The Cult of Asklepius and the Theatre Author(s): Alice M.

Robinson Reviewed work(s): Source: Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Dec., 1978), pp. 530-542 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3206048 . Accessed: 02/11/2012 11:39
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ALICEM. ROBINSON

The Cult of Asklepius and the Theatre

Pausanias, that peripetetic traveller of the second century A.D., described the theatre at Epidaurus as "most especially worth seeing." In his Description of Greece he wrote: "Forsymmetry and beauty, what architect could vie with Polyclitus? For it was Polyclitus who made this theatre."' The theatre at Epidaurus is still considered one of the most beautiful and most symmetrically perfect of all of the extant Greek theatres, and is the only one surviving which has the complete round dancing circle. For Pausanias, however, the theatre was incidental. Of more importance to him was the shrine to Asklepius located close by the theatre. Strabo, in his first century Geography, does not even mention the theatre: "Epidauruswas a distinguished city, remarkable particularly on account of the fame of Asklepius, who was supposed to cure every kind of disease, and whose temple is crowded constantly with sick persons, and its walls covered with votive tablets, which are hung upon the walls, and contain accounts of the cures, in the same manner as is practiced at Cos, and at Tricca.'"2 In the ancient city of Pergamon in present-day Turkey, there is another spectacular theatre whose eighty rows of seats cling precariously to the steep hillside of the acropolis above the modern city of Bergama. This theatre is connected to a temple dedicated to Dionysus and to the Roman emperor, Caracalla. However, also in Pergamon there is a smaller Roman theatre within the very walls of the sacred precinct dedicated to the god Asklepius. It was for the hospital and shrine to Asklepius that Pergamon was most famous in Roman times. Why were these two theatres at Epidaurus and at Pergamon erected so near to the temples dedicated to Asklepius? Was this by chance or did the theatres play some role in the rites of this ancient religious cult? We know that the cult was important at the time when the great classic dramatists were writing. Sophocles, Euripides, and

Alice M. Robinson is Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and has published articles on the American theatre.

1 Pausanias, Description of Greece, trans. J. G. Frazer (London, 1898), 1. 113. Further references will be in the text. 2 Strabo, The Geography of Strabo, trans. H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer (London, 1854), 2. 56.

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ASKLEPIUS AND THE THEATRE

Menander all refer to Asklepius. Aristophanes uses the cure of Plutus in the Asklepieion as a major part of the plot in his play, Plutus, and mentions Asklepius in both Clouds and Wasps. Herodas wrote a mime which takes place in the temple of Asklepius, and Plautus adapted a play, Curculio, which is set in front of the temple to the god. Today little is written about Asklepius except by physicians who continue to be fascinated by the cures that took place in the Asklepieion. Asklepius seems to have been one of the hero-gods of Greece. Twice Homer speaks of Asklepius as "the blameless physician" and mentions that he had received remedies from Chiron, the Centaur.3 Chiron was the inventor of herbal medicine and was considered the first physician. Homer implies that Asklepius was a king whose sons and subjects came from Trice to participate in the Trojan War. The first testimony which clearly refers to Asklepius as a god is furnished by an Athenian inscription recording his arrival in Athens in 420 B.C.4 The Asklepian myth relates that he was the son of Apollo and a beautiful girl, Coronis. Pausanias relates several versions of the birth of Asklepius. One of these helps to establish the place the where Coronis gave birth to the baby: '"In land of Epidaurusshe was delivered of a male child whom she exposed upon the mountain. But one of the goats that browsed on the mountain gave suck to the forsaken babe, and a dog, the guardian of the flock, watched over it." A goatherd found the baby "and was fain to take it up in his arms. But as he drew near he saw a bright light shining from the child. So he turned away. 'Forsurely'thought he, 'the hand of God is in this,' as indeed it was" (1. 111). This myth of Asklepius's birth helps to explain why goats were never used as sacrifice to the god at Epidaurus and why Asklepius is often pictured with a dog beside him. The shrine at Epidaurus seems to be the oldest one dedicated to Asklepius.5 Toward the end of the sixth century B.C. an altar and sacred building were erected, and the first temple was built in the beginning of the fourth century B.C.6 By 420 the worship of Asklepius had come to Athens, where a temple was built on the southern slope of the Acropolis near the theatre of Dionysus. Sophocles, who was a priest of Amynus (a healing hero), was closely connected with the bringing of the worship of Asklepius to Athens.7 Also in the fifth century B.C. the god was honored with a sacred district at the great shrine to his father, Apollo, in Delphi. During the fourth century the Asklepian cult spread over the Argolid and the Peloponnese. About 369 a famous temple at Gotys was built which contained a statue of the god made by Scopas (Paus. 1. 410). About 350 the cult was brought from Epi-

3 Homer, Iliad 4. 194 and 11. 518. The Iliad of Homer, trans. Richard Lattimore (London, 1951), pp. 118, 248. 4 Emma J. Edelstein and Ludwig Edelstein, Asclepius, A Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies (Baltimore, 1945), II, 66. 5 Though most of the ancient writers refer to the shrine at Epidaurus as the oldest dedicated to Asklepius, Strabo in his Geography states that the Asklepieion at Tricca in Thessaly was the oldest and that Asklepius was born there. 6 Edelstein, II, 243. 7 Francis Redding Walton discusses Sophocles and Asklepius in "A Problem in the Ichneutae of Sophocles," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 46 (1935), 167-189.

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daurus to Pergamon and shortly after to Ephesos. In the third century an important temple was built at Cos, and it was here that Hippocrates established his famous medical school. In the Hellenistic period nearly all major cities had temples to Asklepius. Alexander the Great was a devotee of Asklepius and celebrated him with offerings and festivals. Ovid tells the story of Asklepius's arrival in Rome. The city was infected with "a deadly pestilence" and the Roman leaders sought help from Asklepius. The god agreed to come to Rome and was brought by ship in the form of a serpent. The people made sacrifices and burnt incense as the ship came up the river toward Rome: He had enteredRome, the capitalof the world, . Here the serpent-son, Apollo's offspring,came to land, put on His heavenlyform again, and to the people Broughthealthand end of mourning.8 A temple was built to him in Rome in 291 B.C. Many of the Roman emperors favored Asklepius, but it was Roman soldiers who took the cult of Asklepius to the far reaches of the inhabited world. Walton lists the locations of two hundred and seven Asklepieia which have been identified from literary and epigraphical sources and one hundred sixty-one from which coins have been found.9 Asklepius came to be known as not only a healing god and the patron of physicians, but also as a giver of health and of healthy children. In the second century A.D. the orator Aristides acclaimed Asklepius as the one "who guides and rules the universe, the savior of the whole and the guardian of the immortals."'1 The cult of Asklepius was one of the hardest for the early Christians to stamp out, and some of the temples continued to be used into the sixth century A.D. The shrine and hospital at Pergamon achieved its greatest fame in the first and second centuries A.D. The sanctuary at Epidaurus was favored by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the second century A.D., and in the same century the Roman senator Antoninus rebuilt and adorned the sanctuary (Paus. 1. 113). However, the sanctuary at Pergamon was destroyed by an earthquake between 253 and 260 A.D. and was not rebuilt. In 528 an earthquake destroyed the shrine and covered the famous theatre at Epidaurus. The shrine at Cos seems to have been in existence until 554, when it, too, was demolished by an earthquake. What were the Asklepian sanctuaries like and how were they used? The Asklepieion at Epidaurus was excavated between 1881-1887 and 1891-1894. Figure 1 shows the plan of the Asklepieion. The temple was nearly eighty feet long and forty-three feet wide. There were six Doric columns on each end and eleven columns along each side." When Pausanias visited the temple in the second century A.D. the statue of
8 Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries (London, 1957), p. 388.

9 Alice Walton, The Cult of Asklepios, Cornell Studies in Classical Philology, No. 3 (1894), Appendix, pp. 95-121. 10Edelstein, I, 150-151. 1 See P. Cavvadias (Kabbadiaj), Fouilles d'Epidaure (Athens, 1891).

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ASKLEPIUS AND THE THEATRE

F:

Ui AirrlF .1. . .
Figure 1 A Temple to Asklepius D B Tholos or Rotunda E C Colonnaded Hall F (The diagram is based on one included by J. G. Greece [London, 18981.) (

. ..

Propylaeum leading to the Gymnasium Altar (7) Temple to Artemis Frazer in his Commentary on Pausanias's Description of

the god was still in the temple. 'The image of AEsculapius [sic] is half the size of the image of Olympian Zeus at Athens; it is of ivory and gold. An inscription sets forth that the sculptor was Thrasymedes, a Parian, son of Arignotus. The god is seated on a throne, grasping a staff in one hand, and holding the other over the head of a serpent; a dog crouches at his side" (Paus. 1. 112). The image described by Pausanias is represented on some ancient coins of Epidaurus. The round building (B) is called the tholos or rotunda. Another name given to this building by Pausanias is the thymele. The thymele is, of course, the name used for the altar in the center of the ancient Greek theatre orchestra. There may have been an altar in the tholos, but the purpose of this building has been a puzzle for the archeologists. The tholos at Epidaurus was one hundred and seven feet in diameter. It consisted, structurally, of six concentric rings. The outermost ring was a colonnade, the second was a wall inside of which was another colonnade. Inside of these were three foundation walls. Under the floor of the building was a vault which consisted of three circular passageways and a small circular room in the center. There was a door leading into each passageway, but it was impossible to go from one passageway into the next without making the complete circle.

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ETI, December 1978

Theories concerning the use of the tholos vary. Some think it was an altar, some that it was a place for the treatment of mental patients. Kerenyi contends that the lower passageways were too narrow for sacrifices, and his theory is that the sacred snakes were kept here. In one of his early visits to Epidaurushe found a marble fragment bearing a representationof a tree trunk with a mouse on it. He thinks that the sacred snakes were kept here and were fed mice.'2 When a new Asklepieion was established, a sacred snake representingthe god was sent by carriage or by ship to the new location. Snakes were also used in some of the cures effected in the Asklepieion. Pausanias wrote that the serpents, "of a somewhat yellower hue, are considered sacred to AEsculapius [sic] and are tame. They breed nowhere but in Epidauria"(1. 113). Pausanias also recorded that in the tholos stood engraved tablets. 'There used to be more of them; in my time six were left. On these tablets are engraved the names of men and women who have been healed by AEsculapius [sic], together with the disease from which each suffered and the manner of the cure. The inscriptions are in the Doric dialect" (1. 112). When the tholos was excavated at the end of the nineteenth century, two of these tablets were found.13 Looking again at the plan of the sanctuary at Epidaurus, we see along the lower side the long colonnade (C) two hundred and forty-nine feet long and thirty-two feet wide. The archeologists think that this may have been the Abaton, the place where patients slept and were visited by the god. The building shown at the top of the diagram (D) was a great portal, or propylaeum. It led into a large square building (not shown on the plan), which was probably a gymnasium, with a square court in its center. Around the court were colonnades, and in one corner of the court were the remains of an Odeon of the Roman period. When the ruins were uncovered there were only nine rows of seats forming a half circle around an orchestra whose floor had a mosaic pavement. Thus at Epidaurus there was a small theatre directly connected with the sanctuary of Asklepius. The large theatre at Epidaurus is a quarter of a mile to the southeast of the sanctuary. This magnificent theatre has a complete dance circle, and the theatron has thirty-four tiers of seats in the lower section and twenty-one tiers in the upper section. The two sections are separated by a diazoma, or horizontal passageway. While excavating the theatre, archeologists found between the orchestra and the skene two statues-one of Asklepius and one of a woman. In the ruins of the interior of the skene, the archeologists found two headless smaller statues, also of Asklepius and a woman, probably Hygeia, his daughter. These statues perhaps stood in the niches of the wall of the skene.14 The Asklepieion at Pergamon was established in the first half of the fourth century, it is said, by a wealthy man from Pergamon who had been healed at Epidaulittle remains of this first sanctuary, and the ruins at Pergamon torus.i However,
C. Kerenyi, Asklepios, Archetypal Im; of the Physician's Existence (London, 1960), p. 102. tablets were published by Cavvadias in Fouilles d'Epidaure. 14 Cavvadias, I, 12-13. 1s Otfried Deubner, Das Asklepieion Von Pergamon (Berlin, 1938), pp. 11-12.
12

13 These

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AND THE THEATRE ASKLEPIUS

J

A F

Figure 2 F Tunnel A Sacred Way B Propylaeum and Courtyard G Telesphor Building H Abaton (7) C Temple to Asklepius I Library D Fountain E Clay and Water Pools J Theatre (The diagram is based on one in Musa Baran's Guide to Troy, Pergamon, Sardis, Izmir and Its Surroundings [Izmir, n.d.].)

day date from the Roman era. A sacred road, lined with porticoes and columns, led from the ancient city to the Asklepieion. One entered the sanctuary through the propylaeum (see figure 2). Just left of the propylaeum was the temple of Zeus Asklepius (C), a round building covered with a dome that was decorated with mosaics. In the circular cella of the temple stood a statue of the god. At the center of the Asklepieion were the fountain (D) and the clay and water pools (E), famous for their healing waters. An underground passageway led from the pools to the '"TelesphorBuilding" (G). This large round building south of the temple is thought to have been the treatment building. Probably the patients who had taken baths or been rubbed with the sacred mud could go from the pools

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ETI, December 1978

through the tunnel to the treatment building. Near the pools was a complex of rooms, some large and some small, where the patients may have slept. On the right side of the propylaeum was the library (I). In a niche of its east wall, archeologists discovered a statue of the Emperor Hadrian, who may have been one of its patrons. The library was not a medical library and was probably for the use of the patients.16 From the library a colonnade ran along the north side of the Asklepieion to the "holy theatre" (J). This Roman structure was built in the second century A.D., probably on the site of an older theatre. The orchestra is a half circle and around it are the seats of the cavea. The cavea has six aisles and is in two sections separated by a diazoma. The lower section has been reconstructed. At one time the scaenae frons had three stories of columns and gables of white marble, but nothing of this remains. According to an inscription, a man (whose name is lost) founded the theatre in honor of Asklepius and Athena Hygieia.17 The sanctuary at Pergamon achieved its greatest reputation during the second century A.D., when the great physician Galenus practiced there. It is interesting to note that a new hospital now under construction for the present city of Bergama is located on a hill just above the ancient sanctuary. How were the patients treated at the sanctuaries to Asklepius? The evidence seems to be that people who wanted to be cured came to the shrine at evening. They bathed in cold water-sometimes in the sea. Each suppliant brought thin, flat cakes pierced with holes for the sacrifice. These cakes were sweetened and dipped in wine, oil, or honey, and were burned, along with incense, on the altar.18In Aristophanes' Plutus, Cario, the slave who recounts the healing of the blind Plutus, says that they took honey cakes and bakemeats, "food for the Hephaestian flame." Since Aristophanes is satirizing the worship of the god, he has Cario describe what happened to some of the cakes: Then, glancingupward,I beheld the priest and Whippingthe cheesecakes the figs from off The holy table; thencehe coastedround To every altar, spyingwhat was left. And everythinghe found he consecrated Into a sort of sack ... .19 At night the suppliant put on a white gown and slept on his pallet in the Abaton, and during the night the god appeared to him. In the second century A.D., Aristides, the orator and a frequent patient, described the strange presence of the god when he revealed the remedy to him: It was revealedin the clearestway possible,just as countlessother thingsalso made the presenceof the god manifest.ForI seemedalmost to touch him and to perceivethat he himselfwas coming,and to be halfwaybetweensleepand wakingand to want to get the and powerof vision and to be anxiouslest he departbeforehand, to have turnedmy ears
16

Ibid., p. 41.

17 Ibid., p. 47. 1' Alice Walton, p. 79.

19The Complete Plays of Aristophanes, ed. Moses Hadas (New York, 1962), p. 486.

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ASKLEPIUS AND THE THEATRE

to listen, sometimesas in a dream, sometimesas in a waking vision, and my hair was standingon end and tears of joy, and the weight of knowledgewas no burden-what man could even set these thingsforth in words?20 Sometimes the god used a salve or a drug or occasionally made an incision. Sometimes he used only his hand or a cloth to wipe away the pain. Occasionally he called forth a dog or a serpent, who licked the patient and thus cured him. Cario describes the treatment for Plutus. Cario and Plutus have made their pallets and lain down along with many other patients, but Cario cannot sleep so he watches when the god comes: So then, alarmed,I muffledup my head, While he went round, with calm and quiet tread, To every patient, scanningeach disease. Then by his side a servantplaceda stone Pestle and mortar;and a medicinechest . . . Then, after this, he sat him down by Plutus, And first he felt the patient'shead, and next Takinga linen napkin,clean and white, Wipedboth his lips, and all aroundthem, dry. Then Panaceawith a scarletcloth Coveredhis face and head; then the god clucked, And out thereissuedfrom the holy shrine Two greatenormousserpents.... the And underneath scarletcloth they crept And licked his eyelids, as it seemedto me; And, mistressdear, before you could have drunk Of wine ten goblets, Plutusarose and saw.2' In the earlier days the testimonies recount that the patient was cured when he awakened the next morning. In Hellenistic times and later, the god often advised a treatment such as applying mud or ashes from the altar, taking rides or exercise, going swimming in the sea or rivers or in the bath house.22 It would seem that the god sometimes even advised the writing of odes or comic mimes. Galenus wrote in his De Sanitate Tuenda: "And not a few men, however many years they were ill through the disposition of their souls, we have made healthy by correcting the disproportion of their emotions. No slight witness of the statement is also our ancestral god Asklepius who ordered not a few to have odes written as well as to compose comical mimes and certain songs (for the motions of their passions, having become more vehement, have made the temperature of the body warmer than it should be)."23 We wonder if these compositions prescribed by the god were performed. After the cure, the patients made sacrifices and offerings of thanksgiving to the god. Some wealthy persons held public sacrifices and celebrations when large animals were sacrificed to the god, but the most common sacrifice for the individual was a cock. In the mime The Sacrificers to Asklepius, written by Herodas in the

20 21 22 23

Aristides Oratio 48, as quoted by Edelstein, I, 210-211. Aristophanes, pp. 487-488; Panacea was another daughter of Asklepius. Some of the treatments are summarized from the inscriptions by Edelstein, II, 151-153. 1. 8, 19-21, as quoted by Edelstein, I, 303.

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fourth century B.C., Kokkale, a woman who has come to the shrine at Cos, brings a cock for sacrifice. She prays to the god: "O Father and Healer, receive here graciously this cock my herald, which roosted on my walls, which I offer, a poor dish for thy banquet. For we don't have big takings else we would have brought, if we could, an ox or a pig covered with fat instead of a cock as a thank offering for healing when thou didst stretch out thine holy hand and didst wipe away all our diseases."24 Votive offerings were often made by grateful patients who had been healed. The most common were models of parts of the body or stones with engraved designs of the part of the body healed-an ear, an eye, or a leg-along with an inscription.25 A thank offering might be money, or an altar to Asklepius, or a relief representing the god. Alexander the Great left his breastplate and spear as a thank offering. Some grateful worshippers wrote literary compositions or songs. Alice Walton, in her study of the cult of Asklepius, concluded that there were four periods in the history of the Asklepieion. At first there was only the worship of Asklepius and consultation by dreams. Later, a priest aided in the interpretation of dreams by his practical knowledge of simple remedies. In the third stage the priests were divided into two groups: those who presided over the observance of the ritual and those who interpreted the dreams and assisted with the cures. The last stage was reached when a school of physicians, called Asklepiadae, became associated with the temples. The cures in this later period were not the work of a night, but the result of an extended course of treatment.26 Was the theatre within the Asklepieion associated with the healing rites? Musa Baran says of the Roman theatre in the Asklepieion there: "Although some plays and concerts took place in this theatre, the main performance was the cult ceremonies."27 There is, actually, very little information about the use of the theatres in the sanctuaries, but we can glean some insight from the ancient writers. In the sanctuaries the god was honored with regular public sacrifices performed by the priests. The frequency of these sacrifices varied. In Cos there was a public sacrifice each month. Sacrifices were also made at the beginning of the new year or at the consecration of a priest, and sometimes special sacrifices of thanksgiving or supplication were decreed. In later centuries, temple services were held at least twice a day, in the morning and at dusk. At these temple services hymns were sung, and the larger temples had their own choirs. Aside from the regular temple services, there were also public festivals. In Athens, the main festival of Asklepius was celebrated on the day preceding the Great Dionysia. This was also the day of the Proagon when the poets and actors marched

24 Herodas, The Characters of Theophrastos, The Mimes of Herodas, The Tablet of Kebes, trans. R. Thomson Clark (London, 1909), pp. 79-80. 25 Some of these stone votive offerings were found in the sanctuary at Pergamon and are now in the Bergama Museum. 26 Alice Walton, p. 67. 27 Troy, Pergamon, Sardis, Izmir, and its Surroundings, trans. Hulya Terzioglu (Izmir, Turkey, n.d.), p. 43.

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AND THE THEATRE ASKLEPIUS

in a procession to the Odeon and each poet mounted a platform with his actors to announce the subjects of the plays which he was about to produce. The procession was supervised by the Archon as were the theatre festivals themselves.28 In Epidaurus, when the yearly festival took place, the noblest citizens, clad in white with their hair flowing loose, marched solemnly from the city to the Asklepieion. They carried laurel wreaths and branches of blossoming olive, and chanted hymns of praise to Apollo and Asklepius.29 The song characteristic of the worship of Asklepius was the paean, a choral hymn accompanied by a kithara, which recounted the story of the god's life.30 Later there were prose hymns known as "encomia" which may be compared with modern sermons. Aristides recounted that his friend, Philadelphus, had dreamed "that in the holy theatre there was a crowd of people clad in white, gathering in honor of the god; and standing among them I [Aristides] made a speech and sang the praises of the god 3."1 This account seems to indicate that the public festivals in honor of .... the god took place in the "holy theatre" and that speeches in the god's honor were given. Apuleius, another orator of the second century A.D. and also a worshipper of Asklepius, frequently delivered his speeches in the theatres.32 Asklepius, as we have seen from the writings of Galenus, sometimes ordered the writing of odes, songs, and "comical mimes" as treatment. Aristides, who had respiratory trouble along with many other ailments, was told by the god "that I should speak and write when I could hardly breathe.""33In fact, it was Asklepius who, in many dreams, encouraged Aristides to take up once more his study of rhetoric in spite of his ill health. His health improved sufficiently for him to begin again to speak in public and to gain a great reputation for his oratory. He added Theodorus, meaning "Gift of the God," to his name in appreciation of the strength and ability which he credited to Asklepius.j" In 'The Address to Asklepius," given about 177 A.D. (possibly for the festival of the Night Vigil at Pergamon), Aristides said: "I am the performer. For you yourself have made me turn towards speeches, and of my profession you have been the leader."35 Aristides credited Asklepius with giving him not only the strength and the ability to succeed as an orator but also the creative inspiration: 'To us, however, he has revealed knowledge and melodies and the subjects of speeches and in addition the ideas themselves and even the wording, just like those who teach children to read

28 Arthur Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 2nd ed., rev. John Gould and D. M. Lewis (Oxford, 1968), pp. 65, 67. from an inscription from Epidaurus quoted by Alice Walton, p. 70. 29 Paraphrased 30 The oldest and most famous of these hymns was composed by Sophocles. Part of the hymn is still legible on the stone. Inscriptiones Graecae, II. 4510, as quoted by Edelstein, I, 326. 31 Aristides Oratio 48, as quoted by Edelstein, I, 416. 32 This is evidenced by references to the theatre in his speeches. See Lucius Apuleius, The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura, trans. H. E. Butler (Oxford, 1909), pp. 164-165, 200. 33 Aristides Oratio 42, as quoted by Edelstein, I, 161. 34 C. A. Behr, Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales (Amsterdam, 1968), p. 43. 35 Aristides Oratio 42, as quoted by Edelstein, I, 162.

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and write."36The god commanded Aristides "to spend time on songs and lyric verse, and to relax and maintain a chorus of boys."37 Aristides' lyrics were given public presentations, for in his Sacred Tales he relates: "And then I also gave public choral performances, ten in all, some of boys and some of men .... And this took place at my first staging of the chorus.""38 Probably the thank offerings, like Aristides' choral performances, were presented in the theatre. Even Alexander the Great gave thanks to Asklepius, for his biographer tells us that: "At Soli Alexander sacrificed to Asklepius, and staged a procession, himself and his whole army, with a torch relay race and athletic and literary competitions."39 Contests and games became a part of the ritual honoring Asklepius. From the end of the fifth century the contests at Epidaurus are referred to as those of Asklepius. They were held every five years and were mainly gymnastic, but musical contests were also held. In Plato's dialogue Ion, Socrates is surprised that Ion, a rhapsodist, has been to Epidaurus to participate in a contest: in What! Do the citizensof Epidaurus, honoringthe god, have a contest SOCRATES: betweenrhapsodes,too? Indeedthey do. They have every sort of musicalcompetition.40 ION: An ancient inscriptionseems to indicate that there were harp contests, for Stratonicus, who lived about 400 B.C., dedicated a trophy in the temple of Asklepius with the inscription that it came "from the spoils of bad harp-players."414 The inscriptions also tells us of someone named Nikokles of Athens who won many prizes for his kithara playing.42Some inscriptionsfound at Epidaurusand at Halicarnassusimply that at the games celebrated in honor of Asklepius at Epidaurus there were prizes given for dramatic as well as for athletic and musical victories.43 It is probable that the musical and literary competitions were held in the theatres or odea connected with the shrines to Asklepius, but were there plays performed at the festivals in honor of Asklepius? Usener and Wilamowitz believe that every ancient cult included a religious play portraying the divine myth. There is little known about the mystery plays because, evidently, the worshippers were warned against telling the secrets of the celebrations. We know the most about the Eleusinian mysteries, which told the story of Demeter and Persephone. In the excavations at Eleusis the ruins of a great hall of initiation were found during excavation. The hall was about one hundred and seventy feet square and all around the walls were stone seats, eight tiers high, capable of holding about three thousand people. The archeol-

36 Ibid.
37 Behr,
38

p. 261. Ibid., p. 263.

3 Flavius Arrianus, The Life of Alexander the Great, trans. Aubrey de Selincourt (Harmondsworth, Eng., 1958), p. 65. 40 Trans. Lane Cooper (London, 1938), p. 78. 41 Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, trans. Charles Burton Gulick (London, 1927), 4. 93. 42 Alice Walton,p. 73 n. 43 Cavvadias, I, 65, 77, 78, inscriptions 189, 191, 238, 239, 240.

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ogists and scholars believe that mystery plays were performed here. The first evening a play perhaps recounted the story of Demeter's search for her daughter and the return of the daughter with Triptolemus, who brought knowledge of the sowing and reaping of corn. The second drama on the next night is thought to have told the Orphic myth of the birth and death of Zabreus, the chthonic Dionysus. At Eleusis, the mysteries were followed by games called the Eleusinia and the presentation of tragedies in the theatre.44 Asklepius is sometimes associated with the Eleusinian goddesses,45 and there may have been such celebrations in connection with the Asklepian cult. In fact, there is one reference to a mystery play performed in the cult of Asklepius Glycon. On the first day was told the story of the birth of Apollo, his marriage to Coronis, and the birth of Asklepius. On the second day there was the appearance of Glycon, and on the third day the union of Podalirius and the mother of Alexander was recounted.46 In Cos the contests held every fifth year in honor of Asklepius had special magnificence because they were connected with the Dionysiac festival. Also in Cos a festival called 'The Taking Up the Staff" occurred on the same day as the annual national festival. This may have been a dramatization of the introduction of the Asklepian cult into Cos, or it may have been a ritual accompanying the transfer of power to a new priest.47 Besides the "holy plays" or mysteries and the plays given in competition, there were dialogues and plays written in praise of or in thanks to Asklepius. In a speech delivered in Carthage, Apuleius, that boastful orator of the second century A.D., said: "Now, therefore, I will begin by speaking of the god Asklepius .... See, I will to you both in Greek and Latin a hymn which I have composed to his glory and sing long since dedicated to him .. . . I have prefaced it with a dialogue likewise in both tongues, in which Sabidius Severus and Julius Persius shall speak together. "48 There were at least three plays with the title Asklepius. One was written by Aristarchus, a tragic poet of the fifth century B.C. A fragment of an inscription tells us that: "Aristarchus of Tegea, the tragic poet, is ill of some disease. Then Asklepius cures him and commands thank offerings for the restoration of his health. The poet offers the play with the same name as the god. Never would the gods demand money for health, nor would they even accept it."49 In the first half of the fourth century B.C. Philetaerus wrote a play called Asklepius, but we know little about it. About the same time, Antiphanes wrote a comedy called by the god's name. The main

" Percy Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History (London, 1892), pp. 386-398. The author summarizes the findings and the conjectures of the archeologists after the excavations at Eleusis. A relief of the first half of the fourth century shows Asklepius with Demeter and Persephone. The 45 two goddesses had an altar in the Asklepieion at Epidaurus. Alice Walton, p. 74. 46 This play is referred to by H. Usener, Archiv fur Religions-wissenschaft (Leipzig, 1904), VII, 281 ff., and by Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen (Berlin, 1931, 1932), I, 301. The play is summarized from the testimonies by Edelstein, II, 213, note. 47 Alice Walton, pp. 71-72. 41 Apuleius, pp. 205-206. 49Aelianus Fragmenta 101, as quoted by Edelstein, I, 261-262.

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character was a doctor, possibly Asklepius himself. Athenaeus tells us one humorous incident in the play: "The doctor pounded a little rootlet, and enticing her with the bait of a deep and generous-sized lepaste, he made that old hag, the one who has been sick so very long, the one soaked with beer, drink it all up."50 We know that Theopompus, a comic poet and a contemporary of Aristophanes, was cured of consumption by Asklepius and was once again able to present a comedy.51 Might he have presented it in the theatre as a thank offering to the god? Plautus's Curculio is based on a Greek play of the third century B.C., and it has been suggested that the original play might have been written for the theatre at Epidaurus because it is set in front of a shrine to Asklepius.52 From the inscriptions and literary references concerning the cult of Asklepius, it seems probable that the theatre within or near the shrine was used as a gathering place for people following the processions in honor of the god. In the theatre hymns were sung and encomia given glorifying the god's powers. Some mystical rites and possibly mystery plays were performed in the theatres. Also, musical and literary contests were held there, and there may have been dramatic contests that were a part of the celebration for the god. Literary and musical compositions that were written as thank offerings to the god were probably also presented in the theatres. In Roman times and later, when the treatment was for an extended time, the Asklepieion may have been like a modern health spa where patients were provided with many forms of entertainment. There were the baths, the libraries, and the theatres; and in the ruins of the shrine at Epidauruseven gaming tables were found. Thus doctors could keep their patients happily occupied. The early doctors, priests of Asklepius, like today's modern physicians, seemed to think that the emotional state of their patients was an important part of their cure. The theatre may have played an important role in that cure.

50 51 52

Athenaeus,5. 155.
Suidas, Lexicon s.v. Theopompos, as quoted by Edelstein, I, 262. E. Legrand, "Observations sur le 'Curculio'," Revue des Etudes Anciennes 7 (1905), 25-29.