ABSTRACT
The myths of Hygeia and Asclepius symbolize the never-ending oscillation between two different points of view in medicine. For the worshippers of Hygeia, health is a natural order of things, a positive attribute to which men are entitled if they govern their lives wisefy. According to them, the most important function of medicine is to discover and teach the natural laws which will ensure to man a healthy mind in a healthy body. More skeptical or wiser in the ways of the world, the followers of Asclepius believe that the chief role of the physician is to treat disease, to restore
health by correcting any imperfection caused by the accidents of birth or of life.27
