1890 'Goddess' Statue In Manitou Springs Actually Someone Else
Historian Determines It's Hebe, Not Hygeia
POSTED: 11:17 am MST February 9, 2009
UPDATED: 11:29 am MST February 9, 2009
MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. -- Oops.That's not the Greek goddess Hygeia on the town clock in Manitou Springs, it's the Greek goddess Hebe.“It’s a step up,” Manitou Springs historian Deborah Harrison told the Colorado Springs Gazette. “Hebe is the goddess of eternal youth, the daughter of Zeus.”
Hygeia, goddess of health and daughter of healing god Asclepius, was appropriate when mineral water bottling magnate Jerome Wheeler gave the statue to the town in 1890. Wheeler said the she was Hygeia and nobody questioned it.Harrison told the Gazette she figured out the snafu when she visited a museum in Copenhagen museum and saw a similar statue with a different name.After extensive research, Harrison determined that the Manitou Springs goddess is indeed Hebe, cupbearer to the gods of Mt. Olympus.
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