Hey #CLST6! For this #CYO3 #identity, I watched a webinar from Dr. Ioulia Tzonou and Eleni Gizas about the Sanctuary of Asklepios in Ancient Corinth (a). Asklepios is the son of Apollo and a mortal woman, who was trained in medicine and healing by the centaur Chiron.

The webinar focuses on the process of healing at the Sanctuary, the methods of healing, and individual stories of patients who sought aid from Asklepios. Asklepios would cure patients by visiting them in a dream, and they would wake up cured (or with instructions for their cure)

Tzonou and Gizas give their talk from the museum at ancient Corinth, a place they feel very passionately about sharing with the rest of the world. Tzonou’s goal with the museum and excavations at Corinth is to create a space that reaches a wide audience, adults and children alike

They emphasize the universality of human values, and that this is not a place just to introduce to the western world, but to all humans of all origins (a).

These two women talk about universal human values, and the beautiful, hopeful healing process within these sanctuaries, open to people of all genders, and socioeconomic status in Ancient Rome. It seems hopeful and shows a love of humanity that has felt quite rare in recent days.

The Sanctuary of Asklepios was excavated between 1929-1934. The Sanctuary would have been north of what was the ancient city of Corinth. As Tzonou says, this would have been a way to keep the quiet, calm serenity of the sanctuary for the patients.

Water is equally important to the Sanctuary. Purification is a large part of the healing process, and so water and the serene location play big roles in framing the Sanctuary (a).

This reminds me of Trajan's Column, the positioning of which in Trajan’s forum plays a crucial role to the functioning of the column. As is said in (b), it is specifically located between the Temple to Trajan, and the Basilica Ulpia, showing his power and prominence in the forum

I found one of the most interesting pieces of this webinar to be the actual sequence of events that a patient would go through to complete the healing ritual. As Gizas explains, people would enter through the east. Immediately to their left would be a basin with purifying water.

They would walk into the altar to Asklepios and to the temple where they make votive offerings and give payment. This is a piece of the ritual that seems like it should exclude many from being cured, but Gizas and Tzonou tell that these gifts were not necessarily expensive.

Their offering may be a pig or a goat, but it could also have been just a honeycake, no meat or expensive items necessary. This is an essential piece that returns to the universal human healing and health that Tzonou talks about in the beginning.

They would then go to the southwest corner of the sanctuary for a proper bath in a larger basin, another aspect of the ritual purification.
They would then go to the Abaton, the place where patients would sleep and dream.

The Abaton is the most important piece of the Sanctuary of Asklepios and the healing. Asklepios, or his symbolic snake, is said to visit patients in a dream, and there he would either heal them on the spot or give them instructions for their cure.

Votives would be made in the form of terracotta body parts, creating the part of the body that required healing. As Gizas shows, the arms or legs, chests or heads would be hung from the ceiling, like this arm was from the metal hook, or stacked on shelves.

Offerings lined the walls, ceilings, and floors. Walking up into this temple might give someone great hope, as Gizas says, for all of these bodies that were theoretically healed.

This is a stark contrast from the Greek Stoa of the Athenians in the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. As is said in (c), the stoa is specifically made to display the maximum wealth and finery of the Athenians, where the first objects people would see were fine spoils of war.

Tzonous and Gizas explore the individual stories of healing that were inscribed and positioned throughout the temple. They share the story of Alketas of Halieis, who entered the sanctuary blind, dreamt of Asklepios drawing apart his eyes, and woke up fully sighted.

There is another story they share of Ambrosia of Athens who was blind in one eye, and her votive offering was a gold gilded eye, and she dreamt that she would have to gift the god a silver pig, and the god would prepare her medicine of natural herbs, and she would be cured.

These stories show individual cases of people, from the wealthy to the poor, people were given a cure, or at least hope for one, regardless of who they were. To find the inscriptions for such personal stories shows a level of detail and gives life to these archaeological sites.

While many may just think of Asklepios for his staff of medicine seen today, he played a huge role in Ancient Rome, and these stories really do “give life to the lifeless marble statues that people usually associate with ancient Greece and Rome” as Tzonous says.

I really liked this webinar, and I really appreciate Tzonous’ take on the universality of healing and the real liveliness that these stories give ancient Rome.
Thanks for reading!

(a)“Personal Stories of Sickness and Cure in the Asklepion in Ancient Corinth” Dr. Ioulia Tzonous and Eleni Gizas https://vimeo.com/435690013 
(b) Kleiner, A History of Roman Art pg. 190
(c) Flint Dibble’s video lecture “Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi”