1906.] on Hippocrates and the Health Temple at Cos. 263 



patients. Here they reposed on their couches for the night (and a 

 few also during the day), hoping for illuminating nocturnal visions 

 from the god, for visits from the sacred serpents, and for miraculous 

 healing. Here the evening prayers were recited to the gods to whom 

 gifts were presented on the tables and altars within the abatons, and 

 all the occupants were encouraged by the priest to hope for succour 

 from Asklepios and Hygeia. The abaton was a lofty colonnade 

 freely open to the mountain breezes, and much resembled the shelter 

 balconies used in our modern sanatoria. The mere exposure to a pure 

 atmosphere was a most potent health giver. It is interesting to note 

 that the idea of incubation close to a temple or church as a means of 

 cure for the sick still exists at Tenos and other of the Greek Islands. 

 {Vide the writings of Dr. Rouse.) 



The sacred grove of cypresses surrounded the upper and middle 

 terraces. 



Higher up in the hills were two remarkable springs. One known 

 as the fountain of Hippocrates may be approached by a short tunnel 

 of Mycensean architecture, at the end of which is a curious dome-like 

 chamber with seats round its walls and a fountain in the centre. 

 The second is the celebrated " red water," or chalybeate, spring, no 

 doubt of great service in cases of anaemia. Convalescents were en- 

 couraged to mount the hill, and drink from one or other of these 

 springs at its source. It is not yet decided whether any of the 

 numerous lines of earthenware piping discovered near the Asklepieion 

 conveyed these waters down to the various fountains and baths in 

 the precinct. 



Multitudes of works of art existed here in ancient times, but all 

 have been stolen or destroyed. A celebrated statue of Alexander the 

 Great of bronze is recorded to have had rather rough hair on the 

 head, in the interstices of which there grew a seedling lily. Many 

 small fragments of marbles of great artistic merit have been dis- 

 covered, and vast numbers of remains of inscriptions, into details of 

 which limitation of space prevents my entering. No theatre, or 

 stadium, existed at the Asklepieion itself, those on the way to the 

 town of Cos being employed for the entertainment of the sick and at 

 the time of the great festivals. 



The research thus far has proved extremely interesting, and Dr. 

 Herzog is to be congratulated on his learning and success as an 

 excavator. 



With the exception perhaps of the mysteries of Eleusis nothing 

 in the religious life of the Greeks was more solemn or more beautiful 

 than the ritual of Asklepios, and thus it proved the most enduring 

 form of paganism, out-Uving the worship of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, or 

 the other deities. It long held out against the efforts of the Christian 

 teacher, and in the end a Christian object of devotion took the place 

 of Asklepios, while the incubation and medical treatment went on as 

 before. 



