eratos, Apollo killed Coronis and rescued her child, Asclepius, from the funeral pyre. In another legend, he was the child of Coronis, the daughter of the bandit Phlegias, who raped Apollo and gave birth to him. The child was abandoned in Epidaurus on the Argos Peninsula, where a female goat was nursing him and a dog was keeping watch over him. When Aresthanus, the master of the animals, saw this and realized that the child was the son of a god, he did not dare pick him up. Asclepius grew up alone and was eventually worshiped as a god in Epidaurus. He was entrusted by his father, the god Apollo, to Chiron, a member of the monster Centaur clan, where he learned medicine and pharmacy and became a master physician. He also obtained the blood of Medusa, which had the power to revive the dead, from the goddess Athena, and brought many heroes back to life, but Zeus, fearing his power, killed him with a thunderbolt. This god of medicine was later worshiped under the name Aesculapius, and eventually transformed into the star of the constellation Ophiuchus.

[Masahiro Ogawa]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ギリシア神話の英雄で医術の神。もっとも有名な出生譚(たん)では、アポロンとコロニスの子。アポロンはテッサリアの王プレギアスの娘コロニスを愛し、1子を身ごもらせた。しかし、コロニスがエラトスの子イスキスと通じたので、アポロンはコロニスを殺し、火葬の薪(たきぎ)の中から腹の子のアスクレピオスを救い出したとされる。別の伝承では、盗賊のプレギアスの娘コロニスが、アポロンに犯されて生んだ子とされる。アルゴス半島のエピダウロスに捨てられたその子は、牝山羊(めすやぎ)に乳をもらい、犬が番をしていたが、そのようすを見た動物たちの主人アレスタナスはその子を神の子と知り、あえて拾い上げなかった。1人で成長したアスクレピオスは、やがてエピダウロスにおいて神として崇拝された。彼は父神アポロンによって怪物ケンタウロス一族のケイロンに預けられ、医術と薬術を学び名医となった。さらに女神アテネからは死者を蘇生(そせい)させる力をもつメドゥサの血を得、多くの英雄を生き返らせたが、その能力を恐れたゼウスにより雷で殺された。のちにアエスクラピウスの名で祀(まつ)られたこの医神は、やがてへびつかい座の星に変身した。

［小川正広］

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