Читать книгу The Zombie Book - Nick Redfern - Страница 21

Within ancient Greek teachings and lore, Asclepius was the Olympian god of medicine and the offspring of the mighty Apollo and his lover, Coronis. But Asclepius was far more than that: he possessed the supernatural ability to raise the dead from the grave. Perhaps somewhat appropriately, his birth was itself dominated by death. When an enraged Apollo learned that Coronis had committed adultery, he had her killed—immediately after which she was sliced open. At the very last moment, however, Asclepius was rescued from the clutches of the Grim Reaper. The tiny, premature baby was duly raised by Chiron, a legendary centaur and the son of Cronus, one of the mighty Titans that dominate ancient Greek mythology.

Skilled in the mysteries of medicine—to the extent that he learned the ancient secrets of literal reanimation—Asclepius soon became adept at ensuring the dead didn’t always remain where they should. That, as we all know, is in the ground. There was, however, a steep price to be paid for guaranteeing reanimation and a second chance to live. In return for breathing new life into the dead, a significant amount of gold had to be handed over by the loved ones of those destined to be brought back. Asclepius’ biggest, and ultimately fatal, mistake was in resurrecting Hippolytus, the stepson of one Phaedra, who was the wife of Theseus, the king of Athens.

A circa 1860 drawing based on a statue of Asclepius at the Louvre museum in Paris, France.

When Hippolytus declined Phaedra’s offer to take their relationship in a direction that no stepson and stepmother should ever contemplate taking it, Phaedra—angered at being coldly spurned—told Theseus that Hippolytus had raped her, which was nothing but a rage-induced lie. Theseus, unfortunately, fell for the ruse and placed a curse on his son that resulted in a terrible end for Hippolytus: he was dragged to a horrible, bloody death by his very own horses.

When Asclepius elected to return Hippolytus to the world of the living, his actions did not sit well with Zeus, the all-powerful leader of the Olympians, who viewed the idea of resurrecting the dead abhorrent and against the natural order of life and death. As the god of thunder, Zeus unleashed a powerful thunderbolt that took the life of Asclepius in just seconds. There was, however, another reason for Zeus’ actions. Such was the sheer extent of Asclepius’ dead-raising activities, none other than Hades himself—the Greek god of the dreaded Underworld—became furious that, thanks to Asclepius’ life-returning powers, Hades’ dark domain would soon become bereft of the souls of the dead. And, as Zeus and Hades were brothers—and brothers with a mutual interest in seeing Asclepius dead and gone—the outcome was pretty much inevitable. As the old legend demonstrates, there are very good reasons for letting the dead stay dead, lest you soon become one of them yourself, which is exactly what happened to Asclepius.