Concluding remarks

1In this study, Greek incubation rituals from Classical and Hellenistic times have been documented and analysed. Prior to this, the ritual framework at different incubation cults had not been fully accounted for nor analysed, and the belief in a uniform incubation ritual had made analysis of the structure and function of the rituals difficult.

2Analysis of the testimonia concerning the incubation rites and rules has revealed a number of different rites and rules that may be divided into preparatory rites and rules, those surrounding the dormitory, and those for thanksgiving. These ritual elements were studied in detail, and the ritual variation at the different sanctuaries offering incubation, even within the same cult and at the same time, is striking. The preparatory rites at some of the incubation sanctuaries, such as augmented or stricter demands on abstinence from sex and some types of foods, can be compared to the requirements for priests in Greek cults to be extra pure in order to communicate with the gods. Bathing in seawater was also an alternative to purification with water from a perirrhanterion upon entering the temenos, and it was thought to have an extra purifying effect. Only at Lebena were people called by the god to come to the sanctuary and incubate, and this was possibly due to Egyptian influence. The paying of a consultation fee, eparche, at Oropos was a carry-over from the original, purely oracular cult of Amphiaraos, which in the beginning did not focus on healings. Fees that were paid at sacrifice intermingled with consultation fees because sanctuaries needed to cover their expenses for the sacrifices as well as the practicalities related to the sleeping itself. It cannot be proven that fasting and making a purificatory sacrifice of an animal, rites which in previous research were interpreted as preparations before incubation, occurred in Classical and Hellenistic times.

3As concerns offerings made before incubation, the cult of Asklepios prescribed offerings to Apollon before those to Asklepios as well a number of cake offerings to smaller gods associated with Asklepios. The associated gods varied at the different sanctuaries of Asklepios. They could be deities that were part of Asklepios’ family, or locally venerated deities, and/or deities that had mantic or healing abilities. Wineless libations have been evidenced in the cults of Asklepios and Hemithea, and it has been argued that they did not diverge from standard Greek sacrificial ritual. An offering was most certainly to be made before incubation, but it did not have to be an animal — cakes could also be given. A range of different animals could be presented, or one particular animal. When one particular animal was prescribed, it was a cheap animal (a piglet). In the cult of Kalchas on Mount Drion, as evidenced by Strabo, a black ram was prescribed, and the verb enagizein is used to describe the sacrifice. In that sense, the cult of Kalchas is an exception to all other incubation cults, where the sacrificial act is described by the verbs thyo or prothyo. Sacrifices were further accompanied by vows and prayers, just as in Greek cult at large.

4During the day of the incubation, incubants could wear wreaths. White clothes were worn by incubants at Piraeus, but this was not a uniform practice in the cult of Asklepios. That incubants had unbraided hair and wore no rings cannot be proven for Classical and Hellenistic times. The dormitories at Asklepieia and other incubation sanctuaries did not have a set architectural form, and the lack of a special dormitory means that the incubants may have slept in the temple, but this was not a regular habit. Exceptionally, in the Plutonium of Acharaka, incubants slept in a cave that was believed to be the entrance to the underworld. Inside the dormitory, the incubants slept on klinai or stibades, which were temporary rough beds (but not beds of leaves as claimed previously). At some sanctuaries the incubants slept on the fell of the sacrificed animal, but this was not a uniform rule even within the sanctuaries where such practices occurred. Men and women could sleep separately or together, depending on the rules at the particular sanctuary. As in oracle cults, incubation by proxy was permitted.

5After the sleeping and subsequent healing or receipt of the answer to the question put to the divinity, thank-offerings were given. In the cults of Asklepios, special healing fees, iatra, were to be paid. An animal sacrifice could also be offered after a successful consultation upon coming back to the sanctuary after the healing had been effected. The votive habit, as at all Greek sanctuaries, differed. Interestingly, the gifts were often of small value, and at major incubation sanctuaries, tablets or inscriptions to relate the dream and/or healing were dedicated.

6Special rites on the day after incubation, enacted inside the sanctuary, do not seem to have occurred. Contrary to what has been argued in previous research, it is not possible to prove that a meal was eaten only by the incubants. It is more likely that the family making the pre-incubation animal sacrifice were participants in the meal of the offering. Neither, as has also been argued in previous research, is there any evidence for priests helping the incubants to interpret their dreams, with the exception of Acharaka where the priests were the primary incubants.

7In Chapter 2, a theoretical analysis of the structure and function of these incubation rituals was undertaken in order to better understand the different ritual approaches to creating a belief in direct communication with a divinity. To begin with, previous theoretical approaches, the model of Olympian and Chthonian rites, as well as the van Gennep model of rites of passage were tested against the ritual structure of incubation and found not to be applicable to incubation. After a careful examination of the testimonia, it became clear that the models do not explain the ritual structure. Incubation as a Chthonian or liminal phenomenon cannot be proven by the rites which surrounded it. When incubation is compared to mystery initiations, although both sets of rites purport to open two worlds, the two are essentially different religious phenomena.

8 In previous research, the focus has been on the manner in which the rites were enacted — in particular, technicalities such as the colour of the sacrificial victim or what type of libation accompanied the sacrifice. Scholars have argued in the past that unusual rites engendered or responded to unusual, or high-intensity, experiences. However, in order to analyse the function of incubation rituals effectively, the technical aspects of the rites have to be taken into account as well as the social framework in which they took place and the reason for their enactment. How the rites were performed, in which groups of worshippers, and the reason for enactment (the upkeep of health or cure of illness) should be considered all together. After studying the technical aspects combined with the social aspects of incubation rites, it became clear that incubation rites differed from the rites enacted by those not incubating in the sanctuary only at the dormitory. Otherwise, incubants generally acted in the same way as all other worshippers, and incubants also worshipped together with them, as well as with their own families. Some of the preparatory rites for being pure when meeting the god were, at certain places, stricter for incubants than for other worshippers, but the rituals were, other than at the dormitory, similar to the rituals for other worshippers. Those rites and rules which were enacted by incubants alone and which differed technically from those for other worshippers, such as observing abstinences, wearing white clothes or sleeping on a fleece, primarily functioned to prepare and purify the incubants for meeting the deity. It is surprising that incubation rituals were not more different from those rituals of other worshippers, considering that the incubants were ill people in the midst of crisis, seeking a cure through direct contact with a deity. A ritual designed to induce belief in a cure and a divine meeting would be expected to differ from a ritual enacted by a healthy person sacrificing to the god in order to stay well.

9The ordinary nature of most incubation rites may have resulted from practical considerations: at a sanctuary with so many visitors, a more special ritual enactment for incubants would not have been possible. The oracle of Trophonios, where only one consultant was sent down into his cave, differed, and many special rites surrounded the consultation. At incubation sanctuaries, instead, other factors contributed to induce belief in a healing through direct communication with a divinity. One such factor was emotional intensity, as indicated by e.g. prayer, encouragement taken from reading cure tablets in the sanctuary, and the seeking out of the divinity in his or her believed dwelling place. Sleeping in this sacred space was a means of coming close to the deity as well as being an important ritual factor in itself.

10Finally, in Chapter 3, the origins and developments of incubation rituals were explored. It was argued that incubation began as a variant of oracular techniques that existed in Greece in Archaic times, not, as previously claimed, as a result of influence from Egypt or Mesopotamia. It was also proven that incubation did not originate in the practices of necromancy or in Earth cults. When incubation first appears in the testimonia, in the cult of Amphiaraos in Boeotia, it is similar to the oracular techniques practised in the area. At the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros, where the earliest evidence on incubation cures is found, Apollon and Asklepios were at first jointly worshipped. Incubation was initially an exclusive consultation technique, which may then have been popularized at Epidauros, so that eventually anyone, even women and slaves, was able to incubate. The reason why incubation first appeared in hero cults, such as those of Amphiaraos and Asklepios, could be that heroes were simply more approachable than gods like Apollon or Athena.

11Incubation can be viewed as an oracle consultation made accessible, a consultation in which the person enquiring of the oracle could consult the deity directly instead of using an intermediary ‘medium’. This new possibility of contacting a hero or god directly through a dream coincides with a contemporary belief that dreams could be sent by gods to anyone in society, as well as the rise of the Hippocratic school and the general inclination of the Greeks to consult doctors. The different incubation cults seem to have sprung up and developed in their local contexts, and the local adaptation and development of rites can also be noted in the many Asklepieia of the Greek and Roman world. In the cult of Asklepios, where the largest ritual uniformity might be expected (because the cult spread fast in the fourth century and many Asklepieia were founded from one single sanctuary, Epidauros), variation and adaptation to local practices seem on the contrary to have been the norm. In fact, even within the same Asklepieion, there might have been different options for incubation. At other incubation cults, the variations were even greater. An important trend was also noted: the smaller incubation cults, where primarily oracles were given (not healings), tended to have more complicated rituals and greater attendance by priests, who saw to it that the rites were enacted properly and, as in the cult of Acharaka, helped with interpreting the dreams.

12Incubation rituals are best characterized as a mixture of rites for ordinary worshippers and rites designated for the priests who acted as intermediaries, ‘media’, with divinities: special clothes, special purification rules, abstinence from certain foods. In the Classical period, when so many people were able to consult a hero or god by incubating, the rituals had to be simplified for practical reasons. The rites and rules for making the persons contacting the deity pure enough were less complex than for oracle priests. Instead, incubation developed its own means for enabling the belief in the meeting of two worlds, such as reading the previous healings in the sanctuary and a focus on creating an emotional setting to enhance the experience.