At Oropus, the temple warden was instructed to inscribe the names and cities of the god’s patients, but the cult regulation does not mention any record of the healing process. However, sanctuaries of Amphiaraus and of other healing deities have yielded wonderful insights into how patients experienced their night with Asclepius. Many thankful worshipers dedicated votive reliefs with which they represented what had happened to them (Van Straten 1976, 1981). A dedicatory relief from Oropus (or Athens) from the end of the fifth century BC (Figure 10.2) bears the inscription ‘‘Archinos dedicated [this relief] to Amphiaraus,’’ and depicts the stages of Archinos’ healing. In the background on the right he is lying down and visited by a snake, who is licking or possibly biting his right shoulder; the god himself in snake form is watching over his patient. In the left foreground, the god, in human form, bearded and supported by his staff, directly attends to a standing Archinos, touching the same shoulder, possibly applying some dressing to a wound. In the center background, a rectangular plaque or tablet mounted on a pillar depicts the dedicatory relief itself and reminds the viewer of the religious and physical context of the whole scene. The effect of visual representations such as the Archinos relief is powerful and enables us to understand the meaning behind the multitude of dedicatory reliefs at any
Figure 10.2 Amphiaraus heals Archinos. Dedicatory relief from Oropus (or Athens), end of fifth century BC. ANM 3369. Photograph: Hermann Wagner, DAI. DAI Neg. no.: D-DAI ATH-NM 3312
Given healing sanctuary. Equally impressive are the so-called miracle inscriptions from Epidaurus, where patients tended to put into words the miracles that had happened to them during incubation and inscribed them on wooden or stone tablets, which they then dedicated to Asclepius. At the end of the fourth century the Epidaurian priests composed a catalog of the most important cures, the so-called Epidaurian iamata (Dillon 1994; LiDonnici 1995). Pausanias was still able to look at six of the many stelae originally displayed in the precinct (2.27.3). Among the ones that have survived on stone, each ‘‘entry’’ in the catalog reveals details about the process of incubation as well as the personal experience of the patients. Their names (and in many cases their provenance) are usually followed by their ailments. The stories of their healing are not in the least stereotypical, and they can be quite humorous. The following is a typical example:
A dumb boy. This boy came to the sanctuary for a voice. When he had made the preliminary sacrifice and performed the accustomed rites. . . the temple servant who brings in the fire for the god [ho pyrphor(>n], looking at the boy’s father, demanded he should promise to bring within a year the thank-offering for the cure if he obtained that for which he had come. But the boy suddenly said, ‘‘I promise.’’ His father was startled at this and asked him to repeat it. The boy repeated the words and from this time on was well. (Rhodes and Osborne 2003: no.102 v = LiDonnici 1995 A5)
Visual and epigraphic testimonies are enhanced by a passage from our literary record, the most vivid verbal step-by-step rendering of what happened during incubation. Aristophanes’ character Wealth visits the sanctuary of Asclepius on Aegina in the hope of being cured of his blindness. The report of Carion to his wife tells us that for the purpose of purification Wealth was first taken down to the sea and bathed. After a preliminary sacrifice of little cakes, Wealth and his company lay down on rough beds in the abaton. A temple servant {propolos) extinguished the lamps and asked everybody to go to sleep. Not being able to sleep, Carion saw ‘‘the priest nicking the cheesecakes and dried figs from the holy table; and after that he went right round all the altars to see if there might be any cakelets left on any of them, and then consecrated them in to a sack he had’’ (Wealth 660-82).
From all these vivid testimonies it becomes clear that administering and promoting divine healing had a tremendous impact on the whole business of ‘‘cult operation.’’ As in Aristophanes’ Wealth, many patients would have been accompanied by attendants or family members, and those who came from far away would have stayed for more than one night. Pausanias states that within the precinct of Asclepius’ sanctuary in Tithorea (Phocis) there were dwellings for both the suppliants and the servants of the god (10.32.12). Interestingly, not only later authors but also many of the Epidaurian iamata refer to the patients as ‘‘suppliants’’ (hiketai). Individuals or even groups seeking refuge in a sanctuary were common to all sanctuaries and required the same kind of attention as worshipers visiting a sanctuary for a cure (Sinn 2000). Temporary lodgings, facilities for cooking and food consumption, as well as a water supply had to be provided. Many sanctuaries therefore had a smaller and a larger precinct, with temple, altar, and votives separated in some form from an area that could be used for the accommodation of large numbers of cult participants, suppliants, or further groups of visitors. The everyday life of a sanctuary, not only a healing sanctuary, thus resembled and was quite closely linked to the everyday life of its environment (Sinn 2000:179).
World History
