PLATE XXX—Figures of Asklepios and Hygieia
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!)