Amphiaraos was an important and popular healing hero/god in Athens from the end of the fifth century BC, however, not much has been studied. This paper investigates the figure in various ways by examining different sources. In the sixth century BC and in to the fifth, Amphiaraos was an Argive warrior hero that came into war against Thebes. He then seems to have acquired a sanctuary in the Theban territory being a mantic hero. In the end of the fifth century BC, however, he is said to have swallowed up by the earth and sprang up again in a spring at Oropos. Between 420-414 BC, his sanctuary was set up by the Athenians at Oropos. But this time, he was venerated as a healing hero. In 420 BC, Asklepios was introduced to Athens in order to cure plague that went around from 430s BC. It seems that the Athenians benchmarked Asklepios to promote one more healing hero/god at their north eastern border. When Oropos was taken by their enemies, a substitute Amphiareion was established in Rhamnous, a deme close to Oropos. The Athenians also promoted a patriotic hero through the words of Euripides. Illustrated as having gone through the same process of sacrifice – death – commemoration, Amphiaraos was put in parallel with the Athenian mythical king Erechtheus. Through this parallel, Amphiaraos became a political figure that protected Athens from outside threats. Healing was, by the ancient Athenians, understood in a wide spectrum and was considered as a way to protect the polis.

The humanitarian motivation of medical support from the three Scandinavian countries during the Korean War cannot be doubted, but the countries also had to be politically sensitive during this period. The fact that these countries only dispatched medical support, and that the team was not only for military purpose but also intended to help the civilians is a different point from the U.S. military medical support, which distinguished military medical support that is the U.S. Eighth Army, from the civilian treatment and relief, which is the UNCACK. In addition, medical support activities from the Scandinavian countries were bound to be flexible depending on the rapidly changing trend of war, active regions, and their support methods. At a time when the battle was fierce and the number of wounded soldiers increased, they had no choice but to concentrate on treating wounded soldiers, whether in Busan or Incheon. However, even while treating these wounded soldiers, they tried to treat and rescue civilians around the base area whenever they had chance. It is easily imaginable that in the urgent situation of war, the nature of medical support cannot be clearly divided into military or civilian if there is only one team that is operating. It is clear, however, that the common humanitarian purpose of rescuing and treating civilians affected the establishment of the National Medical Center in Seoul after the war. The Scandinavians had indeed remained even after the end of the war in to provide full support of establishing modern medical system in Korea. This suggests that modern Korean medical or public health system did not start to be developed in the 1960s like some researchers argue, but started a few years earlier during the time of the war with the support from the countries world-wide.