honorthegods:Asclepios, Lord Paian,healer of all, you charm away the painsof those who suffer.Come,
honorthegods:Asclepios, Lord Paian,healer of all, you charm away the painsof those who suffer.Come, mighty and soothing,bring health,put an end to sickness,then to the harsh fate of death.O blessed spirit of joyful growth,O helper, you ward off evil,honored and mighty sonof Phoibos Apollon.Enemy of disease,consort of Hygieia the blameless,come as savior, O blessed oneBring life to a good end.- Orphic Hymn to Asclepios, translation by Apostolos N. Athanassakis and Benjamin M. WolkowToday, March 3, is the Asclepia, an ancient Athenian festival honoring Asclepius the Healer, son of Apollo.Roman copy of the chryselephantine statue of Asclepius by Thrasymedes of Paros, circa 370 BCE at the Askelpion of Epidaurus. Collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Image source: Wikimedia Commons (X) Image license: Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 UnportedPausanias’ description of the statue:The image of Asclepius is, in size, half as big as the Olympian Zeus at Athens, and is made of ivory and gold. An inscription tells us that the artist was Thrasymedes, a Parian, son of Arignotus. The god is sitting on a seat grasping a staff; the other hand he is holding above the head of the serpent; there is also a figure of a dog lying by his side.- Description of Greece, 2.27.2 (X)While the chryselephantine cult statue by Thrasymedes no longer exists, depictions of it have survived in sculptural copies and on several ancient coins. (X)Read more: Ancient Paros: a great artistic and cultural centre of the Aegean worldby Dora Katsonopoulou, Professor of Archaeology & President, Paros & Cyclades Institute of Archaeology.“A Very Rare Drachm of Epidaurus Argolidis.” The Numismatic Circular, Volumes 12-13, 1904 p7306. (X) -- source link