{"id":8008,"date":"2021-12-15T16:38:47","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T23:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roamintheempire.com\/?p=8008"},"modified":"2021-12-29T22:27:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T05:27:33","slug":"asclepius-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roamintheempire.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/15\/asclepius-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctuary of Asclepius, Achaea – Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Theater.<\/a>
Theater.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most Recent Visit: May 2021<\/p>\n

Located about 8 kilometers away from the ancient city of Epidaurus, is the Sanctuary of Asclepius. Though administered by the Epidaurans, the sanctuary is a distinctly different entity than the city, but is often the sanctuary and not the city that is intended when many refer to ancient Epidaurus. A cult devoted to either a deity or a hero named Malos or Maleatas seems to have existed in this location dating back to at least the beginning of the Archaic period, perhaps even earlier. Malos may have been the king of Epidauros, Malas\/Malos, who according to the Epidauran tradition of Asclepius had a granddaughter named Koronis. Koronis was impregnated by Apollo, with the resulting child being Asclepius. Koronis then left Asclepius exposed on the slopes of Mount Titthion, in the area of Epidaurus, where he was eventually found and nursed back to health. This also explaining the presence of his cult here.<\/p>\n

Evidence of a sanctuary dedicated to Malos has been found on the slope of Mount Kynortion, roughly between the present location of the theater and the top of the ridge above the theater. One of the central features of this cult were rites associated with agricultural regeneration and renewal, which may have given way to the area\u2019s link to healing. The nature of those rites and their association with other oracular sites also linked the sanctuary of Malos\/Maleatas with an oracle.<\/p>\n

\"Hymn<\/a>
Hymn to Apollo and Asclepius by Isyllos describing the local mythological origins of the cult and the reorganization of the festival to Asclepius.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These elements eventually seem to resulted in the conflation of Apollo and Maleatas as the epithet Apollo Maleatas, to whom a sanctuary was dedicated atop the ridge of the theater. By the late 6th<\/sup> century BCE, the healing cult of Apollo\u2019s son, Asclepius, had been established here. Various myths attribute the maternal parentage of Asclepius to either Coronis or Arisone, and thus the subsequent birthing location and origin of the cult of Asclepius to either Epidaurus<\/a> or Messenia, respectively. Pausanias recounts that the Pythian oracle at Delphi was posed the question of which location could lay claim to the origin of the cult of Asclepius, and ruled in favor of Epidaurus as the most ancient site of his worship.<\/p>\n

Through the 5th<\/sup> century BCE, the cult at Epidaurus became quite popular. The Panhellenic Asklepia games were held at the sanctuary on a 4 year cycle; first being held as athletic contests, but by the end of the 5th<\/sup> century BCE also including poetry and music. Asclepius saw a general swell of popularity in Greece in the 4th<\/sup> century BCE, but particularly at the sanctuary where a large building program was undertaken.<\/p>\n

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In 293 BCE, a great plague in Rome prompted the consultation of the Sibylline Books, which in turn stated the necessity of the importation of Asclepius to Rome. A Roman delegation was sent to the Epidaurus sanctuary in order to retrieve a statue of Asclepius and bring him to Rome. During the rites, a serpent slithered from the sanctuary onto one of the Roman ships and hid. Seeing the snake, a creature associated with Asclepius as an auspicious portend, the Roman delegation set out to return to Rome. Upon arriving and sailing up the Tiber, the snake leapt from the ship and onto Tiber Island, marking the spot where a temple would be built to the god, and upon its completion, the ending of the plague.<\/p>\n

After destroying Corinth<\/a> in 146 BCE, the Roman general Lucius Mummius left a pair of dedications at the sanctuary following a visit there. With Roman hegemony solidly established in Greece, the sanctuary continued to function. In 87 BCE, Sulla looted the sanctuary of Asclepius in order to raise funds to support his campaign against Mithradates, and just a short time later in 67 BCE, the sanctuary was raided by pirates. Another major building program was undertaken in the 2nd<\/sup> century CE, with the specific benefaction of the senator Sextus Julius Major in 163 CE being a primary contribution to this. The sanctuary was once again raided in 395 CE, this time by Alaric the Goth. It seemed to function in its original capacity until about the mid-5th<\/sup> century CE, when Christianity put an end to the pagan rites. The site remained a center for healing even in the early Christian period, though, as a Christian basilica was constructed at the sanctuary in the late 4th<\/sup> century CE.<\/p>\n