0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

THE GREEKS BEFORE HIPPOKRATES. 35
from afar and those again whose bodies were enfeebled by
excessive heat and cold; all these he delivered from their
multifarious ills : on some using gentle incantations, giving
others refreshing drink or applying soft healing salves to
:heir wounds : some also he cured by operation."*
By ASKLEPIOS stood his wife EPIONE the "Pain-Soother"
ind his daughters HYGIEIA, JASO and PANAKEIA whose
illegorical significance is seen in their names. These all
issisted him. Doubtless, there is more historical truth
:ontained in the statement that he had two sons, MACHAON'
ind PODALIRIOS, to whom he transmitted his acquirements
n the healing art. They were numbered among the suitors
)f HELEN and proceeded to Troy with the Grecian armies
is commanders of the Thessalian warriors from Trikka,
thome, and Oichalia. They were considered as dexterous
n the art of war as in that of medicine, and were on
everal occasions called upon by their comrades in arms to
dve professional counsel and help.f MACHAON made
limself chiefly prominent as a surgeon, while PODALIRIOS
listinguished himself in the treatment of internal diseases.
^.s in the Iliad, so too in the vEthiopis of the poet
^RKTINOS which was composed soon after the former poem
>ut is now only extant as a fragment, allusion is made to
his separation of the two chief branches of medical
cience, in the words : " then ASKLEPIOS bestowed the
ower of healing upon his two sons, nevertheless he
:iade one of the two more celebrated than the
ther : on one did he bestow the lighter hand, that he
light draw missiles from the flesh and sew up and heal
11 wounds ; but the other he endowed with great precision
f mind so as to understand what cannot be seen, and to
eal seemingly incurable diseases.":];
It is noteworthy that here internal medicine was given
le preference. This opinion remains to the present day,
* PINDAR Pyth. Od. 3, 80-95.
t Dionoit. iv, c. 7 1.
1 F. G. WELCKKR : Kleine Schriften, Bonn 1850, Bd. iii, S. 47.