HYGEIA, THE GODDESS OF HEALTH.
The need of a special divinity to preserve people in a state of health
was widely felt, even in very early times. In Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and
elsewhere, this need found pronounced expression. Isis and Istar[433] and
Athene were each, in one way or another, accorded great power over bodily
or mental health. But the Greeks, in their Hygeia, markedly emphasized
and entirely specialized the conception. Here we have an exclusively
health divinity, who had more or less of a counterpart in the SALUS of
the Romans,—a goddess highly esteemed, worshipped on set days, and to
whom a fine temple was devoted at the Eternal City, situated near the
gate called from it Porta Salutaris.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.—SERPENT AND BOWL OF HYGEIA.[434]]
From the preceding statements, the reader will observe that the
divinities who were specially interested in the preservation of health
were all females. This is an exceedingly interesting fact. It is not an
incongruous one, either. The ancients were keenly alive to the sense of
fitness in things; and hence it is hardly likely that they made a mistake
in Hygeia, the health goddess. From the exercise of the great function of
nurturing and caring for the young of the species, woman has sufficient
claim to the distinction of being, _par excellence_, the guardian of
health. Why the goddess should be a maid rather than a matron is not
extremely clear. Likely the idea was to present in her a woman just
mature and free from blemish, in a typically perfect state.
However, we have in Hygeia, “daughter of Pæon, queen of every joy,”
to use the appropriate words with which Armstrong starts off in the
invocation to her, at the beginning of his fine poem,[435] a very
interesting and beautiful conception. It is easy to understand why this
divinity became very popular. O Goddess! if—
“But for thee,
Nature would sicken, nature soon would die,”
as the author just quoted declares, thy worship might well have become
universal, for without health life is burdensome, a gift of doubtful
value! Health and long life are things mortals have always craved and
always prized. In that interesting Hebræo-Chaldean history, “Tobias,”
Sara, with her husband, gives utterance to a truly human prayer: “Have
mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, and let us grow old both together
in health.”[436] “At heart,” says Dr. Brinton, “all prayers are for
preservation; the burden of all litanies is a begging for life.”[437]
The symbolic representation of the myth of Hygeia afforded a fine subject
for the sculptors and other artists. Extremely attractive figures of
her were produced. One of them, at least, is doubtless familiar to the
reader. I have reference to the one in which she is represented as a
blooming girl with a serpent twined around her left arm[438] and feeding
out of a _patera_ or chalice held in her right hand. With this ideal
in his mind, the late Dr. Aitken Meigs, in a remarkable address[439]
delivered in 1879, pronounces “the high-born maid” to be “of beauty’s
types, the highest, best idea,” and continues:—
“Nor fragile she, nor pale, but ruddy, strong,
And gladsome as a tuneful, joyous song;
Her comely form, in swelling curves designed,
Is perfect grace, with glowing strength combined;
Crimson and white in her fair face contend,
Upon her cheeks in sweet confusion blend;
Her rosy lips excel the coral’s brightness,
Brow, nose, and chin are fleecy ways of whiteness;
Loose, flowing, falls her hair, a golden spray;
Forth from her lustrous eyes she scatters day.
...
In one small hand a cup she deftly holds,
Whilst round her soft, white arm, in many folds
A serpent twines and from the chalice drinks.
Low crouches sometimes, at her feet, a sphinx.
From these strange emblems learn her character:
How very cunning she, and how exact her
Knowledge and profound; how with wondrous skill
Her youth renews, and is discreet and still.”
As will be observed, Dr. Meigs gives an explanation of the symbols
usually connected with figures of Hygeia, whom he regarded as to the
physician what the chosen maid was to the knight of old,—the patron
saint. The view taken of the serpent is not satisfactory, although better
than that held by Cuvier, namely, that it is “to show that temperance
is the source of lengthened life.”[440] And if one take the reptile to
be symbolic of the art of healing, why it should be connected with the
goddess of health is not clear. In this connection its presence might
imply that it is only through medicine that health can be preserved.
Taking it as symbolic of life, one has little difficulty in understanding
its appropriateness. Closely attached to her, and drawing nourishment
from a chalice held in her hand, the meaning might be, that health and
life are intimately related to each other, the former sustaining the
latter. Regarding it, however, as simply a _bonus genius_ is not out
of the way. The mode of representing it at Rome and elsewhere strongly
supports this view, namely, encircling the altar of the goddess, with the
head extending over it.[441] In Teutonic mythology, “the white lady with
the snake” was associated with medicinal springs.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.—HYGEIA. (As given in Murray’s Mythology.)]
According to the mythological record, Hygeia[442] was the daughter of the
god of medicine, Æsculapius. Of her personal history one might almost
say that it is a blank.
Numerous representations of Hygeia were to be found in Greece, and later
in Rome. One was usually placed by the side of each of Æsculapius.
The worship of Hygeia began soon after that of Æsculapius and became
wide-spread and popular. The Romans were quite as devoted in their
attentions to her as the Greeks.
I have said sufficient already to indicate that there was no divinity
precisely similar to Hygeia in Egypt, or any eastern country. Some of the
great goddesses were believed to exercise functions akin to hers.[443]
Indeed, many of the prominent divinities, from the spouse of Hea down,
had accorded to them more or less control over affairs of health and
life. Dr. Meigs conveys a wrong impression when he says:—
“Hygeia, daughter of Asclepios,
Descended from Apollo Delios,
Adored as Maut[444] beside the mystic Nile,
With Amen-Ra in Theban peristyle.”[445]
There is about as much reason to say that Athene was Hygeia, as that Maut
was, or Isis, although, as Ebers says, she was the divinity “to be called
on to destroy the germs of disease.”[446] Arguments could be advanced in
favor of the idea that Hygeia sprang into existence as a personification
of the great serpent-accompanied virgin, river-mist, or cloud-goddess,
Pallas Athene, in her capacity of health-preserver. The claim in regard
to Isis is little or no better; and, in fact, one form of Isis, called
Neith, or Neit, the great mother of the sun-god, Ra, and the titular
goddess of Sais, has always[447] been believed to correspond closely with
Athene. The former was not only usually accompanied by a serpent, like
the latter, but was often represented by one; still, the same might be
said of, perhaps, all the Egyptian goddesses.