The Cult of Asklepios
The mysterious “priest-doctors” who founded Western Medicine
The study of Medicine is one of the oldest forms of science in human history. Its roots extend deep into our past, when our early ancestors, while roaming the Earth, discovered that some herbs were beneficial for them and the animals, while others were catastrophic and could lead to death. In the modern Western World, Medicine is a highly respected science, whose foundation lies in the works of ancient Greek and Roman physicians.
But how did Medicine passed from being a mystical power possessed by shamans and priests, to an advanced scientific field in the hands of the common people? When did it first appeared in ancient Greece? Who were the first doctors and what knowledge did they possess? Let’s try and find some answers as we explore the roots of ancient Greek Medicine.
The Mythological Origins of Medicine
The first historical references of medical practice in ancient Greece mention this sacred knowledge of saving lives, as being held by the members of a mysterious cult, known as the “Cult of Asklepios”. The people of this cult were the first who gathered extensive knowledge regarding the symptoms of various diseases, the effects of different herbs and poisons, and the therapies to counter various forms of illness.
As the name suggests, the Cult of Asklepios centered around Asklepios, the ancient Greek god of Medicine. According to the myth, Asklepios was the mortal son of god Apollo and the most famous doctor of all time. He spent his youth studying near centaur Chiron, who lived on mountain Pelio and was a known healer in Greek mythology. He learned the positive and negative effects of all different kinds of herbs, mushrooms, and poisons that were known to man and unlocked the long-kept secrets of life and death. Legend has it that goddess Athena herself aided him in his studies when she handed him the blood of Medusa which, if taken by the moster’s right vein, could resurrect the dead or, if taken by its left, kill every living being who would drink it.
After finishing his studies, Asklepios started traveling all over Greece to help people with his knowledge. He was a kind man, who did not charge his services and dedicated himself for the good of mankind. Unfortunately, his unnatural powers soon reached the ears of the gods. Hades was furious with him for stealing his “customers” by healing hundreds of moribund patients. He went to Olympus and complained to Zeus, that Asklepios — a mortal — was messing with the Laws of Cosmos. Zeus, probably influenced by Apollo, did not interfere with the young doctor. However, he sent him a warning that if he ever dared to use the blood of Medusa and bring a dead person back to life, he would be instantly killed, for he would have broken the Laws of Nature, which the gods themselves had created. Asklepios obeyed his order, but when a dear friend of his died, he couldn’t resist the temptation and brought him back to life. Zeus then stroke Asklepios with a thunderbolt, thus ending the life of the greatest doctor to ever live on Earth.
Zeus would later regret his decision and, after the pleads of Apollo, brought Asklepios back to life, this time as an immortal. Being a god now, Asklepios became the patron of Medicine. He ordered his three sons and five daughters to continue his legacy and teach humanity the art of medicine. His most famous son, Machaon, became the first military surgeon serving the Greeks in the Trojan War, while his brother, Podaleirios, became the first psychologist who treated the “invisible wounds of the psyche”. Asklepios’ daughter, Hygeia, gave her name to the modern words “hygiene” and “Υγεία”, which is the modern Greek word for “health”.
The Historical Journey of Ancient Greek Medicine
The myth of Asklepios includes many fascinating historical pieces of information. Let’s start with the god himself. Originally, Asklepios wasn’t a god, or a priest, not even a powerful demigod. He was a mortal, who gained his supernatural knowledge by studying. Before him, Medicine belonged to the sphere of the Divine. Apollo was a healer, centaur Cheiron was a healer. But their healing powers were not the subject of a well-established scientific field. Instead, they were part of the abstract concept of “Sacred Wisdom”, which gods and mythological beings usually held.
Asklepios took this divine knowledge and separated it from the concept of abstract wisdom, thus making Medicine an independent field, centering around the treatment of diseases by using drugs. He made the first step into transforming Medicine from a divine gift of the few to a science held by many.
We can draw parallels between the myth of Asklepios and the older story of Imhotep, who was the first historically mentioned Egyptian physician and later became a god of Medicine as well. This comes as no surprise since it is known that ancient Greek Medicine traces its origins to Egyptian Medicine and was heavily influenced by the latter. Egypt was the first civilization to practice Medicine and the Egyptian doctors were famous throughout antiquity for their skills and professionalism. Much like Asklepios, Imhotep, who lived circa 2600 BCE, was a famous physician, known for his unnatural powers. He was also a priest of Ra, who much like Apollo, was a sun god and healer.
The ancient Greeks tended to equate Asklepios with Imhotep. It is likely that since Greek Medicine was heavily influenced by the more advanced Egyptian one and adopted many of its elements, the Greeks may have also adopted the story of Imhotep and included it into their own mythology.
In the Greek myth, the sons and daughters of Asklepios became the founders of Asklepios’ Cult, through which they shared their medical knowledge with their followers. The Cult of Asklepios was the primary source of medical support throughout the archaic and classical period in Greece and kept having great influence up to the Hellenistic and Roman times (Wall, 2011, 8). We can draw the conclusion that in its early stages, Greek Medicine, or at least its most advanced form, belonged almost exclusively to the members of this cult, whose leaders claimed to be the direct ancestors of Asklepios, thus belonging to the large Askleipiades family tree.
We know that Mycenaean Greeks (Asklepios and its children lived during the Trojan war, so they were Mycenaeans) had strong relations with the Egyptians. Historically speaking, it is likely that the first members of the cult studied Medicine in Egypt or came into contact with it and brought the story of the “doctor who became god” along with their medical knowledge back to Greece. The Trojan War, where the sons of Asklepios participated, is believed to have taken place around the 12–11th centuries. It is plausible to think that the cult must have formed around the time of the Bronze Age collapse, after the Trojan War, perhaps trying to preserve the medical knowledge that was inherited from Egypt.
Antiquity’s First Hospitals: The Asklepeions
The Cult of Asklepios did not follow the path of nomadic traveling as their patron god did. Instead, they chose to reside in large healing temples known as Asklepeions. The earliest known Asklepeion was located in Trikka (modern-day Trikala), in Thessaly, near the mountain Pelio, where Asklepios is said to have studied (Tzitzis, Maronidou, 2014, 167). The cult’s origins are traced there. From Trikka the worship of Asklepios expanded all over Greece. Thanks to their advanced medical knowledge, the Asklepeions quickly became famous for their incredible powers. Over 300 of them have been found by now in almost every major ancient Greek city. The most famous Asklepeions are the ones of Athens, Epidaurus, Kos, Pergamus, and Trikka.
The temples were advanced therapeutic centers and the first hospitals of the ancient world. They were usually located outside the main city, in a quiet place, close to nature, preferably near a river, the sea, or a forest. Some were erected near hot springs and thermal baths (Tzitzis, Maronidou, 2014, 167). Location was very important. Its purpose was to relax the patient and make him forget about his daily problems.
A notable characteristic of these sanctuaries is that both women and men were allowed to enter, both as patients and doctors.
Once inside the Asklepeion, the patient was treated by the members of the cult who shared the double role of “priest-doctor”. The process was as follows: First, the priests were asking the patient what his health problem was in order to examine his symptoms. Once done, they searched the vast records of their libraries, which contained centuries of wisdom regarding the treatments of various diseases and forms of illness, to find out the patient’s case. After having a diagnosis, they made him follow a specific program to treat him. This program, much like the whole cult, was a mixture of religious and health practices. The patient was instructed to take walks through nature, sleep a lot, have a specialized diet often consisted of vegetables, herbs, and legumes, make offerings to the god, and pray daily (Tzitzis, Maronidou, 2014, 168). Various forms of massages, loutrotherapies, orthopedic exercises to relieve pain, ointments, and simple surgeries were also common (Tzitzis, Maronidou, 2014, 168).
Finally, there were also therapies made for the patient’s psychology. An impressive innovation regarding proper medical treatment, which traces its roots to the Cult of Asklepios, was the belief that disease had a physical and psychological impact on the patient. Both of them were given equal attention! While in the Asklepeions, the patients enjoyed being in nature, having contact with dogs and non-venomous snakes — the sacred animals of Asklepios, which roamed freely the temples — , and watching concerts and theatrical plays to raise their spirits (Tzitzis, Maronidou, 2014, 168)!
For the most serious situations, there was another final treatment, the “Ekoimisis”. This was a sacred ceremony, known only to the members of the cult. The patient was taken a cocktail of herbs and then was instructed to sleep inside the temple’s sacred chamber, where no one else was allowed to enter (UK Diss, 2019). During his sleep, he had multiple dreams and visions in which Asklepios himself descended from Olympus to treat him. Other times the sacred snake of the god, which according to the myth was entwined in his rod and whispered him the treatment for every disease known to man, visited the patient and whispered in his ears the therapy that needed to follow.
The Ekoimisis was a “Mysterio” meaning that both the cult members and the patient gave a sacred oath not to reveal what happened inside the chamber. The most plausible hypothesis is that after receiving his herb cocktail which possibly caused hallucinations and hypnosis, the patient was visited by the priests, who were dressed like Asklepios, or were holding the temple’s sacred snakes in their hands, which were then placed on his body.
Epilogue
We don’t know whether the Ekoimisis actually involved any actual medical treatment, or if it worked as a placebo effect, by convincing the patient that he was cured by divine intervention (Wall, 2011, 59). What we know for sure is that the Asklepeions and their healing methods were highly effective and accepted by the majority of the Greek world (Wall, 2011, 8)! This is proved by the large number of them in every important ancient Greek center, the popularity of Asklepios worship which remained alive for almost 1000 years, and the numerous “anathimata”, meaning the amulets and inscriptions, that the cured patients dedicated to the god’s altars, which have been found inside the Asklepeions (Wall, 2011, 29–30).
In a world where disease was thought to be a divine punishment or a demonic possession (Wall, 2011, 3), the Cult of Asklepios used highly advanced methods of treatments, many of which are used even today. The contact with animals, the use of a calm, relaxing environment, and the observation of musical and theatrical plays are still used as a method to cure various psychological illnesses, ranging from common anxiety to depression. The use of thermal baths, exercise, and healthy nutrition are followed today as a method of curing, always combined with modern rational medicine. To these, we need to add the deep study of botanology, the trial and error experiments, and the storage of medical knowledge in order to cure future similar incidents. The Cult’s members were also the first ones to realize that in order to treat a patient, he needs to stay in specialized buildings, where he would be given professional medical care by experts.
The Cult of Asklepios was a unique case where religion laid the foundations of what would become the science of Medicine. It is worth noting that Hippocrates, the “Father of Western Medicine”, spent his youth studying in the Asclepeion of Kos (Wall, 2011, 14). Much like Asklepios, he had his own mountain Pelio and centaur Chiron to teach him the secrets of this wonderful art of saving lives. Hippocrates would be the one who would cut the ties of Medicine with religion and made doctors a group of well-established professionals.
Today, the name of Asklepios is forgotten, and he is not even considered a major god of the Greek pantheon. But his name still survives in the Hippocratic Oath, which every young doctor takes when he starts his career. The first line of the oath starts as follows:
“I swear by Apollo the Healer, by Asklepios, by Hygeia, by Panacea…”
The names of Asklepios and his children, the mythological founders of the Cult, still survive and are used to save lives. Their legacy remains alive, each time a new doctor takes the Hippocratic Oath, to serve mankind and remain loyal to the sacred medical ethics.
Bibliography
Wall, L., K., (2011), A Referral Relationship: The Hippocratic Doctors and the
Asklepios Cult in the Ancient Medical Marketplace, Davidson College
UK Diss.com, (2019), Asclepius and His Animals’ Roles in Healing, available at https://ukdiss.com/examples/asclepius-animal-roles-healing.php, (last access: 18/07/2021)
Tzitzis, P., M., Maronidou Tzouveleki, M., (2014), Medical practice applied in the ancient Asclepeion in Kos island, available at http://www.nuclmed.gr/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/3-6.pdf, (last access: 18/07/2021)
