Capricorn I is associated with Akephalos, but also with Asclepius (sometimes called Paion, after the skilled healer attached to the Achaean army in the Iliad.
To Asclepius
Hail, Asclepius, physician divine —
balanced in temperament, the curer of ills!
Wisest of healers, to my prayers incline:
break the fever, ward off the killing chills —
and, underlying causes discerning
in the adyton’s perfume-scented air
from the sibilant opinions of snakes…
find what fuels the shivers or the burning,
and help us find health — for flesh, by your care,
like a troubled mind from nightmare, awakes.
Pestilence and Illness, thy constant foes,
spread their contagious chaos where they walk.
By dirt and grime, their influence grows;
Misery rises whenever they talk,
and Poverty and Malice serve their ends.
Yet by your science you mitigate pain,
and pull disease out, like winding up thread,
aiding all in turning to healthy trends.
Hissing serpents that dwell within your fane:
sing secrets that give new life to the dead.
Come, Asclepius, and my health restore:
let my humors be tempered by your arts.
Draw me back quickly from Pluto’s far shore,
nor set me in range of his fatal darts.
Let me know Hygeia like a good friend,
eager to help me and rarely delayed,
and swift to soothe with calm and knowing hand.
May I come to a benevolent end —
of sound mind and flesh with all my debts paid,
and long years that served both people and land.
It may be worth mentioning that Rasalhague is the star in the constellation Ophiuchus (it’s α Ophiuchi) that’s associated with physicians, the practice of medicine, pharmaka, and iatromathematika (or astrology-based medical diagnosis, a la Nicholas Culpeper). Tropically placed at 22° Sagittarius, Rasalhague is now just visible above the horizon at dawn (depending on latitude and surrounding horizon), and it may be for this reason that festivals honoring Asclepius (and his sister or spouse Hygeia, or “Health”) occurred around this time of year.
