In Greek mythology, Panacea (Greek Πανάκεια, Panakeia) was a goddess of Universal remedy. She was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Panacea and her four sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: Panacea (the goddess of Universal remedy), Hygieia ("Hygiene" the goddess/personification of health, cleanliness, and sanitation ), Iaso (the goddess of recuperation from illness), Aceso (the goddess of the healing process), and Aglæa/Ægle (the goddess of beauty, splendor, glory, magnificence, and adornment).
Panacea also had four brothers – Podaleirus, one of the two kings of Tricca, who had a flair for diagnostics, and Machaon, the other king of Tricca, who was a master surgeon (these two took part in the Trojan War until Machaon was killed by Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons); Telesphoros, who devoted his life to serving Asclepius; and Aratus, her stepbrother, who was a Greek hero and the patron/liberator of Sicyon.
Panacea was said to have a poultice or potion with which she healed the sick. This brought about the concept of the panacea in medicine, a substance meant to cure all diseases. The term is also used figuratively as something intended to completely solve a large, multi-faceted problem.
A river in Thrace/Moesia was named after the goddess, and is still known as the river Panega (from Greek panakeia).
Famous quotes containing the word panacea:
“My great panacea for making society at once better and more enjoyable would be to cultivate greater sincerity.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)
“Just a little sheep dip. Panacea for all stomach ailments.”
—Mae West, U.S. screenwriter, W.C. Fields, and Edward Cline. Cuthbert Twillie (W.C. Fields)
“Here in the U.S., culture is not that delicious panacea which we Europeans consume in a sacramental mental space and which has its own special columns in the newspapers—and in people’s minds. Culture is space, speed, cinema, technology. This culture is authentic, if anything can be said to be authentic.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)