Asclepius is mentioned in the very ancient Iliad as a man who is a famous healer and doctor. His seat of power and place of birth is known from these accounts to have been Tricca in Thessaly. A temple to Him already existed as a center of great prominence there. In the Iliad, His sons named Machaon and Podalirius minister to the armies of the Greeks against the Trojans, knowing all kinds of techniques and cures. Machaon, known as the father of surgeons, treated Menelaus by directly administering to his wounds.
Many of His other children relate to processes of healing, such as Hygieia, the Goddess of cleanliness, hygiene, and keeping the soul in a pure state to allow healing and regeneration to occur. She is often paired with Asclepius in sculpture.
At some point between the events of the Iliad and the onset of Antiquity, Asclepius ascended to the level of a Hero and then to the level of a Demon. His cult was already prevalent in Athens in the fifth century BCE.
The origin stories of Asclepius involve him being fathered by Apollo and taught the art of medicinal healing by him, before formally completing his education under Chiron, the centaur.
Consequently, the Hippocratic Oath references Asclepius as second only to Apollo as a healer:
I swear by Apollo Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.
Asclepius' cult was maintained primarily in Epidauros. His temple complex there, despite its initial modest size, often hosted thousands of visitors at a time, functioning in some ways as a holy pilgrimage site, modern hospital, place of remembrance, and wellness retreat. It rivalled the Temple of Delphi and Sanctuary of Zeus as a phenomenon, with the number of pilgrims and activity being among the largest in Greece. Temples to Him were known as Asclepions, of which we know three hundred existed in mainland Greece alone.
Two Asclepions at Kos (consecrated by Hippocrates) and Pergamon were additionally considered of extreme importance. The complex at Pergamon was gigantic and grand in scope. It had an extremely advanced system of water maintenance:
The water supply was assured by a system that brought water from an area up to 40 km distant. In addition to aqueducts in places several stories high, two Hellenistic high-pressure systems have been identified. One of these systems ran from the north to the summit of the acropolis with a pressure of 20kg/cm2.
J. Shafer
Asclepions were located close to water deliberately, symbolizing the power of water in rejuvenating the soul and the importance of water in maintaining health. All were isolated from urban conditions of disease and distraction, such as the Asclepion within the city of Carthage that existed at a great height overlooking the city. Others were located in elite facilities designated for health, such as the Asclepion located inside the Gymnasium at Smyrna. One of the first steps an individual pursuing healing practices took would be to dedicate themselves to healing at a spring.
Galen, the most famous doctor of Antiquity and the father of modern medicine, studied at the Asclepion in Pergamon and is known to have observed mysterious rites.
Certain impious Roman rulers disrespected the Sanctuary at Epidauros, and so Hadrian re-consecrated it as a site of grandness. His reforms and constructions of the site at Pergamon were also extensive and costly. For Hadrian, identification with Asclepius was a matter of severe importance, as this deity functioned as a guide to him. Hadrian himself claimed to be a doctor healing Rome of sickness.
The Asclepion of Pergamon.
The Asclepion of Kos.
TREATMENT
All doctors of Antiquity had to undergo secret rites and systems of learning dedicated to Asclepius, with all of these rites held as family secrets of the most extreme importance, to such an extreme that many only healed their own flesh and blood. Many doctors in families were named after Asclepius at birth, such as Asclepiades of Bithynia.
Visitors to temples hoping to be healed would undergo a series of procedures. Patients would first undergo a procedure known as katharsis. They would embark on routines of physical and spiritual cleansing, if possible, to divest themselves of negative influences contributing to health problems. The optimal healing environment was chosen and personalized to the patient. This often concerned vibration:
All who came to him—some plagued with festering sores, others wounded by the strokes of bright bronze weapons or the slinger’s shot of stone, and still others with limbs ravaged by summer's fiery heat or winter's cold—he treated for every ill, giving deliverance from pain. Some he cured with gentle songs of incantation, others with soothing draughts of medicine, or by wrapping their limbs with healing salves, and some he made whole with the surgeon’s knife.
Pindar, Pythian Ode III
The second procedure is known as incubation (note the similarity to 'incubus', a term distorted by the church). Trance and dream therapy would be pursued in a dormitory known as the enkoimeterion (lying down place) or adyton (inaccessible place). Only the priest and the patient would be allowed to enter this place. Any God involved would give advice or cure through the medium of altered states. Multiple techniques could be used to remove the mentality of disease from the soul or resetting major issues. Aristophanes references this type of medical procedure by making one of his characters advise that another sick individual should 'let him lie inside the Asclepius temple a whole night long'.
Certain names shared by Apollo and Asclepius, namely Paean, illustrate the importance of sound in healing the body and soul.
SERPENT IMAGERY
The Rod and snake of Asclepius are mysterious symbols. Much of the interpretation of them comes from the mythology of Asclepius, where, in return for kindness given to a snake, it whispered in his ear the secrets of bringing the dead to life. In an alternative story, Asclepius bit the head of a venomous snake, then observed another snake bringing it herbs to heal it. He used this idea to resurrect the dead.
Spiritually, this represents mastery of the serpent powers to enable permanent rejuvenation. Likewise, the bending of the snake on the Rod represents the twists and turns of reincarnation in dealing with the natural world and bending around reality to complete one's development while being supported by the material conditions of existence. Much of the significance of Asclepius also relates to death and reincarnation. Aristides, a mystic who recounted his own healing from a tumor, claimed he “lived not twice but many varied lives through the power of the God.”
Even the apologist for the Nazarene, Eusebius, admitted all of this in a skewed manner:
Of the safeguarding power (of the sun), a symbol is Asclepius, to whom they attribute a staff as a sign of support and relief for invalids; the serpent is twined about it, being the sign of the preservation of body and soul [...] For this animal is most animated and strips off the weakness of the body. It seems to be also the most skillful in medicine. For it discovered the remedy of sharp-sightedness, and it is said to know some drug for the return to life.
Eusebius of Caesarea
In a medical context, the Rod is interpreted as the yardstick to healing and a support for the healed one, while the snake represents regeneration, recuperation, and new life. However, there are many other codes involving this symbol. To use an example, some animals get frightened by logs being placed behind them as they think it is a snake, yet the two are entirely different things. A misjudgment about which is which can lead to danger or foolishness, serving as an allegory for the importance of taking all matters of medicine and survival seriously.
The original name of Asclepius was Hepius and gained His name by healing Ascles, a king of Epidaurus. His name also relates to the symbolism:
Asclepius derived his name from healing soothingly and from deferring the withering that comes with death. For this reason, therefore, they give him a serpent as an attribute, indicating that those who avail themselves of medical science undergo a process similar to the serpent in that they, as it were, grow young again after illnesses and slough off old age; also because the serpent is a sign of attention, much of which is required in medical treatments. The staff also seems to be a symbol of some similar thing. For by means of this it is set before our minds that unless we are supported by such inventions as these, in so far as falling continually into sickness is concerned, stumbling along we would fall even sooner than necessary.
Theologiae Graecae Compendium, Cornutus
Today, the Rod of Asclepius is used as a symbol for the World Health Organization and many others, though many of these organizations
corrupt the meaning of the symbol:
The snake as a living and twisting being that can always shed its skin also contrasts with the inert and non-living staff that has been cut from the tree. This represents the triumph of eternal life over what is barren in raising the serpent. Obviously, this was stolen by Christianity in the form of the cross and stake, with the Nazarene inserted as the recipient of 'eternal life' instead.
Some of the Epidauran Inscriptions illustrate this idea of rejuvenation hinted by Cornutus:
Ambrosia of Athens, blind of one eye. She came as a suppliant to the God. As she walked about in the sanctuary, she laughed at some of the cures as incredible and impossible, believing that the lame and the blind could be healed merely by seeing a dream. In her sleep she had a vision. It seemed to her that the God stood by her and said that He would cure her, but that in payment He would ask her to dedicate to the sanctuary a silver pig as a memorial of her ignorance. After saying this, He cut the diseased eyeball and poured in some drug. When day came, she walked out sound.
Fourth Epidauran Inscription
Asclepius was associated with dogs, much like Anubis. Dogs roamed the compound at the Asclepions, known as therapeutic animals for patients but also symbols of eternal faithfulness and the boundary zone between life and death. Unfortunately, the association with Asclepius and other deities motivated many early Christians to despise dogs.
ASCLEPIUS AND THE ENEMY
Despite not being directly referenced in the Bible, the imagery of Asclepius was stolen copiously for early Christian themes. These instances of blatant theft were based on Moses 'raising the serpent' in Numbers 21:8-9: “Make a fiery serpent and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” As we know, this is an allegory of the Kundalini serpent giving eternal life and health. This passage is the so-called 'basis' of Christian healing.
Other allusions are obvious. In audience with the Pharaoh, Moses' rod transforms into a serpent, overcoming the serpents of the Pharaoh's magicians. At the Pool of Bethesda, where the Nazarene healed the invalid, many votive objects and other paraphernalia related to Asclepius have been found. This shows how much Christianity dedicated itself at an early stage to co-opting and confusing ideas and areas of great importance like a parasite, as it has nothing of its own. Tricca itself unfortunately became one of the centers of Christianity in Greece.
One of the inscriptions of Asclepius concerns a man, Alketas, who was blinded, with Asclepius prying apart his eyes in a dream. Alketas sees the trees of the sanctuary and later awakes to see fully:
οὗτος τυφλὸς ὢν ἐνύπνιον εἶδε· ἔδοκεν οὗ ὁ θεὸς ποτελθὼν τοῖς δακτύλοις διάγειν τὰ ὄμματα καὶ ἰδεῖν τὰ δένδρα πρῶτον τὰ ἐν τῷ καρπῷ ἡμέρας δὲ γενομένης ὑγιὴς ἔβλεψε.
This man, being blind, saw a dream; the God came and gave his fingers to guide his eyes and to see the trees [of the sanctuary], first those bearing fruit. Then, when the day came, he saw clearly.
Eighteenth Epidauran Inscription
This is almost identical to the story of the Nazarene healing the blind man in Mark 8:22-26.
The fable of Lazarus rising from the dead and the Sanhedrin's decision to send the Nazarene to Pilate for judgment after this incident can be viewed as a striking parallel to the myth of Asclepius, who was struck down by Zeus for reviving the dead at Hades' request. After this, Asclepius was said to rise to the stars, becoming the Serpent-Bearer or incarnating in a second body, which reaffirms the connection to reincarnation.
Asclepius' worship became more prevalent in the 100s AD in Rome and became a serious threat to Christianity as His cult was among the most popular and beloved of the masses. As stated previously, Pergamon was one of the centers of Asclepius worship, integrated strongly with the cult of Zeus. This is another one of the reasons why the city was named 'Satan's throne' in the Bible.
Among the designers of the church, Clement of Alexandria, Athenagoras, Augustine, Tertullian, Lactantius, and Eusebius, among many others, all issued vicious attacks on Asclepius, alleging Him to be a 'copy' of the Nazarene and a mere mortal man of Antiquity punished by Jupiter, using the Iliad and other sources in a hyper-literal manner to discredit Him in the eyes of the ignorant.
As a typical megalomaniacal slander, Eusebius had this to say about Asclepius:
As to the God of the Cilicians [Asclepius], great was, indeed, the deception of persons seemingly wise, with thousands excited over him as if over a savior and physician who now revealed himself to those sleeping in a temple and again healed the diseases of those ailing in body; of the souls, though, he was a downright destroyer, drawing them away from the true savior and leading into godless imposture those who were susceptible to fraud; the emperor [Constantine] therefore, acting fairly, holding the true savior a jealous god, commanded that this temple, too, be razed to its foundations.
Justin Martyr came up with the most insidious and moronic lies, yet admitted the theft:
And when He [Satan] brings forward Asclepius as the raiser of the dead and healer of the other diseases, may I not say that in this matter he has imitated prophecies about Christ?
Dialogues
But the truth will be proclaimed! Since in ancient time evil Demons, in apparitions, violated women, corrupted children and showed fearful visions to men, so that those ones were frightened [...], they called them gods and each with the name that each Demon assigned to himself. [...] We, indeed, obeying to him [i.e. the Nazarene], say not only that Demons, who acted in this way, are not good, but that they are evil and ungodly, because they do not even perform actions similar to men who love virtue.
[…]
When we say that he [the Nazarene] made well the lame and the paralytic and those who were feeble from birth and that he resurrected the dead, we shall seem to be mentioning deeds similar to and even identical with those which were said to have been performed by Asclepius.
First Apology
Nowadays, no one with an inch of intelligence could accept the stupidity of this argument presented in the so-called First Apology and Dialogues: that Asclepius ripped off the Nazarene when the known presence of Asclepius predated any Hebrew scriptures by thousands of years!
Just like the copious theft from Apollonius, whom Asclepius was also associated with, this is a case of parasitism masquerading as a ‘religion’ for the benefit of the few. Today, we affirm that the disciples of magnificent Asclepius sing again in unison with all slander put to the grave!
REFERENCES
Asclepius - A Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies – Emma J. Edelstein, Ludwig Edelstein
Plague and the Athenian Imagination – Robin Mitchell-Boyask
The Sleeper’s Dream - Asclepius Ritual and Early Christian Discourse – Jeffrey Pettis
Ancient Medicine – Vivian Nutton
The Greek language of healing from Homer to New Testament times – Margaret Wells
The Use of the Figure and the Myth of Asclepius in the Greek Anti-Pagan Controversy – Gaetano Spampinato
I am sick . COLD FEVER. The God Asclepius will help a lot. I believe. 
Thank you Brother HP
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