Hygeia, (origin of the word “hygiene”), became a popular deity in 4th century, b.c. Greece as Western Civilization became more knowledgeable and interested in health and medicine. Hygeia’s father, Asclepius, was the god of medicine, and they were often worshipped together at temples throughout Greece, and later Rome. Both Asclepius and Hygeia were probably at one time real people who tended the inform, and the fact that they were worshipped together shows that the ancient Greeks eventually realized that medicine and medical practice (represented by Asclepius), was responsible for good health (Hygeia), and not spirits or magic, quacks or sorcery. Ancient Greeks prayed to gods whose specific job was to help them with their health, but they went to “craftsmen protected under the guild of Asclepius”, in other words, doctors, for physical help and treatment.

The 4th century was also the time of Hippocrates and his Hippocratic Corpus, a body of medical treatises on most aspects of anatomy, surgery and other areas of medicine. The Greeks found a way to reconcile the scientific side of health care (Hippocrates), with an ancient belief system in the higher powers of Hygeia and Asclepius.

Skopas, one of the top three sculptors of classical Greece, created the original of this Hygeia bust to adorn his architectural masterpiece, the Temple of Athena Alea in Greece in 360 b.c. This miniature replica is a precise copy of the original, down to each fold of her hair. It is hand made of composite stone and sits on a marble base.

Health be with you!