Hygieia was a goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation, and a daughter of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. The Romans knew her as the goddess Valetudo, the goddess of personal health, and she later became identified with Salus, the goddess of wellbeing.
This plaster copy is cast from a marble head of the goddess, probably part of a full-length statue, from the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea in the Greek Peloponnese. Two springs near the temple were known as an asylum where the sick sought temporary refuge.
Hygieia’s head is slightly tilted as if looking down towards the viewer and, as expected of a healing deity, she wears an expression of kindness.
