Religion homework readings response

From the cult of Asklepios at Epidaurus: sacred sleep, dream oracles, incubation and the abaton. 1 Ambrosia from Athens, blind in one eye. She came as a suppli ant to the god. As she walked about in t he temple she laughed at some of the cures as incredible and impossible, that the lame and the blind should be healed by merely seeing a dream. In her sleep she had a vision. It seemed to her that the god stood by her and said he would cure her, but that I payment he would ask her to ded icate to the Temple a silver pig as a memorial of her ignorance. After saying this, he cut the diseased eyeball and poured in some drug. When day came she walked out sound. Edelstein, 1945, stele 1-4. Euphanes, a boy of Epidauru. Suffering from stone he slept in the Temple. It seemed to him that the god stood by him and asked: “What will you give me if I cure you?” “Ten dice,” he answered. The god laughed and said to him that he would cure him. When day came he walked out sound. Edelstein, 1945, stele 1-8. A man with an abscess within his abdomen. When asleep in the Temple he saw a dream. It seemed to him that the god ordered the servants who accompanied him to grip him and hold him tightly so that he could cut open his abdomen. The man tried to get aw ay, but they gripped him and bound him to a door knocker. Thereupon Asclepius cut his belly open, removed the abscess, and, after having stitched him up again, released him from his bonds. Whereupon he walked out sound, but the floor of the Abaton was cove red with blood. Edelstein, 1945, stele 11 -27. Cleinatas of Thebes came with lice. He came with a great number of lice on his body, slept in the Temple and saw a vision. It seemed to him that the god stripped him and made him stand upright, naked, and wi th a broom brushed the lice from his body. When a day came he left the Temple well. Edelstein , 1945, stele 11 -28. Gorgias of Heracleia with pus . In a battle he had been wounded by an arrow in the lung and for a year and a half had suppurated so badly that he filled sixty -seven basins with pus. While sleeping in the Temple he saw a vision. It seemed to him the god extracted the arrow point from his lung. When day came he walked out well, holding the point of the arrow in his hands. Edelstein , 1945 , stele 11 -30. Left , Asklepios and Hygieia (ivory) 5th century, CE , in the National Museum Liverpool. Right , a marble relief of Asklepios and his daughter Hygieia. From Therme, Greece, 5th century BCE . Istanbul Archaeological Museums. 1 An enclosure where patients slept.