n.
Latin Aesculapius
Greco-Roman god of medicine.
He was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. He learned the art of healing from the Centaur Chiron . Fearful that Asclepius would make humans immortal, Zeus slew him with a thunderbolt. His cult originated in Thessaly and spread throughout Greece. Because he was said to cure the sick in dreams, the practice of sleeping in his temples became common. Asclepius was often represented holding a staff with a serpent coiled around it.
Asclepius, from an ivory diptych, 5th century AD; in the Liverpool City Museum, England
The Bridgeman Art Library/Art Resource