Abstract
This study of the cult of Asklepios reveals that happiness, well-being, and health were inseparable from and unified with devotion and religion in the healing arts practiced in the Asklepieia of antiquity. Religion, the tie that binds together a community, was the ultimate means to attain health for the suppliants of the Asklepieia scattered across the ancient Mediterranean world. A brief review of the cult of Asklepios and its health centers and practices, with some insights from the work of Kerényi, Meier, the Edelsteins, and others, will illuminate the mental-health aspects of the cult and foreshadow some additional insights into this intriguing union of religion and health.
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Walton, A., Cornell Studies in Classical Philology, No. III, The Cult of Asklepios. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1894, p. v.
In the spelling of proper nouns, except familiarly anglicized words, I have chosen the Greek form (e.g. Asklepios rather than Aesculapius).
This legend of his death obviously expresses the tradition of Asklepios as a human healer of supernormal power rather than as an immortal god. Sigerist, H.E., A History of Medicine, Volume II: Early Greek, Hindu, and Persian Medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961, p. 53: “The fact that Zeus slew him for reviving the dead expresses graphically that the physician's interfering with the laws of nature, his keeping people alive whom fate had doomed, is not a self-evident right and may not be taken for granted.”
Meier, C.A., Ancient Incubation and Modern Psychotherapy (a volume from the Studies from the C.G. Jung Institute, Zürich) translated from the German by Monica Curtis. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1967, p. 27. “The ancients explained the association of the snake with Aesculapius by its keen sight and by its power of rejuvenating itself by casting its skin, which symbolizes becoming free from illness.” When subsidiaries of the Epidauros sanctuary were established, a sacred snake was solemnly transported to the new location, and in every Asklepieion a living serpent was maintained as a symbol of the healing god.
In the Edelsteins' opinion, the deification of Asklepios took place toward the end of the sixth century BCE: Edelstein, E. and Edelstein, L., Asclepius: A Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, Volumes I and II. New York: Arno Press, 1975. Though it is beyond the scope of this paper, the evolution of Asklepios from a mortal physician to a culture-hero to a chthonic oracular demon to a Panhellenic Apollonian deity with mantic character is quite intriguing.
Sigerist, op cit., p. 57.
Kerényi, K., Asklepios: Archetypal Image of the Physician's Existence, trans. Ralph Manheim. New York: Pantheon Books, 1956, pp. 5–6. According to Kerényi, Asklepios was the god in whom the physicians in antiquity saw the source and prototype of their profession, their spiritual and physical ancestor. “Techne” (τεϰνη), knowledge and skill of the physician's art, was handed down as a family tradition and at the same time as a hereditary unit.
Ibid., p. xix.
Ibid., p. 34.
Kerényi explains that after the publication of the newly discovered Mimes of Herondas, the Koan poet who lived around 250 BCE, it became apparent that the temple of Asklepios on Kos was built after Hippocrates and his school of medicine: ibid., pp. 47–48.
Most classicists trace the origins of the cult to Trikka in Thessaly. After a critical examination of the evidence relating to the evolution of the myth and the various cult centers, Farnell writes that “the world-famous Epidaurian cult was originally derived from the insignificant Trikka and it is likely that it reached Epidauros at some period after the date of Hesiod.” Farnell, L.R., Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921, p. 254.
Meier, op. cit., p. 53. George Luck comments that “many went to Epidauros (or other Asklepieia) as a last resort, after the conventional medicine of their time had been unable to give them the help they wanted.” Luck, G., Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, p. 142.
It should be mentioned that incubatio was not unique to the cult of Asklepios, but was also used, for example, by the cults of the local chthonic demons Amphiaraos and Trophonios (see Sigerist, op. cit., pp. 48–49, and Meier, op. cit., pp. 91–112) as well as by the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Zeus and Leda. (Interestingly, in Rome the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano is on the site of the ancient temple of the Dioscuri, who were worshipped there as healing gods. See Meier, op. cit., p. 67.)
Hygieia, his favorite daughter, often appeared with Asklepios on reliefs as a symbol of health, as his divine companion and his female counterpart.
Aristides spent twelve years as a patient and devotee in various Asklepieia, especially the one at Pergamon, due to serious and persistent ill health. After seeing numerous physicians, this orator from a wealthy land-owning family in Mysia received a dream from Asklepios and thenceforth considered himself entirely in the service of the god. See Edelstein and Edelstein, op. cit. (Vol. I), pp. 155–163. Meier comments that Aristedes was “quite as much a confirmed neurotic as a famous rhetorician,” in Meier, op. cit., p. 63.
Sigerist, op. cit., p. 72. While Asklepieion healing undoubtedly changed through the centuries, it is likely that some Asklepieia were still flourishing into the fifth to sixth centuries CE. Jackson comments that “this ambiance of refined hypochondria has justifiably been compared to that of the spas and sanitaria of nineteenth-century Europe,” in Jackson, R., Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988, p. 155.
Farnell, op. cit., p. 273.
Walton, op. cit., p. 67. “The earliest form of the cult was a worship of Asklepios, and consultation by dreams, at first for any purpose, and eventually for health. At this time there were no physicians; then the oracle became more famous for its success in performing cures and the priest aided in interpretation of dreams by his practical knowledge of simple remedies. Third, some priest gave all his attention to observance of ritual, while a colleague or assistant devoted himself to the cures, which were effected by surgical operations, magnetism, drugs, or applications of the dogs or serpents. The last stage was reached when a school of physicians called Asklepiadae became a recognized factor in the temples, and the cult and the oracle were divorced” (italics added).
The Edelsteins note that Asklepios was well-known for being satisfied with small thank-offerings; it was one of his claims to fame that he took care of the poor. The Asklepieia and religious medicine were of the greatest importance for the medical welfare of the lower classes. (Edelstein and Edelstein, op. cit. (Vol. I), pp. 175, 178.)
Recall Socrates' dying words in the conclusion of Plato's Phaedo: “He was already growing cold about the groin, when he uncovered his face, which had been covered, and spoke for the last time. Crito, he said, I owe a cock to Asclepius; do not forget to pay it. It shall be done, replied Crito.” Plato, Phaedo, translated by F.J. Church. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1951, pp. 73–74.
According to Edelstein and Edelstein, op. cit. (Vol. II), pp. 146–147, the inscriptions abound in details and tell at length about Asklepios' actions. At Epidauros, they were inscribed on columns placed in such a way that everybody who came to the temple was attracted by them. They constitute an almost official record of the god's merits and virtues. A detailed study of the Epidaurian inscriptions has been composed by Lynn R. LiDonnici in: LiDonnici, L.R., The Epidaurian Miracle Inscriptions: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. In the introduction, LiDonnici writes that the inscription “moves out of the realm of the personal and becomes a public document, commemorating the vision, but also instructing later suppliants (and scholars), and communicating a complex sequence of ideas that link the health and wholeness of the body with the two parallel dimensions of the divine realm, and the realm of political and social health” (p. 1).
The many parallels between Asklepios and Christ have been detailed by several authors. For example, see: Edelstein and Edelstein, op. cit. (Vol. I), pp. 176–178, and (Vol. II), pp. 132–138.
Meier, op. cit., p. 33.
Ibid., p. 56.
Ibid., p. 112.
Ibid., p. 120.
Precope, J., Medicine, Magic, and Mythology. London: William Heinemann Medical Books, 1954, p. 267. “The prayers, the high symbolism, the solemn service, the sight of the awe inspiring priests and of the costly votive offerings excited the imagination of the devotees and enhanced the efficacy of the cures which were either rational or ridiculous.”
Sigerist, op. cit., pp. 65–66.
Meier, op. cit., p. xv.
Viamonte Jr., M. and Viamonte, M., “On the Aesculapion at Pergamum; Pergamum Paper; Galen and the Caduceus.” Journal of the Florida Medical Association, 1987, 74, p. 347. “Comparing the methods used for the management of psychosomatic disorders to those employed today (about 2,000 years later), very little has changed in the basic medical approach.”
Luck, op. cit., p. 142.
Jayne, W.A., The Healing Gods of Ancient Civilizations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925, p. 279.
Modern explanations of temple cures have been thoughtfully reviewed by: Edelstein and Edelstein, op. cit. (Vol. II), pp. 142–145. Such explanations include (1) acceptance of the reality of Asklepios' cures at their face value, (2) evidence of efficacy of natural remedies recommended in the dreams, (3) the first evidence of the efficacy of animal magnetism, hypnosis, autosuggestion, and somnambulism, (4) influence of the soul over body in neurotic disposition of the patients, (5) the power of religious experience as a curative factor, and (6) the charlatanry of clever priests who pretended that their ignorant contrivances were the work of a god—to raise the revenues of their temples.
Gordon comments that perhaps sleep was induced by the use of poppy seed or hemlock. (Gordon, B.L., Medicine throughout Antiquity. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company Publishers, 1949, p. 440.) However, the Edelsteins have found no indication that in preparation for temple sleep artificial means were used to influence the suppliants; in Edelstein and Edelstein, op. cit. (Vol. II), p. 159.
Precope points out that “in Athens and Epidauros, the temple of Asklepios and the theatre of Dionysus were grouped together, a striking acknowledgment, no doubt, of the curative powers of Dionysus through amusement and entertainment,” in Precope, op. cit., p. 95.
Gordon, op. cit., p. 442.
Meier, op. cit., p. 3.
Edelstein and Edelstein, op. cit. (Vol. II), pp. 139, 157–158, 161: “The fact, then, that Asclepius appeared to his worshippers, that he himself cured them, or that he told them how to take care of their illnesses, was nothing peculiar in the ancient world. In doing all this the god did not act contrary to any of the established scientific or philosophical theories, nor did he assume any extraordinary position. He simply acted like a god. From every point of view, Asclepius' cures, performed continually in the Asclepieia, were well within the limits of that world which the ancients recognized as real.... The fact remains that in antiquity the majority of the people, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, scientists and poets alike, had no doubt that Asclepius actually appeared to his worshippers and personally treated their ailments.”
Kerényi, op. cit., p. 50.
This paper, from volume 5 of the Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine is also found in: Edelstein, L., “Greek Medicine in its Relation to Religion and Magic,” Ancient Medicine: Selected Papers of Ludwig Edelstein, edited by Owsei Temkin and C. Lillian Temkin. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967, pp. 205–246.
Ibid., pp. 211–212. “The average man recognized God's ways in the movements of heavenly bodies and so, ordinarily, did the physician. It is evident then that all the external influences which are held responsible for the origin of diseases are in general not understood as merely natural.”
Ibid., p. 214.
Ibid., p. 241.
Ibid., p. 243. “Dogmatic medicine, then, based on rational philosophy, cannot oppose religious cures; miracles are not excluded by its conception of science. The Empiricists, on the other hand, cannot disapprove of miracles since they acknowledge no general rules beyond experience. There is no sufficient reason to allow them to contradict those facts. Only the Epicureans, who try to explain everything and do not acknowledge the assumption that something can happen without an intelligible reason, are opposed to miracles. Therefore, the Methodists, the physicians of late antiquity who were especially influential in Roman centuries, are the only ones who must reject religious medicine as well as magical medicine. But, in general, physicians, as scientists, believe in miracles.”
Meier, op. cit., p. xv.
Luck, op. cit., p. 137.
Jayne, op. cit., p. 291.
Farnell, op. cit., p. 266.
Carey, G., “Towards Wholeness: Transcending the Barriers between Religion and Psychiatry.” British Journal of Psychiatry, 1997, 170, p. 397.
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Compton, M.T. The Union of Religion and Health in Ancient Asklepieia. Journal of Religion and Health 37, 301–312 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022927706866
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022927706866