Kynortion to visit the temple of Apollo, or climb the neighbouring hill
of Titthion, sacred to the infancy of Asklepios. Others would engage in
the exercises of the gymnasium or the stadium; if unable to participate
in these more active pursuits, they would become spectators of them. The
comedies or tragedies played in the theatre would often so immerse the
audience in merriment or pathos as to banish for the time individual
troubles; both priest and patient attended them constantly. Music, the
singing of Orpheic hymns, religious dances, processions, and festivals
would vary the interest and occupations of the day. The studious man
could occupy himself with manuscripts from the library, and, reposing in
the shelter-seats, would dream over history, plays, or poetry. The
solemn rites of the temple, the sacrifices, the study of the
multitudinous tablets, would all tend to a calm and hopeful condition of
mind, eminently helpful to recovery from slight forms of illness, even
though no direct medical treatment were pursued.
In earlier times it seems as though the health-restoring influence of
the shrines was thought to be wholly miraculous, with but small aid or
none from art: the god alone achieved all. The more ancient inscriptions
contain childishly absurd reports of miraculous cures.
The ruling idea was that the deity appeared to the sick man in the
abaton, applied some medicament, performed some operation, or instructed
the dreaming patient to carry out some sanative action when he awoke.
The frauds of the god or his priest were so outrageous that some of the
old Greeks seem almost to have equalled in folly and credulity the
moderns, who readily buy soap or pills on no other warranty than the
advertisements of a lying and interested vendor.
On the walls of the eastern abaton were fixed two large stone tablets,
bearing the title, “Cures by Apollo and Asklepios.” Most of the
fragments of these tablets have been recovered, pieced together, and
deciphered by M. Cavvadias and other learned palæographers. The
following are a few extracts:—
Line 72 of the first tablet in the abaton.—A man who had only one eye is
visited by the god in the abaton during the night. The god applies an
ointment to the empty orbit. On awaking, the man finds he has two sound
eyes.
Line 125.—Thyson of Hermione is blind of both eyes; a temple dog licks
the organs and he immediately regains his sight.
Line 107.—Hermodicos of Lampsacus comes to the Hieron in a paralyzed
condition. As he sleeps in the abaton the god tells him to rise, to walk
outside the precinct, and carry back into it the largest stone he can
find. He does so, and brings in a stone so heavy that no other man can
lift it, and the stone, as the inscription says, still lies before the
abaton. The same stone (probably) lies there to-day, and the visitor may
yet in vain emulate the feat of Hermodicos. It will be recognised in the
illustration, Plate XXXI, by the hole cut in it to put the hands in.
Line 113.—A man had his foot lacerated by the bite of a wild beast; he
is in much pain; the servants of the abaton carry him outside during the
daytime; as he is waiting to be healed a serpent follows him, licks his
foot, and he is at once cured.
Line 122.—Heraieus of Mytilene has no hair on his head; he asks the god
to make it grow again. Asklepios applies an ointment, and next morning
the hair has grown thickly over his scalp. (Unfortunately Asklepios
omitted to write down the prescription for the benefit of those in like
case in the future!)
[Illustration: PLATE XXXI—The Stone miraculously carried by the
paralyzed Hermodicos]
At line 48 begins a story containing a moral which the priests may have
thought it desirable to impress upon their visitors:—
Pandaros comes all the way from Thessaly in order to have a disfiguring
eruption or branding mark on his forehead cured; he is quickly made
well. Returning to Thessaly his cure is observed by his neighbour
Echedoros, who has a similar, but slighter, eruption on the face. He
also goes to Hieron, carrying with him a sum of money sent to the god by
the grateful Pandaros. Echedoros contemplates retaining this money
himself; he consults the god about his own case, and in answer to a
question states that he has brought no gift from Pandaros. On rising in
the morning he finds that, instead of having his skin disease cured,
that of Pandaros has been added to it.
Line 96.—A man from Toronœa is so unfortunate as not to be in the good
graces of his stepmother; she introduces a number of leeches into the
wine he drinks. Being of a submissive and confiding temperament, he
swallows the beverage unsuspectingly, but the results are so serious
that he is obliged to visit the god. Asklepios cuts open his chest with
a knife, removes the leeches, sews up the chest again, and the patient
returns home next day.
From other inscriptions we find that Asklepios treats dropsy surgically,
in a simple but heroic manner; he first cuts off the patient’s head,
then holds him up by the heels; the fluid all runs out. He then puts the
patient’s head on again, and the case terminates happily.
These, I think, are a sufficient sample of the preposterous stories of
cures which the god was reported to have performed in early times.
It is quite clear that the absolute liking which many men and women have
for the charlatan, and for deception, their appetites for the marvellous
and incredible in all medical matters, existed as strongly among the
Greeks as among ourselves, though the superstitious beliefs and the
ignorance of science prevailing in those times rendered such folly more
excusable than it is now.
In later times it seems clear that superstition and deception had a less
share, and art a larger one, in the work of healing at Hieron. Probably
among the acute citizens of Athens, at no period were the frauds of the
god so outrageous as in the early times at Hieron. We find the priests
prescribing many things that were prudent and judicious; diet of a plain
and simple character, hot and cold baths, poulticing for certain chest
ailments, and a variety of medicaments—hemlock juice, oxide of iron,
hellebore, squills, lime-water, and drugs for the allaying of pain—are
incidentally mentioned. Water was used extensively both internally and
externally; active gymnastic exercise, riding, friction of the skin, a
sort of massage, and counter-irritation.
The tablet of Apellas of Idria tells us that when visiting the Hieron on
account of frequent illness and severe indigestion, the god or his
priests ordered a diet of bread and curdled milk, with parsley and
lettuce, lemons boiled in water, also milk and honey. Apellas being an
irascible person, the god ordered careful avoidance of the emotion of
anger, and desired him to run and swing in the gymnasium, and use
vigorous friction and counter-irritation to the surface of the body.
Probably Apellas was a wealthy and luxurious city-dweller, who took too
much food and Chian wine, and who suffered, as many in that age did,
from gout. He is eventually cured, and erects a tablet to show his
gratitude.
Here is the invocation of another sufferer coming to the Hieron: “O
blessed Asklepios, god of healing, it is thanks to thy skill that
Diophantes hopes to be relieved from his incurable and horrible gout, no
longer to move like a crab, no longer to walk upon thorns, but to have a
sound foot as thou hast decreed.” It would have been interesting to know
how far Diophantes’ hopes were realized. If they met with
disappointment, he may have regretted putting up the tablet at so early
a stage.
There can be little doubt that many of the sick benefited greatly by the
rest, the pure air, the simple diet, the sources of mental interest, the
baths, exercise, massage, and friction, and in later days by the actual
medical treatment adopted. Surgical treatment was also employed, for we
find marble reliefs of surgical instruments.
Not infrequently it would happen that persons with real or with
incurable diseases came to Hieron and got worse, notwithstanding their
sacrifices and petitions to the god. How the priests excused the
impotency of their deity on these occasions we do not know; perhaps some
lack of merit, purity, or sanctity in the individual may have been
imputed. We know that in some cases the honour of Asklepios was saved by
sending the unfortunate invalid to some distant shrine; but of course it
happened that in some instances the patient died while at the Hieron.
Now, according to the religion of the Greeks, two events were considered
to desecrate in the most dreadful manner any hallowed precinct—namely,
birth and death; neither of these must occur within any sacred
enclosure.
While the sick probably met with considerable kindliness, humanity, and
real help at these shrines, and much actual benefit resulted,
notwithstanding the superstition on which all was based, still, in this
one respect Greek tradition and ceremonial were a cause of the most
gross inhumanity. The unhappy visitant whose vital powers were finally
declining was received and domiciled in the abaton, but when he failed
to improve, and was seen by the priests and attendants to be obviously
dying, instead of being tenderly nursed and soothed, he was removed from
his couch, dragged across the precinct to the nearest gate, expelled,
and left to die on the hillside unhelped and untended. Asklepios had
rejected him, and no priest or minister of the god must defile himself
by any dealings with death. One cannot but hope that the sympathy and
humanity which exist naturally in the hearts of most men and of all
women, found some means of helping these unhappy beings, and that when
death seemed probable such sufferers were conveyed to a hostel outside
the precinct, and allowed to die in peace there. A like superstition
existed regarding birth. Many a poor woman who was anticipating
maternity, and who had been hoping for relief from some ordinary
ailment, was suddenly and mercilessly expelled from the precinct at the
moment when she needed help and comfort most.
Not until the time of the Antonines was any definite provision made for
these two classes of sufferers. Either Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius
erected outside the precinct a home for the dying, and a sort of
maternity hospital. Doubtless some of the ruins dating from the Roman
period, which are at present unidentified, subserved these two purposes.
As yet nothing has been said about the commissariat arrangements of the
Hieron. It is probable that several hundred persons habitually resided
there, if we include the sick, the convalescents, the priests,
officials, and servants, while on the occasion of the great festivals
the number rose to at least ten or twelve thousand. What arrangements
were made for the dieting of all these? Where were the storehouses, the
kitchen and the “deipneterion,” or dining-room, if any such existed?
Probably the diet of the poorer patients may have consisted largely of
the barley-meal paste, the “maza” eaten with certain inexpensive
vegetables. This would require little preparation. Among the well-to-do
patients, however, who were numerous, the meals would be more formal and
would need more care in preparation. In early times the “ariston” formed
the breakfast, and was eaten at sunrise. In later times this meal was
moved on to the middle of the day, and the “acratisma,” consisting
merely of bread dipped in unmixed wine, was eaten at an early hour. The
mid-day meal in later times consisted of various warm dishes needing the
art of the cook, and the principal meal, the “deipnon,” which was still
more elaborate, was just before sunset. Where the preparation and the
consumption of these meals took place it is difficult to say.
The lower story of the western abaton may have been a storehouse, or
possibly a kitchen. It must be remembered that the main part of the
flesh of the animals presented for sacrifice was used for food. In
general only the thigh bones, the entrails and some of the fat, was
consumed on the altar, the remainder was eaten by priests, votaries, or
attendants. In the case of the bloodless offerings, the cakes, fruit,
grain, milk, wine, honey, &c., a large part also was used as food. A
rule existed at Epidauros that all should be consumed within the
precinct.
The so-called “Square building” marked _K_ in the plan, may have been
the scene both of minor sacrifices and of the consumption of the
unsacrificed remnants. I have suggested above that this building might
be a hostel, and the large quantities of ash, of bones, and of fragments
of bronze and earthenware vessels found there to some extent support
this hypothesis, and the idea that it was employed for the sacrificial
banquets.
Among the hundreds of inscriptions found I have thus far only mentioned
one class—namely, those referring to cures. There are, in addition, no
fewer than thirteen other kinds of inscriptions; for example, the great
poem of Isyllos, describing the genealogy and miracles of Asklepios,
written by command of the oracle of Delphi. This has been edited and
commented on in a most scholarly manner by Prof. von
Wilamowitz-Möllendorff.
Many of the inscriptions are in honour of individual priests,
pyrophoroi, hieromnemones, or of distinguished Greeks unconnected with
the sanctuaries; for example there was found, in association with a
headless statue, the inscription shown below.
Plate XXXII. The upper four lines of the inscription are in the Dorian
dialect, the remainder in the Ionian. The former is the dedication of
the statue by the Epidaurians to a historian previously unknown to the
classical student, a certain Philippos of Pergamos. The lower Ionic
fragment is probably a quotation (the only one known to exist) from his
writings.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXII—Dedication of Statue to Philippos
(Cavvadias)]
Supplying the lost words or letters the inscription runs as follows:—
ἄνθετο µὲν µ’ Ἐπίδαυρος Ἀριστείδαο Φίλιππον
Περγάµοθεν θείας κοίρανον ἱστορίας
ἀγλάϊσαν δ’ Ἕλλανες ἐπεὶ πολεµογράφον αὐδὰν
ἔκλαγον ἁµερίων κόσµον ἐπερχόµενος.
* * * * *
ἐγὼ παντοίων παθέων καὶ συνεχέος ἀλλη-
-λοφονίης ἀνά τε τὴν Ἀσίην καὶ τὴν Εὐρώ-
-πην καὶ τὰ Λιβύων ἔθνεα καὶ νησιωτέων
πόλιας καθ’ ἡµέας γεγενηµένων ὁσίῃ
χειρὶ τὴν περὶ τῶν καινῶν πρήξεων ἱσ-
-τορίην ἐξήνεγκα ἐς τοὺς Ἕλληνας
ὅκως καὶ δι’ ἡµέων µανθάνοντες ὁκό-
-σα δηµοκοπίη καὶ κερδέων ἀµ[ετρίαι]
καὶ στάσιες ἐµφύλιοι καὶ πιστὶω[ν]
καταλύσιες γεννῶσιν κακὰ παρὰ [τῇ]
ῥήσει παθέων ἀλλοτρίων ἀπενθή[τως]
ποιέωνται τὰς τοῦ βίου διορθώσιας.
English Version.
“Set up in stone by Epidauros see,
A peerless scribe of god-like history,
Philip, the son of Aristeidas, come
Unto this holy place from Pergamum:
War was too long the theme of Greece; my pen
Shrilled to ensue a peace for mortal men.
* * * * *
“All sorts of suffering and endless bloodshed having taken place
recently throughout Asia, Europe, the Libyan hordes, the island
cities, I publish to the Greek world, without breach of trust, a
‘History of our own Times,’ in order that my countrymen may learn, by
my means, what hosts of evils arise from political charlatanry and
financial greed, quarrels in a nation, and acts of treachery, and so,
by the recital of other people’s miseries, may, without pain or grief
to themselves, put their own lives in order, as occasions arise.”
It is somewhat interesting to find the Boule of Epidauros thus doing
special honour to a historian, and at the same time warning the Greek
people against those political faults to which the nation was specially
prone. The governing bodies of our health resorts do not show so
large-minded an appreciation of letters or of political morals.[6]
A number of the later inscriptions are in honour of distinguished
Romans.
There are numerous inscriptions regarding laws, or judicial decrees.
Others, again, refer to the contests of the Stadium, while another and
especially voluminous class relates to the construction of the temples
and other buildings. In addition to the names of the architects and
contractors, and the sums paid, these records contain many interesting
details, _e.g._, the statement that the pediment groups and acroteria on
the temple of Asklepios were cut in marble by Hektoridas and another
artificer, from models designed by the great sculptor Timotheus, the
artist who, along with Scopas, designed parts of the mausoleum of
Halicarnassus.
The minute details concerning the building of the Tholos, the amounts
paid for marble and other materials, the names of architects and
contractors, the report of the commissioners who inspected the work, and
who formed a sort of lay buildings committee; their journeys to Athens,
Corinth, Megara, and other places in quest of material, workmen, etc.,
the exact sums expended on these journeys, and other details, are
curious and interesting. One can only regret that no hint is given of
the use and purpose of the building on which so much care and thought
were expended.
I might occupy much time in showing and describing the scores of
sculptured votive tablets which have been recovered. In most, of course,
the figure of Asklepios has been destroyed or damaged by the
iconoclastic zeal of the early Christian.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIII—Group of Suppliants approaching
Asklepios and his Family[7]]
In Plate XXXIII an almost uninjured example is shown. A group of four
suppliants with their children approach the god, who leans on his staff
with entwining serpent. Behind Asklepios is seen the head of (probably)
his wife Epione, then come Machaon and Podalirius, his sons, then,
probably Hygieia, Panakeia, and Iaso, his daughters. The whole Asklepian
family are of heroic stature.
Every fourth year a great festival was held at the Hieron, the Megala
Asklepieia, at which athletic contests, races, processions, music, plays
in the theatre, holy (perhaps also unholy) vigils, lasting all night
(especially if the Thracian Kotyttia were enacted in the portico of
Kotys), gorgeous rites, sacrifices, decoration of the temples and
precincts, together with feasts, took place. Most probably the priests
would arrange for the performance of a few miracles. Other festivals
were also held, as the Megala Apolloneia.
On these occasions, if not at other times, doubtless every seat in the
theatre, stadium, and hippodrome would be filled, mostly by sound and
healthy visitors, coming, as I have suggested above, partly to enjoy a
holiday, partly to witness athletic exercises, which interested them
quite as much as important cricket, football, or rowing contests
interest us, and partly to do honour to the god whose aid they might
need when the days of sickness or old age should come.
* * * * * * * *
Lastly, there is a link which, though of no practical import, is still a
genuine historic bond connecting the Hieron of Epidauros with the
medicine of Western Europe. Three centuries B.C. Rome was visited by
dire pestilence. The rulers of Rome, having in vain endeavoured to check
it, sought the counsel of the Sybilline books, and were directed to
bring Asklepios to Rome from Epidauros. A galley was sent to the Saronic
Gulf, and a mission visited the Hieron, bringing back to the ship one of
the sacred serpents. The galley returned, entered the Tiber, approached
Rome, and as it touched the insula in the Tiber the sacred serpent at
once left the ship and found a refuge on the island. From that moment
the plague is said to have rapidly disappeared.
In gratitude to the god, who was thus visibly among them in serpent
form, the south end of the island—probably, indeed, the whole of the
island—was modelled into the shape of a great galley of hewn stone. A
temple of Æsculapius (as the Romans called him) was built at the
southern end, with portico and abaton. A well existing there became
sacred to Æsculapius, and from that day to this the island in the Tiber
has, through pagan and Christian times alike, been devoted to the cure
and treatment of the sick. The stern of the stone galley still exists,
with the effigy of the serpent and remains of the image of Æsculapius.
The Church of St. Bartholomew stands on the site of the temple, and on
or near the spot where stood the ancient abaton now stands a hospital
served by the Brotherhood of San Juan de Dios, the benevolent saint of
Granada, where the sick folk of Rome are helped and tended; and there,
unlike their predecessors of 2,200 years ago, if illness should
terminate in death, the poor weary souls are kindly and tenderly
ministered to by priest, physician, and nurse, until they sink into the
last sleep.
* * * * * * * *
It is doubtless in consequence of this episode of the founding of a
temple of Æsculapius on the island of the Tiber that the staff and
serpent of the Epidaurian god have been, and remain to this day, the
symbol of the profession of Medicine.
[Illustration: Staff and Serpent]
Ο ΒΙΟΣ ΒΡΑΧΥΣ Η ΤΕΧΝΗ ΜΑΚΡΗ Ο ΚΑΙΡΟΣ ΟΞΥΣ
—“Life is short, the art is long, the opportunity is fleeting”
LIST OF AUTHORITIES
Baunack (J.) Aus Epidauros
1890
—— (Ἐφηµερίς, 1884)
1884
—— Studien
—— Zu den Inschriften aus Epidauros (_Philologus_, 54)
1895
Blinkenberg (C.) Asklepios og hans Frænder
—— Inscriptions d’Epidaure (_Nordisk Tidsskrift for Filologi og
Pædagogik_, 1895)
8^o., Copenhagen, 1895
Brunn ( .) Der Thron des Asklepios zu Epidauros (_Sitzungsb. der
philosoph. philolog. u. histor. Classe d. k. b. Akad. der
Wissensch. zu München_, 1872)
8^o., München, 1872
Cavvadias (P.) Δελτίον ἀρχαιολογικόν, 1891
—— Ἐφηµερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική, 1894
—— Fouilles d’Epidaure, vol. i.
fo., Athènes, 1893
—— Τὸ ἱερὸν τοῦ Ἀσκληπιοῦ ἐν Ἐπιδαύρῳ καὶ ἡ θεραπεία τῶν ἀσθενῶν.
8^o., Athènes, 1900
—— Inscriptions d’Epidaure (Ἐφηµερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική, 1883, 1886)
4^o., Athènes, 1883-86
—— Monuments d’Epidaure (Ἐφηµερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική, 1884-85)
—— Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀρχαιολ. Ἑταιρὶας 1881-82-83-84, etc.
—— Rapports sur les fouilles d’Epidaure (_Praktika_, 1881-85)
Chipiez (C.) (_Revue Archéologique_), 1896
Christ (W. von) Das Theater des Polyklet in Epidauros (_Sitzungsb. der
philosoph. philolog. u. histor. Classe d. k. b. Akad. der
Wissensch. zu München_, 1894.)
8^o., München, 1894
Defrasse (A.) and Lechat (H.) Epidaure
fo., Paris, 1895
—— Notes sur Epidaure (_Bulletin de Corresp. Hellénique_, 1890)
Diehl (K.) Excursions archéologiques en Grèce
1890
—— (_Athenische Mittheilungen_, 1893)
—— (_Berliner Philolog. Wochenschrift_, 1890)
Doerpfeld (W.) Der Rundbau in Epidauros (_Antike Denkmäler_, Bd. II,
Heft I)
fo., Berlin, 1893
Dumon (K.) Le théâtre de Polyclite
4^o., Paris, 1889
Foucart (P.) (_Bulletin de Corresp. Hellénique_, 14)
1890
—— Sur les sculptures et la date de quelques edifices d’Epidaure
Furtwaengler (A.) Epidauros (_Berliner Philolog. Wochenschrift_, 1888)
Gaidoz (H.) A propos des chiens d’Epidaure (_Revue Archéologique, 3^e
série_, 4)
Ganneau (C.) Esculape et le chien (_Revue Archéologique_, 1884)
Gardner (P.) New chapters in Greek history
8^o., Lond., 1892
Girard (P.) L’Asklépieion d’Athènes d’après de récentes découvertes
1881
Herlich (S.) Epidaurus, eine Heilstätte
1898
Herold ( .) (_Zeitschrift für Bauwesen_, 1893)
Kjellberg (L.) Asklepios. Mythologisch-archäologische Studien (_Särtryck
ur Sprâkvetensk. Sällsk. förhandl._ 1894-97)
Koehler (G.) (_Athenische Mittheilungen_, 1877)
Koepp (F.) (_Athenische Mittheilungen_, 1885)
Merriam (A. C.) Dogs of Æsculapius (_American Antiquarian_, vol. 7)
Chicago, 1885
—— Marvellous cures at Epidauros (_American Antiquarian_, vol. 6)
Chicago, 1884
Panofka (T.) Asklepios und die Asklepiaden (_Abh. d. Berl. Akad._, 1845)
Pausanius, _Periegetes_. Description of Greece, trans. with a commentary
by J. G. Frazer
6 voll.; 8^o., Lond., 1898
—— Mythology and monuments of ancient Athens, being a trans. of the
_Attica_ of Pausanias by M. de Verrall, with intro. by J. E.
Harrison
8^o., Lond., 1890
Petersen (C.) Athenastatuen von Epidauros (_Mitth._, vol. xi)
Reinach (S.) Les chiens dans le culte d’Esculape (_Revue Archéologique_,
1884)
—— Chronique d’Orient (_Revue Archéologique_, 1884)
—— La seconde stèle des guérisons miraculeuses (_Revue Archéologique_,
1885)
Staïs (V.) Ἐφηµερίς. 1892
—— Monuments d’Epidaure (Ἐφηµερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική, 1886)
Vercoutre ( .) (_Revue Archéologique_, 1884-85)
Walton (A.) The cult of Asklepios (_Cornell Studies_, No. III)
Wilamowitz-Möllendorff (U. von) Isyllus von Epidaurus
Footnotes
[1]About one-third of the lantern slides are here reproduced.
[2]Montfaucon (L’Antiq. Explic. 1 ii 289) quotes a curious story to the
effect that Dionysios, the Tyrant of Syracuse, visiting Epidauros,
stole the massive golden beard from the figure of the god. He
excused the theft on the ground that it was unseemly for Asklepios
to wear a beard when his father Apollo had none!
[3]Lib. II cap. xxvii § 1.