Goddess Health

ALABASTER BUST OF GODDESS HEALTH, IN WHITE COLOR.

Health (arch. Hygeia) was an ancient Greek deity, personification of the health of body and soul. The oldest center of worship is Titan in Sikyona, where there was a sanctuary of Asclepius and Health. In Greek mythology she holds a prominent place in the worship of her father. Asclepius is directly associated with the treatment of diseases. But the goddess was associated with preventing disease and maintaining good health. 

According to mythology, Hygeia was the wife or daughter of Asclepius and Ipion, Athena’s sister. Sisters or daughters of Health were Panakeia, Iasso, Akeso (Asklipiades) and according to Souda Aigli . Apart from Athens, it was worshiped in other cities, such as Thespies, Elatia, Megara, Corinth and Argos. 

HEALTH IN ANCIENT GREECE

In ancient Sparta, Lycurgus instituted measures for the hardening of the body and it is known that Hippocrates taught that “it is necessary to exercise health, to eat food, to relieve pain”. With the project On gas, water and places he laid the foundations of the health of the natural environment. Plato, Aristotle and other sages also paid special attention to maintaining the health of the body and physical education in general. The ancient Greeks considered it necessary to build baths, aqueducts and sewers for the drainage of dirty water and substances. They applied disinfection by burning sulfur or other aromatic substances and lighting fires  in public streets, with the idea that this was how the air was cleaned. During the plague of Athens, in fact, the corpses were cremated in piles.