given healing sanctuary. Equally impressive are the so-called miracle inscriptions
from Epidaurus, where patients tended to put into words the miracles that
had happened to them during incubation and inscribed them on wooden or
stone tablets, which they then dedicated to Asclepius. At the end of the fourth
century the Epidaurian priests composed a catalog of the most important cures, the
so-called Epidaurianiamata(Dillon 1994; LiDonnici 1995). Pausanias was still able
to look at six of the many stelae originally displayed in the precinct (2.27.3). Among
the ones that have survived on stone, each ‘‘entry’’ in the catalog reveals details about
the process of incubation as well as the personal experience of the patients. Their
names (and in many cases their provenance) are usually followed by their ailments.
The stories of their healing are not in the least stereotypical, and they can be quite
humorous. The following is a typical example:
A dumb boy. This boy came to the sanctuary for a voice. When he had made the
preliminary sacrifice and performed the accustomed rites... the temple servant who
brings in the fire for the god [ho pyrphoro ̄n], looking at the boy’s father, demanded he
should promise to bring within a year the thank-offering for the cure if he obtained that
for which he had come. But the boy suddenly said, ‘‘I promise.’’ His father was startled
at this and asked him to repeat it. The boy repeated the words and from this time on was
well. (Rhodes and Osborne 2003: no.102 v¼LiDonnici 1995 A5)Figure 10.2 Amphiaraus heals Archinos. Dedicatory relief from Oropus (or Athens), end of
fifth century BC.ANM3369. Photograph: Hermann Wagner, DAI. DAI Neg. no.: D-DAI
ATH-NM 3312
A Day in the Life of a Greek Sanctuary 171