AsklepiosIOANNIS MYLONOPOULOS

In Greek antiquity, the omnipresence of illness

and death transformed the process of healing

into one of the most powerful areas of

communication with the divine sphere. The

human craving for divine assistance in

moments of grave despair, such as in cases of

serious illness, led to the association of count-

less deities with various aspects of the curative

process. From the fifth century BCE onwards,

Asklepios was the dominant healing god/hero.

It is interesting that he never lost his ambigu-

ous nature as both god and hero (Riethmuller

1999) – an ontological duality that makes him

comparable to Herakles.

Despite his importance, Asklepios remained

a relatively obscure figure in the Homeric

poems, where he was not yet the Panhellenic

healing deity of the Classical period, but was

characterized merely as a “blameless physi-

cian” (Il. 4.194). Although he was identified

as the father of the heroes Podaleirios and

Machaon, his precise status – deified king,

local hero, or simply famous healer – was of

no interest to the author(s). It seems that

Hesiod was the normative literary authority

in shaping some of the early myths about

Asklepios (Edelstein and Edelstein 1998:

II.24–34). According to the Hesiodic version

of the myth of Asklepios’ birth, Koronis –

a young Thessalian maiden – was the god’s

mortal mother, while Apollo was his divine

father. While pregnant with Asklepios, Koronis

married Ischys, which led to her murder by

Artemis. Apollo killed Ischys, saved the unborn

child, and delivered it to Chiron. The similar-

ities here to Dionysian narratives are obvious.

Important variants of the birth myth existed

in Messenia, Lakonia, Arcadia, and most

importantly in Epidauros (Riethmuller 2005:

I.39–45). Despite the occasionally significant

discrepancies among them, most of the narra-

tives recognized Asklepios as an exceptionally

gifted healer who was even able to revive the

dead. Indeed this was why Zeus killed him

with his thunderbolt near Delphi (Edelstein

and Edelstein 1998: I.53–6).

The importance of the Epidaurian sanctuary

and its architectural and sculptural magnifi-

cence led E. J. and L. Edelstein (1998: II.97–9)

to claim mistakenly that the cult of Asklepios

began in Epidauros. The early date of the

Thessalian birth myth, however, reveals

that its origins are traceable to Thessaly, most

probably around Trikka, although the most

important sanctuary of the god is certainly

the one in Epidauros that flourished during

the fifth and especially the fourth centuries

BCE. The Asklepieia on Kos, in Pergamon – a

perpetual point of reference for Aelius Aristi-

des, antiquity’s chief hypochondriac – and

Messene were also major cult sites. The innu-

merable inscriptions found at the sanctuary in

Epidauros offer invaluable information on

cures – real and imaginary – attributed to

Asklepios. Firsthand stories about diseases

and extraordinary cures effected in Epidauros

through the deity’s power are known from

a lengthy inscription – something like an

antique banner – originally displayed near the

incubation hall. The text presents a long list of

stories about miraculous cures, the iamata,

which the priestly officials of the sanctuary

had collected over a long period of time. The

first of these retells the fantastical story of Kleo:

“Kleo was with child for five years. After she had

been pregnant for five years she came as a sup-

pliant to the god and slept in the abaton. As

soon as she left it and got outside the sanctuary

she bore a son who upon his birth washed

himself at the fountain and walked about with

his mother. In return for this favor, she

inscribed on her offering: ‘Admirable is not the

greatness of the tablet, but the divinity, in that

Kleo carried the burden in her womb for five

years, until she slept in the temple and he made

her sound’” (IG IV2 1, 121 l. 3–9). In addition,

Epidauros is also the mother sanctuary for

countless cult sites dedicated to Asklepios in

Athens, Balagrai, Lebena, Pergamon, Rome,

and across the Mediterranean.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 832–834.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah17059

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Although not among the god’s principal

sanctuaries, the Asklepieion in Athens offers

precious insights into the history of the trans-

mission of Asklepios’ cult in the fifth century

BCE. In the early days of the Peace of Nikias

after the catastrophic plague that took Perikles’

life, the Athenians introduced the cult of

Asklepios into their city. According to the

famous monument of Telemachos (IG II2

4960a–c; 4961), the god traveled by sea from

Epidauros to Piraeus. He himself (a cult

image?) or his sacred snake – the part of the

inscription relating to this is damaged – was

then brought by wagon to a sanctuary newly

founded in his honor on the southern slope of

the Acropolis. Within a few years, Asklepios

became the most important curative deity in

Attica, quickly overshadowing local healing

heroes such as Amynos (Aleshire 1989; Melfi

2007: 313–409; Mitchell-Boyask 2008). The

transition to and the early cult of Asklepios in

his numerous new cult places around the Med-

iterranean must have been quite similar to the

Athenian story of success.

In his images, Asklepios demonstrates

a rather repetitive iconography. This has been

frequently justified by his late “arrival” in the

Greek Olympian pantheon. Although literary

sources do refer to famous statues of the god

from the earlier fifth century BCE, such as the

beardless chryselephantine image by Kalamis

in Sikyon, hardly any of the preserved Roman

statuary types can be securely linked to a Greek

original from before 420. The main types show

a standing mature bearded male holding a staff

with snakes and wearing a long cloak draped

around the lower part of his body and his back

before falling over his left shoulder. Even when

portrayed young and beardless, his principal

characteristics, the long cloak and its typical

arrangement around the god’s body as well as

the staff with snakes, remain constant. The

famous chryselephantine statue in Epidauros,

a work by Thrasymedes supposedly inspired by

the colossal statue of Zeus in Olympia,

depicted the god accompanied by a dog, prob-

ably an allusion to one variation on the birth

myth, in which a dog was said to have guarded

or even suckled the exposed infant Asklepios.

SEE ALSO: Asklepieion sanctuary; Disease and

health, Greece and Rome; Epione; Healing

deities, healing cults, Greece and Rome; Hygieia;

Incubation; Medicine, Greek and Roman;

Springs, sacred.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Aleshire, S. B. (1989) The Athenian Asklepieion: the

people, their dedications, and the inventories.

Amsterdam.

Edelstein, E. J., and Edelstein, L. (1998) Asclepius.

A collection and interpretation of the testimonies.

2 vols. 2nd ed. Baltimore.

Holtzmann, B. (1984) “Asklepios.” In Lexicon

Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. II.1:

863–97. Zurich.

Melfi, M. (2007) I santuari di Asclepio in Grecia,

vol. 1. Rome.

Mitchell-Boyask, R. (2008) Plague and the

Athenian imagination. Drama, history, and the

cult of Asclepius. Cambridge.

Riethmuller, J. (1999) “Bothros and tetrastyle:

The Heroon of Asclepius in Athens.” In R.

Hagg, ed., Ancient Greek hero cult: 123–43.

Stockholm.

Riethmuller, J. (2005) Asklepios. Heiligtumer und

Kulte, 2 vols. Heidelberg.

Wickkiser, B. L. (2008) Asklepios, medicine, and

the politics of healing in fifth century Greece:

Between craft and cult. Baltimore.

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