264 Dr. Richard Caton [Marcli 2, 



A Health Temple such as this presented a scene attractive from 

 its peace and beauty. In a situation of remarkable charm by reason 

 of the mountains, plain, and sea, the rich vegetation, beautiful flowers, 

 and verdant grove, all that supreme art could offer to please the eye 

 was presented to the visitants of the sanctuary in the form of archi- 

 tecture, painting, and sculpture. The gods of the heathen pantheon 

 were shown in their most attractive guise, suggesting the brightness 

 and hope of human life to the young and to those who were likely to 

 recover ; while to the old and to those whose sickness was incurable 

 the calm and solemn forms of Demeter and Persephone suggested 

 patience and the hope of a pure spiritual after life free from all forms 

 of bodily infirmity. 



The priest-physicians were commonly men of education and 

 philosophic training, who taught the skilled culture of life and the 

 need to live simply and according to nature, along with the wisdom 

 of seeking happiness in the love of all that was good and beautiful 

 in nature, art, and literature. 



The daily routine of treatment by baths, exercises, the use of 

 medicaments, and regulated diet, amid this pure mountain air, was 

 varied by the solemn religious processions of the white-robed priests 

 and priestesses, with music of flute and cithara, and the singing of 

 paeans and Orphic hymns, by solemn prayers and sacrifices. One of 

 these prayers has come down to us : — 



Oh, ye children of Apollo, who have oft stilled the waves of suffering 

 among men, and lighted the lamp of safety for those who sojourn by sea and 

 land, thougii your glory be great, accept this prayer, which in sleep and vision 

 ye have inspired. I pray you order it aright, according to your loving kind- 

 ness for men. Preserve me from sickness, endue my body with such health 

 as may suffice it to obey the soul within, that I may pass the days of my life 

 unhindered and in peace. 



Sources of interest were supplied to the visitants to the temple 

 by the performance in the theatre of the tragedies of Sophocles, 

 Euripides, and other poets, or by such comedies as those of Aris- 

 tophanes. These plays would so immerse the invalid and the 

 convalescent in pathos or in merriment as to banish for the time 

 individual troubles. The studious man would at his pleasure repose 

 in the shelter-seats and dream over manuscripts of history, drama, 

 or poesy, which he borrowed from the library. 



A routine of life such as this would tend to a calm and hopeful 

 condition of mind, eminently helpful to recovery from the minor 

 forms of illness. 



One cannot but suppose that in this Asklepieion in particular the 

 influence of Hippocrates was great and beneficial. His intense 

 earnestness, his devoted and life-long labours to help the sick and 

 the maimed, to lessen suffering of all kinds, and to learn and to 

 teach new truth must have been priceless. 



His influence tended aUke to the acquisition of what was new 



