so someone tell me, why isn't asclepius in a valentines fanservice ce?!!! i think they are MADE for him. but im not sure he'd appreciate all of this mess on his body.

Apollo: yes.

Asclepius: does that mean...water is lava?

Apollo: ...yes

Ascelpius: *gasp* does that mean I'm a lava monster?!

Hygeia the Hygenic Asteroid

Hygeia Mythologically  In Greek Mythology, Hygeia is the great-granddaughter of Zeus / Jupiter via the Apollo(n) line.  Her father Aesclepius,  another asteroid, was the Greek god of healing & is often shown with a physician’s staff & a  snake wrapped around. The cock bird was also sacred to Asclepius and sacrificed on his altar.  Chiron, the centaur, was his mentor. Aesclepius had five…

Day Twenty-two: A quote, a poem, or piece of writing that you think this deity resonates strongly with

I strongly recommend the poetry of Dr. Rafael Campo, a gay, Latino, physician poet. 

Photo credit: pbs.org

What I Would Give by Rafael Campo

What I would like to give them for a change

is not the usual prescription with

its hubris of the power to restore,

to cure; what I would like to give them, ill 

from not enough of laying in the sun

not caring what the onlookers might think

while feeding some banana to their dogs—

what I would like to offer them is this,

not reassurance that their lungs sound fine,

or that the mole they’ve noticed change is not

a melanoma, but instead of fear

transfigured by some doctorly advice

I’d like to give them my astonishment

at sudden rainfall like the whole world weeping, 

and how ridiculously gently it

slicked down my hair; I’d like to give them that,

the joy I felt while staring in your eyes

as you learned epidemiology

(the science of disease in populations),

the night around our bed like timelessness,

like comfort, like what I would give to them.

-Rafael Campo, “What I Would Give” from Landscape with human figure, published by Duke University Press. Copyright © 2002 by Rafael Campo. 

Read more:

Rafael Campo by Robert Birnbaum

“Understanding ourselves better may be the key to getting better. A conversation with writer and physician Rafael Campo on the role literature and expression play in the healing process, and what’s being done about it.” 

http://www.themorningnews.org/article/birnbaum-v.-rafael-campo

Rafael Campo uses his stethoscope to explore rhythms of poetry by Anne Azzi Davenport

“Rafael Campo explores poetry through his experience as a doctor. He teaches this practice to his medical students out of the belief that healing is more than just knowing how to respond to symptoms.”