What is "asclepiad"

Asclepiad \As*cle"pi*ad\, n. (Gr. & L. Pros.) A choriambic verse, first used by the Greek poet Asclepias, consisting of four feet, viz., a spondee, two choriambi, and an iambus.

n. 1 (context poetry English) A choriambic verse consisting of four metrical foot: a spondee, two choriambus, and an iambus. 2 (context Ancient Greece English) A member of one of the families that claimed descent from Asclepias, known as physicians or healers.

n. any plant of the family Asclepiadaceae

An Asclepiad ( Latin: Asclepiadeus) is a line of poetry following a particular metrical pattern. The form is attributed to Asclepiades of Samos and is one of the Aeolic metres.

As with other Aeolic metrical lines, the asclepiad is built around a choriamb. The Asclepiad may be described as a glyconic that has been expanded with one (Lesser Asclepiad) or two (Greater Asclepiad) further choriambs. The pattern (using "-" for a long syllable, "u" for a short and "x" for an " anceps" or free syllable, which can be either - or u) is:

x x - u u - - u u - u - (Lesser Asclepiad / Asclepiadeus minor)
x x - u u - - u u - - u u - u - (Greater Asclepiad / Asclepiadeus maior)

West (1982) designates the Asclepiad as a "choriambically expanded glyconic" with the notation gl (lesser) or gl (greater).

Asclepiads were used in Latin by Horace in thirty-four of his odes, as well as by Catullus in Poem 30, and Seneca. Examples in English verse include parts of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia ("Here wrong's name is unheard, slander a monster is; / Keep thy sprite from abuse, here no abuse doth haunt. / What man grafts in a tree dissimulation?") and W. H. Auden's "In Due Season" ("Springtime, Summer and Fall: days to behold a world").

Asclepiad may refer to:

• A plant of the former family Asclepiadaceae
• An Asclepiad (poetry), a type of metrical line used in lyric poetry
• An Asclepiad (title), an ancient Greek title of uncertain profession, most likely a physician or healing priest
• The Asclepiad, a periodical published by Benjamin Ward Richardson, 1861, 1884–1895

Asclepiad ( Greek: Ἀσκληπιάδης, pl.: Ἀσκληπιάδαι) was a title borne by many Ancient Greek medical doctors, notably Hippocrates of Cos. It is not clear whether the Asclepiads were originally a biological family, or simply a member of an order or guild of doctors.

The Asclepiads may have originally been members of a family claiming descent from the god of healing Asclepius, with the name only later being adopted by all doctors; or they may always have been an association of medical men venerating the god as their founder.

Some hold that the Asclepiads were priests of Asclepion. The Asclepiadae could also have been a guild in honour of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, separate from the healing temples and closely related to Hippocratic tradition. Plato gives Hippocrates this title in his Protagoras, referring to him as “Hippocrates of Cos, the Asclepiad”. It may also have been used to refer to a group of people who claimed to be descended from Asclepius.

Asclepiades was the name of several Hellenistic physicians, some of whom probably assumed this appellation either as a sort of honorary title in allusion to the ancient family of the Asclepiadae, or in order to signify that they themselves belonged to it, or even just to indicate that they were proficient healers.