One of the most interesting figures of Greek mythology is Asclepius. His name is connected with the science of medicine and he is considered to be the first doctor. Son of a God and a mortal, Asclepius was one of the powerful Gods who lived on Mount Olympus and was considered a simple hero, who had divine origins. But he was very popular among the people, honored and respected. Perhaps because he wasn't unapproachable and did not bring fear as other Gods. Instead, his position was always close to the people, for the sake of which he offered his expertise.

His fame had spread all over the Greek world, but also outside it. The God-doctor spread the word of medicine, treated more and more people and build special buildings where patients seeking treatment gathered. The activity continued at shrines of Asclepius by his priests, the Asklipiades. The worship of Asclepius was that great, that he was treated equivalent to other Gods. Moreover, Asclepius, like Hercules at the end was admitted to the divine house of Olympus.

His origin, as we said, was divine. He was the fruit of one of the many loves of Apollo, the handsome God of love with a princess, the beautiful Koronis. He had with her a son. But before the baby is born she falls in love with a stranger, named Ischis. She quickly regretted her act, but it was too late. Apollo, who saw the fraud, outraged asked his beloved sister, Artemis, to punish the young Koronis for the disrespect. The Olympian Goddess then killed her with arrows, along with other women. Perhaps this can be the cause of a great plague that hit the region. So many fires lit to burn the corpses. When the merciless flames wrapped the dead body of the princess, Apollo, who was watching, could not bear to see his child die with her. He immediately rushed to the fire, pulled from the womb the still alive child and he went to Magnesia, to the Centaur Chiron.

Centaur knew very well the powers of herbs. Growing up near him Asclepius learned the medical art. He became especially known for his healing abilities, so that from every corner of Greece people sick or injured, came to find him. Asclepius healed them and any kind of disease. Sometimes he gave them their health with herbs, sometimes with miraculous ointments he manufactured himself and sometimes with magic and prayers. Other were cured of the mania, as they say he did with Proetos daughters, when Hera drove them crazy. Others were made to walk again and to others he gave back their sight.

Indicative of the high activity he developed is that many sanctuaries found scattered in Greece. Of course, many created by the priests. The most famous is the Asklepieion of Epidaurus and then follows the Athens, Kos (where the father of medicine Hippocrates comes from) and Pergamum. When patients visited the shrine seeking therapy, they were not allowed to enter until they were purified. They washed their bodies, made sacrifices to the God and made strict fasting. In the evenings they were admitted to the sanctuary where they would spend the night.

Asclepius, as a son of Apollo, had clairvoyant abilities or as many believe revealed to mortals the revelations of his father, as Pythia did. Whether this was true or not, however, Asclepius gave his medical prescriptions in the form of oracles. The priests claimed to the patients who stayed overnight in the holy, that the God would visit them in the form of a dream and revealed to them the medicine that would cure them. The great doctor-God, not just cured any disease, but could even revive the dead. So when Artemis asked him to revive her beloved Hippolytus, he brought him back to life.

This miraculous ability he had was the cause of his death. It is said that the resurrection of a dead made Zeus very angry and blinded by his rage struck Asclepius with a thunderbolt. Others say it was not personal anger that pushed the King of the Gods to kill Asclepius, but the wrath of Hades. The God of the Underworld complained to Zeus that Apollos son did not allow people to die, and fewer were coming in his kingdom.

His father, Apollo, was hurt deeply for the loss of his son. He had saved him from death once, when he was in the belly of his mother. But this time he was unable to react. He was so sad and angry, that to revenge the death of his beloved son, killed the Cyclopes. They had donated to Zeus the thunder which he always kept in his hand and with which he cut the thread of life of Asclepius.