< Machaon, son of Asclepius >
1 Origin
In 1235 BC, Machaon was born in Tricca of Thessaly.
Machaon's father was Asclepius (or Aesculapius).
Machaon's mother was Coronis.
2 Family
Machaon's wife was Anticleia.
Anticleia's father was Diocles, who lived in Pharae of Messenia.
Machaon and Anticleia had two sons, Gorgasus and Nicomachus.
Machaon had three sons, Alexandre, Sphyrus, and Polemocrates, from a wife other than Anticleia.
3 Others
3.1 Long-distance marriage between Machaon and Anticleia
The marriage between Machaon, who lived in Thessaly, and Anticleia, who lived in Messenia, is assumed to have taken place as follows:
When Idas, son of Aphareus, who reigned in Messenia, died, he was succeeded by Nestor, son of Neleus.
Most of the Messenians submitted to Nestor's rule, but those who followed the sons of Asclepius, i.e. the Lapiths, did not submit to Nestor.
So Nestor tried to use the influence of the leading Lapiths in Thessaly to subjugate the Lapiths.
At that time, Diocles, the son of Ortilochus, who lived in Pharae, felt threatened by the Lacedaemonians' advance into Messenia.
Nestor tried to gain the support of the Lapiths in his territory by arranging a marriage between Diocles' daughter Anticleia and a leading Lapith in Thessaly.
Shortly before this, the Lapiths of Thessaly had been defeated in a battle with Heracles, and only Asclepius of Tricca retained power.
In 1200 BC, Nestor made a long journey to Tricca and was welcomed by Asclepius.
Asclepius had two sons, Machaon and Podalirus, but Podalirus was not yet of marriageable age, and Machaon, who already had three sons, decided to take Anticleia as his wife.
3.2 Trojan War
Machaon and Podalirus are believed to have participated in the Troy expedition led by Achilles, son of Peleus, for the following reasons:
1) The expedition needed a military surgeon.
2) The circumstances surrounding the return of Machaon's remains and his burial are plausible.
3) The descendants of Podalirus had been living on the island of Cos for generations.