The View from Delphi
Rhapsodies on Hellenic Wisdom &
An Ecstatic Appreciation of Western History
by Frank Marrero, Enelysios
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The Caduceus, “Temple Sleep,” and
the Religious Origins of Western Medicine
Every medical student knows that Hippocrates is the father of Western medicine, and that the symbol of the snake around the staff is called the caduceus. But few can say what kind of medicine Hippocrates practiced, and fewer still know the significance of the serpentined staff.
Hippocrates, a contemporary of Socrates, was the exalted healer who lived in Hellas (Greece) at the dawning of the Golden Age. As a healer, Hippocrates was known as an Asklepiades, or son of Asklepios (Aesclepios). At times, he was undoubtedly referred to as Hippocrates Asklepiades, with his last name indicating his trade, much like Smith. Imbued in his Hellenic healing tradition, Hippocrates carried "the staff of Asklepios" -- known to us by the Latin word caduceus (herald-staff). The temples wherein Hippocrates and every healer practiced their care were known as Asklepieia. Reflecting the ancient tradition, doctors today take the Hippocratic oath, but on their crest, office, and clothing, they carry the staff of Asklepios with its famous encircling snake. If logical Hippocrates is the Father of Medicine, divine Asklepios is the heralded grandfather.
Who was this Asklepios -- was there a real personage behind the myth? What were his healing methods and medicine? To what extent did Hippocrates learn from -- or understand -- his progenitor? And what do we know about that snake and staff?
We see the staff of Asklepios everywhere: at hospitals, doctors' offices, veterinarians, pharmacies, on medical magazines and ambulances, even the Starship Enterprise. Yet, it is always unexplained, being a symbol so universal that it has become unknown. Medical professionals proudly display the caduceus as a badge of their medical proficiency, but usually cannot tell their patients anything more about it than its name. This complete lack of knowledge needs remedy.
Let's take a look at what a coiled snake, a mythologized healer, and a set of ancient healing practices can tell us about the medicine we are -- and should be -- practicing.
The Snake of the Caduceus
What kind of talisman was the snake for the Hellenic forerunners of western civilization? What about the snake mythology appealed to the early philosophers? How did the Hellenes actually use the snakes? What impact and meaning did the snakes carry for our forebearers?
The single snake around Asklepios' staff was the coluber longissimus, a tree snake known as pareiai, "present," and later, also as phoinix, "the resurrected." These yellow-brown, "friendly" snakes were known to bask in the sunlight, hanging peacefully from trees, as they digested the disease-carrying rodents they had consumed. The friendly pareiai were associated with the deep rest of contentment.
When they did move, they were like works of art, as described by an ancient, unknown voice: "the elegant movements of the slender body, the shining brass-colored head -- as finely chiseled as the work of a goldsmith." Pausanias tells us that the pareiai were abundant throughout the Epidaurian Sanctuary and some were "enormous." He also mentions that a species, fairer than most, was unique to Epidavros. The pareiai were a healing tool, their uses ranging from licking wounds to even sleeping with pilgrims.
One of the most celebrated significances of the snake is the shedding of its skin, which symbolizes a new beginning and the ever-regenerating life. The skin-shedding snake was a primary symbol for the necessary death that precedes spiritual resurrection.
The snake's deathly significance is evinced in its poisonous bites, and when it swallows its prey whole, and when it slithers down into the earth. The mortal implication of being animal-bound has often been pictured in the snake, whose home is Chthonia, or the Underworld. From the half-snake, half-human typhon to temptation in Eden, from the tail of the devil to the hair of Medusa, the serpent carries a mortal message -- a fear that goes, as Emily Dickenson mused, to "the zero of the bone."
While the snake carried a reminder of death, it also has held mysteries of living knowledge. More primal and significant than the attributes of death and resurrection is the snake's enlivening role as a talisman. In the Asklepian tradition, the "friendly" coluber longissimus was used for its perceptual impact -- visual and feeling -- and its resonance to the central nervous system.
In our evolutionary heredity, the snake incarnates the bridge between worm and spine, between the dark underworld and the lighted earth. The snake's talismanic force can be discerned in this evolutionary leap to the spine. As spine, the range of energies, high and low, give the living awareness a brighter light and a truer rest than the dim worm. In evolutionary terms, the spine appears dramatically in the snake, and this reptilian backbone ontologically acts as a talisman or deep reminder of the innately ecstatic state accessible via the central nervous system in homo sapiens. More than worm or slug or mere chthonic flesh, the human nervous system uncoils to find energetic highs and lows, esoteric harmonies, and also sentient rest in primal simplicity -- an anciently described "celestial presence" made manifest via the healing power of the Asklepian snake.
Entire volumes could be written on the snake and its use as a fetish and an as an esoteric symbol. For now, let us simply appreciate the snake in its mulitdimensionality -- symbolizing and transmitting a deep knowledge of death, resurrection, rest, aliveness, even a celestial vibrance.
The History and Mythology of Asklepios
Asklepios was already the stuff of legends by Homer's time. He was said to have appeared as a living personage in many ages. Genealogical lines of healers can be traced to the name Asklepiadai, and we may infer that indeed there was a source personage appearing at the origin of the Western healing tradition. Thessaly claims his birth and folklore tells how his two sons carried his name and healing art south, to Kos and Epidavros. Asklepios and his sons seemed to have been so great in stature that myth, legend, family lines, and history have intermingled, leaving much factual uncertainty. But the reality, greatness, and influence of the Asklepian healing tradition are beyond doubt. Although we cannot separate myth and history, all the descriptions of the "physician hero" certainly reveal much of the spiritual art of the one or more personages that were called Asklepios.
Even in the myth of his conception, Asklepios was an epiphany: the divine Apollo was his father and the mortal princess Koronis his mother -- a natural intermingling of god and flesh. But Artemis, Apollo's twin sister, slayed the very pregnant Koronis and placed her body on a pyre, whence Apollo medically removed the infant and saved his love of mortal Koronis. Asklepios was said to resemble his grandfather, Zeus in His compassionate mood. Apollo gave his caring son into the care and instruction of the healing centaur, Chiron.
The mythic Chiron was the bearer of plant knowledge (pharmacopia,"spells against death") -- which historically had been in the hands of spiritual India, the inspired Middle East, and Africa's Egyptian fount. As "the mythological physician who was the precursor to the luminous physician," Chiron gave his gifts to the world via Asklepios and all healers that followed. But unlike all the other gods, Chiron gave humankind a unique gift: he became wounded, suffered illness, and died. He entered into the Underworld and forever carried his wound, giving caring healers access to the dark, chthonic disturbances and pain of their patients.
As a centaur, Chiron is part animal, part human, and very divine&emdash;a three-fold epiphany. He is pictured with a horse's body and a dog for a friend&emdash;a human head and torso carrying a power plant and fleshy animals&emdash;and his open hand, open face, and upright ears suggest his divinity. Chiron's displayed spectrum of characteristics revealed a wide knowledge: from animal to a god through the human&emdash;or from dark animal to god-light through gnosis (divine knowledge)&emdash;as was said in the mysteries.
This capacity to traverse the planes below the dark earth and urgent animal, and past man into ecstatic Olympia is the meaningful power of the herald, the serpentined staff of Asklepios and the dual-snaked staff of Hermes. The proclamation of the true herald is not about this plane of existence, but about a multitude of realities. The herald-staff, held by a human, stretches from the lower, chthonic underworld to another, less confined, religious and transcendental domain. Chiron spectrally points to the multidimensional, open-bodied, open-minded, open-hearted revelation that is true health.
From Chiron, Asklepios is said to have learned the herbs, arts and mysteries of healing. Asklepios was certainly appreciated for his medical knowledge and his "techne" (the artful correspondence of pattern and forming). But his healing skills and depth of feeling were given divine superlatives -- empowered, it was said, by his legendary caring. Asklepios was not only the "Physician Hero," he was also appreciated as the god of medicine and the divinity of dreams and healing visions. He came to one in dreams when ill, touched one with "divine energy," and regrounded one's faith in regeneration and recovery.
From a religious perspective, the Physician Hero was a priest or channeller of Apollo. Like one who mystically gave oneself to the Muses in order to recite or dance or play music or to prophesy, the healing priest would avail himself to the visitation of Apollo. Apollo -- the divinity who purifies and heals (with his arrows and lyre) -- would be supplicated in order to spark again the physis, or "blossoming emergence," in those who came infirm. The physis-cians were the priests who assisted the god to come touch the patient receiver.
From the ancient religious assessment, healing began with an epiphany -- a touch of the divine energy. This epiphany was the "favor" bestowed by both Apollo and Asklepios. This regenerated spark grew into recovery -- a recovery built upon health's very foundation. To rekindle the physis, to spark and flare again the feeling of eternal life in the body, was the primary focus in every aspect of the Asklepian healing ceremony.
The Asklepian Healing Ceremony at Epidavros
When the ancient Hellenes wanted to found a new city, they first asked the Oracle at Delphi for Apollo's blessing, then, if the prophecy was positive, received coals from the eternal hearth. Thereupon, they traveled to Epidavros for a sacred snake, which was honored as the god himself. It is said that a thousand cities around the Mediterranean began that Apollonian way.
In the ancient world, one did not visit the Asklepieia (Temples of Asklepios) casually, for it was a sacred occasion. The Asklepian Sanctuary was about the eternal Life that is without ending or beginning: therefore no one was born there, nor did anyone go there to die. Only when all the common treatments (such as herbs and rest) had proven insufficient did one approach the Asklepieia. Disease was understood to be a disturbance of the chthonic, the subterranean and un-conscious (ha-des) energies which needed light. Having understood that healing was participation in epiphany, one went to the temple in order to meet the god halfway.
A system of these temples freely served the populace in the healing of disease. The most common donation to the priests and sanctuary was a pig or cock. (Thus we recall Socrates' humorous last words after he drank his "potion" of hemlock, "Krito, we owe Asklepios a cock, pay it and do not neglect it.") Asklepieia prospered on the gratitude of the people they had served. The central temple of this religious network was at Epidavros (Epidauros), praised for centuries for its miraculous healings.
If you came ill to Epidavros in its 4th century BCE peak, you would first hear the singing of the priestesses welcoming you to the blessed ground, "May the healing divinity never leave us!" they would intone. Then you would see the majestic Propylaea, its 57-foot arch supported by two rows of marble columns -- six petaled Corinthian columns on the inside and six simple Ionian columns on the elegant outside.
Of the three main mystery temples (Eleusian, Delphic, and Epidaurian), this one was the most devoted to Beauty. Visitors would be awe-struck by its harmonious art and by the care that had been taken to achieve such divine perfection and balance. Beauty and blessings overwhelmed the inner being. Beauty -- in marble, in paintings, and song -- was the first of the blessings that would train the pilgrims' attention to the divine. Through beauty, true healing would begin. Beauty and the good, in the Platonic tradition, were the acknowledged means to bring harmony and health to each one.
To attend to the sacred nature of existence, the patient-supplicant was served at every turn. Majestic art, groves and waters, wise theatre and wise counsel, medical potions and skills, priests of power and "temple sleep" bathed the infirm with healing force and with "admirable divine power."
This power certainly had a lasting effect. Almost two millennia later, Henry Miller wrote, "At Epidauros, in the stillness, in the great peace that came over me, I heard the heart of the world beat....There is no mystery in my mind as to the nature of the cures which were wrought at this great therapeutic centre of the ancient world. Here the healer himself was healed, the first and most important step in the development of the art, which is not medical but religious."
Inscribed over the majestic archway were the rhythmed words:
AGNON XRH NHOIOS qHODEOS ENTOS IONTA EMMENIA AGNEIH D ESTI FRONEIN OSIA
Pure must be he who enters the fragrant temple Purity means to think nothing but holy thoughts
Once the 65 foot archway had been transversed, one entered into the home of a god. Steles marked the way inside the Sanctuary with tales of miracles. The first began with the inscription:
qeos twua agaqa
God! Good Fortune!
Then followed the "Cures of Apollo and Asklepios," with abundant stories of health and gratitude. These "Tablets of miracles" and human testimonies transmitted infectious faith to the pilgrims. Throughout the Sanctuary -- on tablets, walls, and in scrolls in the extensive library&emdash;miracles were attributed to the "admirable divine power." The library also held a thorough collection of all the great works of the culture, and the supplicant was heartily encouraged to spend many hours soaking up the light of inspired or mused writings.
Inside the sanctuary, the nearby hills caressed the holy ground. Across the landscaped cove and templed fields, one could see a perfect amphitheater, carved into the hill. This acoustically flawless crucible held 14,400 participants in intimate instruction and is still used to this day.
Pausanias, a second-century traveler, visited Epidauros in 160 C.E., while its was still prospering (though by then some of its best art had been plundered). He reported: "The sacred grove of Asklepios is surrounded by bounds on every side. No men die or women give birth within the enclosure; the same rule is observed on the island of Delos [Birthplace of Apollo].
"Tablets stood within the enclosure. Of old there were more of them; in my time six were left. On these tablets are engraved the names of men and women who were healed by Asklepios: together with the disease from which each suffered and how he was cured. Apart from the others, stands an ancient tablet which says that Hippolytos dedicated 20 horses to the god." Three tablets survived in good shape and can be seen in the present-day museum at the sanctuary.
Asklepios' daughter, Hygeia (lit. "Health"), was given a position high with her father -- as cleanliness was understood to be a necessary foundation to health. Pilgrims were surrounded with extreme hygiene, beauty, and wise counsel. They were given bedding and nourishment and time to adapt to the religious disposition of the sacred environment. They were encouraged to release their conventional social roles and their concerned or clever mind by wandering in the good company of splendorous groves, friendly snakes, exquisite gardens, masterpieces of art, inspired stories, gifted physicians and living priests.
Pilgrims were treated to rest and sustenance, and served by the healthy properties and devotional ambiance of the sacred ground. By day, continuous songs, chants, and music mingled with nature's sounds to envelop the pilgrims in aural resonances and praiseful tones. Other healing tools abounded: an abundance of fountains and mineral baths (for the water's intimacy with the chthonic underworld), harmonic athletics, therapeutic touch, massage, and pharmacopia teas and purgatives.
When the pilgrim had received sufficient preparation and purification, the high priests of Asklepios met with them, so that the infirm might gain sufficient self-understanding to appreciate the ways in which they might be contributing to their disease process. This insight-sharing by the priests to the pilgrims was known as Nootherapia (usually translated as mind-healing). The therapy usually began by focusing on the dreams of the patient. Insight was understood to be Apollo's arrows -- for the Asklepiades originated the great homeopathic saw, "The wounder heals."
The discussed dreams and the patients' relation to their own subconscious ephemera gave the trained priests an avenue into the "wrong thinking" of the ill. On the basis of this Apollonian penetration, the priest guided the ill to grow in self-understanding -- then suggested a right orientation. This Nootherapeia always included a saying from the archway: Phronein Osia, "Give your thought to the Presence."
The presence and counsel of the high priests blessed the patient to feel and breathe deeply the faith and felt connection to the divine power. This harmony was understood to be Apollo's lyre, and by this harmony, the pilgrim began to let loose the unconscious clutching at sorrows and cacophonic unease. Gratitude began to lighten the soul again.
By the lyric wisdom and radiance of the priests, the patients observed the falsity of their own concerned and weak disposition -- and when the pilgrim was given such a realistic eye, they were led to intuit the "natural state of harmony." Gaining strength (Eros) in this natural harmonious awareness (Nous), one understood the self-created disease metaphorically as a dreamy chimera&emdash;a fanciful monster with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail. Upon seeing the unreality that supported the disease, the pilgrim began to turn to&emdash;and awaken within -- the divine healing power. Asklepios was thus known as Asklepios Nootherapia, The God of Mind-healing. It was this realistic change of disposition, metanoia (meta -- above + nous -- luminous awareness, or the higher awareness) that gave the Asklepian healing ceremony uncommon depth.
Once the patient had been graced with metanoia, the lay Asklepides, the lay physicians, would administer to them a variety of what we call medicine: from pharmakopia to surgeries. However, it was noted that without metanoia, the lay Asklepiades could only administer temporary relief from illness.
Plato clearly admired the medical art and science of the Asklepian ceremony. In the Symposium, he speaks through the physician-philosopher Eryximachos: "Medicine must, indeed, be able to make the most hostile elements in the body friendly and loving towards each other . . . It was by knowing the means by which to introduce 'Eros' and harmony in these that, as the poets here say and I also believe, our forefather Asklepios established this art-science of ours."
Hubris and Medusa
The other theme the priests instructed the patient about was true beauty&emdash;and its counterfeit, hubris, or self-fascinated arrogance. In the sensitivity to hubris, the patient was subject to Apollo's insightful arrows. Self-understanding further allowed the process of grace, or reliance on divine rather than human virtues. By this divine help, the patient-pilgrim would see beyond human self-concerns and passing concerns, where the immortal beatific is coincident with the source of life. This revelation was refreshed for the supplicant by the study of Medusa.
Medusa (lit. ruler or queen) was of such beauty that she claimed rivalry with Aphrodite. The arrogant teen Medusa even made love to Poseidon in a temple dedicated to the virgin Athena. However, Medusa's arrogance and self-fascination brought her a perfect curse: she appeared hideous, with serpentined hair, boar's tusks, a terrible grin, snub nose, and staring eyes. Flesh-bound men would to turn to stone when they merely gazed upon her surface appearance.
Athena, the virgin goddess of craft, skill, and war gave Perseus her breast-plate (aegis) and shield, and challenged him to cut off Medusa's head. Using a cap of invisibility from the nymphs, and winged shoes and a sword from Hermes, Perseus used the shine in Athena's bronze shield to see Medusa without gazing at her.
Hermes' sword was described as "adamant," indicating the insistence required to cut through superficial appearances. Using the cutting power of free Hermes, Perseus was able to adamantly slice off Medusa's head (and put it in a pouch the nymphs also thoughtfully provided). From the wound and spouted blood of her decapitation, the winged horse Pegasus was born, announcing in flight the heartful freedom that comes when surface beauty is seen beyond. This blood was also gathered by Asklepios, as it held the heart-power set free by adamant discrimination. (And such it was that the image of Medusa's severed head appeared on Athena's aegis.)
The priests also counseled the supplicants on matters such as diet, posture, purification, fasting, the art of breath, and invocating the powers of their divinities. By the time of Hippocrates, the healers even performed effective surgeries. But always, in every Asklepian time, the primacy of the healing was grounded in a new self-understanding, a new responsibility, and renewed faith in the true Beauty of existence. Herbs, drugs, and surgery were certainly appreciated, but most central to health was "right thinking." This changed disposition was served by dream reflections, by considering the chimeric nature of disease, and the heart of real beauty.
Such it was that within the sacred ground of the Asklepieion at Epidavros was an entire mini-sanctuary devoted to Aphrodite. After counseling, the patient was directed to contemplate true beauty there.
The Greatest Theatre
When the body became balanced and rested, one was served with the healing art of the greatest theatre in all the land -- a place of humor, wisdom and perfect harmonics. Dedicated performers and sage wisdom brought the play's lessons to the viewers with such intimacy that the separation between self and play dissolved. This was particularly true of the 35 dramas of Epicharmos. Although none have survived, we know from his contemporaries that these plays were held in the very highest esteem for the profundity of their philosophical and metaphysical ideas. Indeed, Diogenes Laertis tells us that Plato kept the works of Epicharmos under his pillow! Listen again to Epicharmos' epigram at Epidavros: "It is the Nous that sees and hears, the rest is deaf and blind."
Pausanias relates of that theatre: "In the Epidaurian sanctuary there is a theatre in my opinion most especially worth seeing ... and for harmony and beauty what architect could vie with Polycleitos? For it was Polycleitos who made this theatre and the round building also. Within the grove is a temple of Artemis and an image of Epione [Asklepios' wife]; also a sanctuary of Aphrodite and Themis; and a Stadion formed like most Greek stadions, by bands of earth; also a fountain worth seeing for its roof and general splendor."
The priests and assistants kept track of the development of the pilgrims' strength and how each responded to the "preparations." They decided who was already healed and could leave, who would continue the preparations of counsel, rest, teas, and the like, and also who was ready for the final epiphany in the Tholos and "Enkoimisis," the Temple Sleep of the Abaton.
The Inner Sanctum
Throughout the inner sanctum was a plethora of Apollo's snakes, considered to be manifestations of the healing divinity. Dominating the holiest of sacred grounds were the Temple of Asklepios, the round and magnificent Tholos, later known as the rotunda, and the Abaton, or place where the initiated slept and received the supreme healing epiphany.
The Temple of Asklepios is patterned after the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. Like the Olympian Temple, it also faced east and stood its ground in Doric order -- 80 feet long by 44 feet wide, its outer columns 17 feet high. Its tufa walls were painted white, with multicolored capitals and ornaments. The roof was of cypress and pine and covered with tiles. Winged Nikes (Victories) adorned the pediment as did Centaurs and Amazons. The floor was black Eleusian marble, and the approach was marked with black and white tiles. The inside walls were filled with artistic masterpieces depicting the lessons of Asklepios and his relations.
Unlike all other Temples in Hellas -- which swung their doors wide only on celebrations -- the Temple of Asklepios was open daily, during the lighted hours. From sunrise to sunset, every day for hundreds of years, songs and chants filled the sacred space. The daily ceremony at Epidavros began just before sunrise at the Temple of Asklepios when the priestesses cried out "Lord Paieon!" in invocation to the god of healing.
As the day broke, the epiphany was signaled by sacrificing a rooster and opening of the doors on Asklepios' Temple so that the dawn sunlight illuminated the god in the Temple. The women sang aloud, "It is day, the temple door is open, the curtain is drawn." Supplicants followed the priests and priestesses into the holy habitat and joyfully joined in many cycles of hymn (Awaken! Awaken Asklepios! Awaken pilgrims! Awaken and hear thy hymn!"). Unfortunately, the famous paean of Sophocles, which for centuries was sung in the Asklepieia, is lost.
There is no doubt, however, that the Homeric Hymn to Asklepios was chanted there:
To the healer of sicknesses, Asklepios, I sing!
In the Deotian plain of Argos, goddess-like Koronis,
daughter of King Phlegyras, bore him,
a great joy to mortals, a soother of chthonic pains.
Hail to you, lord; I pray to you with my song.
The repetitive hymnals served to focus the mind, emotions, and body. At first, one relaxed and enjoyed the resonance of sound, body, melody, heart, meaning, space, sacred Temple, and then joined in the singing. All the while, one's eyes would feast on the magnificent statue of Asklepios, three and a half times life-size. Pausanias: "The god is seated on a throne, grasping a staff, while holding his other hand over the head of the serpent; and a dog, lying by his side, is also re-presented. Beside the throne in relief are the deeds of Argive heroes: of Bellerophon against the Chimera, and Perseus cutting off Medusa's head."
Like the Olympian Zeus and the Athena on the Acropolis, the Asklepios of Epidavros was "chryselephantine," meaning all the flesh of Asklepios was represented in ivory and all the clothing in richly jeweled gold. To gaze upon such beauty and care in the shimmering dawning sunlight, while immersed in heart-song, was to see a god. He was called Soter, the Saviour, as the priests cried out, "The god behold! Behold the god! Bow down to the Saviour in word and spirit, all who stand here! That we may see his beauty as our blessing, Here at this shrine!"
Asklepios sat on his throne with his staff and snake and dog. At his side, also in chryselephantine, was the Chimera, pointing to the illusion of the suffering dream, and the other side is the adamant Perseus and the severed head of Medusa, who confused Beauty with her egoic self.
For those stubborn cases whose illness persisted, there was the Tholos, the rotunda, called also Thymele, altar, and Incubatio. Built by Polycleitos the Younger, who also designed the auditorily perfect theatre, the Thymele was considered to rank with the most perfect and gracious monuments in all the world.
Round in form, seventy-two feet across, the Tholos was surrounded externally by a colonnade of 26 Doric columns. Behind the columns was the circular wall, decorated with the extraordinary paintings of the famous Pausias. Pausanias described two of them: one was a divine child (presumed by Pausanias to be Eros, but more likely Apollo) picking up his lyre, having discarded his bow and arrows, and a female bacchant (presumed by Pausanias to be Methe, Drunkenness), drinking out of a crystal goblet.
Moving inward across the black and white marble floor, we come to another circle of fourteen marble columns, capped in elaborate Corinthian flourish. The ceiling coffered the inner cylinder and was magnificently painted.
What went on here? No one really knows. We know the epiphany received here was considered the deepest, reserved for the most needful. Records reveal that the chosen pilgrims came to this Thymele before being taken to the Abaton temple to sleep. Today, we can still see how the Tholos sat upon a labyrinthian foundation, with pathways to the Abaton beside it. We can assume the labyrinths and pathways were expressly built for Apollo's snakes. And while snakes were in evidence here, archeology has yet to uncover a detailed description of the ceremonial or religious use of the "Altar."
Realizing Polycleitos designed it, we must assume its harmonics were perfect and so a therapy of sound would have been employed here. It is not hard to imagine an ill pilgrim, lying on the altar, surrounded by the tones and humming of the Temple priests and priestesses, and, while relaxing into the vibrance, receiving the potent therapeutic touch of a spirit-filled healer.
This entire incantation was also pervaded by the "friendly" pareiai -- as the Temple was the core nexus of "Apollo's presence."
The human contact, care, and invocation were not engaged for mere comfort, but transmitted "tangible divine power" -- which washed even the subconscious limitations still presumed by the patient. The touch of the god and the epiphany of divine infusion flooded the pilgrim entirely.
Temple Sleep
After the epiphany of the Thymele, the "initiated" were taken next door to the Abaton for the "final stage of enkoimisis," Temple Sleep. It was said that babies and children naturally enjoy this "temple sleep." It is the deep awareness that one is abundantly cared for, that the substance and condition of real life is utterly benevolent, that truly one is floating is a sea of graciousness, continually baptized in providence. Temple sleep is the deepest rest, perfect stillness "like an animal in its lair", connecting us to that heart-deep and spiritual power that is always and already our real situation. Temple sleep's depth washes all concern and unease into a transfiguring faith and Apollonian, radiant health. Temple sleep empowered the pilgrim to be relaxed utterly, releasing all unease and disease to the god. This cleansing was evidenced by the visitation of the god (Apollo or Asklepios) in that evening's dreams, signalling that the healing had taken place, most deeply.
Emerging in dreams, a feeling and perhaps a vision of the god tells you that you have been touched and that your healing had occurred. Consider the words from the dream of a Roman general, who reports that Apollo/Asklepios came to him and said,
Be not afraid; I shall come [with you to Rome]
and leave my statues,
But see this serpent, as it twines around
The rod I carry: mark it well, and learn it,
For I shall be this serpent, only larger,
Like a celestial presence.
From deep and primal simplicity, a deep and primal energy is awakened. Temple sleep, enkoimisis, the deepest, primal rest, releases the un-ease and chthonic disturbances of the patient into blessedness, and the body&emdash;via the breath -- drinks blissfully, undoing the un-ease and dis-ease.
This deep relaxation had more than a purgative, psychosomatic, and psychological effect. Temple sleep was empowered by the dual talismanic force of the pareiai, allowing the divine power to bring the patient to fully rest and from that stillness to, radiate and animate the power of life in the body. Temple sleep cleaned and embraced the grateful with overwhelming, sweet force. Enkoimisis was to sleep in the arms of the divine beloved.
This final epiphany was experienced as "the flaring-up of a divine child ... just like at Eleusis." In Aristophanes' Plutus, Plutos, the blind god of riches, opened his eyes at the Asklepieion, and sang (via the chorus), "To him I cry, the beautiful and great light of man, Asklepios."
The Death of Asklepios
The myth of Asklepios' death also contained a lesson. When Hippolytus, the leader of the Amazons, died, Artemis, the virginal goddess of female discretion, appealed to Asklepios to restore her devotee to life. The Hero Physician was so adept at conducting the life-force that he succeeded in the task, and Hippolytus was resurrected. As was noted on a tablet at the entrance to the Sanctuary, Hippolytus immediately gave 20 horses to the Asklepieia. Hades mightily complained to Zeus that Asklepios was upending the divine order. Zeus agreed, picked up one of His thunderbolts and hurled it to earth where Asklepios stood.
This method of death (enelysios&emdash;one struck by lightning) was most prized in the ancient world. Zeus Himself decreed it, so all clinging to life could be released. Thereby "zapped", one did not tour the Underworld after death, did not choose between the waters of forgetfulness or remembrance, was not judged, but passed directly to the paradise of Elysium (an etymological derivative of enelysion, a place made sacred by lightning strikes). Even though Asklepios himself arrogantly forgot the divine law, his punishment was gracious. He completed his life and made a sanctuary with his death.
What lessons were gained from Asklepios' death? Certainly that the divine order is not to be violated, but this could be said of all transgressions. Religiously, it could be said that one's practice is to cling to life and not to the ways of death. But even this law can be idealized, that one should cling to life at all costs. In the midst of disease or unease in one's present form, it is true, one should cling to the "eternal" life that is naturally felt in health and intuited in happiness. But death is a uncompromising message in this mortal realm, and one cannot absolutely cling to the passing forms of life without inevitable and unnecessary suffering. This discretion between the eternal life and the passing forms of life is the lightning-insight of Zeus. It is the difference between the sacred and the precious. Life is precious, yes, but more than clinging preciousness, life is sacredly free. Life is to be held and beholden, not arrogantly claimed nor preciously clutched. The death of Asklepios is a signal that clinging to life is not an absolute, and even the mortally precious must be sanctified by being given up to the greater life that sustains us and the world.
PrefaceAcknowledgments Introduction: The Forms of Delphi
Mythological and Historical Accounts of Delphi, the Center of the World
The Ecstatic Dance of Apollo and Dionysus
Rhapsodies on the Ancient Sacred Understanding: The Oracle at Delphi
The Caduceus, “Temple Sleep,” and the Religious Origins of Western Medicine
Orpheus, The Katha Upanishad, and the Secret Way Beyond Death