Podalirius’s Family Tree

About Podalirius →

Family

• Asclepius(parent),Epione(parent),Aceso(sibling),Hygieia(sibling),Iaso(sibling),Machaon(sibling),Panacea(sibling)— Marriage

  Asclepius and Epione founded a dynasty of healing deities. Their daughters Hygieia, Panacea, Iaso, and Aceso personified aspects of health and healing; their sons Machaon and Podalirius became physician-heroes at Troy.

Associated with

• Ajax

  In the Little Iliad, Podalirius recognized the signs of Ajax's madness before his suicide, diagnosing his disturbed state when no other Greek understood what was happening.

• Epione

  Epione bore Podalirius to Asclepius. The hero served as a physician at Troy alongside his brother Machaon, inheriting his parents' healing gifts.

• Machaon

  Machaon and Podalirius, sons of Asclepius, served as physicians to the Greek army at Troy. Homer names Machaon treating the wounded Menelaus in the Iliad.

• Philoctetes

  Podalirius helped treat Philoctetes after the Greeks retrieved him from Lemnos, tending the festering wound from Heracles's arrow that had kept Philoctetes exiled for ten years.