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4°
ANCIENT TIMES.
be explained in this way that the dream-pictures giving
expression to the predominant, sometimes the single, subject
of interest in the mind of the sleeper, drew forth from
the depths of his soul some half or wholly forgotten
reminiscences of happy cures effected.
When the dreamers failed then the priests came to their
aid. The latter having by tradition and personal experience
acquired some medical knowledge of their own were able
to help the sick with counsel and explanation. When
they got either no result at all or an unfavourable one,
they withdrew themselves by sophistical artifices from the
painful position.*
The priests of the temples of Asklepios were not
doctors, as many assume. Certainly there were among
them as among their assistants the Zakoroi, many who
were skilled in medical science,t indeed they had probably
learned the subject systematically. But between the
healing art as practised in the Asklepian temples and
that of the professional doctors the great distinction existed
that in the former case it was held to be not a fruit of the
human understanding, but a divine revelation. Medical
interference must from this circumstance here have
appeared at least superfluous. On this ground it is not
probable that between the priests of Asklepios and the
doctors there existed any competitive or unfriendly relations.!
It is much more reasonable to take the contrary
for granted, when one considers what humble reverence
both doctors and Asklepiadae paid to the sanctuaries of
Asklepios, and what submissive trust they reposed in his
imagined utterances in doubtful cases of their practice.
The Asklepiadae settled down by preference in the
neighbourhood of the Temples dedicated to Asklepios and
founded medical schools there. Among these, those which
were situated at Rhodos, Kroton, Kyrene, Kos and Knidos
* ARTEMIDOR: Oneirocrit. v, 94.
t GIRARD op. cit. p. 34.
| MALGAIGNB in the "Journal de Chirurgie," Paris 1846, iv, p. 340.—CH.
DAREMBERG in the " Revue Archeol.,' Paris 1869, T. 19, p. 261 et seq.