What could you do 2,500 years ago to deal with, say, an infection from a wound? First you would have to go to your neighborhood healer and he would make you some syrup for the pain, clean your wound and make an ointment from some herb to speed up healing. Maybe he would succeed, maybe not. If not, if your wound got worse and the pain did not subside, you would have to make a trip to consult the “professors” of the time. It is time to visit an Asclepius, perhaps one of the very famous ones, if you have the opportunity to do so.
Traveling is difficult these days, but it is worth it. After all, everyone says the best words about the good doctor Asclepius, the god who in his temple heals people even from chronic diseases. You will go, then, like so many others, and walking the last few meters of the road leading to the temple, you will stop and read the inscriptions dedicated to the temple by those who were healed. They are set up on the road on the right and left, the first medical records that we know of. The more you read, they say, the more certain you are of the success of your own healing.
Asclepius was the son of the god Apollo and the mortal Coronis. His mother died in childbirth and while they were lighting the pyre to burn her body, Apollo pulled the baby from her womb and saved it. She then handed the little Asclepius over to the wise Centaur Chiron to raise him. He taught him the art of medicine, although according to one tradition, it was a snake that revealed to him the secret secrets that made him the greatest doctor in the world. Asclepius had understood human nature so deeply that he managed to bring the dead back to life. However, this upset the balance and Hades became angry. Thus Zeus was forced to take his life, only to resurrect him a little later. But after he had extracted a promise from him that he would never bring a dead person back to life again, unless he himself approved it.
Asclepius passed into the collective subconscious as the archetype of the healing power that lies within us. Within a controlled environment and by faithfully observing a specific ritual, the patients of antiquity coordinated their psychic powers with the present. They focused on their inner man and let the archetypal power have a healing effect on their body and soul. It is no coincidence that the daughters of Asclepius were Hygeia, Panacea, Akeso, Aglaia and Iaso. His daughters were the results of his art.
Combining practical medicine and psychotherapy
The work of Asclepius was continued by his sons and then by other “healers”. Initially, a healer was called one who serves the god, but it soon acquired the meaning it has in modern Greek, namely one who offers medical care and restores health. Patients visited the Asclepia, which were temples of Asclepius and functioned as therapeutic centers. There, they followed a specific procedure that resulted in encomiesis, a state between anesthesia and hypnosis with vivid dreams.
The Asclepius of Epidaurus
Behind the famous theater of Epidaurus there was a sanctuary dating back to Mycenaean times. There the locals worshipped a goddess associated with healing and this worship lasted from the 16th to the 11th century BC. In the same place, three centuries later they founded a sanctuary dedicated to the healer Apollo Maleatas and in the 6th century. another sanctuary was added, dedicated to Apollo’s son, Asclepius. The Asclepius experienced its greatest flourishing during the 4th century BC, when expansion works were carried out, so that the space could serve the ever-increasing crowd that entered.
The patient arrived at the Asclepius determined to be cured. The inscriptions, which we mentioned at the beginning, described such impressive treatments that the new patient had acquired the good mood that any medication enhances.
Inside the temple there were rooms for those who had to be hospitalized for a few days, but there were also facilities that we do not see in modern hospitals: a theater, a gym, baths, statues and altars. Depending on the case, these spaces were part of the treatment. However, the priest-healers also provided conventional medical care. They performed surgeries, took care of fractures and bruises, disinfected wounds and much more. And of course they prepared medicines for their patients, using herbs. However, conventional medical care was not enough for them.
Before any action, the patients visited the baths. They had to wash their bodies, but also relax. If the occasion required it, they would stay for two or three days in the Asclepius and follow a special diet that probably included opiate preparations.* At the same time, they would attend theatrical performances and sacrifice to the gods. If you have visited one of the surviving Asclepius, you will find that just staying in a beautiful natural environment with a bath, a theater and light food is half the cure for some cases.
When the time came, the supplicants entered the abattos. There they spread the skin of the animal they had sacrificed, lay down, and waited for the night to bring them a healing dream. In the center of the space stood the gold and ivory statue of Asclepius, holding his staff.** They sang to the god and begged him to heal them during their sleep. The priest entered the abattos and made invocations to the god, in words that the others did not understand. When he left, a melody of flutes and percussion began to be heard from afar, so soft and slow-drawn that the patients soon sank into a sweet, but deep sleep. Then, the healers entered and probably quietly cared for the patients. They applied it to those suffering from musculoskeletal pain or cleaned wounds and sores. Finally, they left the sacred snakes of Asclepius, the paryes, in the abattoir to roam among the patients.
You can imagine the dreams the patients had! The hands of the god touched their bodies and wounds. Sometimes, the god himself stood majestically above them, holding his staff, just as his statue stood. In one of the Epidaurus tablets, a girl named Ambrosia describes her experience:
“Ambrosia from Athens, blind in one eye, came as a supplicant to the god. As she walked around the temple, she mocked some healings, because she could not believe them. It seemed impossible to her that a paralyzed or blind person could be healed simply by a dream. When she fell asleep, she had the following dream: As if the god was standing next to her and had told her that he would heal her. However, she asked for payment to dedicate a silver pig to the temple as a memento of her infidelity. Having said this, she tore out the sick eye and poured a medicine inside. In the morning, Ambrosia came out healthy.”
From the dreams that each person had, the priests decided on the treatment for the next day. The luckiest were those who had seen the sacred animals of Asclepius in their dreams, a rooster or a dog. From the inscriptions, in which each patient recounts the procedure and the result it had in his case, we know that even chronic illnesses were cured in this way. And of course, in these cases, the patient did not neglect to dedicate something to the temple as a sign of gratitude.
Other famous Asclepia
There were hundreds of Asclepia throughout Greece. However, those that became famous for their effectiveness were those of Kos, Trikki, Pergamon and Athens.
In Kos, before the establishment of Asclepius, on the hill where the ancient hospital is located, there was a sanctuary dedicated to the healer demon Paeon, and to Apollo. The Asclepia flourished in the 4th century and provided more medical than psychotherapeutic services.
Pergamon was a Greek city on the coast of Asia Minor. Its Asclepia was founded in the 4th century BC by someone who was healed in Epidaurus and wanted to spread the worship of the miraculous god. In addition to the main facilities, it had a theater and a great library. The famous 2nd century AD physician Claudius Galen was trained in this Asclepius.
Ancient Trikki (present-day Trikala) is the region of Thessaly where Asclepius was born. Homer mentions that his sons, Machaon and Podareilius, who were also healers, were in command of the ships that the city sent to the Trojan War. A district of modern Trikala is built on top of the Asclepius.
From Trikki, the cult of Asclepius spread to Athens. The Asclepius of Athens was founded in 420 BC and operated for about a thousand years. At the end of the 5th century AD The Asclepius was completely destroyed and in its place a Christian temple dedicated to the healers of Christianity, the Saints Anargyri, was erected.
Suggestion
In addition to these famous Asclepius, we recommend one more, which may not be on your travel agent’s list. It is located in ancient Gortyna in Arcadia (first photo). The ancient city was built next to a beautiful river, the Lousius. The ancient Spartan athletes used to pass through there on their way to compete in Olympia. Among the burial grounds and the remains of public buildings, there are the ruins of the city’s Asclepius, which also includes thermal baths. The temple of the healing physician was so famous that even Alexander the Great visited it in 335 BC and dedicated his chest and spear to him. The remains may be meager, but we promise you that the experience you will gain from your walk in this environment is priceless!
The legacy of Asclepius
Hippocrates, the “father of medicine” was a descendant of priests of Asclepius. Both his grandfather and his father were priests at the Asclepius Temple of Kos and believed that his family was descended from Asclepius himself. From the inscriptions of patients, which were the first and only archive of medical historians of the time, he gathered the information for his writings. Adding his comments and his experience, Hippocrates laid the foundations of modern medicine.
The greatest physician of the Roman world, Galen, a follower of Asclepius from Pergamum. He traveled and taught throughout the Roman Empire and then returned to Rome as a private physician, even to emperors. Galen systematized a rationalized medical practice that built on the legacy of Hippocrates.
*The rod of Asclepius with the snake coiled around it is today the symbol of medicine almost universally. The rod symbolizes stability and the snake wrapped around it, longevity and regeneration.
**Nepenthes was the Greek name for opium. The word is composed of ne- which indicates denial and -penthes which indicates mourning. That is, it is the substance that relieves from mourning, from sadness, from pain.
