800 B.C: Asclepius will heal your asthma, part 1

This is a statue of Asclepius from the National
Museum at Athens.  The staff of Asclepius
appears to be missing. (2, page 44)

If you lived with asthma in ancient Greece around 800 B.C., chances were pretty good you worshiped the god Asclepius for health and healing.  He became the most proficient of all the Greek gods of medicine.

You didn't have to worship him, however, as nearly all the Greek gods had the ability to cause injuries and disease and the power to heal, especially Hermes, Paeon, Apollo, Hercules and Athena.

Yet these gods had other interests they had to concentrate on, so they may not have the time to help you. Their temples were dedicated not only to the sick, but to others who might need help improving their lot in life. (13, page 92)

About the time of Homer "the cult of a special god of healing arose, on whose sole office was the cure of sickness and the preservation of health. This was the cult of Asclepios, whose temples formed the chief and laterally the only seat of theurgic medicine, and were held in such estimation that they survived the Olympian fall," said medical historian Max Neuburger in his 1910 book "History of Medicine." (13, page 92)

So the god who would become the ultimate god of health and healing was Asclepius, the son of Apollo. He would become "the chief healing god," according to Henry E. Sigerist in his book "A History of Medicine."  (1, page 45-6)

Of Asclepius, Sigerist said:

The rise of Asclepius was possible only because the legend made him the son of Apollo.  In Delphi, Apollo had his famous oracle.  He was seer but also physician...  He (Apollo) is the first deity invoked in the Hippocratic Oath, where he appears as Apollo the Physician. (1, page 45-6)

Neuburger said Apollo was the founder of medicine, but he was also known to bring on "pestilence and death on man by his far-reaching darts (sun rays), who was early identified with Paeon, physician of the gods."  He said Apollo may have taught his son medicine, although more likely this job was left to the Chiron, the son of Saturn.  (13, page 92-93)

Chiron was the only immortal centaur.
Here, he is showing a young Apollo
how to shoot arrows with a bow.
He also taught Apollo's son, Asclepius.

Chiron was another legendary figure whose significance arose the same time as did the Asclepions, after the time of Homer. He was a half horse, half god called a centaur who, according to Sigerist...

"...dwelt in a cave on Mount Pelion, in Thessaly, like the other centaurs, deeply skilled in the arts of hunting, music and medicine.  In the history of mythologic founders of medicine, he was considered the discoverer of medicinal properties of many herb... (mastered them), and passed it (his medical wisdom) on to his pupils." (1, page 50)

Chiron obtained his knowledge from Apollo and Apollo's sister Artemis. Chiron became a skilled surgeon, an excellent musician, and was well versed in lore.  These skills made him a gifted and entertaining story teller with the ability to share knowledge of the past and present.  (7, page 76)

Apollo, who some speculate may have been an actual physician around 1200 B.C., wanted to make sure his son was the most proficient physician of all time, and so he sent him to Chiron to be educated.

Sigerist explained that around 700 B.C. Hesiod described one version of the story of the birth of Asclepius:

This statue of Asclepius is from
the National Museum as Saples.
It depicts Asclepius with his staff.
(2, page 45)

In the Boebian Lake, the lake of Phoebus, the beautiful maiden Coronis... was bathing her feet when Apollo saw her and desired her.  She became pregnant with the god's child but her (Corois's) father had promised (Coronis) to her cousin Ischys.  The day of the wedding came when the raven, a white bird until then, brought the evil news to Delphi, Apollo's seat.  The god in his wrath first punished the messenger of evil tidings, who from then on exhibited the black color of mourning and was feared as a herald of disaster.  He then killed Ischys, shooting his darts at him, while his sister hit Coronis and her innocent companions.  But when the god saw the body of his beloved in the pyre, he felt pity for the unborn child, removed him from the mother's womb, and brought him to the cave of Chiron on Mount Pelion (in Thessaly). There Asclepius grew up, instructed by the Centaur in the treatment of diseases with incantations, herbs, and the knife.  He became a famous physician, sought by many far and wide, and became so self-assured that he even resuscitated the dead, whereupon Zeus slew him with his thunderbolt. (1, page 52)

Asclepius and Achilles were the two most famous pupils of Chiron.  However, Sigerist said that Homer never referred to Achilles as a physician in the Illiad. Perhaps it was for this reason that Asclepius eclipsed even Apollo himself as the most significant healing god, and Asclepius was worshiped many places around the world, including Ancient Rome where he was referred to as Aesculapius.

There were actually many theories as to why Asclepius became such an important healing god. Some say he was an actual physician who was so skilled that, like his father Apollo, his legend turned him into a god.

How Asclepius really died may never be known, but legend has it (as noted above by Sigerist) he was "destroyed by a thunderbold of Zeus," said medical historian Fielding Hudson Garrison in his 1922 book "An introduction to the history of medicine."   (7, page 76)

Some speculate that Zeus may have done this because he was afraid the healing methods of Asclepius might make immortals of all the humans.  The result was that Asclepius became the most significant god of health and healing of all time.  (11, page 3)

He even became "so powerful that when Christianity entered the world as a religion that promised healing and redemption, he (Asclepius), of all pagan gods, was the only serious competitor of Christ," according to Sigerist.  (1, page 51)

He was such a significant figure that William Osler, the so called father of modern medicine, said of him during a lecture at Yale University in April of 1913:

No god made with hands, to use the scriptural phrase, had a more successful 'run' than Asklepios -- for more than a thousand years the counsoler and healer of the sons of men.  Shorn of his divine attributes he remains our patron saint, our emblematic God of Healing, whose figure with the serpents in our seals and charters. (2, page 43)

Osler was referring here to the seal of medicine.  Asclepius was such a significant figure that his symbol, of a rod with two snakes wrapped around it, continues to be the symbol (although modified slightly) of medicine to this day.

This symbol probably comes from the many busts and statues of Asclepius that depict him as a sagacious middle aged man with curly hair and beard, and he's usually carrying a staff with a serpent (perhaps the deadly type) wound round it with the head close to the hands of Asclepius, according to Albert Henry Buck in his 1917 book "The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800."  (8, page 62)  

Buck explained that despite the deadly serpent's head being ready to strike, the face of Asclepius is calm and "unconcerned," perhaps representing his ability to remedy things that are known to be a threat to life.  (8, page 62)

Buck said:

"In the estimation of the Ancient Greeks this fearlessness was undoubtedly attributed to the supernatural power which they believed Aesculapius to possess over dangerous serpents as well as over diseases of all kind. "  (8, page 62, 63)

Some speculate the snakes represent the two opposing forces of medicine, sickness and health.  Some speculate the rod is a symbol of authority.  The serpent and the staff were not unique to Greece, as they became symbols of medicine throughout the ancient world.

Most of the gods had temples dedicated to them at various locations around Greece.  Osler said that it was around the 5th century B.C. that some of these temples were turned into places of learning.  While Asclepius was the most significant healing god at this time, his temples became the most significant of all these medical schools.  (2, page 39)

His temples became known as Asclepions. Garrison said that most of these Asclepions were set into mountainsides, with the most famous being the Asclepions at Cos, Cnidus, Epidaurus, and Pergamus (7, page 76)(13, page 94)

John Watson, in his book 1856 book "The Medical Profession in Ancient Times." said these temples would:

"Serve as schools of instruction, and as asylums for the sick.  They furnished the nucleus for which, in process of time, were developed other institutions and organizations.  As schools, the most ancient of them is said to have been Titane, near Sicyon." (5, page 26)

Neuburger said Asclepius introduced music and gymnastics into medicine. Built near the temples were gymnasiums. He said:

It is remarkable that the Asclepios cult flourished mostly in places which, through climate or hygienic advantages, were natural health resorts. Those favoured spots on hill or mountain, in the helter of forests, by rivers or springs of pure flowing water, were conducive to health. The vivifying air, the well cultivated garden surrounding the shrine, the magnificent view, all tended to cheer the heart with new hope of cure. Many of the temples owed their fame to mineral or merely hot springs. To the homely altars, erected originally by sacred fountains in the neighborhood of healthy-giving mineral springs, were later added magnificent temples, pleasure-grounds for festivals, gymnasia in which bodily ailments were treated by physical exercises, baths and inunctions (rubbing ointment on the skin), also, as in proved by excavations, living rooms for the patients (hostels)."

Renouard said that at some point:

"The gymnasium were no longer, as formerly, places devoted entirely to bodily exercise; they were surrounded by halls and porticos where philosophers, rhetoricians, artists and physicians assembled to hold their schools and dispute on questions of art." (9, page 80)

So Asclepius "became one of the most popular of the gods.  By the time of Alexander it is estimated that there were between three and four hundred temples dedicated to him."  (2, page 49)

Further reading and references:  800 B.C Asclepius will heal your asthma, part 2
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1194-800 B.C. Medicine in Ancient Greece

A Healing Temple of the god Asclepius

If you had an internal disease like asthma around 1194-800 B.C. and lived in Greece, chances are you wouldn't go to see a doctor. Physicians existed, but they were more trained to treat wounds such as those obtained in battle.   The person you'd go to see would be your priest, magician or witch.

The reason was simple:  most ancient societies, the Greeks included, believed disease was caused by the wrath of the gods.  To get your remedy you needed to find a person -- a priest, witch or magician -- to help you find out which god was mad at you and why.  Then you'd have to learn how to make that god happy again so you would have a shot at getting better, explains Henry E. Sigerist in his book, "A History of Medicine."  (1)

Yet the more common option, as Sigerist notes, would be to seek out your priest to learn what kind of offerings to make to the gods for healing.  This was more common because it was far less expensive than seeking a potion offered by a magician or witch.  (1)

He may prescribe for you a magic amulet, an incantation, and quite possibly an animal sacrifice, a pig perhaps, or a goat. Such a sacrifice would show the angry god that you value his wisdom over your own possessions. Since the gods were thought to live and breathe and eat like men in the Heavens, the sacrifice was thought to provide a food offering to the god.

This was a common form of medicine in the ancient world, a bribe of sorts.  I will provide you with this food offering if you make me well again.

A common ritual was to travel to the god's temple by walking, riding a horse, riding a donkey, or riding a cart.  The temple belongs to one of the healing gods, such, as Asclepius.  You'd spend time amid the priests, who had the ability to talk to the gods and hear their advice for healing.  Most often you'd sleep among them, and in the morning your cure would be revealed.

In this way, you received the healing benefits this god had to offer.

There were many such temples scattered around ancient Greece, and often they were associated with nearby hostels to house those who traveled for this purpose. Some early historians, Sigerist said, believed these "hostels attached to the Ascelpia were the first Western hospitals and poorhouses where indigent sick people stay and are treated by priest," writes Sigerist (1, page 73)

Later historians noted that these weren't hospitals in the way we think of them today, as the sick merely spent time there to learn the cure; they did not stay in the hostels until they were healed, but just one night.

Priestly healing was very common during this era.  In fact, the belief gods were responsible for good luck and bad luck, health and healing, made worshiping the god Asclepius very popular even up to the Birth of Jesus Christ.  Sigerist explained that it was for this reason the pagan god Asclepius was the greatest competitor of Jesus Christ. (1)

Sigerist said that one of the main reasons Asclepius was the greatest competitor to Jesus Christ was because he wasn't as greedy as the other gods, and he would accept even modest gifts.  This made it possible for him to be worshiped by both the rich and the poor. (1)

This was significant, because poverty was one of the main attractions of Christianity.  The poor couldn't afford physicians, nor the sacrifices demanded of most gods, and so Christianity was a viable option.  Yet so too was the god Asclepius.

Over time there was another medical paradigm that was growing in popularity and significance in ancient Greece, and that was the belief in natural medicine.  Some priest physicians were knowledgeable of which plants had medicinal and poisonous properties.  As time progressed, even the common folks were privy to this knowledge.

A good example of this was explained in the Odyssey by the great Greek poet Homer.  Henry E. Sigerist, explains the following: (1)

"There is relatively little mention of magic in the Homeric epics although the ancient Greeks believed in magic and, like everyone else in antiquity, practiced some...  The drug given to Helen by the Egyptian lady, Polydamna, had strong euphoric properties, so that whoever took it forgot all unpleasant memories and would not shed a tear even if his closest relative died; this drug might be opium or hashish, but it could just as well be the kind of miracle drug found in many fairy tales." (1)

As Sigerist explained, the Odyssey cannot be taken seriously.  However, it was based on real life events. The Greeks probably had access to various medicines, such as opium and hashish, and simply told of this medicine as a magic potion created by, say, witches or magicians.  Since the gods created everything, then they must have also created the magical powers present in some plants.

Knowledge of the inner organs and what they did was limited, yet observations from experience working with the wounded and the dead gave soldiers a pretty good idea where to aim their weapons to produce the most damage to the enemy's body.  They knew the best places to aim their arrows were the lower abdomen or, better yet, the nipples.

Physicians had magic healing powders and soothing drugs used to help people who were wounded in battle.  These tales also describe various poisons.  For example, Sigerist noted a line from Homer's Odyssey:

"Circe was a beautiful witch who could transform human beings into pigs, and it is absurd to assume that Eurylochus (a companion of Odysseus) who told the story had been the victim of hallucinations."  (1)

While these stories are twisted and turned into a memorable fairy tales, they may actually be descriptions of poisons used to punish or kill an enemy.   Although, whether this was the case we may only speculate.

While all ancient medicine started off as mythical, natural medicine was soon a viable option. Natural medicine may have been resisted at first, although through time its benefits were so obvious they could no longer be resisted.  So, of course, natural remedies found their way into mythology.

Over time, the two forms of medicine -- mythology and natural medicine -- would separate into two separate paradigms.

*Note: The dates chosen for this article are based on the estimated dates for the writings of Homer (800 B.C.) and the siege of Troy as described in Homer's Iliad (1194-1184 B.C.). The medical knowledge expressed in this post may also have effected you prior to and after these listed dates, which are mainly listed simply as a reference to make it easier to write a history, and easier to picture in your head where these events may have occurred. And even if you lived in Greece during these times, you may also have been subjected to primitive medicine, or pre-Greek medicine. I obtained the dates from Albert Henry Buck in his book "The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800." (1917, London, Oxford University Press, page 46).

References:

1. Sigerist, Henry E, "A History of Medicine," vol. II, "Early Greek, Hindu, and Persian Medicine," 1961, Oxford University Press, pages 19, 20, 23, 28, 51