Asklepios and Hygieia

In Greek antiquity a heros was a hero venerated as a god. One of the most important heroes was Asklepios, who was revered for his powers of healing. His emblem, the staff with a serpent coiling around it, has remained the symbol of medicine to this very day. His sanctuaries were the medical centres of antiquity. Patients were treated with the aid of a regime of fasting and ritual baths. Treatment was prescribed on the basis of the interpretation of dreams.
This marble relief shows Asklepios accompanied by his daughter Hygieia, the Greek word for health. Underneath his chair, which sits on two blocks, we see the serpent, coiled in a knot. It raises its head in order to be petted by its master, who is represented as an elderly god. Hygieia is offering a libation by pouring wine from a jug into a dish. It is a quiet, serene scene, which is unique in its expression. Usually, reliefs like these also feature the persons who are honouring the god, thanking him for their recovery, the so-called worshippers.
The relief was in the possession of Frederik count De Thoms, who in 1741 married the daughter of the famous Leiden physician and professor of medicine Boerhaave. De Thoms had a copper engraving made after the relief, in which he had the heads replaced by portraits of his father-in-law and his wife.