Specialty Greek and Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology: From the Bronze Age Palaces to the Hellenistic Kingdoms
Library of the School of Philosophy

2020-11-07

2020

Buck Zach

Stylianos Katakis, Assistant Professor of Roman Archaeology
Dimitris Plantzos, Αssociate Professor of Classical Archaeology
Eurydice Kefalidou, Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology

The Phenomenology of Healing in the Cult of Asklepios: Evidence from the Athenian and other Sanctuaries

English

The Phenomenology of Healing in the Cult of Asklepios: Evidence from the Athenian and other Sanctuaries

This thesis endeavours to explain how the stages of incubatory ritual and the traits of materials at Asklepieia were crucial components in incubation’s mental healing procedures within the Asklepios cult. In Chapter 1, Asklepian incubation is introduced, and the evidence of its integration of rational medicine is covered. Chapter 2 covers the ritual sequence of Asklepian incubation through a review of the ancient epigraphic evidence and its modern discussions. Chapter 3 begins the phenomenological approach to Asklepian materials with a proposition that perception of these objects within the mental states afforded by the ritual procedure preceding sleep inspired endogenous healing experiences (namely, an oneiric epiphany of the deity and waking belief in its curative effect) without the necessary intercession of medical practitioners. Chapter 4 transitions to a discussion of the Athenian Asklepieion erected on the
south slope of the Acropolis in 420-19 BCE. This chapter draws attention to a
particularly convincing material record of the integration of rational practitioners in
the incubatory procedure — the Attic incubation reliefs, an overwhelming 17 of
which are assumed to hail from this site. The evidence from these images problematizes the purely endogenous picture of healing put forward in Chapter 3 and may suggest the engagement of physicians was a standard component in Asklepian healing even in the Classical period. As argued here, however, these reliefs can alternatively be taken as a record of the integration of the cultural image of the physician into the ideological milieu of the Asklepios cult as a newly dominant figure for what healing should look like in Athens, not necessarily an indicator of the actual activity of physicians at this site (though probably, in reality, a complement to such activities). This integration is read as a response to broader religious and health conditions in Athens, namely the recent plague and accompanying fallout of faith in traditional healing deities. The short final chapter reviews the findings.

Archaeology

archaeology, greek archaeology, classical archaeology, incubation, asklepios, cognitive science of religion

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https://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr/uoa/dl/object/2927341