Greek Pantheon
Asclepius
The healer god, son of Apollo and the mortal Coronis, trained in medicine by the centaur Chiron. His skill grew so great that he raised the dead, and Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt; he was nonetheless worshipped across the Greek and Roman world at sanctuaries where the sick slept in hope of a cure.
Asclepius was the son of Apollo and Coronis. When Coronis was killed for her infidelity, Apollo rescued the unborn child from her pyre and entrusted him to the centaur Chiron, who taught him the healing arts.
The *Homeric Hymn to Asclepius* names him son of Apollo and of Coronis, daughter of King Phlegyas, born in the Dotian plain of Thessaly. Pindar's third *Pythian Ode* tells the darker version: Coronis was unfaithful to Apollo while carrying his child, Artemis killed her, and Apollo snatched the infant from her funeral pyre and gave him to the centaur Chiron to raise and teach.