Summary 3
It is apparent from the text, that these two women were
Aristophanes (448-380 BC) has an amusing, although obviously
Although there may have been
Lectures on Rationalism,
Philosophy
and Medicine
Cult Practice and the Medical Art
Introduction
While much of On the Art set itself to reply to public
criticism of the medical art, we should not forget that the
professional physicians of Cos also found themselves
competing with Œalternative medical treatments'. Folk
remedies for illness had always been popular at a domestic
level - and may even have sometimes employed concoctions
similar to those found in the corpus (Lloyd 1979: 45). In
such terms, early Œrationalistic' medical theories were
never far from their sooth-saying past, even deriving such
medical terms as Œprognosis' from it. Ancient, like modern,
patients expected their doctors not only to diagnose their
disease, but also to predict its outcome - as well as to '
divine' its course during the period before the doctor had
encountered them (Lloyd 1979: 45). During the classical
period especially, there evolved within the sacred
enclosures of Asclepius a religious alternative to
Hippocratic medical treatment. This was a tradition
dominated by cult ceremonies and offerings intended to
prevent - or cure - the diseases of the faithful. Animal
sacrifices, especially a cockerel to Asclepius, were
customarily offered at home or in the temple grounds, and
were intended to procure a recovery, or give thanks for one
achieved. Offerings also include the dedication in the
temple precincts of euchai - i.e., ex-voto figurines of the
affected part of the body, sometimes made of precious metals
. These could have been dedicated in accordance with a vow
made either in an apotropaic prayer (euche), or in
gratitude to the god (Burkert 1990: 68-70).. As long as
these practices were intended to calm the faithful
following recovery from a disease, they would have in no
way interfered with the Hippocratic practice. However, when
they were proffered to cure the patient, or prevent disease
in place of the Asclepiad doctor, then some friction may
have arisen (Lloyd 1987: 90-90 n. 144).
We hear very little about this from the corpus itself.
However, Regimen IV - also called On Dreams (peri Enypnion)
- closes its discussion of the interpretation of dreams with
the politically correct remark: "Praying (euchesthai) is a
good thing, but one should call on the Gods when one is
taking oneself in hand in addition" (Hippocrates 1923-1931:
IV cap. LXXXVII fin.).
A visit to a temple of Asclepius
An imaginative description of Visit to a Temple of Asclepius is depicted by the 3rd century B.C.E. poet, Hero(n)das (Knox, E.D. 1953: 114-123).
In Mime IV, he depicts
two village women, Cynno and Coccale, on a supposed visit
to the Asclepium of Cos.
Cynno prays first to the Lord Healer
(Asclepius) and then to a long list of the god's
relatives. As is traditional in such ceremonies, each god
and goddess of the healing pantheon must be named for the
prayer to be effective:
"Greetings to the Lord Healer, who rules over Tricca,
and has taken up a dwelling in sweet Cos and Epidaurus.
Greetings too to Coronis, who bore you, as well as to Apollo
and to Health (Hygieia) whom you touch with your right hand.
Also to those, by whom your altars are honoured,
Panacea and Healing (Ieso) and
So also
Leomedon's (Troy)
once did sack, though they
dread disease
- to them, Podaleirius and Machaon, greetings.
So to all the Gods who inhabit your hearth
and Goddesses too, O Father Healer!"
Herodas, Mime IV. lines 1-11.
Cynno then offers a sacrifice of a cockerel as thanks to
Asclepius while Coccale apporaches the statue of Hygieia
and palces beside it a dedicatory plaque/painting
(pinax; line 19), possibly an ex-voto euche depicting the organ
healed.
.
dedication of ex voto euchai is still practised in churches and chaples of the modern Greek world.
The mime ends with a prayer to Father Healer led by
the temple neophyte (neokouros; lines 82-85), whom Cynno
repays with a drumstick from the sacrifice (line 89), while
Coccale is bidden to feed the sacred snakes honey-cake and
offer the barley wafers (lines 89-92).
meant to have visited the temple following a recovery from
some unspecified disease in the family (lines 16-18). At
any rate, there is absolutely no mention in the mime of
their having visited a doctor in the town of Cos, or
intending to do so. It would then seem that a visit to the
doctor's surgery (iatreion) was an issue totally separate
from their visit to the temple - and it is by no means
certain that it was carried out. Even if certain doctors
maintained their practice in the vicinity of the temple,
they would seem to have been acting in a capacity
completely separate from that of the priests. As it is, at
Cos, the Asclepium lies some kilometres outside of the
polis, where presumably, any public or private iatros would
have resided.
return to top
Incubation
Cult treatment could also involve incubation (enkoimiesis),
i.e. a night of sleep either in a restricted building
(abaton), or in a special dormitory (enkoimetrion) included
within the area of the precinct (temenos). Even prior to
the expansion of Asclepius' cult, incubation seems to have
long been common practice at other Greek shrines (Dodds
1966: 110-111). The intention was to achieve a cure for
ailment in sleep, or receive instruction from the god in a
dream.
fabricated account of one such night's incubation in the
Asclepium of Athens.
He relates this in his comedy Plutus
-- a fantasy concerning the blindness
of Wealth (Plutus) in distributing his gifts.
Offers are made to cure Plutus by incubation in a temple:
Following the sacrifices and cake
offerings to the god, the blind Plutus' friends lay him
down to sleep in the temenos buildings
(Plutus lines 659-663)
in the middle of the night, a priest
emerges who sets about stealing the offerings
(lines 676-681)
)He smears the eyes of the afflicted with a concoction
that does more harm than good
(lines 714-723);
and contrives to
restore Plutus' sight by getting the sacred snakes to lick
his eyes
(lines 727-738).
some chicanery at every temple, regular treatment by
incubation would have been based on the interpretation of
dreams and apparitions. Obviously, as today, the odd cases
of faith healing did occur and their records were dutifully
left inscribed in stone
(Grant 1953: 55-59; Rice-Stambaugh
1979: 69-75).
Some have even supposed that incubation was
in all essentials a sincere religious experience even
though the real success rate may have been low
(Dodds 1966: 114-115).
Incubation in churches and chaples is still practised in the modern Greek world.
return to top
Rationalism of Medicine
In contrast to this, the author of the Hippocratic Regimen
IV or On Dreams attempts to utilise dreams as a means to
restore mental and physical health, but in a more rational
fashion. In his opinion, dreams reflect not only the
activity of the mind when the body is insentient, but can
also indicate a person's health (Hippocrates 1923-1931: IV
cap. 86). In this, the author tactfully leaves aside those
supposedly prophetic and divine dreams to be judged by
those (priests) that may have that craft (cap. 87). He is
interested in "dreams that reflect a man's actions or
thoughts in the day": if they have the appearance of being
faithful to reality, the patient is said to be in good
health, but otherwise, they indicate a bodily disturbance (
cap. 88). The same is true for dreamt observations of
reality that may indicate the state of the body affecting
the mind of the dreamer. A comparison has often been drawn
between this rational little composition and Aristotle's
theory of dreams and reality (Aristotle, 19752:ŒOn Dreams'
461b), although the chronological priority of the two is
still undetermined (Lloyd 1987: 32-33). Nonetheless,
Aristotle still presupposes the existence of some earlier
medical theory, for he remarks that "the gifted of doctors
state that one ought to pay great attention to dreams" (
Aristotle, 19752:ŒOn Prophecy in Sleep' 463a5-8). If he
does not refer to the Regimen IV itself, he may be
referring to an earlier literary tradition that this work
follows.
return to top
return to top