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A marble bust of bearded Asclepius with a band around his hair.
Bust of Asclepius. Unknown Roman sculptor, First half of the 2nd century CE, after an early 4th-century BCE Greek original.Bust of Asclepius, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Venice, inv. 60. Photograph by Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0. Detail shown.

Homeric Hymns · Hymn 16

Asklepios, Healer of Diseases

Ἀσκληπιός

Homeric tradition · 5 lines · Asklepios

Healing

Prayer and ritual

These hymns may be spoken as complete prayers to the Gods. Within the Temple’s practice, a ritual is a direct theurgical act; hymnody gathers the mind and turns it toward the Divine, helping the initiate enter reverent communion with the Gods.

Use a hymn on its own in place of another prayer, or add it to the prayer portion of a suitable ritual. Choose according to the deity addressed and the petition expressed in the hymn. When combining them, preserve the ritual’s prescribed sequence and let the hymn give voice to its purpose.

The petition of this hymn

Invoke Asklepios as healer of illness and soother of grievous pain.

Recite this hymn as a personal prayer for relief or as praise offered on behalf of someone who suffers. It may supplement a healing rite, keeping the petition focused on the joy and easing of pain explicitly associated with Asklepios.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 16 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. I begin to sing Asklepios, healer of diseases,
  2. son of Apollon, whom divine Koronis bore
  3. in the Dotian plain, the daughter of King Phlegyas,
  4. a great joy to humankind, soother of grievous pains.
  5. And so hail, sovereign Lord; I beseech you in song.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

5 Greek lines
  1. ἰητῆρα νόσων Ἀσκληπιὸν ἄρχομʼ ἀείδειν,ee-ee-TEE-rah NOH-sohn ah-sklee-pee-OHN AHR-khohm’ ah-EE-dheen,
  2. υἱὸν Ἀπόλλωνος, τὸν ἐγείνατο δῖα Κορωνὶςee-OHN ah-POH-loh-nohs, TOHN eh-YEE-nah-toh DHEE-ah koh-roh-NEES
  3. Δωτίῳ ἐν πεδίῳ, κούρη Φλεγύου βασιλῆος,dhoh-TEE-oh ehn peh-DHEE-oh, KOO-ree fleh-YEE-oo vah-see-LEE-ohs,
  4. χάρμα μέγʼ ἀνθρώποισι, κακῶν θελκτῆρʼ ὀδυνάων.KHAHR-mah MEHGH’ ahn-THROH-pee-see, kah-KOHN thehlk-TEER’ oh-dhee-NAH-ohn.
  5. καὶ σὺ μὲν οὕτω χαῖρε, ἄναξ· λίτομαι δέ σʼ ἀοιδῇ.KEH SEE MEHN OO-toh HYEH-reh, AH-nahks· LEE-toh-meh DHEH s’ ah-ee-DHEE.
Short sound guide for English speakers

Every line beneath the Greek uses English pronunciation spellings. Say each hyphenated syllable in sequence and emphasize the syllable in CAPITALS. For example, οὐρανόθεν is oo-rah-NOH-thehn. Read adjacent vowels separately: theh-AH has two syllables; oo-rah-NEE-een has four. Hyphens guide the voice; they do not mark pauses.

SpellingSound to make
ah · eh · ee · oh · oofather · met · see · go without its final glide · moon. Keep these vowels clear in unstressed syllables too.
th · dhThe unvoiced th in thin · the voiced th in this. Thus DHEE begins with the sound in “thee.”
khThe ch in Scottish loch or German Bach: let air pass at the back of the mouth, without closing it into a k.
hyThe breathy beginning of a carefully spoken Hugh. Raise the middle of the tongue toward the roof of the mouth and let air pass without voice. In shy, sound s followed by hy; do not use the English sh sound or the English word “shy.”
ghMake the kh sound above, then add voice. Keep the passage open; this is a flowing sound, not a hard g.
y · gy as in yes, with gentle friction · always a hard g as in get.
rTap the tongue lightly behind the upper teeth, or use a light roll.
ks · psSound both consonants, even at the beginning of a word: ks as in backs, ps as in lips.
n-g · m-b · n-dSound the nasal and the following consonant. In AHN-geh-leh, the n-g group is like finger, with the g audible.

Always sound s as in hiss, even at the end of DHEE-kees; z is voiced, as in zero. All other consonants have their usual English sounds. Initial consonant groups may be unfamiliar: sound every written consonant, without inserting an extra vowel. A word without capitals carries no written stress in the Greek. Where two syllables have capitals, both written accents are retained. An apostrophe marks a vowel already elided in the Greek; do not add it back. A hyphen at the end of a Greek verse joins the unfinished word to the next verse.

These spellings follow the Modern Greek liturgical reading used throughout this library. Breathings and iota subscripts are silent; separately pronounced vowels remain separate. The few Greek consonants without an exact English equivalent use the sound cues above. Ancient vowel length, pitch accent and metre are not reconstructed.

Hymn notes

Sacred meaning

The hymn names Asklepios through his birth from Apollon and Koronis and anchors that birth in the Dotian plain. His divine significance is expressed directly as great joy for humans and the soothing of pain. The final line makes the song itself an act of supplication.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hymn 16 To Asclepius (1914), Perseus Digital Library. Greek source. The English hieratic rendering and suggested devotional use are new editorial work. The applications are guidance for this library, not additional lines of the ancient poem.