Object ID
1999.20.34D
Object Name
Other Documents
Language
English
Donor
Mary Economidys
Object Entities
Economidys, Mary (collected by)
Economidou, Maria (subject)
Object Description
A typed ten paged document stapled together and composed out of paper and black ink. The document, assumed lecture paper, is broken down into three paragraphs with a note section at the end. Located at the top center of the page is the number -4-. The document reads, "the gods only at peril of destruction. Nevertheless, the heroes among men are those who do strive to equal the gods.^2 (look at the bottom of the page for more info) What brought about the consolidation of the wide-spread healing cult of Asklepios? A plausible answer is given by Dodds: the great pelage of 430 B.C. drove the people to seek a potent magic, since the growing rational medicine of the time, as exemplified in the Koan and Knidian schools, was ineffective. In 420 B.C. Asklepios was solemnly inducted into Athens in the form of a holy snake. The extent of the irrationality is evident from the fact that, until a temple was built over a spring near the Theater of Dionysius, below the Acropolis, the snake was kept by the great dramatic poet Sophocles. At this same period were built the imposing Asklepian temples at Epidaurus, Kos and Pergamon. And, to emphasize the paradox of Greek irrationality, at this same time when such honor was given the sacred medical reptile, the most rationally scientific of the Hippocratic treaties were written. The great rational Hippocratic writings derived, nonetheless, from the back-ground of the Asklepian cult. As Kerenyi emphasizes, they were compiled from the accumulated family tradition of the Asklepiads, the "sons of Asklepios", who traced their ancestry to Thessaly, and who may have comprised a stag-totem group associated with cypress groves.  Such a grove, sacred to Apollo, existed at Kos before the Asklepian temple was built."
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Citation
Other Documents, National Hellenic Museum, https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/Detail/objects/13786. Accessed 01/11/26.