Hippocrates and the newly discovered health temple at Cos / Richard Caton.

  • Richard Caton
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hippocrates and the newly discovered health temple at Cos / Richard Caton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    it has at Epidaurus), but none has as yet been discovered. Another link, however, connects this altar with Alexandria. Herondas, the Alexandrian poet of the third century b.c., wrote eight “Mime- iambics,” comic dramatic poems, the scenes of which are all laid at Cos. The action of the fourth of these takes place in front of this altar. Two Greek ladies, accompanied by their slaves, desire to offer a cock to Asklepios. During the sacrifice they chat with the pyro- phorus, or sacristan, who shows much enthusiasm on the subject of fees, and they comment on certain works of art, a sacrificial pro- cession by Apelles, and a figure of a small boy strangling a goose, which are placed near the altar. Quantities of terra-cotta lamps and figurines were found round this altar. To the west of the altar stands an Ionic prostyle temple, 16 metres in length and 8 in breadth. Its dedication is unknown. But there is evidence from inscriptions that a temple of Apollo formerly existed here; Apollo being one of the greater gods would have his temple facing the east, and this temple is the only one in the whole precinct which has tile correct orientation for so great a deity. The worship of Apollo which perhaps took place here was probably superseded by that of Asklepios in later times. So this temple may have become the Asklepian shrine until the date when the great temple was erected on the upper terrace. It contains one curious feature: a large stone cyst or coffer composed of massive marble blocks forms a portion of the floor of the naos ; it is about 5 feet long by 4, and is about 3 feet deep. The side blocks were connected by strong metal clamps. The weighty block forming the lid is pierced in its centre by an aperture some 6 inches broad. Dr. Herzog thinks it is a thesauros, or treasury. But the difficulty of removing the massive cover (which has no rings or handles for such a purpose) would render it almost impossible to deposit or remove such treasure. It is known that at every Asklepieion the sacred serpents were worshipped as the incarnation of the god. They were tame and harmless, and were free to wander at will throughout the precinct. They probably were supplied with a den or hiding place to which they could retire, and it would obviously be convenient if this den were adjacent to the small altar where sacrifices were offered to them, and where they were fed with the sacrificial cakes, or “ popana,” by their votaries. At Epidaurus, a curious dark labyrinthine vault was provided beneath the thymele, or sacrificing place. This I believe to have been the ophiseion, or serpent house, from which the serpents emerged close to the altar when the sick came to sacrifice and to feed them. We know from a reference in the Plutus of Aristophanes that the serpents were accustomed to be summoned by the sound of a whistle. A somewhat similar structure, on a smaller scale, exists at the Athens Asklepieion. There are, however, other theories as to the
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