Alexicacus (
Ancient Greek: Ἀλεξίκακος), the "averter of evil", was an
epithet given by the
Ancient Greeks to several deities, such as
Zeus, and
Apollo, who was worshiped under this name by the
Athenians, because he was believed to have stopped the
plague which raged at Athens in the time of the
Peloponnesian War.. It was also applied to
Heracles.
There is a statue of Apollo in the Museo delle Terme in Rome, a Roman copy of a Greek original, that is thought to be a copy of the statue of Apollo Alexicacus by Calamis that stood in the Ceramicus of Athens.
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