The site of Apollo Maleatas’ sanctuary on Mt. Kynortion (Dog’s Climb) at Epidauros is noted for its Bronze Age remains, which include an altar, auxiliary buildings, and a terrace where ritual meals were consumed. Though continuity with the Bronze Age cannot be demonstrated, medical instruments contained in the altar here show that the subsequent Geometric cult was addressed to Apollo (at least in part) as a healer.38 Apollo’s healing function is a legacy from the deity Paian, who is attested in Mycenaean Greek and in Homer (e. g. II. 5.401, 899-900). In later Greek, paian was a song, and Archaic medicine frequently made use of healing charms sung over the sick person. Apollo’s power to control plagues and his status as an authority on purification also contributed to his healing abilities. Yet in the Classical period, Apollo ceded the role of healer to his son Asklepios, whose cult rapidly grew in popularity. At Epidauros, Apollo’s sanctuary spread to the plain, where it was eventually taken over by Asklepios. Pilgrims to the shrine, hoping to be healed, still sacrificed first to Apollo before entering. The votive inscriptions they set up to describe their miraculous cures are addressed to both Apollo and Asklepios as saviors. In the fourth century, a paian composed by Isyllos was inscribed on a block near Asklepios’ temple. It describes how a sacred procession of Epidauros’ “best men” carry garlands of laurel to Apollo’s temple, and shoots of olive to Asklepios.39 Neither the Asklepios precinct nor Apollo’s shrine on Mt. Kynortion possessed a monumental temple until the fourth century. Scholars disagree on whether Maleatas was initially the name of a separate deity, but inscriptions show that the cult was fairly widespread in the Archaic Peloponnese.
World History
