| There were up to three hundred of these Asclepieia throughout Greece and its dependencies at one point in time, though only the larger ones gained notoriety. (213) During the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, Asclepius grew in fame in the Roman provinces, and it became a common practice of the wealthy class to travel distances for the aid of the healing deity, Pergamon and Epidaurus being the two favorite retreats. (214) The idea of fasting and cleansing oneself from harmful substances and toxins and impurities before taking on a hallucinogenic voyage or journey was likely thought by the ancient people important for purposes of keeping malignant and evil spirits away. (215) In 376 AD, the Temple at Epidaurus was destroyed by the Goths under Alaric I, and the library was burned while the destroyed materials were used for the construction of new Christian churches. In 552 AD, an earthquake struck and finished off the remaining structure. (216) In later Greek and Roman times, legends incorporating the ideas of serpents founding the locations of sacred shrines and temples, were created and spread around. One famous legend concerns a serpent intended for Kos which escaped from the ship on the shores of Lakonia while in charge of deputies, and vanished in the ground at Epidaurus Limera which was then selected for the shrine. Citing Pausanius, in his Descriptions of Greece: “They also say that a snake, which they were bringing from their home in Epidaurus, escaped from the ship, and disappeared into the ground not far from the sea. As a result of the portent of the snake together with the vision in their dreams they resolved to remain and settle here. There are altars to Asclepius where the snake disappeared, with olive trees growing round them.” (217) Next, describing what it’s like upon entering the sanctuary of Asclepius, Pausanius remarks: “When you have entered you see the god, a beardless figure of gold and ivory made by Calamis. (30) He holds a staff in one hand, and a cone of the cultivated pine in the other. The Sicyonians say that the god was carried to them from Epidaurus on a carriage drawn by two mules; that he was in the likeness of a serpent.” (218) The sites selected for the healing sanctuaries and shrines were always beautiful and clean, with healthy and healing water available naturally from springs. The Pergamon shrine was exceptionally attractive. Aristeides once stated that he preferred the water at Pergamon to the sweetest wine. A shrine at Aigion was built around a spring of bubbling water, pure and delicious as was one at Ladon, built on a stream of fresh water, and there was a shrine at Karone in Lakonia which was believed to have medicinal and healing properties and a salt water or Sulphur spring that bathed a temple at Cenchreae. Continuing with his Descriptions of Greece, Pausanius writes: “In Cenchreae are a temple and a stone statue of Aphrodite, after it on the mole running into the sea a bronze image of Poseidon, and at the other end of the harbor sanctuaries of Asclepius and of Isis. Right opposite Cenchreae is Helen's Bath. It is a large stream of salt, tepid water, flowing from a rock into the sea.” (219) |
At Epidaurus Limera, there was a fountain, an aqueduct and a sacred spring all located within a beautifully enclosed structure, surrounded by a large grove. Temples were often surrounded by groves of trees. At Epidaurus, they were olive trees and at Kos and Titane they were cypress trees. The grounds were then enclosed by a large hedge all around and no buildings were allowed to be built within their vicinity. Sometimes the entrances would be marked by a formal gateway or a marked stone. In the larger sanctuaries there were altars, shrines and the temples of the associated deity or hero. (220) The hierophant held the highest position within the healing circle and underneath him directly was the priest, called the neokoros or zakaros. At Athens, there is an inscription which implied that occasionally the priest also held the position of a physician. (221) Physicians worked from early times among the general classes setting up shop in the streets and conducting hospitals. They were paid a salary to perform their duties and worked in buildings equipped with consultation rooms, pharmacies and operating rooms with surgical instruments. (222) Apuleius lived in the 2nd century AD, and was an initiate into the Mysteries of Isis and became a priest of Isis and Osiris as well as one of Asclepius, the God of Medicine. Apuleius was most likely the type of person being referred to as a “priest-physician.” (223) Demons, Elementals and Other Spirits of the Plant and Fungal Kingdoms The Keres in Greek mythology were the original female spirits of violent or cruel death and disease. They were the source of our concept of demons. They were agents of the moirai (the fates). The Greeks called them “daimones.” The Keres were said to wait above the battlefields to carry off the dead bodies for feasting. Hesiod describes the spirits that leave Pandora’s Box that went on to plague mankind as the kakoi (evils), nosoi (sicknesses and plagues) and lugra (banes) and it’s likely they are one and the same. (224) (213) Apples of Apollo, p. 150; Walton, The Cult of Asklepios, 1894, pp. 95ff (214) Healing Gods, p. 413 (215) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 179 (216) Healing Gods, p. 268 (217) Pausanias, Description of Greece, 3.23.7 (218) Healing Gods, p. 255-56; Pausanius, Description of Greece 2.10.3 (219) Pausanius, Description of Greece, II, II, 3 (220) Healing Gods, p. 256 (221) ibid, p. 272; (Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum III, i, 780, a, b, c) (222) ibid, p. 239 (223) Great Cosmic Mother, p. 93 (224) Language of the Goddess, p. 189; http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Keres.html |