Part 3

To those who had been initiated at Eleusis, and whose advanced age or incurable sickness gave little prospect of life, the calm and dignified forms of Demeter, Persephone, and Iakchos would suggest patience and the hope of a pure spiritual after-life, free from all bodily infirmity, “for the Greek or Roman heart ... was as full, in many cases fuller, of the hope of immortality than our own.”[5]

Those of the sick who were not too ill, would ascend the hill of 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!)

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.

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.

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.

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