| Hygieia | |
|---|---|
Goddess of good health, cleanliness, and sanitation | |
 1st-century Roman statue of the goddess | |
| Abode | Mount Olympus |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Asclepius andEpione |
| Siblings | Iaso,Panacea,Aceso,Aegle |
| Equivalents | |
| Roman | Valetudo,Salus |
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Hygieia is a goddess fromGreek mythology (more commonly spelledHygeia, sometimesHygiea;/haɪˈdʒiːə/;[1]Ancient Greek:Ὑγιεία orὙγεία,Latin:Hygēa orHygīa). Hygieia is a goddess of health (Greek:ὑγίεια –hugieia[2]), 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.[3]
Hygieia is related to the Greek god of medicine,Asclepius, who is the son of the Olympian godApollo. Hygieia is most commonly referred to as a daughter of Asclepius[4] and his wifeEpione. Hygieia and her four sisters each performed a facet ofApollo's art: Hygieia (health, cleanliness, and sanitation);Panacea (universal remedy);Iaso (recuperation from illness);Aceso (the healing process); andAegle (radiant good health).
One notable reference regarding Hygieia's role as a goddess of health can be found within theHippocratic 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:
The worship of Hygieia was closely associated with thecult of Asclepius. While Asclepius was more directly associated with healing, Hygieia was associated with theprevention of sickness and the continuation of good health. In the second century CE, the famous travelerPausanias provided an account based on what he witnessed within the state of Greece.[6] In his encyclopedic textDescription of Greece, written circa 160 CE to 174 CE, Pausanias described encountering statues of Asclepius and Hygieia, located atTegea.[7]
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 ancientGraeco-Roman coins. The close association between Hygieia and Asclepius indicates the important place she held in the cult of Asclepius.[8]
Hygieia's primary temples were inEpidaurus,Corinth,Cos andPergamon. At theAsclepeion ofTitane inSicyon (founded byAlexanor, Asclepius' grandson), the Greek historianPausanias remarked that a statue of Hygieia was covered by women's hair and pieces ofBabylonian clothes.[9] According to inscriptions, similar sacrifices such as this were offered atParos.[10]
Hygieia was also associated with the Greek goddessAthena. In the 2nd century AD,Pausanias noted statues both of Hygieia and of Athena Hygieia near the entrance to theAcropolis of Athens.[11] "Athena Hygieia" was one of the cult titles given toAthena, as Plutarch recounts of the building of theParthenon (447–432 BC):
A strange accident happened in the course of building, which showed that the goddess was not averse to the work, but was aiding and co-operating to bring it to perfection. One of the artificers, the quickest and the handiest workman among them all, with a slip of his foot fell down from a great height, and lay in a miserable condition, the physicians having no hope of his recovery. When Pericles was in distress about this, the goddess [Athena] appeared to him at night in a dream, and ordered a course of treatment, which he applied, and in a short time and with great ease cured the man. And upon this occasion it was that he set up a brass statue of Athena Hygieia, in the citadel near the altar, which they say was there before. But it wasPhidias who wrought the goddess's image in gold, and he has his name inscribed on the pedestal as the workman of it.[12]
However, the cult of Hygieia as an independent goddess did not begin to spread until theDelphic oracle recognized her, after the devastatingPlague of Athens (430–427 BC), and in Rome after the293 BC plague there.
The poetAriphron, from the Greek city-stateSicyon, wrote a well-knownhymn during the 4th century BC which celebrated Hygieia.[14] Statues of Hygieia were created byScopas,Bryaxis andTimotheus, 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.[15] These attributes were later adopted by theGallo-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.
In August 2021, archaeologists fromDumlupınar University announced the discovery of statue of Hygieia in theAncient Greek cityAizanoi. 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.[16][17]
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