Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [112]
From ancient records, we know that the Greeks held Asclepius in very high esteem. During plagues and in times of illness, the Greeks prayed to him for help and relief, setting up special temples where they went to communicate with him. Epidaurus, the site of several ancient Greek ruins including a famous outdoor theater built in the 300s BCE, was a special gathering place of the first physicians, who were known as the Asclepians. The ruins of an ancient temple honoring their patron was also found near the Epidaurus theater, apparently a place where many sick people went in hope that Asclepius would cure them through their dreams while they slept in a nearby guesthouse. By 200 BCE, according to Roy Porter’s history of medicine, Blood and Guts, every Greek city-state had its temple to the god, where sick pilgrims slept overnight in special incubation chambers before an image of the healer god.
The admiration for Asclepius in Rome was equal to that of Greece. Not only did the Romans build a major shrine to the healing god after their city was delivered from a plague, they equipped the Asclepian temples with baths to capitalize on the healing power of water. The priests of Asclepius supposedly had extensive knowledge of herbal cures and other natural remedies—what we might call “alternative” treatments today—and crowds flocked to the “spas” of the ancient experts for these remedies as people today seek out spa treatments around the world.
Interestingly, the revered Asclepius gets into trouble in Greek myth when he oversteps his bounds. This happens when he uses his healing gifts to try and revive a dead man. Offended by this, Hades complains to Zeus, who delivers to Asclepius the same fate as Apollo had dealt his mother—Asclepius is killed with a thunderbolt and sent to the underworld. When Apollo discovers what has happened, he grants Asclepius divine status as the god of medicine.
MYTHIC VOICES
I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:
I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional practice or not in connection with it, I see or hear in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot!
—from the Hippocratic Oath (original version)
Was Hippocrates a man or myth?
In contrast to the mythical Asclepius, there is a historical basis to the life of the other most famous doctor of ancient Greece, Hippocrates. (430?-380? BCE). Often called the father of medicine, Hippocrates was a well-known ancient physician who practiced medicine on the Greek island of Cos. Hippocrates challenged the notion of using magic, myth, and witchcraft to treat disease. Taking the fairly radical step of dismissing “root-gatherers, diviners and others whom they dismissed as ignoramuses and quacks,” as medical historian Roy Porter writes, Hippocrates and his followers