Asclepius

**Also known as:** Asklepios; Aesculapius

**Pantheon**: Greek

**Title**: God of Medicine, Hepius

**Alignment**: True Neutral

## Information

Asklepios is a master healer so skilled he can raise the dead. He is a shamanic healer who cures via dreams and herbs. His temples are credited as the prototypes of modern hospitals. Veneration of Asklepios is believed to have originated in Thessaly but became extremely widespread, ranging as far afield as England.

There are different versions of his myth. He is usually described as a divine child, marked at birth because he is as radiant as lightning. The crow spirit Coronis may be his mother with no word of his father, or he may be the son of Coronis and Apollo. One myth says that Apollo killed Coronis during her pregnancy but saved baby Asklepios (and inherited her sacred bird, too). Somehow the divine child ended up in the cave of the wise centaur, Chiron. Apollo may have brought him or he may have been abandoned in the forest at birth, nursed by a goat and discovered by a shepherd who brought him to Chiron to rear. (It’s unclear whether Apollo was always involved in Asklepios’ myth or whether, as Asklepios evolved into a significant, widely venerated independent deity, these myths evolved in order to incorporate him into the official pantheon.)
Chiron taught the boy botany and the healing arts. He travelled and became renowned as a miracle healer, learning the secret of reviving the dead by observing snakes. Hades complained to Zeus, who decided that Asklepios was too powerful to live and zapped him with a lightning bolt. Asklepios now heals spirits and humans as a divine physician.

His shrines (Asklepions) were pilgrimage sites. People slept in the Asklepion hoping to receive a dream, which would be interpreted by Asklepios’ priests and provide a cure. These sanctuaries usually included a small temple, a number of porches under which the ailing could rest, sleep, and dream, and a spring or tank of fresh water. Asklepios is a chthonic spirit: some of his rituals were conducted beneath ground level. Nonvenomous snakes slithered freely through the shrine.

The Asklepions required sources of fresh water and so were often built beside springs or near caves, often on sites already sacred to Nymphs. Earlier deities associated with his shrines were not eradicated or removed; instead Asklepios was venerated with them. Socrates’ last words were to remind friends to sacrifice a rooster to Asklepios on his behalf.

Asklepios treats all illnesses. He provides miracle cures but not hospice care. He does not treat the pregnant, which he does not consider a medical condition, even if it is a difficult pregnancy. (His friends the Nymphs and Coronis, his mother, may be petitioned instead.)

**Favoured people:** Healers of all kinds and those who need healing; those involved with sleep therapy, hydrotherapy, and dream healing and divination

**Manifestation:** A mature man or snake

**Iconography:** Asklepios is rarely without a dog or snake.

**Attribute:** His primary attribute is a staff entwined by one single snake (not the caduceus, which belongs to Hermes and Mercury); also opium pods with which to facilitate dreams and pain relief.

**Places:** His primary shrine was in Epidaurus. There was also a major shrine in Corinth and elsewhere throughout the Hellenistic world. Post-Christianity, some of his sanctuaries were rededicated to Saint Martin of Tours. The Church of Saint Anne in Jerusalem beside the Bethesda Pool may be built over an Asklepion.

**Day:** 1 January

**Animals:** Dogs and snakes

**Spirit allies:** Asklepios is venerated alongside Nymphs and Achelous. He was usually not venerated alone but in the company of his family, especially his daughter, Hygeia, and his mother, Coronis.

**Offerings:** Charms in the forms of body parts made of clay, gold, iron, silver, and stone, similar to modern milagros, have been found in his shrines. The poor offered him images formed of dough. Life-sized images have also been found, possibly in repayment for healing. Asklepios was also offered miniature surgical tools, pillows, bottles, slippers, fans, and mirrors.

**See also:** Achelous; Apollo; Chthonic Spirits; Hades; Hygeia; Nymph; Panacea; Telesforos; Zeus

## Fate Lore

Asclepius is a hero of Greek myth who studied under Chiron and later became known as the “God of Medicine”.

He was also a member of the Argonauts led by Jason. Being a child of Apollo, he eventually gained the power to resurrect the dead, which was viewed as a problem, and thus he was struck down by godly thunder.

**Height/Weight:** 170cm・60kg

**Source:** Greek myth

**Country:** Greece

Does not forgive those who lie about their height and weight when filling out forms.

Apollo consorted with a woman named Coronis and sired a son. However, a crow spoke to him of her infidelity (a lie it had made up), and in his rage, he killed her and changed the formerly white wings of the crow to black. But Apollo, regretting having killed Coronis, took the child (Asclepius) from her body which was on the verge of cremation, and entrusted him to the wise centaur Chiron to raise.

Asclepius studied medicine and hunting under Chiron, but eventually became more talented in medicine than him. The healing art that came from the blood of Gorgon given by Athena gave rise to the medicine that was able to resuscitate the dead. However, if one is able to overcome death, the inherent value of the realm of the underworld becomes lost.

Feeling a sense of impending crisis, the God of the Underworld, Hades, went to Zeus to request a favour (as Asclepius was a child of Apollo and he could not interfere directly), and Zeus struck him down with a bolt of lightning. In order to quell the anger of Apollo, whose son was killed, Zeus pulled the dead Asclepius up into the seat of a god (Ophiuchus).

**Item Creation: EX**

He’s only able to make tools related to medicine, but they’re all of top-quality performance.

**Child of Apollo: A**

A skill that denotes genealogy to the Greek god Apollo. Apollo is a god who oversees various aspects, such as the art of the bow, the performing arts, prophecy, the sun, and so on, but he is also a god of epidemic diseases and administers medicine as a manifestation of his duality.

**God of Medicine: EX**

A skill that denotes his existence as a god of medicine and the ancestor to the concept of “medical care”, which has carried over to the present era. According to one theory, the first to administer medical treatment with herbs was Chiron, and the first to do “clinical care” through research and development was Asclepius.

**『 True Medicine ― The Grief of the Obsolete Underworld 』**

**Rank:** EX **Type:** Counter Noble Phantasm

**Range:** — **Maximum number of targets:** —

Resurrection Fraught Hades.

A true resuscitator that once encroached on the realm of Hades and angered Zeus. It possesses the power to perfectly revive the likes of humans and demigods, even from particularly unreasonable circumstances. It is said he used this to revive Glaucus, son of King Minos, and Hippolytus, son of Theseus.

The source of this medicine was Gorgon’s blood, was given by Athena (who received it from Perseus). The blood from the left side of Gorgon was said to destroy man, but the blood from the right side had the power to save them

In truth, just taking blood from Gorgon is not enough. When he revived Hippolytus, he said, “I accomplished this with power from Artemis,” thus, a resuscitation drug can only be completed by putting the power of a pure god (such as Athena or Artemis-class) into the blood. There may be other secret ingredients necessary to create it.

After all, the drug was not created only by his medical talents, but also by various other factors and chance occurrences. Asclepius himself has not completely mastered how to make this drug.

——— of course, that is why he’s still passionate about reproducing it now.

## Appearances in Modern Media

From Fate Grand OrderFrom Age of IshtariaFrom Kamihime ProjectFrom Rage of Bahamut
## Information Source

Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses by Judika Illes