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Asclepieion of Athens
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The Asclepieion of Athens was the sanctuary built in honour of the gods Asclepius and Hygieia, located west of the Theatre of Dionysos and east of the Pelargikon wall on the southern escarpment of the Acropolis hill.[1]
It was one of several asklepieia in the ancient Greek world that served as rudimentary hospitals. It was founded in the year 419–18 BCE during the Peloponnesian War, perhaps as a direct result of the plague,[2] by Telemachos Acharneas.[3] An account of the foundation is inscribed in the Telemachos Monument,[4] a double-sided, marble pillar which is topped by reliefs depicting the arrival of the god in Athens from Epidaurus and his reception by Telemachos. The sanctuary complex consisted of the temple and the altar of the god as well as two galleries, the Doric stoa which served as a katagogion, a space where visitors seeking healing would spend the night in the hope of seeing the god in their dreams and being healed by him, and the Ionic Stoa that served as a dining hall and lodging for the priests of Asclepius and their visitors.[5]
The Doric stoa was built according to inscriptions in 300/299 BCE[6] and was a two-storey building with 17 Doric columns on its façade. This is framed by the sacred spring at its eastern end and a pit lined with masonry at its western end. The sacred spring is a small cave cut into the rock behind the stoa, which contains a natural spring. The circular well or pit, a deep hollow with polygonal masonry built into the cliff face, was accessed from the second floor of the Doric stoa and its date is disputed between the last quarter of the 5th century and 300/399 BCE. F Robert[7] proposed that it was a place devoted to the celebration of Heroes in the Asklepeion during the Heroa,[8] which witnessed sacrifices to the chthonic gods and heroes, as testified epigraphically.
The Ionian stoa, west of the temple, is dated to the last quarter of the 5th century.[9] At the west side of the sanctuary was a propylon which allowed visitors to access the sanctuary from the roadway to the south. According to epigraphic evidence, the propylon was renovated in Roman times.[10]
At the beginning of the 6th c. CE, when Christian worship succeeded the ancient, all the monuments of Asclepius were demolished and the material incorporated into the complex of a large, three-aisled Early Christian basilica.[11] In the Byzantine years (11th and 13th centuries) two smaller, single-aisled temples occupied the position of the basilica, while the latter of them functioned as the catholicon of a small monastery. Since 2002, partial restorations have been undertaken to the west end of the ground floor of the Doric Stoa façade, the room of the Sacred Cave on the first floor of the Doric Stoa and the temple of Asclepius.[12]
Telemachos Monument, Akropolis Museum, ΕΑΜ 2490.
Eye votive from the Asklepieion, the dedication of Praxias, c350-300 BCE, ΕΑΜ 15244
Site of the Asklepieion
Body part votives. Eyes NAM 2277, Breast EM 8761, Ear Akr 18381, Leg NAM 2571.
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List of priests
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Between the mid-fourth century BC and the age of Augustus, the priests of Asclepius were chosen by lot each year, in a set cycle based on the Athenian tribes. This cycle makes it possible to date many of the priests, making them an important factor for Athenian chronology. In the Roman period, the priests were appointed for life instead.
The following list is based on Sara B. Aleshire, The Athenian Asklepieion (1989), pp. 370-373 and Asklepios at Athens (1991) 75-220, except where otherwise stated.
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