For details of the work of the various writers see appended list of authorities consulted.
I have to express my acknowledgment to the authorities I have named, but chiefly to M. Cavvadias for his kindness in giving me special facilities in Greece, and for allowing me the use of some of his plates; also to MM. Defrasse and Lechat, and to their publishers, who permit me to show you some of their beautiful restorations. Apart from these the lantern slides I shall show you are from photographs or sketches taken by myself on the scene of the various excavations or in museums.[1]
I. The Hieron of Epidauros
According to tradition, Asklepios, the son of Apollo and Koronis, was born in the Hieron valley, in the Argolic peninsula; the place names still preserve the legend; the hamlet of Koroni commemorates his mother, the hill Titthion owes its name to his having been there suckled by a goat, while on the opposite hill, Kynortion, stood the temple of the Maleatean Apollo.
The Hieron six miles from the town of Epidauros was the chief seat of the worship of Asklepios, though minor ones existed in Athens, at Delphi, Pergamos, Troizen, Kos, Trikke, and other places.
[Plate I] is an outline restoration, representing some of the principal buildings in the Hieron.
I must warn the reader that this plan does not profess to be accurate. The structural detail of the buildings is always more or less conjectural, even their relative size and their distances from one another are only approximately correct. The object of the plan is to give a general idea of the arrangement of the chief buildings hitherto discovered, exclusive of the theatre. (It should be stated here that the numbers which follow refer to the illustrations, while the capital letters correspond with those on [Plate I]).
A represents the gateway or Propylæa (or perhaps temple of Hygieia) on the south of the precinct. Its close relation to the quadrangle B has caused some observers to suppose it was the entrance to B alone, but to the writer this seems improbable.
B is a large quadrangle about 250 feet square, reminding one of the Palæstra at Olympia. The central space was surrounded by small rooms and a colonnade; some of the columns of the latter remain, embedded in the later Roman brickwork of a music hall or Odeon, constructed within the quadrangle. Nine rows of seats and part of the stage of the Odeon still remain. The building has been supposed to be a gymnasium; but if so, must have ceased to be the scene of gymnastic exercises after the quadrangle was built upon in Roman times. Was it a hostel?
