Ancient History of the Embodied Soul - The Ministry of the Ascetics - Essenes,

Therapeutae and Asclepius

Therapeutae
Essenes The Healer
Chronology (Egypt, Source Comments
(Palestine) Asclepius
Greece)
ASCETICISM Encyclopedia Britannica: The Zulus and other primitive races distrust a medicine man who is not an
999 BCE ascetic and lean with fasting. In the Semitic East it is an old belief that a successful fast in the wilderness of forty days and
nights gives power over the Djinns. The Indian yogi fasts till he sees face to face all the gods of his Pantheon; the Indian
magician fasts twelve days before producing rain or working any cure.

700 BCE Homer Iliad: mentions Asclepius as a skillful physician, not a miracle worker.
Mythological
528 BCE YES YES Asclepius beginnings: son of
Apollo

Enlightenment
Gautama
528 BCE at the age of 35
Buddha
years
Buddhist Influence: Therapeutae were sent by Buddha. Were the ancient Pythagoreans influenced by Indian
515 BCE ideas – vegetarianism, communal property, 'transmigration of souls.' and the principles of Ayurvedic medicine (Pythagoras'
four humours).

(580 - c.490 BCE)

Michael Grant, in his
well-respected 'The Rise
of the Greeks' makes
note that the cult of
510 BCE NO YES YES Pythagoras Thoth/Hermes and its
equivalent
'Imhotep/Asklepios' was
the main intellectual
belief during the time of
Pythagoras.

Lyric poet mentions

Asclepius performing
450 BCE YES YES Pindar healings, miracles and
raising people from the
dead.

Life of served as a priest to

420 BCE YES Sophocles Asclepius
Sophocles
Hippocratic "I swear by Apollo, the
370 BCE YES Hippocrates healer ...
Oath
Alexander (336-323 BC) carried Greek civilization to the east. But the flow of culture was two way – for example, the
Greeks adopted the Indian war elephant and a great deal of speculative Indian thinking. Greek philosophers, like Anaxarchus
323 BCE and Pyrrho, had been in the train of Alexander and had mixed with the Indian gymnosophists or 'naked philosophers.' After
their conquest of the Indus valley the Greeks never again returned to the simple pantheon of their Olympian gods – and
founded their first school of Skepticism

Buddhist Influence: Therapeutae were sent by Asoka on an embassy to Pharaoh Ptolemy II (The word
'Therapeutae' is itself of Buddhist origin, being a Hellenization of the Pali 'Thera-putta' (literally 'son of the elder' or 'son of
250 BCE the monk'). Ashoka, in his Second Edict refers to philanthropic works (such as medical help for humans and animals, digging
wells, planting trees etc.) taken up by his missionaries in the lands ruled by Theos II of Syria (260 to 240 B. C) and his
neighbors , including Egypt.
 governor of
Marcus Syria, friend of
0015 BCE Source Vipsanius Herod the
Agrippa Great (Pliny's
source)
Strabo tells us that the
Asclepius temples at Cos
and Epidaurus were
always filled with
patients, and along their
walls the tablets were
suspended, upon which
were recorded the
history and treatment of
the individual cases of
disease. One of these
tablets has been found
on the island in the
020 CE NO YES YES Strabo Tiber, near Rome, at the
site of an ancient temple
- inscribed in Greek:
"Lucius was attacked by
the pleurisy, and
everyone despaired of
his life; the god ordered
that the warm ashes of
the altar be mingled
with wine, and applied
to his side. He was
saved, and gave thanks
to the god before the
people."

Chaeremon Contemporary of Strabo;

020 CE NO YES YES system not extinct -
the Stoic source for Porphyry

Philo is often taken as the sole authority for the Therapeutae. When he wrote, the origins of the Therapeutae were
already lost in the past, and he was even unsure about the etymology of their name, which he explained as meaning either
physicians of souls or servants of God. Philo was employing the familiar polarity in Hellenic philosophy between the active
030 CE and the contemplative life, exemplifying the active life by the Essenes, another severely ascetic sect, and the contemplative
life by the desert-dwelling Therapeutae. According to Philo, the Therapeutae were widely distributed in the Ancient
world, among the Greeks and beyond in the non-Greek world of the "Barbarians", with one of ther major gathering point
being in Alexandria, in the area of the Lake Mareotis

Essenes in Palestine;
Therapeutae in Egypt
(and everywhere). The
Therapeutae admitted
women, the Essenes did
Philo not. The Therepeutae
030 CE On Ascetics On Ascetics YES practiced annointment
Judaeus with oil in the usual
Oriental manner,
whereas oil was
regarded as a defilement
by the Essenes.

Roman COINS: Coins minted from the time of Nero in 54 CE through to Licinius in 324 CE depict Asclepius or
054 CE Salus -- include a total of forty-six emperors (listed below). It is notable that the tradition ceases with the rise to supremacy of
the emperor Constantine.

P.Oxy.413: an incomplete manuscript of a Greek mime ( a skit). The scene of action of the skit is India and there are a
070 CE? number of Indian characters who speak dialogue in an Indian language. Dr. E. Hultzsch (1857-1927), a noted German
Indologist, identified some words of the dialogue as an archaic form of Kannada, one of the four major languages of South
India.
 Natural Asclepius raised
Natural Pliny the Tyndareus from the dead
075 CE History YES (Pliny the Elder, Natural
History 29.1.3 Elder
5.73 History 29.1.3),

Josephus states flatly that the Essene lifestyle and the Pythagorean lifestyle
090 CE
were the same. (Antiquities 15.10.4).
Antiquities "Pythagoreans
090 CE Josephus
(15.10.4) "
Pythagorean Sage and
Ascetic, adept, cited by
Apollonius Philostratus
095 CE Fragments AEGAE (Biographer), Eusebius
of Tyana regards as an authority
on abstinence from
sacrifice

via Dio See Synesius

100 CE
Biographer? Chrysostom of Cyrene
Pedanius wrote an encyclopedia of
2nd CE Medical YES medicine
Dioscorides
Aulus
Greek physician, a
2nd CE Medical YES Cornelius disciple of Hippocrates
Celsus
Greek anatomist
Rufus of renowned for his
2nd CE Medical YES investigations of the
Ephesus heart and eye

Greek physician, who

recorded information
concerning obstetrics
Soranus of and gynecology,
2nd CE Medical YES apparently based on
Ephesus human dissection;
distinguished among
diseases by their
symptoms and course.

Greek traveller and

geographer of the 2nd
century CE., who lived
in the times of Hadrian,
Antoninus Pius and
Description of Marcus Aurelius. He
150 CE 126 refs Pausanias describes ancient Greece
Greece from firsthand
observations, and is a
crucial link between
classical literature and
modern archaeology.

Sacred Tales Aelius "We Asclepius

160 CE YES therapeutae "
39.5 Aristides
Student of Hippocrates,
165 CE Medical YES Galen of physician to the emperor
Works Pergamon Marcus Aurelius,
 therapetae of Ascepius.

P.Oxy. 1381: Dates from later second century CE. Contains extended prologue and first few lines of an aretology of
Imouthes - Asclepius. The author of P.Oxy 1381 is gravely ill. Asclepius appears in a dream --- "someone whose height was
170 CE? more than human, clothed in shining raiment and carrying in his left hand a book, who after merely regarding me two or
three times from head to foot disappeared." The illness disappeared immediately; but in turn Ascepius demanded, "though the
priest who serves him in the ceremonies", the fulfilment of the patient's long-standing undertaking to write a book about
Asclepius.

curious resemblances to
Philo's description of the
De
De Abstinentia Porphyry of Therapeutae, even down
300 CE Abstinentia to such details as their
4.6 Tyre posture and gait and the
4.6 eating of hyssop with
their bread

"tells us how he saw at

Heliopolis large
buildings belonging to
the priests, which had
once been tenanted by
Life of men skilled in
310 CE Iamblicus philosophy and
Pythagoras astronomy, who had
been consulted by Plato
and Eudoxus, but that
the Therapeutae (same
word used by Philo) had
then fallen into decay ."

Pachomius - writes about his spiritual master Palamon, with whom he stayed for many years, an anchorite ascetic,
317 CE whom he reports says: I have a hard ascesis. In summer I fast daily and in winter I eat every other day. By the grace of God
*** I eat nothing but bread and salt. I am not in the habit of using oil and wine. I keep vigil as I was taught, always spending
half the night and often the whole night in prayer and reciting the words of God. (NB: *** This was not the "christian god")

DESTRUCTIO
324 CE See below H.E. 2.16-17 Eusebius
N
DESTRUCTIO via
323 CE H.E. 4.22.6 Hegesippus
N Eusebius
DESTRUCTIO via Hippolytus of
322 CE ???
N Eusebius Rome
Nag Hammadi DESTRUCTIO Pachomius
348 CE See SUMMARY
Codices N the Editor?
Against the Emperor Asclepius: the Greatest
362 CE YES Gift of the Helenes
Galilaeans Julian
Synesius of Chrysostom’s
400 CE
Cyrene biographer
Bibliotheca Bibliotheca
890 CE Photius
104 104
1852 CE Bruno Bauer (1809-1882); Critique of the Gospels and History of Their Origin, noted that in Alexandria, Philo (born
c. 10 B.C.) took up Heraclitus' [c. 540 - c. 480 B.C.E.] old idea of the Logos and made it the incorporeal first-born of God, the
high priest who stands before God on behalf of the world. He is a personal and enduring mediator between God and man, the
bread of life given to man's soul. He is God's cupbearer, who offers himself as refreshing wine--not to the rulers of this word,
 who are due to be overthrown, but to the lowly wise man, guiding him to a higher word not attainable by flesh and blood.
Philo sees the Logos as related to the "word" with which God, in the Jewish scriptures, ordered things on earth, and he
interprets these divine ordinances in a highly spiritualized way, as did the Therapeutae, whom he mentions as being
numerous in Egypt. They looked for hidden meanings in the scriptures by way of allegorical analysis.

Vivekananda While travelling from England to India in January 1897, on board the ship Prinz-Regent Luitpold, the
venerable sage Vivekananda told Nivedita about his dream of an old bearded man named Therapeutae, (Theraputra - son
1897 CE [putra] of an old monk [thera]) who had asked: "Do ye come to effect our restoration? I am one of the ancient order of
Therapeutae The truths preached by us have been given out by Christians as taught by Jesus; but for the matter of that, there
was no personality by the name of Jesus ever born". - Extracted from Vivekananda's autobiography. Cited by Timothy Freke
and Peter Gandy; and Narasingha Prosad Sil

2000 CE Gerald D. Hart - Asclepius, the God of Medicine. Review Notes and data
Esoteric Healing - John Nash: Healing was practiced in the temples of Asclepius. The cult of Asclepius, a conspicuous feature
of Greek religion, dated at least from the fourth century BCE. Asclepius, the son of Apollo and a mortal woman, was taught a
variety of healing arts, including surgery. Based on Egyptian antecedents, healing temples, called asclepieion (asklepieion),
are reported to have treated large numbers of pilgrims. The Roman physician Galen (131–201), whose work would dominate
western medicine for 1,000 years, is reported to have spent four years at a temple of Asclepius in Asia Minor. Sleep temples
provided treatments for a variety of physical and psychological ailments. Dream analysis played a major role, in which priests
took the place of today’s Freudian and Jungian psychologists. Other therapies included fasting, meditation, hypnosis,
chanting, and visits to the baths or gymnasium. Attendants at the temples were known as therapeutae (Greek: qerapeuw, “to
serve, or heal”) or therapeutrides, their female counterparts. The same terms, therapeutae and therapeutrides, were applied to
2007 CE members of certain Jewish monastic communities that flourished at the beginning of the Common Era. These communities
functioned much like communities of Essenes,4 but a major focus of their work was healing. Jewish philosopher Philo of
Alexandria (c.10 BCE–50 CE) described a community of Jewish therapeutae on the shore of Lake Mareotis, Egypt, in the first
century CE. He was clearly impressed with the work of its members: [They] have embraced the contemplation of nature and
its constituent parts, and have lived in the soul alone, citizens of Heaven and the universe, truly commended to the Father and
Creator of all by virtue, which has secured for them God’s friendship.5 Philo spoke enthusiastically about the practitioners’
success, noting that their services were more effective than were available from physicians in the cities: “for the latter’s [care]
cures only the body, while [the care of the therapeutae] treats also souls mastered by grievous and virtually incurable
diseases.”

Asclepia: Temples of Asclepius

Asclepius' Temples and Cult - c.500 BCE to c.500
CE

Ancient Greco-Roman medicine borrowed a lot from the

Egyptian medicine.
Egyptian medical men were invited by Greeks to
practice medicine
in their countries and were highly respected.

Michael Grant, in his well-respected 'The Rise of the

Greeks' makes
note that the cult of Thoth/Hermes and its equivalent
'Imhotep/Asklepios'
was the main intellectual belief during the time of
Pythagoras.

Apollo
Apollo was considered the earliest Greek God of
medicine.
Apollo was born in Delos and brought up in Delphi.
Here,
as the legend goes, the infant Apollo slew a python or
a
monster that had plagued the site. Following this,
Delphi
became a sacred place in Greece, where oracles
occured.
Apollo is regarded as having taught the art of healing
to
Achilles, Aesculapius (Asklepius) and Jason.

Asclepius
Asclepius was considered to be the son of Apollo and
Coronis
 a mortal woman. Ancient written sources report (see
below) that
"he healed many sick whose lives had been despaired
of,
and... he brought back to life many who had died."

Major temples, shrines and healing centers were

scattered across
the empire according to ancient sources. Perhaps the
best resource
available on the Asclepius Cult in the empire is
located at:
http://www.theoi.com/Cult/AsklepiosCult.html

THEOI present a discussion of the following

59 Asclepius temples and/or shrines:

ABIA Village in Messenia,

AIGAI Town in Kilikia ,
AIGINA Chief Town of Aigina,
AIGION Town in Akhaia,
ALEXANDRIA Chief City of Ptolemaic Egypt (Greek
Colony),
ALIPHERA Village in Arkadia,
ARGOS Chief City of Argolis,
ASOPOS Village in Lakedaimonia,
ATHENS Chief City of Attika,
AULON Village in Messenia,
BALAGRAI Village in Kyrenaia in Libya (Greek
Colony),
BOIAI Village in Lakedaimonia,
ELATEIA Village in Phokis,
EPIDAUROS LIMERA Village in Lakedaimonia,
EPIDAUROS Town in Argolis,
ERYTHRAI Town in Ionia / Lydia,
GERENIA Village in Messenia,
GORTYNA Village in Elis,
GORTYS Village in Arkadia,
GYTHEATAI Village in Lakedaimonia,
HYPSOI Village in Lakedaimonia,
KAOUS Village in Arkadia,
KLEITOR Village in Arkadia,
KORINTHOS Chief City of Korinthia,
KORONE Village in Messenia,
KOS Island in the South-Eastern Aegean,
KYLLENE Village in Ellis,
KYPHANTA Village in Lakedaimonia,
LEBENE Village in Krete,
LEUKTRA Village in Lakedaimonia,
LOUSIOS River in Arkadia,
MANTINEIA Town in Arkadia,
MEGALOPOLIS Chief City of Arkadia,
MEGARA Chief City of Megaris,
MELAINAI Village in the Troad,
MESSENE Chief City of Messenia,
MT ILIOS Mountain in Lakedaimonia,
NAUPAKTOS Town in Ozolian Lokris,
NEAR MEGARA,
Near SAUROS Hill in Elis,
OLENOS City in Akhaia,
OLYMPIA Village & Sanctuary in Elis,
PARAKYPARISSION Village in Lakedaimonia,
PATRAI Chief City of Akhaia,
PELLENA Village in Lakedaimonia,
PELLENE Town in Akhaia,
PERGAMON Chief City of Teuthrania,
PHLIOUS Town in Sikyonia,
ROME Chief City of Latium,
SIKYON Chief City of Sikyonia,
SMYRNA City in Aiolis / Lydia,
SPARTA Chief City of Lakedaimonia,
TANAGRA Town in Boiotia,
TEGEA City in Arkadia,
THELPOUSA Village in Arkadia,
THERAI Village in Lakedaimonia,
TITANE Village in Sikyonia,
TITHOREA Village in Phokis,
TRIKKE Town in Histiaiotis in Thessalia

Sources cited at THEOI are these:

Aristophanes, Plutus - Greek Comedy C5th-4th

B.C.
Aristophanes, Wasps - Greek Comedy C5th-4th
B.C.
Herodotus, Histories - Greek History C5th B.C.
Plato, Ion - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st B.C. -
C1st A.D.
Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek
Travelogue C2nd A.D.
Aelian, On Animals - Greek Natural History
C2nd-3rd A.D.
Aelian, Historical Miscellany - Greek Rhetoric
C2nd-3rd A.D.
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana -
Greek Biography C2nd A.D.
Philostratus the Younger, Imagines - Greek
Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
Callistratus, Descriptions - Greek Rhetoric
C4th A.D.
Ovid, Fasti - Latin Poetry C1st B.C. - C1st
A.D.
Cicero, De Natura Deorum - Latin Rhetoric C1st
B.C.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History - Latin
Encyclopedia C1st A.D.
Seneca, Phaedra - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
Statius, Silvae - Latin Epic C1st A.D.
Suidas - Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.
510 BCE - Pythagoras (570-489 BCE)
Mathematician and a physicist, Pythagoras also had a
profound influence
on medicine. According to him, diseases were due to
disturbances of four
humours:
(1) Black bile was cold and dry.
(2) Yellow bile was hot and dry,
(3) Phlegm was cold and moist and
(4) Blood was hot and moist.

There is a similarity between Pythagoras’ concept of

diseases and the
Ayurvedic concept enunciated at least two centuries earlier.

420 BCE - Life of Sophocles (496-406 BCE)

The Life tells us that Sophocles served as a priest to

Asclepius,
god of healing and medicine. In the center of Asclepius'
temple
lived a great serpent, an embodiment of the god himself.
Once,
during the relocation of the temple to Athens, the snake
lived
in Sophocles' house till his new quarters were ready.

370 BCE - Hippocrates (460-370 BCE.)

Generally considered the “ Father of medicine “

An astute Greek physician who was born on the island of Cos,

but probably practised on Rhodes. He was the first to
maintain
records of his patients complaints and his own observations.
It was Hippocrates who enunciated the physician ‘s oath ,
now known as the “Hippocratic Oath”:

“I swear by Apollo, the healer,

invoking all the Gods and Goddesses to be my witnesses,
that I will fulfil this Oath and this written convenant
to the best of my ability and judgment. I will look
upon him
who shall have taught me this art even as one of my own
parents.
I will impart this art by precept, by lecture and by
every mode
of teaching. The regime I adopt shall be for the
benefit of the
 patient according to my ability and judgement, and not
for their
hurt or for any wrong. In my attendance on the sick or
even part
therefrom, whatsoever things I see or hear, concerning
the life
of men, which ought not to be spoken abroad, I will
keep silence
thereon, counting such things to be as sacred secrets”.

His aphorisms are also famous, some of which state :

“Life is short and the art long; opportunity is

fleeting,
experience fallacious, judgement is difficult.”

“In every disease, it is a good sign when the patient’s

intellect
is sound and he enjoys his food; the opposite is a bad
sign.”

030 CE -- Philo Judaeus: On Ascetics

SOURCE: Ancient History Sourcebook:

Thatcher Introduction

As is evident from the writings of Seneca, Epictetus and others,

philosophy in the West ceased to be purely speculative, and dealt
with moral and religious questions. This tendency toward the
moral and religious was strengthened by the spread of Jewish and
Christian teachings, together with the development of the Neo-
Platonists toward mysticism, and the consequent mingling of
western and eastern thought. Philo Judaeus lived in Alexandria,
Egypt, from 20 B.C. to 40 A.D. He was a Jew in religion but a
Greek in philosophy, and did much to promote this fusion of
thought. The selection below describes the pre-Christian ascetics of
Egypt. lt is important because it shows that asceticism was
common in the deserts of Egypt even before the Christian monks
and thus by no means peculiarly Christian.

Philo Judaeus: On Ascetics

I. Having mentioned the Essenes, who in all respects selected for

their admiration and for their especial adoption the practical course
of life, and who excel in all, or what perhaps may be a less
unpopular and invidious thing to say, in most of its parts, I will
now proceed, in the regular order of my subject, to speak of those
who have embraced the speculative life, and I will say what
appears to me to be desirable to be said on the subject, not drawing
any fictitious statements from my own head for the sake of
improving the appearance of that side of the question which nearly
all poets and essayists are much accustomed to do in the scarcity of
good actions to extol, but with the greatest simplicity adhering
strictly to the truth itself, to which I know well that even the most
eloquent men do not keep close in their speeches.

Nevertheless we must make the endeavor and labor to attain to this

virtue; for it is not right that the greatness of the virtue of the men
should be a cause of silence to those who do not think it right that
anything which is creditable should be suppressed in silence; but
the deliberate intention of the philosopher is at once displayed
from the appellation given to them: for with strict regard to
etymology, they are called therapeutae and therapeutrides, either
because they profess an art of medicine more excellent than that in
general use in cities (for that only heals bodies, but the other heals
souls which are under the mastery of terrible and almost incurable
diseases, which pleasures and appetites, fears and griefs, and
covetousness, and follies, and injustice, and all the rest of the
innumerable multitude of other passions and vices, have inflicted
upon them), or else because they have been instructed by nature
and the sacred laws to serve the living God, who is superior to the
good, and more simple than the one, and more ancient than the
unity with whom, however, who is there of those who profess piety
that we can possibly compare? Can we compare those who honor
the elements, earth, water, air, and fire? to whom different nations
have given names, calling fire Hephaestus, I imagine because of its
kindling, and the air Hera, I imagine because of its being raised up,
and raised aloft to a great height, and water Poseidon, probably
because of its being drinkable, and the earth Demeter because it
appears to be the mother of all plants and of all animals.

II. But since these men infect not only their fellow countrymen, but
all that come near them with folly, let them remain uncovered,
being mutilated in the most indispensable of all the outward
senses, namely, sight. I am speaking here, not of the sight of the
body, but of that of the soul, by which alone truth and falsehood
are distinguished from one another. But the therapeutic sect of
mankind, being continually taught to see without interruption, may
well aim at obtaining a sight of the living God, and may pass by
the sun, which is visible to the outward sense, and never leave this
order which conducts to perfect happiness. But they who apply
themselves to this kind of worship, not because they are influenced
to do so by custom, nor by the advice or recommendation of any
particular persons, but because they are carried away by a certain
heavenly love, give way to enthusiasm, behaving like so many
revelers in bacchanalian or corybantian mysteries, until they see
the object which they have been earnestly desiring.

Then, because of their anxious desire for an immortal and blessed

existence, thinking that their mortal life has already come to an
end, they leave their possessions to their sons or daughters, or
perhaps to other relations, giving them up their inheritance with
willing cheerfulness: and those who know no relations give their
property to their companions or friends, for it followed of necessity
that those who have acquired the wealth which sees, as if ready
prepared for them, should be willing to surrender that wealth
which is blind to those who themselves also are still blind in their
minds.

When, therefore, men abandon their property without being

influenced by any predominant attraction, they flee without even
turning their heads back again, deserting their brethren, their
children, their wives, their parents, their numerous families, their
affectionate bands of companions, their native lands in which they
have been born and brought up, though long familiarity is a most
attractive bond, and one very well able to allure any one. And they
depart, not to another city as those do who entreat to be purchased
from those who at present possess them, being either unfortunate
or else worthless servants, and as such seeking a change of masters
rather than endeavoring to procure freedom (for every city, even
that which is under the happiest laws, is full of indescribable
tumults, and disorders, and calamities, which no one would submit
to who had been even for a moment under the influence of
wisdom), but they take up their abode outside of walls, or gardens,
or solitary lands, seeking for a desert place, not because of any ill-
natured misanthropy to which they have learned to devote
themselves, but because of the associations with people of wholly
dissimilar dispositions to which they would otherwise be
compelled, and which they know to be unprofitable and
mischievous.

III. Now this class of persons may be met with in many places, for
it was fitting that both Greece and the country of the barbarians
should partake of whatever is perfectly good; and there is the
greatest number of such men in Egypt, in every one of the districts,
or nomes, as they are called, and especially around Alexandria; and
from all quarters those who are the best of these therapeutae
proceed on their pilgrimage to some most suitable place as if it
were their country, which is beyond the Maereotic lake, lying in a
somewhat level plain a little raised above the rest, being suitable
for their purpose by reason of its safety and also of the fine
temperature of the air.

For the houses built in the fields and the villages which surround it
on all sides give it safety; and the admirable temperature of the air
proceeds from the continual breezes which come from the lake
which falls into the sea, and also from the sea itself in the
neighborhood, the breezes from the sea being light, and those
which proceed from the lake which falls into the sea being heavy,
the mixture of which produces a most healthy atmosphere.

But the houses of these men thus congregated together are very
plain, just giving shelter in respect of the two things most
important to be provided against, the heat of the sun, and the cold
from the open air; and they did not live near to one another as men
do in cities, for immediate neighborhood to others would be a
troublesome and unpleasant thing to men who have conceived an
admiration for, and have determined to devote themselves to,
solitude; and, on the other hand, they did not live very far from one
another on account of the fellowship which they desire to cultivate,
and because of the desirableness of being able to assist one another
if they should be attacked by robbers.

And in every house there is a sacred shrine which is called the holy
place, and the house in which they retire by themselves and
perform all the mysteries of a holy life, bringing in nothing, neither
meat, nor drink, nor anything else which is indispensable towards
supplying the necessities of the body, but studying in that place the
laws and the sacred oracles of God enunciated by the holy
prophets, and hymns, and psalms, and all kinds of other things by
reason of which knowledge and piety are increased and brought to
perfection.

Therefore they always retain an imperishable recollection of God,

so that not even in their dreams is any other subject ever presented
to their eyes except the beauty of the divine virtues and of the
divine powers. Therefore many persons speak in their sleep,
divulging and publishing the celebrated doctrines of the sacred
philosophy. And they are accustomed to pray twice a day, at
morning and at evening; when the sun is rising entreating God that
the happiness of the coming day may be real happiness, so that
their minds may be filled with heavenly light, and when the sun is
setting they pray that their soul, being entirely lightened and
relieved of the burden of the outward senses, and of the appropriate
object of these outward senses, may be able to trace out trust
existing in its own consistory and council chamber. And the
interval between morning and evening is by them devoted wholly
to meditation on and to practice virtue, for they take up the sacred
scriptures and philosophy concerning them, investigating the
allegories as symbols of some secret meaning of nature, intended
to be conveyed in those figurative expressions.

They have also writings of ancient men, who having been the
founders of one sect or another, have left behind them many
memorials of the allegorical system of writing and explanation,
whom they take as a kind of model, and imitate the general fashion
of their sect; so that they do not occupy themselves solely in
contemplation, but they likewise compose psalms and hymns to
God in every kind of meter and melody imaginable, which they of
necessity arrange in more dignified rhythm. Therefore, during six
days, each of these individuals, retiring into solitude by himself,
philosophizes by himself in one of the places called monasteries,
never going outside the threshold of the outer court, and indeed
never even looking out.

But on the seventh day they all come together as if to meet in a

sacred assembly, and they sit down in order according to their ages
with all becoming gravity, keeping their hands inside their
garments, having their right hand between their chest and their
dress, and the left hand down by their side, close to their flank; and
then the eldest of them who has the most profound learning in their
doctrines comes forward and speaks with steadfast look and with
steadfast voice, with great powers of reasoning, and great
prudence, not making an exhibition of his oratorical powers like
the rhetoricians of old, or the sophists of the present day, but
investigating with great pains, and explaining with minute
accuracy the precise meaning of the laws, which sits, not indeed at
the tips of their ears, but penetrates through their hearing into the
soul, and remains there lastingly; and all the rest listen in silence to
the praises which he bestows upon the law, showing their assent
only by nods of the head, or the eager look of the eyes.

And this common holy place to which they all come together on
the seventh day is a twofold circuit, being separated partly into the
apartment of the men, and partly into a chamber for the women, for
women also, in accordance with the usual fashion there, form a
part of the audience, having the same feelings of admiration as the
men, and having adopted the same sect with equal deliberation and
decision; and the wall which is between the houses rises from the
ground three or four cubits upwards, like a battlement, and the
upper portion rises upwards to the roof without any opening. on
two accounts; first of all, in order that the modesty which is so
becoming to the female sex may be preserved, and secondly, that
the women may be easily able to comprehend what is said, being
seated within earshot, since there is then nothing which can
possibly intercept the voice of him who is speaking.

IV. And these expounders of the law, having first of all laid down
temperance as a sort of foundation for the soul to rest upon,
proceed to build up other virtues on this foundation, and no one of
them may take any meat or drink before the setting of the sun,
since they judge that the work of philosophizing is one which is
worthy of the light, but that the care of the necessities of the body
is suitable only to darkness, on which account they appropriate the
day to the one occupation, and a brief portion of the night to the
other; and some men, in whom there is implanted a more fervent
desire of knowledge, can endure to cherish a recollection of their
food for three days without even tasting it, and some men are so
delighted, and enjoy themselves so exceedingly when regaled by
wisdom which supplies them with her doctrines in all possible
wealth and abundance, that they can even hold out twice as great a
length of time, and will scarcely at the end of six days taste even
necessary food, being accustomed, as they say that grasshoppers
are, to feed on air, their song as I imagine, making their scarcity
tolerable to them.

And they, looking upon the seventh day as one of perfect holiness
and a most complete festival, have thought it worthy of a most
especial honor, and on it, after taking due care of their soul, they
tend their bodies also, giving them, just as they do to their cattle, a
complete rest from their continual labors; and they eat nothing of a
costly character, but plain bread and a seasoning of salt, which the
more luxurious of them do further season with hyssop; and their
drink is water from the spring; for they oppose those feelings
which nature has made mistresses of the human race, namely,
hunger and thirst, giving them nothing to flatter or humor them,
but only such useful things as it is not possible to exist without. On
this account they eat only so far as not to be hungry, and they drink
just enough to escape from thirst, avoiding all satiety, as an enemy
of and a plotter against both soul and body.

And there are two kinds of covering, one raiment and the other a
house: we have already spoken of their houses, that they are not
decorated with any ornaments, but run up in a hurry, being only
made to answer such purposes as are absolutely necessary; and in
like manner their raiment is of the most ordinary description, just
stout enough to ward off cold and heat, being a cloak of some
 shaggy hide for winter, and a thin mantle or linen shawl in the
summer; for in short they practice entire simplicity, looking upon
falsehood as the foundation of pride, but truth is the origin of
simplicity, and upon truth and falsehood as standing in the light of
fountains, for from falsehood proceeds every variety of evil and
wickedness, and from truth there flows every imaginable
abundance of good things both human and divine.

From: Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., The Library of Original Sources

(Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907),
Vol. III: The Roman World, pp. 355-369.

054 CE to 324 CE -- COINAGE of the Roman

Emperors
SOURCE: Asclepius: The God of Medicine - By Gerald D. Hart: (p.177)

Indicates that the forty six of the Roman emperor for the period of almost
three centuries depicted on their minted coins the figure of Asclepius or
Salus. This represents a fairly extensive and persistent tradition. Notably
the practice ceases in the year 324 CE, at which time the military
supremacist Constantine secured the entire Roman empire as his own.

At this time, Constantine destroyed the temples of Asclepius and had their
chief priests executed. For the details, see this article on the The "Council"
of Antioch.
075 CE - Pliny the Elder: Natural History (5.73)
"To the west (of the Dead Sea) the Essenes have put the necessary distance
between themselves and the insalubrious shore. They are a people unique
of its kind and admirable beyond all others in the whole world; without
women and renouncing love entirely, without money and having for
company only palm trees. Owing to the throng of newcomers, this people
is daily reborn in equal number; indeed, those whom, wearied by the
fluctuations of fortune, life leads to adopt their customs, stream in in great
numbers. Thus, unbeleivable though this may seem, for thousands of
centuries a people has existed which is eternal yet into which no one is
born: so fruitful for them is the repentance which others feel for their past
lives!"
090 CE -- Josephus: Antiquities (15.10.4)
4. At which time Herod released to his subjects the third part of their taxes,
under pretense indeed of relieving them, after the dearth they had had; but
the main reason was, to recover their good-will, which he now wanted; for
they were uneasy at him, because of the innovations he had introduced in
their practices, of the dissolution of their religion, and of the disuse of
their own customs; and the people every where talked against him, like
those that were still more provoked and disturbed at his procedure; against
which discontents he greatly guarded himself, and took away the
opportunities they might have to disturb him, and enjoined them to be
always at work; nor did he permit the citizens either to meet together, or to
walk or eat together, but watched every thing they did, and when any were
caught, they were severely punished; and many there were who were
brought to the citadel Hyrcania, both openly and secretly, and were there
put to death; and there were spies set every where, both in the city and in
the roads, who watched those that met together; nay, it is reported that he
did not himself neglect this part of caution, but that he would oftentimes
himself take the habit of a private man, and mix among the multitude, in
the night time, and make trial what opinion they had of his government:
and as for those that could no way be reduced to acquiesce under his
scheme of government, he prosecuted them all manner of ways; but for the
rest of the multitude, he required that they should be obliged to take an
oath of fidelity to him, and at the same time compelled them to swear that
they would bear him good-will, and continue certainly so to do, in his
management of the government; and indeed a great part of them, either to
please him, or out of fear of him, yielded to what he required of them; but
for such as were of a more open and generous disposition, and had
indignation at the force he used to them, he by one means or other made
away, with them. He endeavored also to persuade Pollio the Pharisee, and
Satneas, and the greatest part of their scholars, to take the oath; but these
would neither submit so to do, nor were they punished together with the
rest, out of the reverence he bore to Pollio.

The Essens also, as we call a sect of ours, were excused from this
imposition.
These men live the same kind of life as do those whom the Greeks call
Pythagoreans,
concerning whom I shall discourse more fully elsewhere. However, it is
but fit to set down here the reasons wherefore Herod had these Essens in
such honor, and thought higher of them than their mortal nature required;
nor will this account be unsuitable to the nature of this history, as it will
show the opinion men had of these Essens.

5. Now there was one of these Essens, whose name was Manahem, who
had this testimony, that he not only conducted his life after an excellent
 manner, but had the foreknowledge of future events given him by God
also. This man once saw Herod when he was a child, and going to school,
and saluted him as king of the Jews; but he, thinking that either he did not
know him, or that he was in jest, put him in mind that he was but a private
man; but Manahem smiled to himself, and clapped him on his backside
with his hand, and said," However that be, thou wilt be king, and wilt
begin thy reign happily, for God finds thee worthy of it. And do thou
remember the blows that Manahem hath given thee, as being a signal of
the change of thy fortune. And truly this will be the best reasoning for
thee, that thou love justice [towards men], and piety towards God, and
clemency towards thy citizens; yet do I know how thy whole conduct will
be, that thou wilt not be such a one, for thou wilt excel all men in
happiness, and obtain an everlasting reputation, but wilt forget piety and
righteousness; and these crimes will not be concealed from God, at the
conclusion of thy life, when thou wilt find that he will be mindful of them,
and punish time for them." Now at that time Herod did not at all attend to
what Manahem said, as having no hopes of such advancement; but a little
afterward, when he was so fortunate as to be advanced to the dignity of
king, and was in the height of his dominion, he sent for Manahem, and
asked him how long he should reign. Manahem did not tell him the full
length of his reign; wherefore, upon that silence of his, he asked him
further, whether he should reign ten years or not? He replied, "Yes, twenty,
nay, thirty years;" but did not assign the just determinate limit of his reign.
Herod was satisfied with these replies, and gave Manahem his hand, and
dismissed him; and from that time he continued to honor all the Essens.
We have thought it proper to relate these facts to our readers, how strange
soever they be, and to declare what hath happened among us, because
many of these Essens have, by their excellent virtue, been thought worthy
of this knowledge of Divine revelations.

095 CE -- Apollonius of Tyana

The Mystic Rites or Concerning Sacrifices
[The full title is given by Eudocia, Ionia; ed.
Villoison (Venet 1781) p 57]

This treatise is mentioned by Philostratus (iii 41;

iv 19),
who tells us that it set down the proper method of
sacrifice
to every God, the proper hours of prayer and
offering.
It was in wide circulation, and Philostratus had come
across
copies of it in many temples and cities,
and in the libraries of philosophers.
 Several fragments of it have been preserved, [See
Zeller, Phil d Griech, v 127]
the most important of which is to be found in
Eusebius,
[Præparat. Evangel., iv 12-13; ed Dindorf (Leipzig
1867), i 176, 177]
and is to this effect:

“ ‘Tis best to make no sacrifice to God at all,

no lighting of a fire,
no calling Him by any name
that men employ for things to sense.

For God is over all, the first;

and only after Him do come the other Gods.
For He doth stand in need of naught
e’en from the Gods,
much less from us small men -
naught that the earth brings forth,
nor any life she nurseth,
or even any thing the stainless air contains.

The only fitting sacrifice to God

is man’s best reason,
and not the word
that comes from out his mouth.

“We men should ask the best of beings

through the best thing in us,
for what is good -
mean by means of mind,
for mind needs no material things
to make its prayer.
So then, to God, the mighty One,
who’s over all,
no sacrifice should ever be lit up.”

Noack [Psyche, I ii.5.] tells us that scholarship

is convinced of the genuineness of this fragment.
This book, as we have seen, was widely circulated
and held in the highest respect, and it said that
its rules were engraved on brazen pillars
at Byzantium. [Noack, ibid.]

150 CE - Pausanias (2nd Century CE)

Provides a comprehensive catalogue of temples and shrines
in the region, as well as frequent discussions of local
myth
and cult practice. For the source texts of Pausanias see
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias1A.html

His "Descriptions of Ancient Greece" makes a total

 of 126 separate references to the name of Asclepius,
the popular "hero" of physical healing.

160 CE - Aelius Aristides (117-180 CE)

Voluntary Associations in the Graeco-Roman World

By John S. Kloppenborg, Stephen G. Wilson
Aelius Aristides at the Asclepieion of Pergamum

Archaeological data supplement the literary sources

on the Asclepieion of Pergamum, including the most
extensive one, Aelius Aristides' (117-180)' "Sacred Tales".

Therapeutae

Mention of "therapeutae" - "[temple] worshippers or servants"

Aelius Aristides writes:

"We Asclepius therapeutae must agree with the god

that Pergamum is the best of his sanctuaries."
--- Sacred Tales (39.5)

"Asclepius is the one who guides and rules the universe,

the saviour of the whole and the guardian of immortals,
or if you wish to put it in the words of a tragic poet,
"the steerer of government," he who saves that which
always exists and that which is in the state of becoming".

--- Aristides, Oratio 17.4 (Edelstein),

see also Oratio 23.15-18

Publius Aelius Aristides (c. 129-189) a sophist and

rhetorician,
educated at Pergamum and Athens. Widely traveled in Egypt and
Asia Minor, arriving at Rome in 156. Spend most of his time
as a patient at the Asclepieum of Pergamum. A friend of
Marcus Aurelius,
he became a priest of Asclepius (Aesculapius) at Smyrna.
More than
fifty of his orations and declamations are extant.

165 CE - Claudius Galen of Pergamon (130-200

CE)
"Galen use of the designation "therapeutae" to secure
from Marcus Aurelius exception from military service."

In his writings - Galen wrote about 500 books - he often

acknowledged his indebtedness to Hippocrates. Galen was
 the physician to the great philosopher-emperor, Marcus
Aurelius.

"I know," he said, "that I have often made a diagnosis from

dreams;
and, guided by two very dear dreams, I once made an incision
into
the artery between the thumb and index finger of the right
hand."
Nor, it seems, was this a unique success: "I have saved many
people,"
Galen goes on to say, "by applying a cure prescribed in a
dream."

--- Galen 16.222 (Kühn).

Galen also put great stress on the proper and frequent use
of gymnastics (hence the importance and place of gymnasia).
Throughout other ancient Greek medical writings special
exercises
are prescribed as cures for specific diseases, showing the
extent
to which the Greeks considered health and fitness connected.

A gymnasium was equivalent to our idea of a university. A

gathering
place for scholars and their pupils, complete with a
library.

300 CE -- Porphyry
ON ABSTINENCE FROM ANIMAL FOOD
BOOK 4: 6-22

6. Chaeremon the Stoic, therefore, in his narration of the Egyptian

priests, who, he says, were considered by the Egyptians as
philosophers, informs us, that they chose temples, as the places in
which they might philosophize. For to dwell with the statues of the
Gods is a thing allied to the whole desire, by which the soul tends
to the contemplation of their divinities. And from the divine
veneration indeed, which was paid to them through dwelling in
temples, they obtained security, all men honoring these
philosophers, as if they were certain sacred animals. They also led
a solitary life, as they only mingled with other men in solemn
sacrifices and festivals. But at other times the priests were almost
inaccessible to any one who wished to converse with them. For it
was requisite that he who approached to them should be first
purified, and abstain from many things; and this is as it were a
common sacred law respecting the Egyptian priests. But these
[philosophic priests], having relinquished every other employment,
and human labors, gave up the whole of their life to the
contemplation and worship of divine natures and to divine
inspiration; through the latter, indeed, procuring for themselves,
honor, security, and piety; but through contemplation, science; and
through both, a certain occult exercise of manners, worthy of
antiquity. For to be always conversant with divine knowledge and
inspiration, removes those who are so from all avarice, suppresses
the passions, and excites to an intellectual life. But they were
studious of frugality in their diet and apparel, and also of
continence and endurance, and in all things were attentive to
justice and equity. They likewise were rendered venerable, through
rarely mingling with other men. For during the time of what are
called purifications, they scarcely mingled with their nearest
kindred, and those of their own order, nor were they to be seen by
anyone, unless it was requisite for the necessary purposes of
purification. For the sanctuary was inaccessible to those who were
not purified, and they dwelt in holy places for the purpose of
performing divine works; but at all other times they associated
more freely with those who lived like themselves. They did not,
however, associate with any one who was not a religious character.
But they were always seen near to the Gods, or the statues of the
Gods, the latter of which they were beheld either carrying, or
preceding in a sacred procession, or disposing in an orderly
manner, with modesty and gravity; each of which operations was
not the effect of pride, but an indication of some physical reason.
Their venerable gravity also was apparent from their manners. For
their walking was orderly, and their aspect sedate; and they were so
studious of preserving this gravity of countenance, that they did
not even wink, when at any time they were unwilling to do so; and
they seldom laughed, and when they did, their laughter proceeded
no farther than to a smile. But they always kept their hands within
their garments. Each likewise bore about him a symbol indicative
of the order which he was allotted in sacred concerns; for there
were many orders of priests. Their diet also was slender and
simple. For, with respect to wine, some of them did not at all drink
it, but others drank very little of it, on account of its being injurious
to the nerves, oppressive to the head, an impediment to invention,
and an incentive to venereal desires. In many other things also they
conducted themselves with caution; neither using bread at all in
purifications, and at those times in which they were not employed
in purifying themselves, they were accustomed to eat bread with
hyssop, cut into small pieces. For it is said, that hyssop very much
purifies the power of bread. But they, for the most part, abstained
from oil, the greater number of them entirely; and if at any time
they used it with pot-herbs, they took very little of it, and only as
much as was sufficient to mitigate the taste of the herbs.

7. It was not lawful for them therefore to meddle with the esculent
and potable substances, which were produced out of Egypt, and
this contributed much to the exclusion of luxury from these priests.
But they abstained from all the fish that was caught in Egypt, and
from such quadrupeds as had solid, or many-fissured hoofs, and
from such as were not horned; and likewise from all such birds as
were carnivorous. Many of them, however, entirely abstained from
all animals; and in purifications this abstinence was adopted by all
of them, for then they did not even eat an egg. Moreover, they also
rejected other things, without being calumniated for so doing.
Thus, for instance, of oxen, they rejected the females, and also
such of the males as were twins, or were speckled, or of a different
color, or alternately varied in their form, or which were now
tamed, as having been already consecrated to labors, and
resembled animals that are honored, or which were the images of
any thing [that is divine], or those that had but one eye, or those
that verged to a similitude of the human form. There are also
innumerable other observations pertaining to the art of those who
stamp calves with a seal, and of which books have been composed.
But these observations are still more curious respecting birds; as,
for instance, that a turtle should not be eaten; for it is said that a
hawk frequently dismisses this bird after he has seized it, and
preserves its life, as a reward for having had connection with it.
The Egyptian priests, therefore, that they might not ignorantly
meddle with a turtle of this kind, avoided the whole species of
those birds. And these indeed were certain common religious
ceremonies; but there were different ceremonies, which varied
according to the class of the priests that used them, and were
adapted to the several divinities. But chastity and purifications
were common to all the priests. When also the time arrived in
which they were to perform something pertaining to the sacred
rites of religion, they spent some days in preparatory ceremonies,
some indeed forty-two, but others a greater, and others a less
number of days; yet never less than seven days; and during this
time they abstained from all animals, and likewise from all pot-
herbs and leguminous substances, and, above all, from a venereal
connection with women; for they never at any time had connection
with males. They likewise washed themselves with cold water
thrice every day; viz. when they rose from their bed, before dinner,
and when they betook themselves to sleep. But if they happened to
be polluted in their sleep by the emission of the seed, they
immediately purified their body in a bath. They also used cold
bathing at other times, but not so frequently as on the above
occasion. Their bed was woven from the branches of the palm tree,
which they call bais; and their bolster was a smooth semi-cylindric
piece of wood. But they exercised themselves in the endurance of
hunger and thirst, and were accustomed to paucity of food through
the whole of their life.

8. This also is a testimony of their continence, that, though they

neither exercised themselves in walking or riding, yet they lived
free from disease, and were sufficiently strong for the endurance of
modern labors. They bore therefore many burdens in the
performance of sacred operations, and accomplished many
ministrant works, which required more than common strength. But
they divided the night into the observation of the celestial bodies,
and sometimes devoted a part of it to offices of purification; and
they distributed the day into the worship of the Gods, according to
which they celebrated them with hymns thrice or four times, viz. in
the morning and evening, when the sun is at his meridian altitude,
and when he is declining to the west. The rest of their time they
devoted to arithmetical and geometrical speculations, always
laboring to effect something, and to make some new discovery,
and, in short, continually exercising their skill. In winter nights
also they were occupied in the same employments, being vigilantly
engaged in literary pursuits, as paying no attention to the
acquisition of externals, and being liberated from the servitude of
that bad master, excessive expense. Hence their unwearied and
incessant labor testifies their endurance, but their continence is
manifested by their liberation from the desire of external good. To
sail from Egypt likewise, [i.e. to quit Egypt,] was considered by
them to be one of the most unholy things, in consequence of their
being careful to avoid foreign luxury and pursuits; for this
appeared to them to be alone lawful to those who were compelled
to do so by regal necessities. Indeed, they were very anxious to
continue in the observance of the institutes of their country, and
those who were found to have violated them, though but in a small
degree were expelled [from the college of the priests]. The true
method of philosophizing, likewise, was preserved by the prophets,
by the hierostolistae, and the sacred scribes, and also by the
horologi, or calculators of nativities. But the rest of the priests, and
of the pastophori, curators of temples, and ministers of the Gods,
were similarly studious of purity, yet not so accurately, and with
such great continence, as the priests of whom we have been
speaking. And such are the particulars which are narrated of the
Egyptians, by a man who was a lover of truth, and an accurate
writer, and who among the Stoics strenuously and solidly
philosophized.
9. But the Egyptian priests, through the proficiency which they
made by this exercise, and similitude to divinity, knew that divinity
does not pervade through man alone, and that soul is not enshrined
in man alone on the earth, but that it nearly passes through all
animals. On this account, in fashioning the images of the Gods,
they assumed every animal, and for this purpose mixed together
the human form and the forms of wild beasts, and again the bodies
of birds with the body of a man. For a certain deity was
represented by them in a human shape as far as to the neck, but the
face was that of a bird, or a lion, or of some other animal. And
again, another divine resemblance had a human head, but the other
parts were those of certain other animals, some of which had an
inferior, but others a superior position; through which they
manifested, that these [i.e. brutes and men], through the decision of
the Gods, communicated with each other, and that tame and savage
animals are nurtured together with us, not without the concurrence
of a certain divine will. Hence also, a lion is worshipped as a God,
and a certain part of Egypt, which is called Nomos, has the
surname of Leontopolis [or the city of the lion], and another is
denominated Busiris [from an ox], and another Lycopolis [or the
city of the wolf]. For they venerated the power of God which
extends to all things through animals which are nurtured together,
and which each of the Gods imparts. They also reverenced water
and fire the most of all the elements, as being the principal causes
of our safety. And these things are exhibited by them in temples;
for even now, on opening the sanctuary of Serapis, the worship is
performed through fire and water; he who sings the hymns making
a libation with water, and exhibiting fire, when, standing on the
threshold of the temple, he invokes the God in the language of the
Egyptians. Venerating, therefore, these elements, they especially
reverence those things which largely participate of them, as
partaking more abundantly of what is sacred. But after these, they
venerate all animals, and in the village Anubis they worship a man,
in which place also they sacrifice to him, and victims are there
burnt in honor of him on an altar; but he shortly after only eats that
which was procured for him as a man. Hence, as it is requisite to
abstain from man, so likewise, from other animals. And farther
still, the Egyptian priests, from their transcendent wisdom and
association with divinity, discovered what animals are more
acceptable to the Gods [when dedicated to them] than man. Thus
they found that a hawk is dear to the sun, since the whole of its
nature consists of blood and spirit. It also commiserates man, and
laments over his dead body, and scatters earth on his eyes, in which
these priests believe a solar light is resident. They likewise
discovered that a hawk lives many years, and that, after it leaves
the present life, it possesses a divining power, is most rational and
prescient when liberated from the body, and gives perfection to
statues, and moves temples. A beetle will be detested by one who is
ignorant of and unskilled in divine concerns, but the Egyptians
venerate it, as an animated image of the sun. For every beetle is a
male, and emitting its genital seed in a muddy place, and having
made it spherical, it turns round the seminal sphere in a way
similar to that of the sun in the heavens. It likewise receives a
period of twenty-eight days, which is a lunar period. In a similar
manner, the Egyptians philosophize about the ram, the crocodile,
the vulture, and the ibis, and, in short, about every animal; so that,
from their wisdom and transcendent knowledge of divine concerns,
they came at length to venerate all animals. An unlearned man,
however, does not even suspect that they, not being borne along
with the stream of the vulgar who know nothing, and not walking
in the path of ignorance, but passing beyond the illiterate
multitude, and that want of knowledge which befalls every one at
first, were led to reverence things which are thought by the vulgar
to be of no worth.

10. This also, no less than the above-mentioned particulars,

induced them to believe, that animals should be reverenced [as
images of the Gods], viz. that the soul of every animal, when
liberated from the body, was discovered by them to be rational, to
be prescient of futurity, to possess an oracular power, and to be
effective of every thing which man is capable of accomplishing
when separated from the body. Hence they very properly honored
them, and abstained from them as much as possible. Since,
however, the cause through which the Egyptians venerated the
Gods through animals requires a copious discussion, and which
would exceed the limits of the present treatise, what has been
unfolded respecting this particular is sufficient for our purpose.
Nevertheless, this is not to be omitted, that the Egyptians, when
they buried those that were of noble birth, privately took away the
belly and placed it in a chest, and together with other things which
they performed for the sake of the dead body, they elevated the
chest towards the sun, whom they invoked as a witness; an oration
for the deceased being at the same time made by one of those to
whose care the funeral was committed. But the oration which
Euphantus has interpreted from the Egyptian tongue was as
follows: “O sovereign Sun, and all ye Gods who impart life to
men, receive me, and deliver me to the eternal Gods as a
cohabitant. For I have always piously worshipped those divinities
which were pointed out to me by my parents as long as I lived in
this age, and have likewise always honored those who procreated
my body. And, with respect to other men, I have never slain any
one, nor defrauded any one of what he deposited with me, nor have
I committed any other atrocious deed. If, therefore, during my life I
have acted erroneously, by eating or drinking things which it is
unlawful to eat or drink, I have not erred through myself, but
through these,” pointing to the chest in which the belly was
contained. And having thus spoken, he threw the chest into the
river [Nile]; but buried the rest of the body as being pure. After this
manner, they thought an apology ought to be made to divinity for
what they had eaten and drank, and for the insolent conduct which
they had been led to through the belly.

11. But among those who are known by us, the Jews, before they
first suffered the subversion of their legal institutes under
Antiochus, and afterwards under the Romans, when also the
temple in Jerusalem was captured, and became accessible to all
men to whom, prior to this event, it was inaccessible, and the city
itself was destroyed;—before this took place, the Jews always
abstained from many animals, but peculiarly, which they even now
do, from swine. At that period, therefore, there were three kinds of
philosophers among them. And of one kind, indeed, the Pharisees
were the leaders, but of another, the Sadducees, and of the third,
which appears to have been the most venerable, the Essaeans. The
mode of life, therefore, of these third was as follows, as Josephus
frequently testifies in many of his writings. For in the second book
of his Judaic History, which he has completed in seven books, and
in the eighteenth of his Antiquities, which consists of twenty
books, and likewise in the second of the two books which he wrote
against the Greeks, he speaks of these Essaeans, and says, that they
are of the race of the Jews, and are in a greater degree than others
friendly to one another. They are averse to pleasures, conceiving
them to be vicious, but they are of opinion that continence, and the
not yielding to the passions, constitute virtue. And they despise,
indeed, wedlock, but receiving the children of other persons, and
instructing them in disciplines while they are yet of a tender age,
they consider them as their kindred, and form them to their own
manners. And they act in this manner, not for the purpose of
subverting marriage, and the succession arising from it, but in
order to avoid the lasciviousness of women. They are, likewise,
despisers of wealth, and the participation of external possessions
among them in common is wonderful; nor is any one to be found
among them who is richer than the rest. For it is a law with them,
that those who wish to belong to their sect, must give up their
property to it in common; so that among all of them, there is not to
be seen either the abjectness of poverty, or the insolence of wealth;
but the possessions of each being mingled with those of the rest,
there was one property with all of them, as if they had been
brothers. They likewise conceived oil to be a stain to the body, and
that if any one, though unwillingly, was anointed, he should
[immediately] wipe his body. For it was considered by them as
beautiful to be squalid, and to be always clothed in white garments.
But curators of the common property were elected by votes,
indistinctly for the use of all. They have not, however, one city, but
in each city many of them dwell together, and those who come
among them from other places, if they are of their sect, equally
partake with them of their possessions, as if they were their own.
Those, likewise, who first perceive these strangers, behave to them
as if they were their intimate acquaintance. Hence, when they
travel, they take nothing with them for the sake of expenditure. But
they neither change their garments nor their shoes, till they are
entirely torn, or destroyed by time. They neither buy nor sell
anything, but each of them giving what he possesses to him that is
in want, receives in return for it what will be useful to him.
Nevertheless, each of them freely imparts to others of their sect
what they may be in want of, without any remuneration.

12. Moreover, they are peculiarly pious to divinity. For before the
sun rises they speak nothing profane, but they pour forth certain
prayers to him which they had received from their ancestors, as if
beseeching him to rise. Afterwards, they are sent by their curators
to the exercise of the several arts in which they are skilled, and
having till the fifth hour strenuously labored in these arts, they are
afterwards collected together in one place; and there, being begirt
with linen teguments, they wash their bodies with cold water. After
this purification, they enter into their own proper habitation, into
which no heterodox person is permitted to enter. But they being
pure, betake themselves to the dining room, as into a certain sacred
fane. In this place, when all of them are seated in silence, the baker
places the bread in order, and the cook distributes to each of them
one vessel containing one kind of eatables. Prior, however, to their
taking the food which is pure and sacred, a priest prays, and it is
unlawful for any one prior to the prayer to taste of the food. After
dinner, likewise, the priest again prays; so that both when they
begin, and when they cease to eat, they venerate divinity.
Afterwards, divesting themselves of these garments as sacred, they
again betake themselves to their work till the evening; and,
returning from thence, they eat and drink in the same manner as
before, strangers sitting with them, if they should happen at that
time to be present. No clamor or tumult ever defiles the house in
which they dwell; but their conversation with each other is
performed in an orderly manner; and to those that are out of the
house, the silence of those within it appears as if it was some
terrific mystery. The cause, however, of this quietness is their
constant sobriety, and that with them their meat and drink is
measured by what is sufficient [to the wants of nature]. But those
who are very desirous of belonging to their sect, are not
immediately admitted into it, but they must remain out of it for a
year, adopting the same diet, the Essaeans giving them a rake, a
girdle, and a white garment. And if, during that time, they have
given a sufficient proof of their continence, they proceed to a still
greater conformity to the institutes of the sect, and use purer water
for the purpose of sanctity; though they are not yet permitted to
live with the Essaeans. For after this exhibition of endurance, their
manners are tried for two years more, and he who after this period
appears to deserve to associate with them, is admitted into their
society.

13. Before, however, he who is admitted touches his common

food, he takes a terrible oath, in the first place, that he will piously
worship divinity; in the next place, that he will preserve justice
towards men, and that he will neither designedly, nor when
commanded, injure any one; in the third place, that he will always
hate the unjust, but strenuously assist the just; and in the fourth
place, that he will act faithfully towards all men, but especially
towards the rulers of the land, since no one becomes a ruler
without the permission of God; in the fifth place, that if he should
be a ruler, he will never employ his power to insolently iniquitous
purposes, nor will surpass those that are in subjection to him in his
dress, or any other more splendid ornament; in the sixth place, that
he will always love the truth, and be hostile to liars; in the seventh
place, that he will preserve his hands from theft, and his soul pure
from unholy gain; and, in the eighth place, that he will conceal
nothing from those of his sect, nor divulge any thing to others
pertaining to the sect, though some one, in order to compel him,
should threaten him with death. In addition to these things, also,
they swear, that they will not impart the dogmas of the sect to any
one in any other way than that in which they received them; that
they will likewise abstain from robbery, and preserve the books of
their sect with the same care as the names of the angels. Such,
therefore, are their oaths. But those among them that act
criminally, and are ejected, perish by an evil destiny. For, being
bound by their oaths and their customs, they are not capable of
receiving food from others; but feeding on herbs, and having their
body emaciated by hunger, they perish. Hence the Essaeans,
commiserating many of these unfortunate men, receive them in
their last extremities into their society, thinking that they have
suffered sufficiently for their offenses in having been punished for
them till they were on the brink of the grave. But they give a rake
to those who intend to belong to their sect, in order that, when they
sit for the purpose of exonerating the belly, they make a trench a
foot in depth, and completely cover themselves by their garment,
in order that they may not act contumeliously towards the sun by
polluting the rays of the God. And so great, indeed, is their
simplicity and frugality with respect to diet, that they do not
require evacuation till the seventh day after the assumption of
food, which day they spend in singing hymns to God, and in
resting from labor. But from this exercise they acquire the power of
such great endurance, that even when tortured and burnt, and
suffering every kind of excruciating pain, they cannot be induced
either to blaspheme their legislator, or to eat what they have not
been accustomed to. And the truth of this was demonstrated in their
war with the Romans. For then they neither flattered their
tormentors, nor shed any tears, but smiled in the midst of their
torments, and derided those that inflicted them, and cheerfully
emitted their souls, as knowing that they should possess them
again. For this opinion was firmly established among them, that
their bodies were indeed corruptible, and that the matter of which
they consisted was not stable, but that their souls were immortal,
and would endure for ever, and that, proceeding from the most
subtle ether, they were drawn down by a natural flux, and
complicated with bodies; but that, when they are no longer
detained by the bonds of the flesh, then, as if liberated from a long
slavery, they will rejoice, and ascend to the celestial regions. But
from this mode of living, and from being thus exercised in truth
and piety, there were many among them, as it is reasonable to
suppose there would be, who had aforeknowledge of future events,
as being conversant from their youth with sacred books, different
purifications, and the declarations of the prophets. And such is the
order [or sect] of the Essaeans among the Jews.

14. All of them, however, were forbidden to eat the flesh of swine,
or fish without scales, which the Greeks call cartilaginous; or to eat
any animal that has solid hoofs. They were likewise forbidden not
only to refrain from eating, but also from killing animals that fled
to their houses as supplicants. Nor did the legislator permit them to
slay such animals as were parents together with their young; but
ordered them to spare, even in a hostile land, and not put to death
brutes that assist us in our labors. Nor was the legislator afraid that
the race of animals which are not sacrificed, would, through being
spared from slaughter, be so increased in multitude as to produce
famine among men; for he knew, in the first place, that multiparous
animals live but for a short time; and in the next place, that many
of them perish, unless attention is paid to them by men. Moreover,
he likewise knew that other animals would attack those that
increased excessively; of which this is an indication, that we
abstain from many animals, such as lizards, worms, flies, serpents,
and dogs, and yet, at the same time, we are not afraid of perishing
through hunger by abstaining from them, though their increase is
abundant. And in the next place, it is not the same thing to eat and
to slay an animal. For we destroy many of the above-mentioned
animals, but we do not eat any of them.

15. Farther still, it is likewise related that the Syrians formerly

abstained from animals, and, on this account, did not sacrifice
them to the Gods; but that afterwards they sacrificed them, for the
purpose of averting certain evils; yet they did not at all admit of a
fleshly diet. In process of time, however, as Neanthes the
Cyzicenean and Asclepiades the Cyprian say, about the era of
Pygmalion, who was by birth a Phoenician, but reigned over the
Cyprians, the eating of flesh was admitted, from an illegality of the
following kind, which Asclepiades, in his treatise concerning
Cyprus and Phoenicia, relates as follows:—In the first place, they
did not sacrifice anything animated to the Gods; but neither was
there any law pertaining to a thing of this kind, because it was
prohibited by natural law. They are said, however, on a certain
occasion, in which one soul was required for another, to have, for
the first time, sacrificed a victim; and this taking place, the whole
of the victim was then consumed by fire. But afterwards, when the
victim was burnt, a portion of the flesh fell on the earth, which was
taken by the priest, who, in so doing, having burnt his fingers,
involuntarily moved them to his mouth, as a remedy for the pain
which the burning produced. Having, therefore, thus tasted of the
roasted flesh, he also desired to eat abundantly of it, and could not
refrain from giving some of it to his wife. Pygmalion, however,
becoming acquainted with this circumstance, ordered both the
priest and his wife to be hurled headlong from a steep rock, and
gave the priesthood to another person, who not long after
performing the same sacrifice and eating the flesh of the victim,
fell into the same calamities as his predecessor. The thing,
however, proceeding still farther, and men using the same kind of
sacrifice, and through yielding to desire, not abstaining from, but
feeding on flesh, the deed was no longer punished. Nevertheless
abstinence from fish continued among the Syrians till the time of
Menander: for he says,

“The Syrians for example take, since these When by intemperance

led of fish they eat, Swoln in their belly and their feet become.
With sack then cover’d, in the public way They on a dunghill sit,
that by their lowly state, The Goddess may, appeas’d, the crime
forgive.”
16. Among the Persians, indeed, those who are wise in divine
concerns, and worship divinity, are called Magi; for this is the
signification of Magus, in the Persian tongue. But so great and so
venerable are these men thought to be by the Persians, that Darius,
the son of Hystaspes, had among other things this engraved on his
tomb, that he had been the master of the Magi. They are likewise
divided into three genera, as we are informed by Eubulus, who
wrote the history of Mithra, in a treatise consisting of many books.
In this work he says, that the first and most learned class of the
Magi neither eat nor slay any thing animated, but adhere to the
ancient abstinence from animals. The second class use some
animals indeed [for food], but do not slay any that are tame. Nor
do those of the third class, similarly with other men, lay their hands
on all animals. For the dogma with all of them which ranks as the
first is this, that there is a transmigration of souls; and this they
also appear to indicate in the mysteries of Mithra. For in these
mysteries, obscurely signifying our having something in common
with brutes, they are accustomed to call us by the names of
different animals. Thus they denominate the males who participate
in the same mysteries lions, but the females lionesses, and those
who are ministrant to these rites crows. With respect to their
fathers also, they adopt the same mode. For these are denominated
by them eagles and hawks. And he who is initiated in the Leontic
mysteries, is invested with all-various forms of animals; of which
particulars, Pallas, in his treatise concerning Mithra, assigning the
cause, says, that it is the common opinion that these things are to
be referred to the circle of the zodiac, but that truly and accurately
speaking, they obscurely signify something pertaining to human
souls, which, according to the Persians, are invested with bodies of
all-various forms. For the Latins also, says Eubulus, call some
men, in their tongue, boars and scorpions, lizards, and blackbirds.
After the same manner likewise the Persians denominate the Gods
the demiurgic causes of these: for they call Diana a she-wolf; but
the sun, a bull, a lion, a dragon, and a hawk; and Hecate, a horse, a
bull, a lioness, and a dog. But most theologists say that the name of
Proserpine is derived from nourishing a ring-dove; for the ring-
dove is sacred to this Goddess. Hence, also the priests of Maia
dedicate to her a ring-dove. And Maia is the same with Proserpine,
as being obstetric, and a nurse. For this Goddess is terrestrial, and
so likewise is Ceres. To this Goddess, also a cock is consecrated;
and on this account those that are initiated in her mysteries abstain
from domestic birds. In the Eleusian mysteries, likewise, the
initiated are ordered to abstain from domestic birds, from fishes
and beans, pomegranates and apples; which fruits are as equally
defiling to the touch, as a woman recently delivered, and a dead
body. But whoever is acquainted with the nature of divinely-
luminous appearances knows also on what account it is requisite to
abstain from all birds, and especially for him who hastens to be
liberated from terrestrial concerns, and to be established with the
celestial Gods. Vice, however, as we have frequently said, is
sufficiently able to patronize itself, and especially when it pleads
its cause among the ignorant. Hence, among those that are
moderately vicious, some think that a dehortation of this kind is
vain babbling, and, according to the proverb, the nugacity of old
women; and others are of opinion that it is superstition. But those
who have made greater advances in improbity, are prepared, not
only to blaspheme those who exhort to, and demonstrate the
propriety of this abstinence, but calumniate purity itself as
enchantment and pride. They, however, suffering the punishment
of their sins, both from Gods and men, are, in the first place,
sufficiently punished by a disposition [i.e. by a depravity] of this
kind. We shall, therefore, still farther make mention of another
foreign nation, renowned and just, and believed to be pious in
divine concerns, and then pass on to other particulars.

17. For the polity of the Indians being distributed into many parts,
there is one tribe among them of men divinely wise, whom the
Greeks are accustomed to call Gymnosophists. But of these there
are two sects, over one of which the Bramins preside, but over the
other the Samanaeans. The race of the Bramins, however, receive
divine wisdom of this kind by succession, in the same manner as
the priesthood. But the Samanaeans are elected, and consist of
those who wish to possess divine knowledge. And the particulars
respecting them are the following, as the Babylonian Bardesanes
narrates, who lived in the times of our fathers, and was familiar
with those Indians who, together with Damadamis, were sent to
Caesar. All the Bramins originate from one stock; for all of them
are derived from one father and one mother. But the Samanaeans
are not the offspring of one family, being, as we have said,
collected from every nation of Indians. A Bramin, however, is not a
subject of any government, nor does he contribute any thing
together with others to government. And with respect to those that
are philosophers, among these some dwell on mountains, and
others about the river Ganges. And those that live on mountains
feed on autumnal fruits, and on cows’ milk coagulated with herbs.
But those that reside near the Ganges, live also on autumnal fruits,
which are produced in abundance about that river. The land
likewise nearly always bears new fruit, together with much rice,
which grows spontaneously, and which they use when there is a
deficiency of autumnal fruits. But to taste of any other nutriment,
or, in short, to touch animal food, is considered by them as
equivalent to extreme impurity and impiety. And this is one of their
dogmas. They also worship divinity with piety and purity. They
spend the day, and the greater part of the night, in hymns and
prayers to the Gods; each of them having a cottage to himself, and
living, as much as possible, alone. For the Bramins cannot endure
to remain with others, nor to speak much; but when this happens to
take place, they afterwards withdraw themselves, and do not speak
for many days. They likewise frequently fast. But the Samanaeans
are, as we have said, elected. When, however, any one is desirous
of being enrolled in their order, he proceeds to the rulers of the
city; but abandons the city or village that he inhabited, and the
wealth and all the other property that he possessed. Having
likewise the superfluities of his body cut off, he receives a
garment, and departs to the Samanaeans, but does not return either
to his wife or children, if he happens to have any, nor does he pay
any attention to them, or think that they at all pertain to him. And,
with respect to his children indeed, the king provides what is
necessary for them, and the relatives provide for the wife. And
such is the life of the Samanaeans. But they live out of the city, and
spend the whole day in conversation pertaining to divinity. They
have also houses and temples, built by the king, in which they are
stewards, who receive a certain emolument from the king, for the
purpose of supplying those that dwell in them with nutriment. But
their food consists of rice, bread, autumnal fruits, and pot-herbs.
And when they enter into their house, the sound of a bell being the
signal of their entrance, those that are not Samanaeans depart from
it, and the Samanaeans begin immediately to pray. But having
prayed, again, on the bell sounding as a signal, the servants give to
each Samanaean a platter, (for two of them do not eat out of the
same dish,) and feed them with rice. And to him who is in want of
a variety of food, a pot-herb is added, or some autumnal fruit. But
having eaten as much as is requisite, without any delay they
proceed to their accustomed employments. All of them likewise are
unmarried, and have no possessions: and so much are both these
and the Bramins venerated by the other Indians, that the king also
visits them, and requests them to pray to and supplicate the Gods,
when any calamity befalls the country, or to advise him how to act.

18. But they are so disposed with respect to death, that they
unwillingly endure the whole time of the present life, as a certain
servitude to nature, and therefore they hasten to liberate their souls
from the bodies [with which they are connected]. Hence,
frequently, when they are seen to be well, and are neither
oppressed, nor driven to desperation by any evil, they depart from
life. And though they previously announce to others that it is their
intention to commit suicide, yet no one impedes them; but,
proclaiming all those to be happy who thus quit the present life,
they enjoin certain things to the domestics and kindred of the dead:
so stable and true do they, and also the multitude, believe the
assertion to be, that souls [in another life] associate with each
other. But as soon as those to whom they have proclaimed that this
is their intention, have heard the mandates given to them, they
deliver the body to fire, in order that they may separate the soul
from the body in the purest manner, and thus they die celebrated by
all the Samanaeans. For these men dismiss their dearest friends to
death more easily than others part with their fellow-citizens when
going the longest journeys. And they lament themselves, indeed, as
still continuing in life; but they proclaim those that are dead to be
blessed, in consequence of having now obtained an immortal
allotment. Nor is there any sophist, such as there is now amongst
the Greeks, either among these Samanaeans, or the above-
mentioned Bramins, who would be seen to doubt and to say, if all
men should imitate you [i.e. should imitate those Samanaeans who
commit suicide] what would become of us? Nor through these are
human affairs confused. For neither do all men imitate them, and
those who have, may be said to have been rather the causes of
equitable legislation, than of confusion to the different nations of
men. Moreover, the law did not compel the Samanaeans and
Bramins to eat animal food, but, permitting others to feed on flesh,
it suffered these to be a law to themselves, and venerated them as
being superior to law. Nor did the law subject these men to the
punishment which it inflicts, as if they were the primary
perpetrators of injustice, but it reserved this for others. Hence, to
those who ask, what would be the consequence if all men imitated
such characters as these, the saying of Pythagoras must be the
answer; that if all men were kings, the passage through life would
be difficult, yet regal government is not on this account to be
avoided. And [we likewise say] that if all men were worthy, no
administration of a polity would be found in which the dignity that
probity merits would be preserved. Nevertheless, no one would be
so insane as not to think that all men should earnestly endeavor to
become worthy characters. Indeed, the law grants to the vulgar
many other things [besides a fleshly diet], which, nevertheless, it
does not grant to a philosopher, nor even to one who conducts the
affairs of government in a proper manner. For it does not receive
every artist into the administration, though it does not forbid the
exercise of any art, nor yet men of every pursuit. But it excludes
those who are occupied in vile and illiberal arts, and, in short, all
those who are destitute of justice and the other virtues, from having
any thing to do with the management of public affairs. Thus,
likewise, the law does not forbid the vulgar from associating with
harlots, on whom at the same time it imposes a fine; but thinks that
it is disgraceful and base for men that are moderately good to have
any connection with them. Moreover, the law does not prohibit a
man from spending the whole of his life in a tavern, yet at the same
time this is most disgraceful even to a man of moderate worth. It
appears, therefore, that the same thing must also be said with
respect to diet. For that which is permitted to the multitude, must
not likewise be granted to the best of men. For the man who is a
philosopher, should especially ordain for himself those sacred laws
which the Gods, and men who are followers of the Gods, have
instituted. But the sacred laws of nations and cities appear to have
ordained for sacred men purity, and to have interdicted them
animal food. They have also forbidden the multitude to eat certain
animals, either from motives of piety, or on account of some injury
which would be produced by the food. So that it is requisite either
to imitate priests, or to be obedient to the mandates of all
legislators; but, in either way, he who is perfectly legal and pious
ought to abstain from all animals. For if some who are only
partially pious abstain from certain animals, he who is in every
respect pious will abstain from all animals.

19. I had almost, however, forgotten to adduce what is said by

Euripides, who asserts, that the prophets of Jupiter in Crete
abstained from animals. But what is said by the chorus to Minos on
this subject, is as follows:

“Sprung from Phoenicia’s royal line, Son of Europa, nymph divine,

And mighty Jove, thy envy’d reign O’er Crete extending, whose
domain Is with a hundred cities crown’d— I leave yon consecrated
ground, Yon fane, whose beams the artist’s toil With cypress,
rooted from the soil, Hath fashion’d. In the mystic rites Initiated,
life’s best delights I place in chastity alone, Midst Night’s dread
orgies wont to rove, The priest of Zagreus and of Jove; Feasts of
crude flesh I now decline, And wave aloof the blazing pine To
Cybele, nor fear to claim Her own Curete’s hallow’d name; Clad in
a snowy vest I fly Far from the throes of pregnancy, Never amidst
the tombs intrude, And slay no animal for food.”

20. For holy men were of opinion that purity consisted in a thing
not being mingled with its contrary, and that mixture is defilement.
Hence, they thought that nutriment should be assumed from fruits,
and not from dead bodies, and that we should not, by introducing
that which is animated to our nature, defile what is administered by
nature. But they conceived, that the slaughter of animals, as they
are sensitive, and the depriving them of their souls, is a defilement
to the living; and that the pollution is much greater, to mingle a
body which was once sensitive, but is now deprived of sense, with
a sensitive and living being. Hence, universally, the purity
pertaining to piety consists in rejecting and abstaining from many
things, and in an abandonment of such as are of a contrary nature,
and the assumption of such as are appropriate and concordant. On
this account, venereal connections are attended with defilement.
For in these, a conjunction takes place of the female with the male;
and the seed, when retained by the woman, and causing her to be
pregnant, defiles the soul, through its association with the body;
but when it does not produce conception, it pollutes, in
consequence of becoming a lifeless mass. The connection also of
males with males defiles, because it is an emission of seed as it
were into a dead body, and because it is contrary to nature. And, in
short, all venery, and emissions of the seed in sleep, pollute,
because the soul becomes mingled with the body, and is drawn
down to pleasure. The passions of the soul likewise defile, through
the complication of the irrational and effeminate part with reason,
the internal masculine part. For, in a certain respect, defilement and
pollution manifest the mixture of things of an heterogeneous
nature, and especially when the abstersion of this mixture is
attended with difficulty. Whence, also, in tinctures which are
produced through mixture, one species being complicated with
another, this mixture is denominated a defilement.

“As when some woman with a lively red Stains the pure iv’ry—”
[Homer, Iliad iv. 141]

says Homer. And again painters call the mixtures of colors,

corruptions. It is usual, likewise to denominate that which is
unmingled and pure, incorruptible, and to call that which is
genuine, unpolluted. For water, when mingled with earth, is
corrupted, and is not genuine. But water, which is diffluent, and
runs with tumultuous rapidity, leaves behind in its course the earth
which it carries in its stream.

“When from a limpid and perennial fount It defluous runs—”

[Hesiod, Works and Days, 595]

as Hesiod says. For such water is salubrious, because it is

uncorrupted and unmixed. The female, likewise, that does not
receive into herself the exhalation of seed, is said to be
uncorrupted. So that the mixture of contraries is corruption and
defilement. For the mixture of dead with living bodies, and the
insertion of beings that were once living and sentient into animals,
and of dead into living flesh, may be reasonably supposed to
introduce defilement and stains to our nature; just, again, as the
soul is polluted when it is invested with the body. Hence, he who is
born, is polluted by the mixture of his soul with body; and he who
dies, defiles his body, through leaving it a corpse, different and
foreign from that which possesses life. The soul, likewise, is
polluted by anger and desire, and the multitude of passions of
which in a certain respect diet is a co-operating cause. But as water
which flows through a rock is more uncorrupted than that which
runs through marshes, because it does not bring with it much mud;
thus, also, the soul which administers its own affairs in a body that
is dry, and is not moistened by the juices of foreign flesh, is in a
more excellent condition, is more uncorrupted, and is more prompt
for intellectual energy. Thus too, it is said, that the thyme which is
the driest and the sharpest to the taste, affords the best honey to
bees. The dianoëtic, therefore, or discursive power of the soul, is
polluted; or rather, he who energizes dianoëtically, when this
energy is mingled with the energies of either the imaginative or
doxastic power. But purification consists in a separation from all
these, and the wisdom which is adapted to divine concerns, is a
desertion of every thing of this kind. The proper nutriment
likewise, of each thing, is that which essentially preserves it. Thus
you may say, that the nutriment of a stone is the cause of its
continuing to be a stone, and of firmly remaining in a lapideous
form; but the nutriment of a plant is that which preserves it in
increase and fructification; and of an animated body, that which
preserves its composition. It is one thing, however, to nourish, and
another to fatten; and one thing to impart what is necessary, and
another to procure what is luxurious. Various, therefore, are the
kinds of nutriment, and various also is the nature of the things that
are nourished. And it is necessary, indeed, that all things should be
nourished, but we should earnestly endeavor to fatten our most
principal parts. Hence, the nutriment of the rational soul is that
which preserves it in a rational state. But this is intellect; so that it
is to be nourished by intellect; and we should earnestly endeavor
that it may be fattened through this, rather than that the flesh may
become pinguid through esculent substances. For intellect
preserves for us eternal life, but the body when fattened causes the
soul to be famished, through its hunger after a blessed life not
being satisfied, increases our mortal part, since it is of itself insane,
and impedes our attainment of an immortal condition of being. It
likewise defiles by corporifying the soul, and drawing her down to
that which is foreign to her nature. And the magnet, indeed,
imparts, as it were, a soul to the iron which is placed near it; and
the iron, though most heavy, is elevated, and runs to the spirit of
the stone. Should he, therefore, who is suspended from incorporeal
and intellectual deity, be anxiously busied in procuring food which
fattens the body, that is an impediment to intellectual perception?
Ought he not rather, by contracting what is necessary to the flesh
into that which is little and easily procured, be himself nourished,
by adhering to God more closely than the iron to the magnet? I
wish, indeed, that our nature was not so corruptible, and that it
were possible we could live free from molestation, even without
the nutriment derived from fruits. O that, as Homer [Iliad v. 341]
says, we were not in want either of meat or drink, that we might be
truly immortal!—the poet in thus speaking beautifully signifying,
that food is the auxiliary not only of life, but also of death. If
therefore, we were not in want even of vegetable aliment, we
should be by so much the more blessed, in proportion as we should
be more immortal. But now, being in a mortal condition, we render
ourselves, if it be proper so to speak, still more mortal, through
becoming ignorant that, by the addition of this mortality, the soul,
as Theophrastus says, does not only confer a great benefit on the
body by being its inhabitant, but gives herself wholly to it. Hence,
it is much to be wished that we could easily obtain the life
celebrated in fables, in which hunger and thirst are unknown; so
that, by stopping the every-way-flowing river of the body, we
might in a very little time be present with the most excellent
natures, to which he who accedes, since deity is there, is himself a
God. But how is it possible not to lament the condition of the
generality of mankind, who are so involved in darkness as to
cherish their own evil, and who, in the first place, hate themselves,
and him who truly begot them, and afterwards, those who
admonish them, and call on them to return from ebriety to a sober
condition of being? Hence, dismissing things of this kind, will it
not be requisite to pass on to what remains to be discussed?

21. Those then who oppose the Nomads, or Troglodytes, or

Ichthyophagi, to the legal institutes of the nations which we have
adduced, are ignorant that these people were brought to the
necessity of eating animals through the infecundity of the region
they inhabit, which is so barren, that it does not even produce
herbs, but only shores and sands. And this necessity is indicated by
their not being able to make use of fire, through the want of
combustible materials; but they dry their fish on rocks, or on the
shore. And these indeed live after this manner from necessity.
There are, however, certain nations whose manners are rustic, and
who are naturally savage; but it is not fit that those who are
equitable judges should, from such instances as these, calumniate
human nature: For thus we should not only be dubious whether it is
proper to eat animals, but also, whether we may not eat men, and
adopt all other savage manners. It is related, therefore, that the
Massagetae and the Derbices consider those of their kindred to be
most miserable who die spontaneously. Hence, preventing their
dearest friends from dying naturally, they slay them when they are
old, and eat them. The Tibareni hurl from rocks their nearest
relatives, even while living, when they are old. And with respect to
the Hyrcani and Caspii, the one exposed the living, but the other
the dead, to be devoured by birds and dogs. But the Scythians bury
the living with the dead, and cut their throats on the pyres of the
dead by whom they were especially beloved. The Bactrii likewise
cast those among them that are old, even while living, to the dogs.
And Stasanor, who was one of Alexander’s prefects, nearly lost his
government through endeavoring to destroy this custom. As,
however, we do not on account of these examples subvert mildness
of conduct towards men, so neither should we imitate those nations
that feed on flesh through necessity, but we should rather imitate
the pious, and those who consecrate themselves to the Gods. For
Democrates says, that to live badly, and not prudently, temperately,
and piously, is not to live in reality, but to die for a long time.

22. It now remains that we should adduce a few examples of

certain individuals, as testimonies in favor of abstinence from
animal food. For the want of these was one of the accusations
which were urged against us. We learn, therefore, that Triptolemus
was the most ancient of the Athenian legislators; of whom
Hermippus, in the second book of his treatise on Legislators, writes
as follows: “It is said, that Triptolemus established laws for the
Athenians. And the philosopher Xenocrates asserts, that three of
his laws still remain in Eleusis, which are these, Honor your
parents; Sacrifice to the Gods from the fruits of the earth; Injure
not animals.” Two of these, therefore, he says, are properly
instituted. For it is necessary that we should as much as possible
recompense our parents for the benefits which they have conferred
on us; and that we should offer to the Gods the first-fruits of the
things useful to our life, which they have imparted to us. But with
respect to the third law, he is dubious as to the intention of
Triptolemus, in ordering the Athenians to abstain from animals.
Was it, says he, because he thought it was a dire thing to slay
kindred natures, or because he perceived it would happen, that the
most useful animals would be destroyed by men for food?
Wishing, therefore to make our life as mild as possible, he
endeavored to preserve those animals that associate with men, and
which are especially tame. Unless, indeed, because having
ordained that men should honor the Gods by offering to them first-
fruits, he therefore added this third law, conceiving that this mode
of worship would continue for a longer time, if sacrifices through
animals were not made to the Gods. But as many other causes,
though not very accurate, of the promulgation of these laws, are
assigned by Xenocrates, thus much from what has been said is
sufficient for our purpose, that abstinence from animals was one of
the legal institutes of Triptolemus. Hence, those who afterwards
 violated this law, being compelled by great necessity, and
involuntary errors, fell, as we have shown, into this custom of
slaughtering and eating animals. The following, also, is mentioned
as a law of Draco: “Let this be an eternal sacred law to the
inhabitants of Attica, and let its authority be predominant for ever;
viz. that the Gods, and indigenous Heroes, be worshipped publicly,
conformably to the laws of the country, delivered by our ancestors;
and also, that they be worshipped privately, according to the ability
of each individual, in conjunction with auspicious words, the
firstlings of fruits, and annual cakes. So that this law ordains, that
divinity should be venerated by the first offerings of fruit which
are used by men, and cakes, made of the fine flour of wheat.”

310 CE - Iamblicus
On the Pythagorean Way of Life

 Pythagoras was an opponent of slavery (33);

 he taught his disciples to avoid oaths, “that their language should
be such
as to render them worthy of belief even without oaths” (47, 144,
150);
 he was an opponent of the materialism or the pursuit of wealth and
luxury (56–57, 69, 171);
 he counseled against seeking revenge or doing harm to one’s
enemies (155);
 he also did not wear wool, wearing a white robe of linen instead
(149).
 Most importantly, he was a vegetarian and condemned animal
sacrifices (54, 108, 150);
 he ordered his closest disciples to abstain from all animal food
(168, 187, 225)
 and from wine (69, 188).

323 CE -- Hegesippus
Our view is that Hegesippus is a Eusebian "profile".

Eusebius - Historia Ecclesiastica 4.22.5-6

 Chapter XXII. Hegesippus and the Events Which He
Mentions.
5 "But Thebuthis, because he was not made bishop, began
to corrupt it [the doctrine and the church]. He also was
sprung from the seven sects among the people, like Simon,
from whom came the Simonians, and Cleobius, from whom
came the Cleobians, and Dositheus, from whom came the
Dositheans, and Gorthaeus, from whom came the
Goratheni, and Masbotheus, from whom came the
Masbothaeans. From them sprang the Menandrianists, and
Marcionists, and Carpocratians, and Valentinians, and
Basilidians, and Saturnilians. Each introduced privately and
separately his own peculiar opinion. From them came false
Christs, false prophets, false apostles, who divided the
unity of the Church by corrupt doctrines uttered against
God and against his Christ."

6 The same writer [Hegesippus] also records the ancient

heresies ] which arose among the Jews, in the following
words: "There were, moreover, various opinions in the
circumcision, among the children of Israel. The following
were those that were opposed to the tribe of Judah and the
Christ: Essenes, Galileans, Hemerobaptists, Masbothaeans,
Samaritans, Sadducees, Pharisees."

324 CE -- Eusebius of Caesarea

Historia Ecclesiastica 2.16 to 17

Chapter XVI. Mark First Proclaimed Christianity to the Inhabitants

of Egypt.
1 And they say that this Mark was the first that was sent to Egypt,
and that he proclaimed the Gospel which he had written, and first
established churches in Alexandria.

2 And the multitude of believers, both men and women, that were
collected there at the very outset, and lived lives of the most
philosophical and excessive asceticism, was so great, that Philo
thought it worth while to describe their pursuits, their meetings,
their entertainments, and their whole manner of life."

Chapter XVII. Philo's Account of the Ascetics of Egypt.

1 It is also said that Philo in the reign of Claudius became
acquainted at Rome with Peter, who was then preaching there. Nor
is this indeed improbable, for the work of which we have spoken,
and which was composed by him some years later, clearly contains
those rules of the Church which are even to this day observed
among us.

2 And since he describes as accurately as possible the life of our

ascetics, it is clear that he not only knew, but that he also approved,
while he venerated and extolled, the apostolic men of his time,
who were as it seems of the Hebrew race, and hence observed,
after the manner of the Jews, the most of the customs of the
ancients.

3 In the work to which he gave the title, On a Contemplative Life

or on Suppliants, after affirming in the first place that he will add
to those things which he is about to relate nothing contrary to truth
or of his own invention, he says that these men were called
Therapeutae and the women that were with them
Therapeutrides. He then adds the reasons for such a name,
explaining it from the fact that they applied remedies and healed
the souls of those who came to them, by relieving them like
physicians, of evil passions, or from the fact that they served and
worshiped the Deity in purity and sincerity.

4 Whether Philo himself gave them this name, employing an

epithet well suited to their mode of life, or whether the first of
them really called themselves so in the beginning, since the name
of Christians was not yet everywhere known, we need not discuss
here.

5 He bears witness, however, that first of all they renounce their

property. When they begin the philosophical168 mode of life, he
says, they give up their goods to their relatives, and then,
renouncing all the cares of life, they go forth beyond the walls and
dwell in lonely fields and gardens, knowing well that intercourse
with people of a different character is unprofitable and harmful.
They did this at that time, as seems probable, under the influence
of a spirited and ardent faith, practicing in emulation the prophets'
mode of life.

6 For in the Acts of the Apostles, a work universally acknowledged

as authentic, it is recorded that all the companions of the apostles
sold their possessions and their property and distributed to all
according to the necessity of each one, so that no one among them
was in want. "For as many as were possessors of lands or houses,"
as the account says, "sold them and brought the prices of the things
that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet, so that
distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."
7 Philo bears witness to facts very much like those here described
and then adds the following account: "Everywhere in the world is
this race found. For it was fitting that both Greek and Barbarian
should share in what is perfectly good. But the race particularly
abounds in Egypt, in each of its so-called nomes, and especially
about Alexandria.

8 The best men from every quarter emigrate, as if to a colony of

the Therapeut's fatherland, to a certain very suitable spot which lies
above the lake Maria upon a low hill excellently situated on
account of its security and the mildness of the atmosphere."

9 And then a little further on, after describing the kind of houses
which they had, he speaks as follows concerning their churches,
which were scattered about here and there: "In each house there is
a sacred apartment which is called a sanctuary and monastery,
where, quite alone, they perform the mysteries of the religious life.
They bring nothing into it, neither drink nor food, nor any of the
other things which contribute to the necessities of the body, but
only the laws, and the inspired oracles of the prophets, and hymns
and such other things as augment and makeperfect their knowledge
and piety."

10 And after some other matters he says: "The whole interval, from
morning to evening, is for them a time of exercise. For they read
the holy Scriptures, and explain the philosophy of their fathers in
an allegorical manner, regarding the written words as symbols of
hidden truth which is communicated in obscure figures.

11 They have also writings of ancient men, who were the founders
of their sect, and who left many monuments of the allegorical
method. These they use as models, and imitate their principles."

12 These things seem to have been stated by a man who had heard
them expounding their sacred writings. But it is highly probable
that the works of the ancients, which he says they had, were the
Gospels and the writings of the apostles, and probably some
expositions of the ancient prophets, such as are contained in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, and in many others of Paul's Epistles.

13 Then again he writes as follows concerning the new psalms

which they composed: "So that they not only spend their time in
meditation, but they also compose songs and hymns to God in
every variety of metre and melody, though they divide them, of
course, into measures of more than common solemnity."
14 The same book contains an account of many other things, but it
seemed necessary to select those facts which exhibit the
characteristics of the ecclesiastical mode of life.

15 But if any one thinks that what has been said is not peculiar to
the Gospel polity, but that it can be applied to others besides those
mentioned, let him be convinced by the subsequent words of the
same author, in which, if he is unprejudiced, he will find
undisputed testimony on this subject. Philo's words are as follows:

16 "Having laid down temperance as a sort of foundation in the

soul, they build upon it the other virtues. None of them may take
food or drink before sunset, since they regard philosophizing as a
work worthy of the light, but attention to the wants of the body as
proper only in the darkness, and therefore assign the day to the
former, but to the latter a small portion of the night.

17 But some, in whom a great desire for knowledge dwells, forget

to take food for three days; and some are so delighted and feast so
luxuriously upon wisdom, which furnishes doctrines richly and
without stint, that they abstain even twice as long as this, and are
accustomed, after six days, scarcely to take necessary food." These
statements of Philo we regard as referring clearly and indisputably
to those of our communion.

18 But if after these things any one still obstinately persists in

denying the reference, let him renounce his incredulity and be
convinced by yet more striking examples, which are to be found
nowhere else than in the evangelical religion of the Christians.

19 For they say that there were women also with those of whom
we are speaking, and that the most of them were aged virgins who
had preserved their chastity, not out of necessity, as some of the
priestesses among the Greeks, but rather by their own choice,
through zeal and a desire for wisdom. And that in their earnest
desire to live with it as their companion they paid no attention to
the pleasures of the body, seeking not mortal but immortal
progeny, which only the pious soul is able to bear of itself.

20 Then after a little he adds still more emphatically: "They

expound the Sacred Scriptures figuratively by means of allegories.
For the whole law seems to these men to resemble a living
organism, of which the spoken words constitute the body, while the
hidden sense stored up within the words constitutes the soul. This
hidden meaning has first been particularly studied by this sect,
 which sees, revealed as in a mirror of names, the surpassing
beauties of the thoughts."

21 Why is it necessary to add to these things their meetings and the

respective occupations of the men and of the women during those
meetings, and the practices which are even to the present day
habitually observed by us, especially such as we are accustomed to
observe at the feast of the Saviour's passion, with fasting and night
watching and study of the divine Word.

22 These things the above-mentioned author has related in his own

work, indicating a mode of life which has been preserved to the
present time by us alone,recording especially the vigils kept in
connectionwith the great festival, and the exercises performed
during those vigils, and the hymns customarily recited by us, and
describing how, while one sings regularly in time, the others listen
in silence, and join in chanting only the close of the hymns; and
how, on the days referred to they sleep on the ground on beds of
straw, andto use his own words, "taste no wine at all, norany flesh,
but water is their only drink, and therelish with their bread is salt
and hyssop."

23 In addition to this Philo describes the order of dignities which

ists among those who carry on the services of the church,
mentioning the diaconate, and the office of bishop, which takes the
precedence over all the others. But whosoever desires a more
accurate knowledge of these matters may get it from the history
already cited.

24 But that Philo, when he wrote these things, had in view the first
heralds of the Gospel and the customs handed down from the
beginning by the apostles, is clear to every one.

348 CE -- The Nag Hammadi Library

Summary of Resources

Nag Hammadi Index: Index of the 13 ancient books, containing 52

texts.
TAOPATTA: NHC 6.1 - An Hellenic Parody - The Acts of Peter
and the Twelve Apostles
Non-Christian Nag Hammadi Codices: Hermes - to the father of
the universe
Non-Christian Nag Hammadi Codices: Hermes - to the father of
modern medicine, Asclepius
 The Parody known as the Syriac Acts of Philip: Fourth Century
Humour at its best - Is Philip annoying?

362 CE -- Emperor Julian

Against the Galilaeans

Asclepius: the Greatest Gift of the Helenes

I had almost forgotten the greatest of the gifts of Helios and Zeus.
But naturally I kept it for the last. And indeed it is not peculiar to
us Romans only, but we share it, I think, with the Hellenes our
kinsmen. I mean to say that Zeus engendered Asclepius from
himself among the intelligible gods, and through the life of
generative Helios he revealed him to the earth. Asclepius, having
made his visitation to earth from the sky, appeared at Epidaurus
singly, in the shape of a man; but afterwards he multiplied himself,
and by his visitations stretched out over the whole earth his saving
right hand. He came to Pergamon, to Ionia, to Tarentum
afterwards; and later he came to Rome. And he travelled to Cos
and thence to Aegae. Next he is present everywhere on land and
sea. He visits no one of us separately, and yet he raises up souls
that are sinful and bodies that are sick.

890 CE -- Photius
BIBLIOTHECA OR MYRIOBIBLON

104. [Philo Judaeus, On the Essenes and Therapeutae]

Read, also, his description of the lives of those amongst the Jews
who led a life of contemplative or active philosophy, the Essenes1
and Therapeutae. The latter not only built monasteries and holy
places (semneia, to use their own word), but also laid down the
rules of monasticism followed by the monks of the present day.
They were divided into practici (active), who lived in common,
and theoretici (contemplative), who lived alone. In Egypt and
Greece the latter were called therapeutae.

Asclepius: The God of Medicine

By Gerald D. Hart

Description:

Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, was one of the most popular deities
of the ancient world. Literary evidence indicates that he was a real person
whose deeds enabled him to become a hero-god and, eventually, an
Olympian god. The influence of the basic medical practices and ethics of
the physician worshippers of Asclepius was strong enough to survive not
only the decline of the ancient Greek and Roman religions, but also the
adoption of Christianity. During the Renaissance, the ancient theories
relating to the physical factors causing sickness were rediscovered and it
was this that effectively reawakened the progress of medical science. The
staff of Asclepius remains the symbol of medical care today.

This book is a wide-ranging survey and discussion of the god, Asclepius,

in the ancient world of Greece and Rome, based upon first-hand evidence
from numismatic, literary and archaeological sources. It reviews Asclepian
temple medicine and offers a clinical explanation for its success. It will be
of interest to many of those working within or associated with the world of
medicine today, as well as to teachers and students of the history of
medicine.

Contents:

Asclepius - from myth to reality;

The divine doctors;
Serpents, superstition and the gods;
Asclepian temples and religious practices;
Asclepian temple medicine;
Votives and talismans;
Rome adopts Asclepius;
Medical practice by Greek and Roman physicians;
Asclepius everywhere;
Asclepius and Christianity;
Asclepian heritage;
Asclepius and medical practice today.

p.177-178

Most academic giants of antiquity proclaimed their esteem

for Asclepius and the words of these philosophers,
historians,
rhetoricians, poets, politicians and physicians are cited in
the "Edelstein Testimonies". (See Article 02)

1) Plato recorded the dying words of Socrates:

 "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Pay it
and do not neglect to do so." (Plato, Phaedro)

2) Sophocles accepted Asclepius into his house

and set up an altar for him. After his death,
the Athenians called Sophacles: "Dexion" [the
one who receives] because of his reception of
Asclepius.

3) The Neo-Platonists believed that Asclepius was

the soul of the world, by which creation was held
together and filled with symmetry and balanced
union.

4) Pausanius (Descriptio Graeciae, 8:28) that Alexander

the Great dedicated his spear and breastplate to
Asclepius at Gortys in Arcadia.

5) 23 CE Tacitus recorded that Tiberius confirmed

the right of asylum to Cos.

6) Aristides (129-89 CE) ...

"the one who is guider and ruler of all things,
the saviour of the universe and the guardian
of immortals" (Oration 62)

"give me as much health as I need for my body

to obey that which my soul wishes" (Oration 38)

"Here the stern cable of salvation for all

is anchored in Ascelpius." (Oration 23)

7) Julian "Asclepius heals our bodies, the Muses

train our souls with the help of Asclepius and
Apollo and Hermes. (Contra Galilaeos).

8) 53 CE Emperor Claudius granted Coans immunity

from taxes and declared their island a place
sanctified only to Asclepius.

9) After earthquake at Epidaurus in 1st half of

2nd century CE, Senator Antoninus rebuilt the
sanctuary and adorned it with magnificent
monuments.

10) Soranus (2nd century) wrote: "Hippocrates,

by birth, was a Coan ... who traced his
ancestry back to Heracles (Hercules) and
Asclepius, the 20th in descent from the
former, the 19th to the latter.

11) Galen (129-99 CE) recorded the contemporary

building of the temple of Zeus Asclepius
at Pergamum.

"the ancestral god Asclepius, whose servant

I declare myself to be, for he saved me
 when I was suffering from a deadly condition
of an abscess."

12) Epigrammata Graeca 1027 (2nd-3rd century CE)

exhorted "Wake, Paeon Asclepius, lord of men ..."

13) Asclepius was everywhere in literature and

everyone was familiar with his deeds. In the
second century he stood at the peak of his
power and influence and was known through
the ancient world.

14) He became identified as Imhotep Asclepius in

Egypt, Eshmun Asclepius in Phoenicia, Zeus
Asclepius at Pergamum and Jupiter Aesculapius
in Rome. [47,48] One might have justifiably hailed
him as Aesculapius Optimus Maximus.

15) Many of his tenmples occupied prestigious

locations such as the Acropolis at Athens,
and at the city of Carthage ...

16) p.205 - Asclepian heritage

Aristophanes, Plutus 639-40:

The chorus in the Greek play 'Plutus' sang:

"I shall sing with all my might to Asclepius,

Blest with his offspring, he who brings
great light to mortals."

[47] Bartlow RM, "The Origins of the caduceus, Aesculapius

1971
The early Egyptian gods, Uzoit, Nikhbet and
Thoth were depicted with a single serpent
entwining a staff. Were Eshmun-Asclepius and
Imhotep-Asclepius a coincidence or a divine circle?
Did early Greek traders take the Egyptian concept
of healing back to Greece or did the Asclepius
cult develop anew in Greece?

[48] Asclepius had numerous other epithets ...

* "Soter' or saviour was popular and was even inscribed

on some of the coins of Pergamum.

* "Philanthropotatos" (the most manloving)

* "Euergetes" (benefactor),

* "Philolaos" (friend of the people)

His religious status was shown in ...

 * Zeus-Asclepius
* Dominus
* Deus
* Augustus, and
* Paeon (who was the original physician to the gods)

His medical role is recalled in "Cotyleus" (of the hip

joint)

The "Castrorum" was a reference to the army doctors

(these were called "Asclepiads") revering him and
using his services to assist with wounds, illnesses
and injuries.

Alice Watson lists 55 additional Greek epithets.

Perhaps one of these epithets was used to describe
his additional role as the veterinary god.

p.184

Christ and Asclepius were both prosecuted under

the law of the day and died a mortal death ...

After their deaths, Christ and Asclepius were

resurrected.

Christ returned to Earth as part of a heavenly plan

and as a sign to his followers.

Asclepius was resuscitated to continue the medical

care of mankind with the proviso that he would desist
from raising the dead.

Both were gods who lived among mankind:

Christ a divine human and Asclepius a terrestrial
divinity.

Both possessed "divine hands":

Asclepius' were his drugs and light touch in healing
(C healed by touch or blessed and consecrated men for
service)

Strong family associations:

Jesus with his mother Mary
Asclepius with his daughter Hygieia

Each part of a Holy Trinity:

Jesus - FSAHG
Asclepius - 3rd in descent from Zeus, son of Apollo,
who was in turn Zeus' son.

"the one who is guide and ruler of all things,

p.201

The church at San Bartolomeo, on the island in the Tiber

at Rome, is an outstanding monument to the continuity of
sanctity betwen Asclepius and Christianity.

p.202

Belief in the healing powers of St. Bartholemew's relics

was so great that, in the 11th century, the church was
renamed
after him. The sacred spring of Asclepius became the healing
spring of St. Bartholemew and its original locations the
center of the nave, at the foot of the chancel steps leading
to the altar.

p.208: "Many Asclepian healing springs, as well as those

of other pagan gods, were adopted by Christianity
and renamed after a local saint.

p.207

Roman Coins: Asclepius and Salus

"Salus, the daughter of Aesculapius, survived the fall

of paganism. She is depicted on an early coin of the
Christian era that was minted by Fausta, the second wife
of Constantine I: this shows on the reverse a "baptised"
version of Salus, portrayed without a serpent but holding
two children. The users of this coins would receive a
cryptic message that the daughter of Aesculapius has
repented and been converted to Christianity.

p. 208:

First HEALING SAINTS: Cosmas and Damian

Twins -physicians martyrys death in 287 CE

The sick continued to pray to Saints Cosmas and Damian

in much the same way as supplicants appealed to
Asclepius and Hygieia. The twins became patron saints
of physicians and pharmacologists in the fourth century
CE until the 16th century.

After the reformation, the staff of Asclepius replaced

the icons of Saints Cosmas and Damian.
*************
ARTICLE 02:
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0801857694/ref=sib_dp_pt#re
ader-link

Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies

Emma J. Edelstein, Ludwig Edelstein, Gary B. Ferngren

Book Description

Throughout nearly all of antiquity, the legendary Greek

physician,
Asclepius, son of Apollo and Coronis, was not only the
primary
representative of divine healing, but also so influential
in the
religious life of later centuries that, as Emma J.
Edelstein and
Ludwig Edelstein point out, "in the final stages of
paganism,
of all genuinely Greek gods, [he] was judged the foremost
antagonist of Christ."

Providing an overview of all facets of the Asclepius

phenomenon,
this book, first published in two volumes in 1945,
comprises
a unique collection of the literary references and
inscriptions
in ancient texts -- given in both the original and
translation
-- to the deity, his life, his deeds, his cult, and his
temples,
as well as an extended analysis of them.

*************
ARTICLE 03:
==============

Random DYNAMIC DEMOGRAPHIC: 27-MAR-2008

Results 1 - 100 of about 637,000 for "Asklepios"

Results 1 - 100 of about 223,000 for "Aesculapius"
Results 1 - 100 of about 310,000 for "Asclepius"
Results 1 - 100 of about 135,000 for "Asclepios"
Results 1 - 62 of 62 for "Asklepiós
*************
ARTICLE 04:
==============

Review of Hart that appeared in Bull. Hist. Med., 2002

Gerald D. Hart. Asclepius, the God of Medicine.

London: Royal Society of Medicine Press, 2000. xx + 262 pp.
Ill. £17.50 (paperbound, 1-85315-409-1).
Gerald D. Hart is a retired hematologist and an amateur numismatist
whose purpose in this volume is “to popularize Asclepius and interpret the
present-day use of his staff and serpent symbol by various disciplines of
the healthcare team”(p. xvii). Hart makes no claim to originality. He
largely reproduces the views of Emma Edelstein and Ludwig Edelstein in
their magnum opus, Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the
Testimonies (1945; reprinted 1998). Hart adopts the euhemerist view that
Asclepius evolved from a historical figure into a god: on the evidence of
his mention in Homer’s Iliad, he believes that Asclepius was a physician
who lived before the end of the eighth century b.c. and whose
accomplishments led first to heroic status and later to deification. Here as
elsewhere, Hart tends (like the Edelsteins) toward rationalistic
explanations. Medical training is often helpful for making sense of ancient
healing practices, but it does not take the place of a thorough knowledge
of the cultural context in which they develop. One of many examples in
this regard is Hart’s failure to understand the concept of miasma (ritual
pollution) as the basis of the Greek exclusion from sacred precincts of
those giving birth or dying (p. 60). And, like the Edelsteins, Hart tends to
idealize the temple-healing of Asclepius.

Given that the book is largely derivative, professional historians cannot

look for the historical rigor that they would normally expect of a historical
monograph that deals with so controversial a figure as Asclepius. Hart
often relies on secondary sources for matters of fact, and thereby takes
over unexamined their interpretation of the evidence. Thus he seems to be
unfamiliar with the historiographic problems surrounding Hippocrates,
assuming that the Father of Medicine was the figure described by later
legend (pp. 37–38). Other criticisms might be made of Hart’s approach.
He makes frequent comparisons between modern medicine, on the one
hand, and ancient medical practices or the healing cult of Asclepius, on the
other. Thus he calls the family of Asclepius “the divine healthcare team”
(p. 33). Priests of asclepieia administered “mind-therapy” (p. 71), as well
as music and occupational therapy, to pilgrims who sought healing. The
grant of immunities to physicians was an early form of socialized
medicine (p. 121). The interchange of ideas among physicians at
asclepieia was a form of “continuing medical education” (p. 137).

Assuming presentist and essentialist categories, Hart views modern

medicine as a continuation of ancient methods that did not differ markedly
from the presuppositions that undergird modern practice. Thus he
considers Soranus’s gynecological works “surprisingly modern texts” (p.
159), while alleging that the Hippocratic “theory on the pathogenesis of
disease summarizes our present knowledge on the onset of infection” (p.
139). Particularly questionable are assertions that ancient physicians in
many cases prescribed what we now know to be medically efficacious
treatment (pp. 85 ff.). Nor does Hart avoid that besetting sin of medical
historians, retrospective diagnosis (see, e.g., p. 157).

The strength of the volume lies in the attention that the author gives to the
numismatic evidence for the cult of Asclepius. Of 513 sites at which the
god was worshipped, 267 were connected with coins, and 211 sites are
known only through numismatic evidence. This is an area that was
conspicuously overlooked by the Edelsteins (who focused on literary
rather than on archaeological or numismatic evidence), and Hart provides
a popular introduction to the subject illuminated by many coin
illustrations. While the professional historian will find much to criticize in
this volume, the attention given to numismatic and archaeological
evidence (especially from Roman Britain) sheds light on the cult of
Asclepius that is missing from the Edelsteins’ study.

Gary B. Ferngren