AESCULAPIUS. 



^ESOPUS. 



the sentence of the high court of Areopagus, and the casting vote of 

 Minerva. It was usual with the candidates for the dramatic prize at 

 Athens to write three tragedies on some connected subject, to which 

 they added a fourth, called a satyric drama, on some subject treated 

 in a tragi-comic style. The ' Prometheus Bound ' of jEschylus belongs 

 to a set of this description, for we know that there was a play entitled 

 ' Prometheus the Fire-stealer,' and a third named ' Prometheus 

 Loosed.' 



The Greek drama, in its origin, consisted simply of a chorus or 

 company, who celebrated the festivals of a deity or hero by appro- 

 priate songs and dances. The introduction of a personage to tell 

 Borne story or history was an innovation, and the connecting this 

 narrator more closely with the chorua was another step towards the 

 drama, a Greek word, which signifies an action, or, in its more 

 technical sense, the representation of a series of events ending in 

 some striking catastrophe. But yKschylns carried improvements still 

 further, by introducing a second speaker, and thus making the 

 dialogue, as it really is, the essential part of tragedy. To the chorus 

 however ^Eschylus still allowed a great degree of importance, as we 

 may see from his extant plays, in which the choral songs occupy a 

 large part. He adds also to stage effect by improving the dress of the 

 actors, and giving them masks. Thespis, his predecessor, went about 

 the country in a waggon, and daubed the faces of his company with 

 lees of wine. 



The plot or plan of his plays is exceedingly simple ; the personages 

 are few in number, and the events follow one another without any 

 complexity or occasioning any great surprise. Hia language is always 

 forcible, and the dialogue clear where the Greek text has escaped 

 damage ; but unfortunately few works of ancient writers have suffered 

 more serious injury from frequent copying than the plays of ^Eschylus. 

 In consequence of this the choral parts are often exceedingly obscure, 

 and this obscurity is increased by the wild and gigantic conceptions 

 of the poet, which often seem as if they strove with the imperfections 

 of language, and endeavoured to find utterance by a heaping together 

 of strong epithets and the use of long compound words. In spite of 

 these defects, which make the poetry of -Eschylus at times border on 

 bombast, and afforded a fair subject of ridicule to Aristophanes in his 

 play called the ' Frogs," we may often admire a real sublimity of con- 

 ception, a boldness of imagination, and a power to paint what is grand 

 and terrific, in language which for force, simplicity, and truth, bag 

 never been surpassed. 



The play of the 'Persians' derives a peculiar interest from being 

 the only extant Greek tragedy which treats of a subject contempora- 

 neous with the age of the writer. It waa written or acted probably 

 about eight years after the battle of Salamis, and may be considered 

 as the most durable monument of the defeat of the Asiatic iuvader. 

 The poet writes as he fought, with a noble spirit of patriotism. 



There are numerous editions of the works of --Eschylua. The first 

 was printed at Venice in 1518, 8vo, at the press of Aldus, after his 

 death; but the 'Agamemnon' and 'Choephori' are both incomplete 

 in this edition, and what there is of the ' Agamemnon' is oddly enough 

 tagged to the ' Choephori,' which has lost its beginning, consequently 

 this edition contains only six plays. The best recent editions are by 

 Wellauer, Lips., 1823; W.Dindorf, Lipa., 1827; and Scholefield, Camb., 

 1830. There ia an English poetical version of /Eachylua by John 

 Potter, and also several poetical versions of the 'Agamemnon.' A prose 

 version is published in ' Bohu'g Classical Library.' The Germans have 

 several poetical translations of jEachylua ; the latest ia by Voss, 1826. 

 There is a translation of the 'Agamemnon' (1816) by William 

 Uumboldt. 



^ESCULA'PIUS, or, according to the Greek form of his name, 

 Aiclepiot, was the god of medicine in ancient mythology. Several 

 yK.-iCulapii are said to have existed ; and it would not be easy to deter- 

 mine whether tradition pointed to so many distinct persons, or merely 

 handed down different versions of the parentage of the same man. 

 Cicero mentions three : the first, sou of Apollo, invented the probe, 

 and the art of bandaging wounds ; the second, son of Mercury, was 

 struck dead by lightning ; the third was of mortal parentage, son of 

 Arsippus and Arsinoe, and first practised purging and tooth-drawing. 

 The Egyptians also had their .(Eaculapiua (as the Greeks call him), 

 the eon of Hermes. Of the moat important of theae we proceed to 

 give a brief sketch. 



Aaclepios waa the son of Apollo by Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas. 

 Hia mother, having succeeded in concealing her pregnancy, exposed 

 the child upon Mount Myrtium, afterwards called Titthium, in Argolia, 

 near Epidaurus. A shepherd, missing bis dog and one of his goats, 

 ought the wanderers throughout the country; and at last found them, 

 the dog keeping watch over a child enveloped in flames, which the 

 goat was suckling. The herdsman, " thinking that it was something 

 divine," and being frightened, went away ; but he spread the marvel 

 abroad, and it waa aoon noised over all the globe that Asclepios could 

 heal every disease, and besides bring the dead to life. 



Another version of the story nays that Apollo, in a fit of jealousy, 

 having caused the mother's death, the unborn child was snatched by 

 Mercury (or, according to Pindar, by Apollo himself) from her funeral 

 pile. 'H'U circumstance may be connected with the other story, which 

 assigns the parentage of /Eculpius to Mercury. 



According to Pindnr, Apollo sent the child to be educated by the 

 DI v. VOL. I. 



Centaur Chiron, who instructed him in medicine, as at au after-period 

 he did Achilles. Having reached manhood, ho went with Castor aud 

 Pollux on the Argonautic expedition, Returning to Greece, he prac- 

 tised with eminent success ; not merely curing all diseases, but recalling 

 the dead to life. Among others, he did this service to Hippolytus, sou 

 of Theseus. The gods regarded this as an invasion of their privileges, 

 and at last Zeus (or Jupiter) struck the bold practitioner dead with 

 lightning, in consequence of a complaint lodged by Pluto, that the 

 infernal regions were depopulated by these new proceedings. Apollo 

 revenged the death of hia son by killing all the Cyclopes, who forged 

 thunderbolts for Zeus. Finally, Asclepios was raised to heaveu, and 

 made a constellation, under the natne of Ophiuchus, the serpent- 

 holder ; though some say that Ophiuchus is Hercules. 



In the latter ages of paganism, when scepticism was very prevalent, 

 and it was the fashion to see allegory iu every mythological story, the 

 whole was thus explained : ^Esculapius signified the air, the medium 

 of health and life. The Sun was his father, because the sun, shaping 

 his course agreeably to the changes of the seasons, produces a healthy 

 atate of the atmosphere. The same spirit is visible in the names given 

 to his daughters, which all but one bear reference to the father's art : 

 Hygieia, health ; Panakeia, universal remedy ; laso, healing ; Aigle, 

 splendour. 



In Greece, the original seat of Asclepios's worship was in the neigh- 

 bourhood of hia birthplace at Epidaurus, where a splendid temple was 

 erected to his honour, adorned with a chryselephantine (or gold and 

 ivory) statue. He was represented sitting ; one hand holding a staff, 

 the other resting on a serpent's head ; a dog couched at his feet. In 

 coins aud other ancient remains he ia commonly seen with a long beard, 

 holding a staff with a serpent twined about it. Often he is accompanied 

 by a cock ; sometimes by an owl. The cock was commonly sacrificed 

 to him. These animals seem meant to typify the qualities which a 

 physician should possess ; the owl being emblematic of wisdom, tho 

 cock of vigilance, the serpent of sagacity, and, besides, of long life. 

 The serpent was especially sacred to Asclepios. At Epidaurus there 

 was a peculiar breed of yellowish-brown snakes, of large size, harmless, 

 and easily tamed, which frequented the temple, and in the form of 

 which the god was supposed to manifest himself. In this shape he 

 waa conveyed to Sicyon, and at a later period, about B.C. 400, to Home, 

 when that city, being afflicted by pestilence, sent an embassy, at the 

 command of an oracle, to fetch Asclepios to their help. On the 

 ambassadors being introduced into the temple, a serpent came from 

 under the statue, aud glided through the city, and on board their ship. 

 Arriving in the Tiber, he swam ashore to the island upon which his 

 temple afterwards was built. A few inscriptions have been found in 

 this island relating cures, and the means employed. The means are 

 of such a nature that the cures must have been impostures, or have 

 been wrought by the force of imagination. It was customary to placo 

 similar inscriptions in all temples of Asclepioa. At Epidaurus there 

 were stones in the sacred precinct erected in commemoration of cures 

 performed by the god, recording in the Doric dialect the namea and 

 diseases of the patients, and detailing the methods of cure employed. 

 Six of these remained when Pausanias visited the place, aud, besides, 

 an ancient pillar, commemorating the gift of twenty horses by 

 Hippolytus, in gratitude for his restoration to life. 



Of the extent of Asclepios's knowledge, and of his method of practice, 

 or rather of that which prevailed in the early ages before the Trojan 

 war, we know little. His sons, Machaon and Podaleirios, who fought 

 before Troy, and are often mentioned in Homer, seem only to have 

 meddled with external injuries. Pindar, in a passage of rather doubtful 

 meaning, seems to confine the father's skill within the same limits, 

 when he speaks of him as healing those afflicted with self-produced 

 ulcers, wounds from brass or atone, or injuries from summer heat or 

 cold. Hia remedies, on the same authority, were incantations, soothing 

 drinks, external applications, and the knife. There is a remarkable 

 passage in which Plato ('Rep.,' iii. 14), inveighing against tho 

 effeminacy of his own times, contrasts the attention of physicians to 

 diet, exercise, &c., with the negligence of the sons of Asclepios iu 

 these respects ; quoting a passage from Homer, in which Maohaon, 

 returning from battle severely wounded, partakes immediately of a 

 mess of meal and cheese, mixed up in strong Pramnian wine. (' II.,' 

 xL 639.) 



For some centuries after the Trojan war medical science, if it deserves 

 that name, seems to have been confined to the temples of Asclepios, in 

 which hia descendants, the Asclepiada;, who formed the priesthood, 

 were alone allowed to practise ; until in later times pupils were admitted 

 into the brotherhood, having been solemnly initiated, and sworu to 

 conform to ita rules. The most celebrated temples, besides that at 

 Epidaurus, were those of Rhodes, Cnidos, and Cos, where Hippocrates, 

 a native of the island, ia said to have profited by the records preserved 

 in the temple. Croton and Cyreno also possessed schools of medicine. 

 The practice seems to have been intended chiefly to work on the 

 imagination. The god often gave his own prescriptions in dreams and 

 visions, aud the patients were to be prepared by religious rites for this 

 divine intercourse. 



jESO'PUS, now commonly called ^Eaop, a Grecian author, who lived 

 about the middle of the 6th century before Christ, contemporary with. 

 Solon and Piaistratus. He ia usually acknowledged as the inventor 

 of those short moral fictions to which we especially appropriate tho 



