Medicine box with Asklepios and Hygeia
Type:
Reliquaries,
Boxes
Date:
Late fifth century
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Italy
Medium:
Ivory
Dimensions:
11 × 7.5 × 3 cm
Description:
This ivory medicine box is decorated with the image of Asklepios, the Greco-Roman healing god, and his daughter Hygeia, the goddess of health, cleanliness, and hygiene. Asklepios appears with a snake wrapped around a walking staff, a symbol that still represents medicine and medical associations today, while Hygeia holds a jar from which to feed another large snake. This box was later transformed into a Christian reliquary, at which point a cross was added between the heads of these antique figures.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
1,
2
Repository and Online Resources:
• The medicine box/reliquary is now in the Musée d'histoire du Valais, in Sion, Switzerland.
• For more views, visit the page for this object on the Kornbluth Photography website.
Image Credits:
Genevra Kornbluth
