Asclepius

Asclepius, or, according to Roman terminology, Aesculapius, the deified physician of ancient Greece. According to Homer, he was king of Thessaly, living 1250 years before the Christian era, and possessed the extraordinary gift of healing diseases. A pupil of Chiron, he treated chironic diseases mainly with rubbings and incisions, and internal diseases with refreshing drinks and pleasant songs, or epodes. After the death of A., his admirers, deifying him, built special temples in his honor, called asclepieia. They were located, for the most part, outside cities, in sacred groves, in healthy picturesque localities, on mountains, near rivers and healing mineral springs. The vicinity of these temples was considered sacred. Not only access but also approach to the temples was permitted only after special preparations. The sick or those sent by them had to undergo for some time abstinence, fasting, fumigations and ablutions (if possible, with sea water). After this followed a solemn procession into the temple, where the priests told of the miraculous healings performed by the deity, explained the inscriptions, finally removed the veils from the statue of Aesculapius, surrounded by mystical symbols, and proceeded to sacrifices accompanied by prayers and songs. Among the many symbols surrounding A. was a snake drinking from a cup—the emblem of health, wisdom and immortality, which has remained the emblem of medicine to our time. The most important (basic) means to achieve healing was incubation, or sacred sleep at the feet of the deity on the skin of a ram sacrificed for this purpose. During sleep the priests silently awaited the moment when the deity would reveal itself to the sick person in dreams, which appeared as a natural consequence of the preceding excited state. The interpretation of these dreams was the task of the priests, who determined from them the means against diseases, such as: internal or external consumption of sacrificial blood, dietary means, listening to songs, visiting the theater, riding, hunting, throwing weapons, the application of bloodletting, emetics, laxatives, etc. The cult of A. still existed around 420 years of the Christian era.