0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

THE GREEKS BEFORE HIPPOKRATES.
spread, and a thankful generation began to attribute the
honour of godhead to their ancestor, it may easily have
arisen that other practitioners took to giving themselves
out as members of the family, and in possession of the
family secrets. So gradually there became developed a
professional class tracing its origin from ASKLEPIOS.
The Asklepiadae, the putative descendants of this mythical
ancestor of Greek doctors, united, later on, into societies
which celebrated their mutual relations by offerings made
in common and by religious festivals. An inscription
found in the, ruins of the temple of ASKLEPIOS at Athens,
and published by GlRARD,* and which KOHLER ascribes to
the first half of the third century, establishes the fact that
these w r ere ancient"customs. The Asklepiadae were moreover
doctors bound together in a guild and by no means
identical with the priests who were established at the
temples of ASKLEPIOS as K. SPRENGEL and other medical
historians have erroneously thought.
The most ancient sanctuaries of ASKLEPIOS were situated
at Trikka in Thessaly, at Titane, Tithorea, Epidauros, on
the Island of Kos, at Megalopolis, in Knidos, Pergamus,
Athens,t and other places. Here the god of the healing art
was worshipped and approached by the sick who implored
at his hands a deliverance from their maladies. In connection
with the temples where the religious service was held ?
were dwelling-places for the priests and. attendants of the
temple, and large covered' and pillared halls which served
as places of retreat for the pious pilgrims and the helpless
sick.J
The Asklepieia were generally distinguished for their
healthy situation and cheerful surroundings. They were
* P. GIRARD: " L'Ascle'pieion d'Athenes d'apres de re'centes de'couvertes " in
the Bibliotheque des ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de Rome, T. 23, p. 85,
Paris 1881.
"t JOH. HEINR. SCHULTZE mentions in his Historia Medicinae (Lips. 1728),
p. 118-125, a great number of Asklepieia and names the authors by whom they
are mentioned.
% PAUSANIAS ii, c. 11, 27 et seq. x, 32, and GIRARD op. cit. p. 5.