We all know the term hygiene, during these times you don’t go a few hours without hearing it but have you ever wondered about where the word came from?
hygiene (n.)
Conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness.
The Greek goddess Hygieia is the personification of health, cleanliness, sanitation, how to live a long life and the prevention of sickness.
Hygieia was imported by the Romans as the goddess Valetudo, the goddess of personal health, but in time she started to be increasingly identified with the ancient Italian goddess of social welfare, Salus.
The oldest traces of her cult are at Titane, west of Corinth, where she was worshipped together with Asclepius, the god of medicine. At first no special relationship existed between her and Asclepius, but gradually she came to be regarded as his daughter; later literature, however, makes her his wife.
Hygieia played an important part in Asclepius's cult. While Asclepius was more directly associated with healing, she was associated with the prevention of sickness and the continuation of good health. Her name is the source of the word "hygiene".
In Greek ‘hygeia’ meant ‘soundness’ or ‘wholeness’. Hygiene in medicine was about maintaining the ‘wholeness’ of the body and keeping it fit. This is called ‘health’. Hippocratic doctors from the 300s CE onwards gradually formulated a philosophy of hygiene that covered every possible aspect of health – mind, body and environment. The influence of this thinking continued to impact on public health reforms during the last two centuries.”
The cult of Hygeia as an independent goddess spread during the 400s BCE after the first appearance of plague in Greece, and was established in Rome in the 100s CE. The Roman traveller Pausanias noted her cult statues all over the empire, adorned with votive offerings.
Hygieia was often depicted as a young woman feeding a large snake that was wrapped around her body or drinking from a jar that she carried. These attributes were later adopted by the Gallo-Roman healing goddess, Sirona.
The Bowl of Hygeia has become the international symbol of pharmacy in the same way the Staff of Asklepios has for medicine.
Hmmm… A snake drinking a cup. What might this be referring to? 😉
Also read:
No comments:
Post a Comment