The Aswi, Asvi, or Asvins were two, and were possibly the prototypes of the Dioscuri,[363] Castor and Pollux. They were connected with the sun as horses. Taking them to be forms of the Dioscuri, they might be related to the two sons of Æsculapius, Machaon and Podalirius, for these have been regarded as such,—“nothing more than a specific form of the Dioscuri,” to use the words of De Gubernatis.[364] The conception of Chiron may have been in part derived from the Asvins.
The Asvins were worshipped from an early period by the Hindus, reference to them being made in the oldest hymns. Cox says of them, “As ushering in the healthful light[365] of the sun, they are like Asclepios and his children, healers and physicians; and their power of restoring the aged to youth re-appears in Medeia, the daughter of the sun.”[366] In the “Rig-Veda” they are characterized as “givers of happiness,”[367] and are said “to be most ready to come to the aid of the destitute.”[368] They were believed to be conversant with all medicaments.
Thrita of the Parsis, the Trita of the Hindus, is a remarkable healing, semi-divine personage, of whom a great deal is said in the “Zend Avesta” and other sacred books of Aryan peoples of the east. According to the “Zend Avesta,” which is from a common source with the “Vedas,” he is the curer of the diseases caused by the great evil spirit, Ahriman. In the “Vedas” he is said to extinguish illness in men as the gods extinguished it in him, and he can grant long life. He drinks Sôma, as did Indra, to acquire strength to kill the demon Vritra.
In the Parsi system of religion, Thrita received from the supreme god, Ahura-Mazda,[369] ten thousand healing-plants, which had been growing around the tree of life, the white Hôm,[370] the Sôma of the Hindus.
Thrita appears to have been one of the first priests of the personified source of life and health,—“the enlivening, healing, fair, lordly, golden-eyed Hâoma.”[371] The destruction of a great serpent, Azi Dahâka, the most dreadful Drug,[372] created by Angra-Mainyu, himself a serpent, to which diseases were attributed, was one of his fabled feats.
There is much that is interesting to the physician in the “Zend Avesta,” but I cannot present it here. One interesting passage I may quote. Ahura-Mazda is addressed thus: “O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If a worshipper of Mazda want to practice the art of healing, on whom shall he first prove his skill? On the worshippers of Mazda, or on the worshippers of the Dævas?”[373] The reply is: “On the worshippers of the Dævas he shall first prove himself.” If on these the surgeon use the knife three times with success, “then is he fit to practice the art of healing for ever and ever.”[374]
Fig. 14.—Silik-mulu-khi.[375]
Silik-mulu-khi, the son of Hea, was a remarkable divinity, of whom I feel it desirable to speak. In him we have one kindly disposed toward man, a special friend of humanity, largely medical in character. What he was has been unveiled, mainly of late, through the decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions. The Babylonians prized him highly.[376] He became assimilated with Mardux,[377] or Marodach, of the Babylono-Assyrians, and Bel, of later times.[378] Space forbids me to give a long account of him. Much can be learned about him passim in the admirable works of M. François Lenormant,[379] and in the “Records of the Past.”[380]