Asclepiada

Asclepiada are disciples of Asclepios, the god of healing.

Ascelpios was the son of Apollo and Coronis who was instructed in the healing arts by Chiron. He eventually learned the secret of resurrecting the dead from a serpent, but that knowledge would ultimately prove to be Asclepios’ downfall. When Zeus discovered that Asclepios had upset the natural order, he struck him dead with a thunderbolt.

His death caused Ascelpios to ascend as a deity of health and healing.

There are a variety of Asclepian sanctuaries in Greece, including Epidauros on the Greek mainland, Cos (an island off Asia Minor) and Pergamum in Asia Minor. Asclepian sanctuaries contain baths, inns, theaters, temples, and gymnasiums.

The standard procedure for healing is for the patient to bathe in the sea, purifying them. He is then offered honey cakes on an altar and ritually bathes in a blessed water basin. The patient then enters the abaton, a sacred dormitory where the patient enters incubation—falling asleep into a dream-like state. During the sleep, Asclepios appears to the patient, usually carrying a mortar, pestle, and medicine chest. He will sometimes heal the patient through the dream or via an animal intermediary, the most sacred being serpents and dogs. If the patient cannot comprehend Asclepios’ healing omen, it is the Asclepiada’s responsibility to interpret and administer the appropriate form of healing.

The asclepiada domain is identical to the Life domain, with one exception.

The Hippocratic Oath

An Asclepiada must be of neutral alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits an evil act. Additionally, an Asclepiada’s code requires that he follow the Hippocratic Oath: I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant: To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art – if they desire to learn it – without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.

• I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
• I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness, I will guard my life and my art.
• I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.
• Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
• What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
• If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.