Plaster replica of a Greek statue, head of Asklepios (Asclepius; Latin: Aesculapius), original possibly 5th to 3rd centuries BC, cast 1860-1920

Several sources claim that Asclepius was first a physician hero, who was later recognised as the Greek god of healing and medicine with a cult that spread in the 5th century BCE. Various sanctuaries in his name were built throughout Greece as areas of worship and refuges for the ill. These were hospital-like places where priests guided patients through rituals of purification and medical curative practices, regularly involving snakes as part of the healing process.

Asclepius is usually represented as an old, bearded man, leaning on a heavy staff with a single snake coiled around it, known as the ‘Rod of Asclepius’.