Iaso (also, Iaso Tholus or Jaso; in Ionian Greek, Ieso) was the Greek goddess of recovery. The daughter of Asclepius, she had three sisters and one step sister: Panacea, Aceso, Aglæa/Ægle, and Hygeia. She helped the sick and diseased along with Panacea, Aglæa, and Hygeia. She is often identified with the Roman goddess Meditrina.

Very little is actually known about Iaso. She was probably considered a demigod, unlike her sister Panacea, who was given full "god" status. She did, however, have followers, the Iasides ("sons of Iaso"). In Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's The Esoteric Character of the Gospels, the author says, "Iaso, the daughter of Asclepios, was the goddess of healing, under whose patronage were all the candidates for initiation in her father's temple, the novices or chrestoi, called 'the sons of Iaso'."

Pausanias (author of Periegesis of Greece) wrote of Amphiaraus in Oropos, Attica, in the 2nd century A.D. this:

"The altar shows parts. One part is to Heracles, Zeus, and Apollo Healer, another is given up to heroes and to wives of heroes, the third is to Hestia and Hermes and Amphiaraus and the children of Amphilochus. But Alcmaeon, because of his treatment of Eriphyle, is honored neither in the temple of Amphiaraus nor yet with Amphilochus. The fourth portion of the altar is to Aphrodite and Panacea, and further to Iaso, Hygeia, and Athena Healer. The fifth is dedicated to the nymphs and to Pan, and to the rivers Achelous and Cephisus."

Aristophanes mentions Iaso humorously in Ploutos, when one of the characters, Cario, reports that Iaso blushed upon his passing gas.

The Name

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Perhaps the best known part about Iaso is simply her name. The reason for this is that her name corresponds with the Iao Theory, which is a Gnostic belief that numerous names of foreign deities are all interconnected, and represent one god. Whether this is true or not is doubtful, but it is certainly worth mentioning. The Ionic spelling of Iaso is Ieso. The genitive form of Ieso is Iesous, which is quite similar to Iésous, the Greek spelling of Jesus. That Jesus (as a name) really comes from Ieso is highly unlikely, but the Greek spelling may have been influenced by the goddess' name.

Although Iaso is from Greek iasthai, "to heal", it is likely that her name is related or was influenced by Isis, the Hellenized form of the Egyptian goddess Aset, who was, among other attributes, a goddess of healing. Obvious similarities can also be drawn from a comparison with the Hindu god Issa (who, incidentally, has been claimed to be Jesus. See The Unknown Life of Jesus by Nicholas Notovich, 1894), as well as with several of the names of Bacchus and Zeus.

For more information on the genealogy of Iaso, see Panacea.

References

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• "The Esoteric Character of the Gospels: A study in occultism", by H. P Blavatsky; Kessinger Publishing Company (December 2005). ISBN 1425466885

• "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ", by Nicolas Notovitch; Leaves of Healing Publications (April 1990) ISBN 0960285016

Greek goddesses

Ιασώ | Yaso | Iaso