The Empire's Physician: Prosperity, Plague, and Healing in Ancient Rome

 The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University is sponsoring the virtual exhibit "The Empire's Physician: Prosperity, Plague, and Healing in Ancient Rome" (ancient medicine and health as seen through the eyes of Galen). Their exhibit can be explored here:  

https://galen.nyu.yourcultureconnect.com/e/home

Image: Votive relief depicting Asclepius healing a patient in her sleep, with Hygieia standing behind the god. Greek, ca. 400–350 BCE. Marble. Temple of Asclepius (Asclepieion), Piraeus, near Athens. H. 42 cm; W. 79 cm. Archaeological Museum of Piraeus: MP 405. Photo: Sites & Photos / Art Resource, NY.

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Anatomical votives in the Greco-Roman World

  "Votive offerings have been part of the human relationship with gods and belief from pre-history to the present. Today we might light a candle, a stick of incense, lay a bunch of flowers or in some Catholic churches people still leave a wax body part by way of a votive offering, but in the ancient world the practice was more wide-ranging, literal and multifaceted. The ancient Greeks and Romans offered them to a deity to bring good fortune or to grant favours and they were an important expression of their personal relationship with their gods and goddesses." - Richard Moss, Museum Crush:

https://museumcrush.org/anatomical-votive-offerings-of-the-greco-roman-world/

Moss lavishly illustrates his article with votive objects from the Wellcome Collection, the Science Museum, and the British Museum in London.  He also mentions The Votives Project, a cross-cultural and multi-period effort to study votive material and contexts.  Participants' research include such diverse studies as votive musical instruments in ancient Greece, votive reliefs in the highlands of southwest Anatolia, anatomical votives from the Ascleopieion in ancient Corinth, arm and leg votives from Mikata Ishikanzeon Dou, Japan, wax infant votives from Cyprus, Etruscan votives, and even curse tablets as votives. The project even encompasses the study of modern era votive practices. 

You can read more about these studies on the project website at https://thevotivesproject.org/

Image: Votive female viscera, Roman, 200 BCE-200 CE. Credit: Science Museum, London. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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Asclepius and the Etruscan god Vejovis

Romans believed that the Etruscan god Vejovis was one of the first gods to be born. He was a god of healing, and became associated with the Greek Asclepius after the Romans assimilated Greek deities into their religious practices in the 2nd century BCE.  Vejovis was mostly worshipped in Rome and Bovillae in Latium. On the Capitoline Hill and on the Tiber Island, temples were erected in his honor.   In his temple between the two peaks of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, his statue carried a bundle of arrows and stood next to a statue of a she-goat.  Vejovis had three festivals in the Roman Calendar: on 1 January, 7 March, and 21 May. In spring, multiple goats were sacrificed to him to avert plagues.  The College of Aesculapius and Hygia was an association (collegium) that served as a burial society and dining club that also participated in the Imperial cult.

After Vejovis assumed the healer's mantle of Asclepius, his origin story changed to his heritage as the son of Apollo and a mortal woman named Coronis.  But the Romans believed Coronis betrayed Apollo with a mortal man named Ischys so Apollo slew her with arrows.  As Coronis breathed her last she told Apollo of her pregnancy. So Apollo cut the child from her body before she was consumed by fire.

Apollo taught his son many things about medicine but the boy's formal education was delivered by the centaur Chiron.  Although the child was originally called Hepius, he was renamed  Asclepius after he cured Ascles, ruler of Epidaurus who suffered an incurable ailment in his eyes.  Asclepius became so proficient as a healer that he surpassed both Chiron and his father, Apollo. Asclepius was therefore able to evade death and to bring others back to life from the brink of death and beyond. But his gifts of resurrection angered Zeus (Jupiter) who was afraid that Asclepius would teach the art of resurrection to other humans as well.  So, Zeus killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt.  However, this angered Apollo so much he killed the Cyclopes who made thunderbolts for Zeus.  For this act, Zeus banished Apollo from Olympus and commanded him to serve Admetus, King of Thessaly for a year. After Asclepius's death, Zeus placed his body among the stars as the constellation Ophiuchus ("the Serpent Holder").  But when Apollo completed his labors, he returned and asked Zeus to restore his son to him.  So,  Zeus resurrected Asclepius as a god and gave him a place on Olympus.

Marble relief of Asclepius and his daughter Hygieia. From Therme, Greece, end of the 5th century BC. Istanbul Archaeological Museums courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Prioryman

A sculpture of the Roman healing god Aesculapius restored with the head of Homer photographed by Mary Harrsch at the Palazzo Altemps in Rome.

Famous Statue of Asclepius, exhibited in the Museum of Epidaurus Theatre, in the city of Epidaurus (Greece) courtesy of Ken Russell Salvador with added visual effects.

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