Object Description
A typed ten paged document stapled together and is composed out of paper and black ink. The document, assumed lecture paper, is broken down into three paragraphs. Located at the top center of the page is the number -3-. The document reads, "The wounds of conquest by establishing a gentle cut of healing. Apollo's priests instituted dream interpretation for oracular diagnosis and treatment. They also abolished the sacred rites associated with mistletoe, the name of which, isias, is related to that of Ischys, and also to that of Ision, who were Koronis' lover and brother respectively. The mistletoe was the herb of life, remaining green in winter when the oak in which it grew seemed dead. Its berrie yirld a juice, a chylus, which was thought to have powerful life-giving effects. It may have been mistletoe which Asklepios was later reputed to have used in restorning life, as suggested to him by a snake. This incident may refer to a regression on the part of Apollonian priesthood to earlier chthonic practices. The mistletoe was considered to be the genitals of the oak, and figured in Celtic ritualistic emasculation, as a somber reminder of the earlier death and mutilation of the oak-hero-king. Graves suggest that Aesculapius, the Latin form of Asklepios, means :that which hangs from the oak", and may have been an earlier title for the Thessalonian hero who later became the gentle one. Who comprised the composite her-healer Asklepios? An answer to this question may be inferred from the many shrines scattered through the Hellenic world which may have originated locally. The tales told of the various local healing-heroes seem to have been blended into the composite myth of Asklepios during the 1st millennium B.C. The local origins of various healing hero-gods is suggested by Guthrie. He indicates the primordial earthly character of the classical figure of Asklepios, and definitely places him among the chthoniori , the powers of the oarth, or underworld, who controls fertility, and take care of all who dies. Guthrie also finds the moral in the classic Asklepian myths: mortals compete with […]."
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