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Goddess Hygieia / Hygea / Hygiea
The daughter of Asclepios,
the God of medicine, She was worshipped as the Goddess of Health. Her worship
probably started in the 4th century at Epidauros in association with the great
temple to Asclepios where thousands of infirm people came for medical
assistance. The beautiful marble head from which the bust reproduction was made
has a divine sweetness and is thought to have been the work of Skopas, one of
the three greatest sculptors of the 4th century B.C. It probably belonged to a
statue which stood in the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea in the Peleponnese.
Hygieia and Asclepius,
the Divine Healers
Physicians and nursing professionals
trace their curative skills back to Hygieia, the Goddess of Health, whose
inscriptions appear on the Acropolis in Athens. She is aided by the God of
Medicine, Asclepius. This son of Apollo founded a famous temple of healing at
Epidaurus, which became the model for the earliest hospital. Their serpent
companion epitomizes rejuvenation, sloughing off its old skin for new each year.
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