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Two Buildings in Sanctuaries of Asklepios
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
In describing the sacred grove () of Asklepios in the territory of Epidaurus, Pausanias (ii 27.1) mentions two of the rules that were in force there: (he has just mentioned that the ἄλσος is surrounded on all sides by boundary stones), and, secondly,
Those about to give birth or to die were eventually accommodated immediately outside the peribolos in a building constructed for them in Pausanias' own time by ‘Antoninus, a Senator’. The eating accommodation was provided earlier, most obviously in the building generally described as the καταγώγιον. Since this lies between the temple of Asklepios and the theatre, which is itself, according to Pausanias we can assume that sacrificial meat consumed in it had not been taken outside the boundaries.
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References
1 For the possible remains of this building, Kavvadias, P., Τὸ ἱερὸν τοῦ Ἀσκληπίου ἐν Ἐπιδαύρῳ 170.Google Scholar
2 Described briefly by Kavvadias, , Τὸ ἱερὸν 162.Google Scholar Roux, L'Architecture de l'Argolide aux IVe et IIIe siècles avant J.C., who discusses neither this building nor the gymnasium, mentions (82) a forthcoming study of it by A. von Gerkan and J. Travlos.
3 Jdl xxxii (1917) 114.
4 To be identified as an Asklepieion: Welter, G., Troizen und Kalaureia 25 ff.Google Scholar
5 I could only see traces of accidental cutting here.
6 Kavvadias, , ΠΑΕ 1901Google Scholar, πίναξ α′ (plan by A. N. Lykakis).
7 As erroneously shown on Frickenhaus' plan, loc. cit. Abb. 10.
8 See Frickenhaus, loc. cit., and Welter, loc. cit., and especially Tafeln 11–18.
9 Frickenhaus, loc. cit.
10 It is not as wide as the others: 0·85 × 0·48 × 0·15 m. only.
11 In Roman times (mid second century A.D.) the original grand propylon was converted into a temple of Hygieia, and the passage into the gymnasium blocked: Kavvadias, , Το ἱερὸν 148.Google ScholarCf. Paus ii 27.6. The two doors on the east side were probably constructed then to give access to the Odeion, which was built at the same time in the central court, as well as to the other rooms of the gymnasium: see below p. 111.
12 Roebuck, C., Corinth xiv The Asklepieion and Lerna 51 ff.Google Scholar
13 See my Perachora, The remains outside the sanctuaries.
14 Delorme, J., Gymnasion 98Google Scholar, argues that the pairs of small rooms at either end of the east and south halls are kitchens, and that since they do not exist by the west hall, that cannot be a dining-room. Since it is not likely that the rooms to either end of the south hall are kitchens, and it cannot be proved for the east hall, this argument is not conclusive.
15 This is proved by the fact that at Corinth and Perachora the place for the pillow is at the right-hand end of each couch. It is also evident from Plato's Symposion that the place of honour, occupied by Phaidros, was on the extreme right, and the inferior place, occupied by Aga thon as host, on the left; presumably there too the couches were arranged round the walls of the room.
16 Welter, loc. cit., esp. Taf. 14.
17 It is often supposed that couches could accommodate more than one diner; see, for example, the scene on an Early Corinthian column crater in the Louvre: Arias, and Hirmer, , A Hhtory of Greek Vase Painting pl. ixGoogle Scholar; and on the Marlay Painter's stemless cups (e.g. CVA Gallatin pis. 24.2 and 3; I owe this reference to Professor C. M. Robertson).
18 Kavvadias, , ΠΑΕ 1901, 50Google Scholar; Delorme, , BCH lxx (1946) 116.Google Scholar
19 Kavvadias, , ΠΑΕ 1901Google Scholar, πίναξ β′.
20 Gymnasion 96.
21 Roux, , L'Architecture 388Google Scholar says there are no examples of Corinthian columns in antis in the Argolid. He does not discuss the architecture of the Epidaurus gymnasium.
22 Schlief, H. and Eilmann, R. in Kunze, and Schlief, , 4th Olympia Bericht 8 ff.Google Scholar; though this gateway is in no way as imposing as that at Epidaurus.
23 Delorme, , Gymnasion 96 n. 3.Google Scholar
24 Cumont, , Syria iv (1923) 207 n. 3Google Scholar is more cautious: ‘l'édifice connu sous le nom de gymnase’.
25 Gymnasion 95–6. I am not here concerned with the precise distinction between gymnasium and palaestra.
26 Τὸ ἱερὸν 143; AE 1901, 49.
27 Vitruvius v 11.1.
28 Vitruvius, loc. cit. ‘Peristylia … ex quibus tres porticus simplices disponantur, quarta, quae ad meridianas regiones est conversa, duplex.’
29 An up-to-date plan of the palaestra, Schlief and Eilmann, loc. cit. Taf. 4.
30 Hence the restoration by Kavvadias and Lykakis of the κλίναι supports as part of a continuous bench along the walls.
31 Welter, op. cit. Taf. 15a, b.
32 Pausanias ii 4.5.
33 Kavvadias, , AE 1901.Google Scholar For a new identification of the rooms used as baths, Delorme, , BCH lxx (1946) 108 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34 So, too, certainly, the ἑστιατόριον at Perachora, immediately adjacent to the large cistern with apsidal ends: and also, in all probability, the ἑστιατόριον at the Argive Heraion. Neither of these can be a gymnasium.
35 Frickenhaus, loc. cit., while proving the existence of the dining-rooms, suggests that these could be properly part of a gymnasium: he cites Athenaeus v 195d (the games of Antiochus IV; cf. Polybius xxx 26), which, after describing events goes on But this did not necessarily happen in the gymnasium, and, even if it did, may well have been a temporary or special arrangement. The κλίναι at Epidaurus were permanent.
36 Robert, F., Délos xx Trois sanctuaires sur le rivage occidental 52 ff.Google Scholar
37 For feasting and processions, cf. Edelstein, E. J. and Edelstein, L., Asclepius ii 197.Google Scholar
38 Kavvadias, , Τὸ ἱερὸν 159.Google Scholar
39 Syria iv (1923) 207 n. 3. For the performance of religious drama at feasts, in Roman times at least, cf. the Law of the Society of Iobacchi at Athens (SIG 1109) line 65 and line 121, for the parts: Dating to the second century A.D., this inscription, and the activities it records, is more or less contemporary with the construction of the odeion at Epidaurus.
40 Dyggve, Poulsen, and Rhomaios, Das Heroon von Kalydon.
41 Hill, I. T., The Ancient City of Athens 125 ff.Google Scholar
42 ΠΑΕ 1876 and 1877.
43 AE 1908, 255 ff. Severely criticised by Dörpfeld, , AM xxxvi (1911) 70.Google Scholar Another, slighter article by Versakis, AE 1913, 52 ff.Google Scholar
44 AJA xv (1911) 32 ff.
45 AE 1939/41 (actually published in 1948).
46 Reproduced with English titling, by I. T. Hill, op. cit. 127 fig. 21.
47 BCH lxxiii (1949) 316 ff.
48 loc. cit. 342.
49 Martin and Metzger, loc. cit. 344. In Travlos' plan (Εἰκ. 18 = I. T. Hill fig. 21), a foundation immediately to the west of this is interpreted as part of another temple.
50 Martin and Metzger, loc. cit. Versakis, AE 1908Google Scholar calls it poros.
51 Martin, , BCH lxviii/lxix (1944/1945) 370Google Scholar; BCH lxxiii (1949) 346.
52 Corinth xiv The Asklepieion and Lerna 56.
53 Travlos, loc. cit. 60.
54 I. T. Hill, op. cit. 129.
55 Versakis, , AE 1908Google Scholarπίναξ 9, εἰκ. 11. Travlos, loc. cit. εἰκ. 18.
56 Roebuck, op. cit. 51 ff., and my publication of the ἑστιατόρισν at Perachora.
57 For the measurements of the rooms at Corinth, see de Waele, F. J., AJA xxxvii (1933) 431.Google Scholar
58 Versakis, , AE 1908, 273.Google Scholar
59 For the identification of the dining-rooms in this building see Frickenhaus, loc. cit. I accept Frickenhaus' arguments that this building cannot be earlier than the later temple as Tilton suggested (Waldstein, , The Argive Heraeum 131Google Scholar).
60 See my forthcoming publication.
61 Cf. note 51.
62 As Martin and Metzger suggest; loc. cit. 349.
63 Girard, , L'Asclépiéion d'Athènes (1881) 5 ff.Google Scholar
64 IG ii 1649, 1650.
65 Another possibility is that near the sanctuary of Dionysos ἐν λίμναις, mentioned above.
66 In my forthcoming publication of it, by comparison with other structures at Perachora, which will be published by me along with it, and by comparison with the dining-rooms of the Corinthian Asklepieion.
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