Apollo fathered Aesculapius with the mortal Coronis. When Coronis was unfaithful, Apollo had her slain but rescued the unborn child from her funeral pyre.
Jupiter struck Aesculapius with a thunderbolt for raising the dead, violating the boundary between life and death. Pluto had complained that the healer was depopulating his realm, and Jupiter agreed the cosmic order must be preserved.
The Roman Aesculapius was imported directly from the Greek Asclepius's sanctuary at Epidaurus in 293 BCE during a plague. His cult retained Greek practices including incubation healing and sacred serpents.
Diana persuaded Aesculapius to resurrect the dead Hippolytus using his healing arts. Jupiter struck down Aesculapius for this transgression, but Diana hid the revived youth at Nemi under the name Virbius.
Minerva gave Aesculapius two vials of Medusa's blood — one from the left side that brought death, one from the right that could restore life. This gift from the wisdom goddess enhanced his already supreme healing powers.
Pluto complained to Jupiter that Aesculapius was depopulating the underworld by raising the dead. The lord of the dead demanded that the cosmic boundary between life and death be enforced, leading to Aesculapius's destruction by thunderbolt.
The Sibylline Books prescribed the importation of Aesculapius's cult from Epidaurus to Rome during the devastating plague of 293 BCE. This consultation of the prophetic books brought the healing god to his temple on Tiber Island.
The sacred serpent of Aesculapius swam from the ship to Tiber Island after entering the Tiber River, choosing the island as the god's Roman home. The temple built there became Rome's principal healing sanctuary.
Aesculapius raised Virbius (the resurrected Hippolytus) from the dead using his supreme healing arts. This act of restoring life to the dead directly provoked Jupiter's thunderbolt that destroyed the divine physician.
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