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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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