Hygieia

File:Statue of Hygieia (cropped).jpg

Image of a marble statue depicting the lower portion of the goddess Hygieia while seated with a portion of a snake coiled atop the legs. Located in the Roman collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv: 03.12.11a Dates to the 1st or 2nd century, A.D.

File:BudynekFeniksa-RzeźbaNarożna-RynekGłówny-POL, Kraków.jpg

Statue of Hygieia in Art Deco style in Kraków, Poland (1932)

Hygieia is a goddess from Greek mythology (more commonly spelled Hygeia, sometimes Hygiea; Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006.</ref> Template:Langx or Template:Lang, Template:Langx or Template:Lang). Hygieia is a goddess of health (Template:Langx – hugieia<ref>ὑγίεια, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus</ref>), cleanliness and hygiene. Her name is the source for the word "hygiene". Hygieia developed from a light personification to a full goddess within the cult of Asklepios. Together with her father, she appeared in dreams of patients who visited their temples. Patients performed the healing ritual temple sleep to get healed.<ref> Mark Beumer, 'A Woman’s Touch. Hygieia, Health and Incubation', in: Journal of History of Sciences and Technology/DVT - Dejiny ved a techniky, Volume LV – Number 1-2 (2022) 25-55.</ref>

Hygieia is related to the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius, who is the son of the Olympian god Apollo. Hygieia is most commonly referred to as a daughter of Asclepius<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and his wife Epione. Hygieia and her four sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: Hygieia (health, cleanliness, and sanitation); Panacea (universal remedy); Iaso (recuperation from illness); Aceso (the healing process); and Aegle (radiant good health).

The role of Hygieia in antiquity

One notable reference regarding Hygieia's role as a goddess of health can be found within the Hippocratic oath. This oath is used by physicians in order to swear before various healing gods, one of which being Hygieia, that they would follow a code of established ethical standards of practice.

Section of the translated oath from Greek to English:

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Hygieia and Asclepius

The worship of Hygieia was closely associated with the cult of Asclepius. While Asclepius was more directly associated with healing, Hygieia was associated with the prevention of sickness and the continuation of good health. In the second century CE, the famous traveler Pausanias provided an account based on what he witnessed within the state of Greece.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In his encyclopedic text Description of Greece, written circa 160 CE to 174 CE, Pausanias described encountering statues of Asclepius and Hygieia, located at Tegea.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In addition to statues which represent the two figures, the incorporation of Hygieia within the cult of Asclepius can also be seen in medical iconography on numerous ancient Graeco-Roman coins. The close association between Hygieia and Asclepius indicates the important place she held in the cult of Asclepius.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Worship

File:Hygieia by Alexander Handyside Ritchie, College of Physicians, Queen Street, Edinburgh.jpg

Hygieia by Alexander Handyside Ritchie, College of Physicians, Queen Street, Edinburgh

Hygieia's primary temples were in Epidaurus, Corinth, Cos and Pergamon. At the Asclepeion of Titane in Sicyon (founded by Alexanor, Asclepius' grandson), the Greek historian Pausanias remarked that a statue of Hygieia was covered by women's hair and pieces of Babylonian clothes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> According to inscriptions, similar sacrifices such as this were offered at Paros.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Hygieia was also associated with the Greek goddess Athena. In the 2nd century AD, Pausanias noted statues both of Hygieia and of Athena Hygieia near the entrance to the Acropolis of Athens.<ref>Pausanias, I.23.4; the statement in Pliny's Natural History (xxxiv.80) Pyrrhus fecit Hygiam et Minervam has been applied to these statues: see H. B. Walters, "Athena Hygieia", The Journal of Hellenic Studies 19 (1899:165–168) p. 167.</ref> "Athena Hygieia" was one of the cult titles given to Athena, as Plutarch recounts of the building of the Parthenon (447–432 BC):

File:Hugieia-pentagram.svg

"Hugieia" (Template:Big: health) was used as a greeting among the Pythagoreans.<ref name="Allman1889">Template:Cite book</ref>

However, the cult of Hygieia as an independent goddess did not begin to spread until the Delphic oracle recognized her, after the devastating Plague of Athens (430–427 BC), and in Rome after the 293 BC plague there.

The poet Ariphron, from the Greek city-state Sicyon, wrote a well-known hymn during the 4th century BC which celebrated Hygieia.<ref>Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, xv.702, on-line text.</ref> Statues of Hygieia were created by Scopas, Bryaxis and Timotheus, among others, but there is no clear description of what they looked like. In the surviving depictions, she is often shown as a young woman feeding a large snake that was wrapped around her body or drinking from a jar that she carried.<ref>Similar images, though of a goddess in a more warlike aspect, represent Athena and Erichthonius.</ref> These attributes were later adopted by the Gallo-Roman healing goddess, Sirona.

Hygieia was modified by the Romans into the goddess Valetudo, the goddess of personal health. There exists some debate about whether Hygieia can also be identified with the Roman goddess of social welfare, Salus; however, this has yet to be fully substantiated.

Recent discoveries

In August 2021, archaeologists from Dumlupınar University announced the discovery of statue of Hygieia in the Ancient Greek city Aizanoi. The human sized statue was portrayed with a snake in its arms. The statue was revealed inside the columned gallery throughout the south wing of the agora.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• 10 Hygiea, a main belt asteroid named after Hygieia
• Ancient Greek medicine
• Bowl of Hygieia
• College of Aesculapius and Hygia
• Eir, Norse healing goddess
• List of health deities
• Pericles

General and cited references

• Mark Beumer, 'A Woman’s Touch. Hygieia, Health and Incubation', in: Journal of History of Sciences and Technology/DVT - Dejiny ved a techniky, Volume LV – Number 1-2 (2022) 25-55.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Hygieia".

External links

• The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Hygeia)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=11&highlight=health
• Template:Cite EB1911