we visited Tiber Island which is on the Tiber river that runs through Rome. Tiber Island itself is boat shaped as well as remnants of the temple. The Asclepius temple came to Rome for the need to heal the city of a bad plague, so Rome sent a group to Epidauros in Greece, where an Asklepius shrine already existed, and bring back what they needed to erect a temple of their own in Rome. As the story goes, on the ship that was returning from Epidauros there was a stowaway… a snake. This snake is believed to represent Asclepius, so when that snake came off the boat and slithered onto Tiber Island, the Romans took it as an omen to build the temple there. Asklepios is the god of healing who is believed to once been a man that then transformed into a god. After the temple was placed there in Rome, the plague quickly dissapeared. It is interesting that the healing temple is in isolation on the Island rather than in the middle of the city, and even today, there is a hospital located on Tiber Island. One of the last remaining remnants on the site is part of Asklepius wielding his staff which can be recognized by the snake wrapping around the staff. It can commonly be mistaken for Hermes’s staff but that staff has a set of wing on it. Tiber Island is a very cool place and I enjoyed learning more about this temple.
umissinrome 