A pair of Greek-American artists turned snow in Astoria Park into a giant sculpture of ancient Greek physician Hippocrates.
Melissa Vadakara and Marios Tzavellas created the sculpture to serve as a "symbolic protector for the neighburhood from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“He’s overlooking the park, watching out for everyone’s health,” Vadakara told Astoria Post.
The two artists spent five hours creating the sculpture which stood at 2 meters.
Sadly, the statue didn’t last very long.
Hippocrates
Hippocrates was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles (Classical Greece), who is often referred to as the "Father of Medicine".
He is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician and credited with coining the Hippocratic Oath, which is still relevant and in use today.
Plato mentions Hippocrates in his Protagoras, suggesting that he worked for fees and believed the body should be treated as a whole (Phaedrus).
The Roman scholar and medical writer Cornelius Celsus claims that he was the first to separate medicine from philosophy, and other ancient sources also suggest that the ancient Greek physician believed in the importance of diet and exercise for a healthy body.
*More on GCT: Artist reconstructs faces of famous Ancient Greeks
