Homeric Hymn 16: To Asclepius
A brief 5-line hymn to Asclepius, son of Apollo and Coronis, born in the Dotian plain — the divine physician and healer of sicknesses, a soother of cruel pangs.
About the Poem
The sixteenth Homeric Hymn is a complete 5-line invocation to Asclepius (Ἀσκληπιός), the divine physician, son of Apollo and the mortal Coronis. He is presented as “healer of sicknesses” and “soother of cruel pangs” — titles that reflect his function in Greek religion as the god to whom the sick prayed for cure, incubating in his sanctuaries (asclepieia) to receive healing dreams.
The brief but precise biographical detail — “In the Dotian plain fair Coronis, daughter of King Phlegyas, bare him” — reflects the Thessalian tradition of Asclepius’ birth, which competed with the Epidaurian tradition (where he was born in the Peloponnese). The Dotian plain was a fertile region of Thessaly, and the Thessalian Asclepius cult preceded the pan-Hellenic Epidaurian one.
Complete Text
Greek (Homeric)
Ἰητῆρα νόσων Ἀσκληπιὸν ἄρχομ’ ἀείδειν, υἱὸν Ἀπόλλωνος, τὸν ἐγείνατο δῖα Κορωνίς, Δωτίῳ ἐν πεδίῳ, κούρη Φλεγύαο ἄνακτος, χάρμα μέγ’ ἀνθρώποισι, κακῶν θελκτῆρα νούσων. καὶ σύ μεν οὕτω χαῖρε, ἄναξ· λίτομαί σε δ’ ἀοιδῇ.
(Full Greek text at Perseus Digital Library, link below.)
English (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914 — public domain)
[1] I begin to sing of Asclepius, son of Apollo and healer of sicknesses. In the Dotian plain fair Coronis, daughter of King Phlegyas, bare him, a great joy to men, a soother of cruel pangs.
And so hail to you, lord: in my song I make my prayer to thee!
Asclepius: God of Medicine
Asclepius began in Greek tradition as a mortal healer-hero — a physician so skilled that Zeus destroyed him with a thunderbolt for bringing the dead back to life (Pindar, Pythian 3). He was later divinized and became the pre-eminent healing god of the Greek and Roman world. His most famous sanctuary at Epidaurus (Peloponnese) was a vast healing complex where pilgrims came to sleep in the temple and receive cures in dreams — a practice called incubation (ἐγκοίμησις).
The Hippocratic medical tradition both competed with and drew on the Asclepian tradition; Hippocrates himself was said to be a descendant of Asclepius (an Asclepiad). The Hippocratic Oath begins with an invocation of Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea — deities all connected to the healing tradition.
His staff entwined by a serpent (the Rod of Asclepius) remains the symbol of medicine to this day, distinct from the Caduceus of Hermes (which has two serpents and is sometimes confused with it).
Citations
- Evelyn-White, H. G. (trans.). Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Loeb Classical Library 57. Harvard University Press, 1914. Public domain. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html
- Pindar, Pythian Ode 3 (on Asclepius’ birth, skill, and destruction by Zeus). Perseus Digital Library. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0168:book=P.:poem=3
- Edelstein, E. J. and L. Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies. 2 vols. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1945.
- LiDonnici, Lynn R. The Epidaurian Miracle Inscriptions. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
- Perseus Digital Library, Homeric Hymns (Greek text): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0137:hymn=16