CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

Asclepius, the god of medicine, was born a mortal, the result of Apollo’s love for Coronis. After she betrayed the god by transferring her affections to a fellow mortal, Apollo killed Coronis, but snatched the child from her womb as she lay on the funeral pyre. Asclepius was then entrusted to the centaur Chiron, who taught him the art of healing. However, his tremendous skill in this field, including the ability to revive the dead, alarmed Zeus, who saw that Asclepius had the power to upset the natural order of life and death, and thus he struck him down with a thunderbolt. The demi-god was revered throughout the Classical period. As the son of the god of light, he restored warmth and vitality to the sick. He is shown here with Telesphorus, a guardian spirit of convalescence, he wears a hooded cape, the iconographic costume of those who have overcome illness. Telesphorus had his own temple, the Telesphorion, in the precinct of Asklepius at Pergamon.
For a similar group, cf. S. Reinach, Repertoire de la Statuaire Grecque et Romaine, vol. IV, Paris, 1913, p. 25, no. 6.