He is the son of Apollo and Coronis , or Arsinoe , or of Apollo alone. He has several sons as well. Those physicians and attendants who served this god were known as the Therapeutae of Asclepius. The etymology of the name is unknown. Beekes gives this summary of the different attempts:. His name may mean "to cut open" from a story about his birth. He shared with Apollo the epithet Paean "the Healer".
Asclepius was the son of Apollo and, according to the earliest accounts, a mortal woman named Koronis Coronis , who was a princess of Tricca in Thessaly. Coronis was killed by Artemis for being unfaithful to Apollo and was laid out on a funeral pyre to be consumed, but Apollo rescued the child by cutting him from Coronis' womb. According to Delphian tradition, Asclepius was born in the temple of Apollo, with Lachesis acting as a midwife and Apollo relieving the pains of Coronis.
Apollo named the child after Coronis' nickname, Aegle. Phoenician tradition maintains that Asclepius was born of Apollo without any woman involved. According to the Roman version, Apollo, having learned about Coronis' betrayal with the mortal Ischys through his raven Lycius , killed her with his arrows. Before breathing her last, she revealed to Apollo that she was pregnant with his child.
He repented his actions and unsuccessfully tried to save her. At last, he removed their son safely from her belly before she was consumed by the fire. In yet another version, Coronis who was already pregnant with Apollo's child, had to accompany her father to Peloponnesos. She had kept her pregnancy hidden from her father. The child was given milk by one of the goats that pastured about the mountain, and was guarded by the watch-dog of the herd.
Aresthanas, the owner of goats and the guard dogs found the child. As he came near, he saw lightning that flashed from the child, and thinking of it to be a sign of the divine, he left the child alone. Asclepius was later taken by Apollo. According to Strabo and other traditions, the birthplace of Asclepius is considered to be Tricca modern Trikala city in Thessaly.
