Gods of Antiquity: Health Deities
Source: https://garystockbridge617.getarchive.net/amp/media/pulse-hand-health-care-providers-health-medical-4c2ff2
Health deities can either maintain or restore health to a person, even to resurrection. They might also protect woman and child during and after childbirth, a time that was especially dangerous before modern medicine practices. There are gods that are associated with medicines, granting them their powers and guiding those who make and administer them. They are common in mythologies all around the world and it isn't uncommon for a culture to have multiple health deities.
By original file by Michael F. Mehnert - File:Asklepios - Statue Epidauros Museum 2008-09-11.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8718607
The Ancient Greeks had many gods and goddesses involved with health, many of whom are part of a single family. Asclepius was the son of Apollo and a human princess of Tricca named Koronis. Koronis was unfaithful to Apollo with a human named Ischys, who was killed by Apollo. Artemis killed Koronis for being unfaithful and Apollo rescued Asclepius from her dead body before it was burned on a pyre, though other traditions hold that he was born in the temple of Apollo with Lachesis being the midwife and Apollo offering pain relief, and yet others say Apollo bore him without a woman involved at all. Apollo taught Asclepius about medicine and he was also taught by the centaur Chiron, who taught him more about medicine as well. He married Epione (a minor health goddess, associated with the relieving of pain), and had five daughters and three sons: Iaso (goddess of recuperation, cures, and remedies), Panacea (goddess of universal remedy, slaves, and medicines), Hygieia (goddess of cleanliness and hygiene), Aceso (goddess of well-being through curing sickness and healing wounds), Aegle (whose name refers to the brightness of health in the human body), Machaon (a leader of one of the factions of the Greek army in the Trojan War), Podalirius (lead the arm with Machaon), and Telesphorus (a minor child-god of healing and convalescence, frequently depicted with Hygieia). With Aristodeme a Sicyonian woman, he had a son, Aratus. He learned how to bring people back from the dead, such as Hippolytus, a hunter who was disgusted by sex and marriage and therefore dedicated himself to Artemis, at the request of Artemis, which annoyed Hades. Hades complained to Zeus, or maybe Zeus became afraid that Asclepius would teach others the art of resurrection, so Zeus struck Asclepius down with a bolt of lightning, and at Apollo's request, made him a star or perhaps the constellation Ophiuchus, perhaps because of or giving rise to his depiction with a serpent entwined staff.
By Eduardo De Salceda - https://www.pinterest.at/pin/300263500130451399/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=105213131 , By Marie-Lan Nguyen - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=511884 . and By User:Bibi Saint-Pol - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2061180
With childbirth being a perilous time, the Ancient Greeks had multiple goddesses who watched over the process. Hera, the queen of the gods and wife to her brother Zeus, watched over women in the process of childbirth, protecting them from the risks they experienced. Artemis watched over the children as they were born. Eileithyia was the goddess of childbirth and midwifery, daughter of Zeus and Hera. She watched over the annual birth of the divine child. She was also likely a goddess that pre-dates the Greeks. She was believed to have taught the first midwives and also sent labor to women to warn them of the impending birth. Eileithyia is associated with Hera and Artemis, but seems to not have any particular characteristics of her own, sometimes only an epithet to the other goddesses. She was called upon to help move labor along, acting almost as a coordinator and teacher than a guardian.
