Cocks to Asklepios : sacrificial practice and healing cult
p. 205-221
Texte intégral
1Rather than looking at a particular element of sacrificial practice, this paper will survey the variety of sacrificial behaviour known to have been associated with a particular cult. Asklepios makes an especially interesting case-study because of the relative abundance of iconographical evidence supplied by votive reliefs,1 and because of his ambiguous status as a hero only promoted to divinity at a relatively late stage in the development of the Greek pantheon. While the main aim of the paper is to see how far sacrificial practice is informative about the nature of a particular cult as a whole, it will also be concerned with the old question of the extent to which ritual is reflective of the recipient’s character. In this respect, the current enquiry forms a sequel to an earlier paper, in which I reviewed the evidence for the existence of heroic elements in the cult of Herakles, and challenged the view that such elements were only peripheral in a primarily divine cult2.Recent accounts of Asklepios’ cult have tended to be polarised on this issue, either finding evidence of chthonic ritual at every turn or seeing no trace at all of Asklepios’ heroic myth in ritual practice.3 Here I shall be proposing something of a middle path, taking into consideration the material context in which the sacrifices were performed as well as the actual form of the rituals.
Asklepios heros theos
2First let us briefly review the myth of Asklepios and his iconography. In Homer Asklepios appears only indirectly, as father of the physician heroes Machaon and Podaleirios, referred to in the Iliad’s Catalogue of Ships (Iliad, 2.729-33) as leaders of the contingent from Trikka, Ithome and Oichalia. Asklepios’ own story seems to have been elaborated a little later, the main details being attested in various sixth-century works, including the Catalogue of Women (fr. 51 West), a Homeric Hymn (16), and a poem by Stesichoros (194 PMG). The earliest extended account to survive is Pindar’s third Pythian (474 BC), which tells the tale of Apollo’s dalliance with the Thessalian Koronis, daughter of Phlegyas. Angered at her s ubsequent infidelity with the mortal Ischys, Apollo kills her, but then repents of his cruelty and snatches the unborn Asklepios from the funeral pyre, and hands him over to the centaur Cheiron, who brings the child up to be a great healer ; eventually Asklepios is tempted into bringing a man back from the dead and struck dead by Zeus’ thunderbolt. The whole story was probably also told in the early fifth century by Pherekydes and Akousilaos, and later literary versions add the sub-plot of the raven who was turned from white to black for reporting Koronis’ infidelity, and Apollo’s killing of the Cyclopes for having provided the thunderbolt which killed his son.4 Unusually, images illustrative of this narrative are almost entirely absent from extant Greek art.5 Asklepios’ one appearance in Attic vase-painting is on a late-fifth-century red-figure plate attributed to the Meidias Painter, as a baby held in the arms of a personified Epidauros, accompanied by a Eutychia or Eukleia, and approaching the seated Eudaimonia ; a tripod on top of an Ionic column in the background may allude to a victory in a dithyrambic contest, presumably with a poem recounting Asklepios’ birth ; further reference to the victory is made by the wreath in Eudaimonia’s hands, and the wreath-like frame of myrtle surrounding the image.6 Rather than a straightforward mythological narrative here, we are presented with an allegorical scene, expressing the god’s Epidaurian origins through his appearance in Epidauros’ arms, and the implied mother-child relationship ; Eudaimonia represents the good fortune both of the dithyrambic victor and perhaps of Athens, where the cult of Asklepios had been introduced in 420/19 BC. Apart from this one example, the god’s arrival in Athens is otherwise marked in vase-painting by the earliest appearances of his daughter Hygieia, Health personified, usually amongst other ‘feel-good’ personifications in the retinue of Aphrodite ; although Hygieia is in every respect a proper goddess in receipt of cult, the fact that she is a personification allows her to fit into this kind of allegory more easily than could the god himself.7
3Asklepios’ status remained a matter of philosophical debate throughout antiquity. Cicero puts him into the same category as Herakles, Dionysos and the Dioskouroi, all of whom are ‘gods born of mortal mothers’, and seems to suggest that their widespread popularity is a critical factor in determining their divine rather than heroic status ; Lucian can even make fun of these characters’ status as mortals ‘illegally registered’ (pareggraptos) amongst the gods.8 Asklepios’ elevation to divine status is variously dated by modern scholars, but is unlikely to be much earlier than c.500 BC when the earliest dedication to him appears at Epidauros.9 This is about a century later than the deification of Herakles, and unlike Herakles Asklepios has no apotheosis story to articulate his promotion–we do not see him being led up to Olympos, or given a divine bride like Hebe. Some mythological legitimation is offered, however, by his acquisition of divine daughters, all personifications of, or slight variations on words for, aspects of healing.10 Hygieia is first attested around 420 BC, the others appear a little later, one of their earliest appearances being in the anonymous Erythraean hymn to Asklepios of c.380-60 BC, which mentions his wife Epione and lists their children as Machaon, Podaleirios, Iasô, Aiglê and Panakeia, ‘along with bright Hygieia the glorious’.11
4Asklepios’ iconography in general says little about his status–he is de picted as a mature bearded man, in the semi-draped style used for Zeus as well as for portraits of philosophers and orators. His most constant attribute, however, is the snake, which has sometimes been interpreted as indicative of his ‘chthonic’ aspect.12 The snake appears in free-standing statues of the god from his sanctuaries all over the Greek world, and is a conspicuous feature of the chryselephantine cult statue at Epidauros, made by Thrasymedes of Paros c.380 BC. As Pausanias (2.27.2) describes, Asklepios ‘sits on his throne gripping a staff, and he holds his other hand above the head of the snake, and a dog, too, has been made lying beside him’–the staff and snake can clearly be seen in a depiction of the statue on an Epidaurian coin of the second half of the fourth century BC (fig. 1).13 In votive reliefs, too, there is often a snake coiled around Asklepios’staff or under his throne, and in one example from the Piraeus Asklepieion a particularly large snake even usurps the position usually occupied by Hygieia or other family members immediately behind Asklepios, as a mortal family approach the altar bringing a sheep for sacrifice.14 Van Straten suggests that the snake’s huge size here is reflective of the exaggerated creatures of the worshippers’ imagination, as evoked in the incubation scene of Aristophanes’ Wealth (ll.659 ff.), where two huge snakes accompany Asklepios on his rounds.15 The snake’s claim to being the ‘chthonic attribute par excellence’ has a little basis in the tradition of the creature’s association with heroes,16 but it is worth noting that the snake is also the constant attribute of the divine Hygieia, and the indisputably Olympian Athena.17 The scholia on Wealth l 733 have no difficulty in commenting simultaneously on the snake’s general association with heroes, and on its special connection with Asklepios due to its ability to slough off its old skin and generate a new one, symbolising the ‘casting off of the diseases of the infirm’. More mundanely, real-life snakes were involved in the healing process, as attested by the cures recorded at Epidauros.18
Figure 1 : Thrasymedes’ cult statue of Asklepios depicted on a coin of Epidauros,
c.350-330 BC. Drawing : Sheila Bewley.

5A more promising case can be made concerning the dog which Pausanias mentions as lying beside the Epidaurian cult statue. The animal has sometimes been seen as inherently ‘chthonic’, but more immediately relevant is its role in what appears to be an Epidaurian variant on Asklepios’ birth story, first attested in the second-century BC Apollodoros of Athens (FGrH 244F138) : rather than being rescued by Apollo from his mother’s pyre, Asklepios has been born and exposed, but is suckled by a dog and rescued by hunters. Pausanias (2.26.4) particularly associates the story with Epidauros, and has Asklepios suckled by a goat, guarded by the goat-herd’s dog.19 This myth is clearly depicted on coins from second–and third– century AD Epidauros which feature a shepherd discovering an infant being suckled by a goat, but there may be reference to it already in the presence of hunting-dogs on a fourth-century votive relief from the sanctuary, sniffing the ground at the feet of Asklepios’ sons.20 There might also be a connection with Maleatas, Asklepios’ predecessor at Epidauros, whose shrine was called Kuon and situated on the hill Kunortion, above the later Asklepieion. The real presence of such animals in the sanctuary is attested by one of the fourth-century cures recorded at Epidauros, in which a boy from Aigina is healed of a growth on his neck after ‘one of the sacred dogs’ licked him.21 The dog also appears more than once on the Telemachos Monument, which records the establishment of Asklepios’ sanctuary on the south slope of the Athenian Akropolis.22 On side A of the main relief Asklepios is shown standing, to the right, with a female companion seated on a table, probably the hiera trapeza, the ‘sacred table’ for bloodless offerings and portions of sacrificial meat, beneath which crouches a dog. Side B of the lower relief seems to depict the actual sanctuary, with the double-doors of the in cubation building featuring prominently ; to the right there is a stele in the same form as the Monument itself, with a dog and a horse alongside it.23 There is further possible evidence from the sanctuary for Athenian interest in the Epidaurian birth story in a fragmentary votive relief of c.350 BC which depicts a man and a dog on a mountainside, moving towards the right ; a second dog and a snake are also in the picture, while two largerscale figures in an upper register must be deities, perhaps Artemis and Zeus. Unfortunately the right-hand half of the relief is missing, but it has been plausibly suggested that it depicted the infant Asklepios suckled by a goat, with Apollo joining the other gods above.24
Sacrifices made by individuals and families
6Turning now to the sacrificial ritual practised in Asklepios’ honour, we should first consider the many smaller-scale offerings for which we have evidence, starting with the humblest possible animal offering. The terracotta cock from the Corinthian Asklepieion25 (fig. 2) is likely to be a votive of the kind which takes the place of, or commemorates, a real-life sacrificial offering, like the statuettes of pigs dedicated to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis and Knidos.26 We have no shortage of testimony to the bird’s particular association with Asklepios. Most famously, Sokrates’ last words are reported to have been ‘Krito, we owe a cock to Asklepios ; pay the debt and don’t overlook it’ (Phaedo 118a)–words which have caused much s peculation from antiquity onwards. Commentators variously interpret them as referring to some real family business with the god, or as an allusion (either serious or ironic) to death providing a ‘cure’ from the sickness of life, illustrative of the Phaedo’s major theme of the soul’s liberation from the body.27 Most rather ingeniously suggests that, whatever Sokrates may actually have said or meant, Plato is subtly asserting his right to be regarded as Sokrates’ philosophical heir by inserting himself into a scene from which he was in fact absent because of his own serious illness.28 Labarbe argues that Socrates’ death must have been just a few days before the Athenian Asklepieia of 8th Elaphebolion, and offers the attractive hypothesis that the calendar of the deme of Alopeke, to which Socrates himself, Krito and his son Kritoboulos belonged, might have enjoined upon its members the offering of a cock at the urban Asklepieion.29 On any of these interpretations, however, the important point is the passage’s presumption that sacrificing a cock was a standard way of honouring Asklepios. Various contradictory explanations of the bird’s relevance have been offered–it alludes to the cult’s heroic and chthonian aspects, or it symbolises the hope brought by the new day30–but none seems to be as well supported by the ancient evidence as the more prosaic point that a cock would have been cheap enough for most people to afford.
Figure 2 : A cock for Asklepios : terracotta figurine from the Corinthian Asklepieion.
Photo : American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

7We have an account of such an offering in the third century in Herodas’ fourth Mimiamb, a comic dramatisation of two women’s visit to the newlyestablished sanctuary of Asklepios on Kos.31 Kynno begins with invocations to the god and various members of his family, asking them to accept her offering of a cock, which she is making in thanks for cure from an illness. She more or less apologises for the humbleness of the offering, which is fit only for ta epidorpa, ‘second course’ or ‘dessert’, saying it would be ‘an ox or a stuffed pig’ if she were richer (ll.11-16) ; indeed, towards the end of the dialogue (ll.86-8) Kynno promises they will return with husbands and children ‘bringing larger offerings’. As many commentators have noted, this supports the contention that the choice of offering might be dictated as much by the family’s means as any particular predilections of the god.32 The two women go on to comment on their surroundings, exclaiming at the lifelikeness of various works of art, while their slave-girl is sent to fetch the neokoros–the fact that it is this temple-custodian, rather than the priest, who deals with their sacrifice again emphasises its humble nature. We do not see the actual killing, but when the neokoros appears he congratulates the women on a successful outcome, and Kynno’s instructions to her friend give us quite a detailed picture of the final stages of the sacrifice (ll.88-93) : Kokkale is to cut a ‘little leg’ off the bird to give to the neokoros as his perquisite ; the sanctuary snake is to be given a pelanon, a kind of paste made up of honey, oil and flour ; Kokkale is to souse the barley-cakes (psaista) ; and finally the women are to take the remainder of the bird away to eat at home. We will return to the issue of where the sacrificial meat is to be consumed, but confirmation of two other elements of this account–the neokoros’ perquisite and the variety of animals–is offered by a first-century BC inscription from the sanctuary. This concerns the god’s priesthood, and details what the priest’s share should be of particular animals–the skin and a leg in the case of cattle and sheep, just a leg from other animals–and what supplementary cash fee is payable on each–anything from two drachmas for cattle down to an obol for a bird.33
8The humble nature of the cock-sacrifice probably explains its absence from the iconographical record, but fourth-century votive reliefs from Asklepios’ sanctuaries provide numerous images of pigs and sheep being led to sacrifice. In the only extant sacrificial scene from Epidauros34 (fig. 3), Asklepios, with a snake coiling up his staff, and Hygieia stand by an altar, approached by a family of mortals, including a man, woman and child. At the rear of the little procession is a slightly smaller female figure, probably a slave, who carries a huge basket (kistê) on her head, and the figure halfhidden at the front is probably again a slave, his small size indicative of inferior status, leading the animal. That this pig is about to be sacrificed is made abundantly clear by the presence of the tricorn kanoun just above the altar, which would have contained barley-corns, fillet and knife, all essential equipment for the sacrifice.35 Families bringing a pig to Asklepios and Hygieia also feature in reliefs from the Athenian Asklepieion, where the kanoun may serve as short-hand when the altar is omitted,36 and the girl with the basket is a recurring motif.37
Figure 3 : Family bringing a pig to Asklepios and Hygieia.
Votive relief from Epidauros, fourth century BC (location unknown). Photo : after F.T. van Straten (1995), fig. 58.

9Apart from pigs, the most frequently-seen animal in the Athenian reliefs is the sheep. In fig. 438 we again have the seated Asklepios accompanied by Hygieia leaning against a tree, while a procession of mortals approaches the altar, with the animal at the front, led by a slave who carries a bowl. The family which follows includes a woman, a younger woman and a child, while the rear is again brought up by a slave-girl carrying a large basket on her head. Some commentators identify the victim here as a goat, others as a sheep, but there is a slight presumption in favour of this being a sheep because elsewhere the goat is the one sacrificial animal which we ever hear of as being proscribed in Asklepios’ cult. Pausanias (10.32.12) alludes to such a prohibition of goats at Tithorea in Phokis, where it was customary for ‘anything else at all’ to be sacrificed, and at Epidauros, although he explicitly contrasts this to the Cyrenaeans’ custom of sacrificing goats, which alerts us to the rule’s lack of universality.39 Is it too fanciful to suggest that the prohibition, where it did pertain, reflects the story of the infant Asklepios having been suckled by a goat ?
Figure 4 : Family bringing a sheep (or goat ?) to Asklepios and Hygieia.
Votive relief from the Athenian Asklepieion, fourth century BC, Athens NM 1333. Photo : Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Archaeological Receipts Fund.

10A number of sources also attest bloodless offerings being made to Asklepios and his associates. Fig. 540 is unusual for the absence of an animal, despite its similarity in other respects to sacrifical processions depicted at the Athenian Asklepieion. As before, the god is seated while Hygieia stands, and there is a snake under his throne ; the family consists of a man, woman and four children, followed once again by the slave-girl with a large basket on her head. Van Straten explains this covered basket as containing sacrificial cakes, the popana referred to in Wealth (ll.660-1) as preliminary offerings burnt on the altar prior to incubation. Preliminary popana are also specified in a fourth-century sacred law from the Piraeus Asklepieion (IG II2 4962), recorded on a stele erected by Euthydemos of Eleusis, himself a priest of Asklepios.41 This lists a number of deities to whom three cakes must be given, including Maleatas, suggesting an association with Epidauros, and ‘dogs’ and ‘hunters’, once again recalling the myth of the exposed baby Asklepios, again pointing to an Epidaurian connection. It is not quite clear whether these are the offerings made prior to an individual’s incubation, as in the Aristophanes scene, or preliminaries to a more public sacrifice to Asklepios himself, although the latter is perhaps more likely to have been the subject of such a regulation.42 An alternative explanation of the basket is that it might have contained the blankets and cushions needed to make incubation comfortable,43 although it is perhaps unlikely that such practical accoutrements would be so consistently highlighted.
Figure 5 : Asklepios, Hygieia and family with bloodless off ering (?).
Votive relief from the Athenian Asklepieion, c.325-300 BC, Berlin, Staatliche Museen 685. Photo : © Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz.

11Another relief from the Athenian sanctuary44 (fig. 6) puts bloodless offerings centre-stage, as two men are presenting fruit and cakes to Asklepios and Hygieia ; the offerings are being placed not on the altar but on the hiera trapeza. One of the men takes something from the tray held out by an attendant, presumably to add to the already large heap on the table. An inscription on the architrave (IG II2 4402) names the two men as Nikias of the tribe Oineis and Mnesimachos the Acharnaian. The particularly good quality of the relief, van Straten suggests, demonstrates that bloodless offerings were not necessarily of low status, and Mnesimachos must have belonged to a wealthy family because he and his father are named as victorious choregoi around 350 BC.45 A rather humbler bloodless offering can be seen on a late fifth-century Boiotian krater :46 it is not certain that the reclining male figure feeding a snake is Asklepios–he could equally be Amphiaraos, reflecting the important cult at Oropos–but wreaths hanging in the background link him with the female seated on the other side of the pot, where a mortal woman is carrying a jug for libations and tray of offerings, perhaps cakes. That the setting is a healing shrine is unmistakably indicated by the disembodied leg hanging between the wreaths representing the kind of anatomical votive which was commonly offered at sanctuaries of Asklepios and other healing deities.47
Figure 6 : Family bring bloodless offering to Asklepios and Hygieia.
Votive relief from the Athenian Asklepieion, fourth century BC, Athens NM 1335. Photo : Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Archaeological Receipts Fund.

12At the more expensive end of the scale, we have already heard mention of cattle in the inscription from the Kos Asklepieion, and a few votive reliefs from the Athens and Piraeus sanctuaries show that an ox-sacrifice might be within the means of a wealthier family. In fig. 748, for example, we have the by-now familiar Athenian scheme of the seated Asklepios and Hygieia leaning to one side of their altar, approached by a family which includes women and a child ; the procession is headed, as ever, by a slave leading the animal, on this occasion a bull. The one unexpected element is the nude youth carrying some kind of box, which is perhaps the source of whatever the man in front of him is placing on the altar–possibly barley corns or one of those preliminary cake-offerings. The youth’s distinctive nudity might perhaps indicate that he is the family-member who was ill, and whose cure is being celebrated by the sacrifice.49
Sacrifices made by the community
13The material we have seen so far has related to the private sacrifices of individuals and families, but we also hear of sacrifices involving multiple animals and made on behalf of the whole community. A particularly interesting ritual is reported by Pausanias (2.11.7-8) at Titane, in the north-eastern Peloponnese, at what Pausanias takes to be a very ancient sanctuary of Asklepios and Hygieia. Also worshipped in the sanctuary are the healing hero Alexanor, to whom ‘they enagizein as a hero after sunset’, and the more obscure Euamerion, to whom ‘they thuein as a god’.50 This opposition between heroic and divine sacrifices might immediately put us on the alert for something distinctive in the ritual of the sanctuary’s main deity, and Pausanias does not disappoint. He speaks of a ‘wooden idol’ of Koronis–whose presence must surely call Asklepios’ mortal birth to mind–the ceremonial removal of which is accompanied by the sacrifice of a bull, a lamb and a pig to Asklepios :
14ὁπóσα δὲ τῶν θήοµένων καθαγίζοήσιν, οὐδὲ ἀποχρᾷ σφισιν ἐκτέµνειν τοὺς µηρούς χαµαὶ δὲ καίοήσι πλὴν τοὺς ὄρνιθας, τούτοής δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ βωµοῦ
Figure 7 : Family bringing a bull to Asklepios.
Votive relief from the Athenian Asklepieion, late fourth century BC, Paris, Louvre MA 755. Photo : RMN / © Hervé Lewandowski.

15The parts of the sacrificed animals which they consecrate–and it is not sufficient to cut out their thighs–they burn on the ground, except the birds, which they burn on the altar.
16The description is not entirely clear on the critical point of what exactly is to be ‘consecrated’ to the god, but Pausanias seems to be at pains to point out that it is more than the usual token portion, and his circumlocution may even suggest that he is uncomfortable with the concept of such a ritual being applied to Asklepios, whom he certainly regarded as a god.51 Altogether the ritual sounds like a good candidate for the category of ‘moirocaust’, or partial destruction-sacrifice, proposed by Scott Scullion–and seen for example honouring Herakles at Sikyon and on Thasos–which might have allowed some recognition of the recipient’s original mortality while at the same time allowing the consumption of a good proportion of the meat.52 The different treatment of the animals might simply be due to the practicalities of burning : the birds would be small enough to be easily burnt on the altar, while the portions of the larger animals would need a more substantial bonfire on the ground.53
17A little later Pausanias (2.27.1) reports that at both Titane and Epidauros it was the custom to consume the sacrificial meat ‘within the boundaries’ of the sanctuary, which would correlate with the stipulation ou phora, ‘not to be taken away’, which is fairly common in sacrificial regulations. A similar restriction may also have been in force at a shrine of Asklepios and Hygieia somewhere in Attika, where a first-century BC or AD inscription includes the phrase τῶ δὲ κρεῶν µὴ / φέρεσθαι (IG II2 1364 ; LS 54). Some have argued that this is a sign of heroic cult, though the restriction might equally function as a way of articulating the worshippers’ connection with the god, or delimiting the group of those entitled to a share.54 Whatever the restriction’s force at Epidauros and Titane, however, the rule was not universal, as we have already seen it explicitly contradicted in Herodas’ account of the cock-sacrifice on Kos. Our information on sacrificial practice at Epidauros is otherwise rather thin. We have already seen the one votive relief from the sanctuary which features a family offering a pig, and noted Pausanias’ assertion that the Epidaurians did not sacrifice goats, but we have very little information on the larger-scale sacrifices which must have been performed at the sanctuary’s quadrennial Asklepieia, which included athletic, musical and dramatic contests. One late fifth-century inscription (LSCG 60, 18-23) specifies that a bull should be sacrificed to Asklepios, a bull to associated gods, and a cow to associated goddesses ; these should be sacrificed on Asklepios’ altar along with a cock (recalling the humbler offerings with which we started), and additional bloodless offerings are to be made, of barley, wheat and wine ; rather than the priest, this time it seems to be the sacred secretaries, singers and guards who are singled out for specific shares in the sacrificial meat.55 Another inscription, of the third century BC, records financial contributions from individuals from all over Greece to ‘a holokautesis for the god’ (IG IV 97, ll.1-2, 22-3 and 26). This is unfortunately very fragmentary, giving no details of what was to be burnt whole, and no explicit indication of the intended recipient ; as Ekroth points out, even if ‘the god’ in question is Asklepios, this nomenclature rather militates against interpreting the holocaust as a sign of his heroic character.56
18The idea of a sacrifice to multiple recipients, whose gender is reflected in the gender of the animals concerned, is again seem at the sanctuary on Kos. Here we have a set of financial figures concerning the Asklepieia festival, instituted on a panhellenic and penteteric basis in 242 BC and celebrated in the local month Alseios, with musical, athletic and equestrian contests.57 A third-century sacred law (LSCG 159, 4-10 and 13-16) specifies that 1 500 drachmas from the sanctuary’s funds should be spent on the sacrifices, which is to cover an ox for Asklepios worth at least 500 drachmas, one for Apollo worth at least 400 drachmas, and heifers for Hygieia and Epione worth at least 300 drachmas each. In addition, the priest is to provide a male sheep each for Asklepios and Apollo, worth at least 50 drachmas, and a female sheep each for Hygieia and Epione, worth at least 25 drachmas.
19More substantial still are the state-financed sacrifices made to Asklepios at Athens, where he had at least two annual festivals. The Epidauria, held on the 17th Boedromion, commemorated the god’s arrival in the city, which was supposed to have taken place on this conveniently empty day in the midst of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and included the regular participation of officials from Epidauros.58 Six months later, the Asklepieia, was held on the 8th Elaphebolion, the day of the ‘Preliminary to the Contest’ at the beginning of the City Dionysia.59 Both are certainly attested in the fourth century in the Dermatikon accounts which record income from the sale of skins of animals sacrificed at various state festivals.60 Calculating what the figures imply is fraught with difficulty, but Rosivach’s rough estimate is that the Epidauria involved the slaughter of up to 100 cattle, the Asklepieia in the region of 30. Even if the numbers are not exactly right, the Epidauria is certainly comparable to the City Dionysia, skins from which fetched 808 drachmas in 334/3 BC. Ox-sacrifices at both the Asklepieia and the Epidauria are mentioned again in a second-century BC honorific decree for Leonides, along with a third festival intriguingly called the Heroa (IG II2 974 (SEG 18.26) fr a-c 8-16) :
… when Leonides the son of Nikokrates, of Phlya, who was priest of Asklepios in the city in the year of the archonship of Timarchos, performed the initial sacrifices in fair and pious fashion to Asklepios and Hygieia and the other gods to whom it was an ancestral custom, and he sacrificed bulls at the Asklepieia, the Epidauria, and the Heroa, having presented the finest offerings ( καὶ ἐβοήθύ[τησεν τοῖς τε ’Aσκληπιείοις] / καὶ ’Eπιδαήρίοις καὶ ’Hρώιοις παρασ[τήσεν θύµατα ὠς κάλλιατα]) , and celebrated the night-festivals ; and, having made sacrifices (θύσας) on behalf of the Council and the Demos and the children and the women and obtained good omens, he reported in all cases to the Council that the sacrifices had been favourable and assured safety …
20It is not absolutely certain that the recipient would be Asklepios–we might envisage this Heroa honouring one of Asklepios’ family, just as we saw Alexanor being offered enagismata ‘as a hero’ in the Titane Asklepieion. I think, however, that the way the Heroa is listed alongside the other two festivals creates a presumption in favour of attaching them to Asklepios himself, as does the fact that the same priest is officiating at all three sacrifices. I would not go as far as those who want to identify special facilities for heroic ritual at Asklepieia–as I have argued elsewhere, Riethmüller’s hypothesis about a heroon at the Athens sanctuary does not work, just as attempts to explain the Tholos at Epidauros as marking Asklepies’tomb or providing a site for holocausts and blood rituals, remain highly speculative.61 But given the interest in Asklepios’ heroic story hinted at in both sanctuaries’ iconography, I see no reason to be sceptical about the existence of a regular commemoration of the god’s mortal aspect in a festival called the Heroa. It is important to note, however, that the inscription’s phraseology would suggest that the rituals performed at it were thusia, comparable to the rituals of the Asklepieia and the Epidauria, rather than involving a distinctive form of sacrifice.62
21So what can we conclude from all this ? Our survey has shown that Asklepios was in receipt of a fairly unremarkable range of animal offerings, including birds, sheep, pigs and cattle. A possibly distinctive element is the prohibition of goats, which might be connected with Asklepios’ heroic myth, although such prohibitions quite often occur in Greek religion without any obvious explanation. It seems to me plausible that for the most part Asklepios received a regular form of thusia blood sacrifice, followed by feasting ; on occasions, however, his mortal side might be emphasised by an unusual type of sacrifice, such as the partial destruction-sacrifice at Titane, or a restriction on where the meat was to be consumed, as at Epidauros, or in a festival’s name, such as the Heroa at Athens. This pattern would be consistent with the message conveyed by the material setting of his cult : Asklepios’ sanctuaries are equipped with the temple and cult statue usually associated with divine status, but there are occasional references to the heroic myth in his iconography. These odd reminders of Asklepios’ original mortality may have served the same purpose as similar elements in the cult of Herakles, that is to bring him closer to his worshippers, and it is about them that the sacrifices have most to say. The most striking point to emerge is the prevalence of small-scale offerings : bloodless offerings, in particular, have a much higher profile in our testimonia than we find in other cults, and the one incontrovertible feature of that ‘cock for Asklepios’ is the humble nature of the offering. While Asklepios’ cult certainly does have a public aspect, it is remarkable in the extent to which it is observed at an individual and family level–and this is exactly what the sacrifices reflect.
Notes de bas de page
1 More votive reliefs survive for Asklepios than for any other deity : U. Hausmann, Kunst und Heiltum : Untersuchungen zu den griechischen Asklepiosreliefs, Potsdam, 1948, catalogues a total of 159 ; I. Leventi, Hygieia in Classical Greek Art, Athens, Archaiognosia Suppl. 2, 2003, R1-78 pls 149, catalogues those including Hygieia ; F. T. van Straten, Hierà kalà : Images of animal sacrifice in archaic and classical Greece, Leiden, 1995, p. 63-71 nos R1-35 fig. 62-70, catalogues 35 depicting sacrificial processions.
2 E. J. Stafford, « Héraklès : encore et toujours le problème du heros theos », Kernos, 18, 2005, p. 391-406.
3 J. W. Riethmüller, Asklepios : Heiligtümer und Kulte, Heidelberg, 2005 ; contra A. Verbanck-Piérard, “Les héros guérisseurs : des dieux comme les autres !”, V. Pirenne-Delforge et E. Suárez de la Torre (ed.), Héros et héroïnes dans les mythes et cultes grecs, Athens et Liège, Kernos Suppl. 10, 2000, p. 281-332.
4 E.g. Diodoros 4.71.1-4, Apollodoros 3.10.3, Ovid Met. 2.542-648. On the heroic myth : C. Kerényi, Asklepios : archetypal image of the physician’s existence, New York, 1956, p. 70-86 ; E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, Asclepius : collection and interpretation of the testimonies, Baltimore, 1945, T1-122 and vol. II p. 1-64 ; J.W. Riethmüller (2005), op. cit., p. 32-51.
5 See M. Lang, Cure and Cult in Ancient Corinth : a guide to the Asklepieion, Princeton, NJ, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1977, p. 5, fig. 4, for a terracotta from the Corinthian Asklepieion, which may represent Cheiron holding the baby Asklepios.
6 Leuven, Katholieke Universiteit ; LIMC Asklepios 1* ; L. Burn, The Meidias Painter, Oxford, 1987, p. 71, no. M 33, pl. 46 ; H.A. Shapiro, Personifications in Greek Art : the representation of abstract concepts 600-400 BC, Zurich, 1993, p. 65-66, no. 20 ; A. Verbanck-Piérard, op. cit., p. 305-308, fig. 2.
7 E.J. Stafford, Worshipping Virtues : personification and the divine in ancient Greece, London and Swansea, 2000, p. 147-171, and E.J. Stafford, “‘Without you no-one is happy’ : the cult of Health in ancient Greece”, H. King (ed.), Health in Antiquity, London and New York, 2005, p. 120-135.
8 Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 3.18.45 ; Lucian, Juppiter Tragoedus 21.
9 IG IV2 136 ; Asklepios is first unequivocally referred to as theos towards the end of the fifth century, e.g. on the Telemachos Monument. On Asklepios’ deification, see E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., T232-65 and vol. II p. 91-101 ; J.W. Riethmüller, op. cit., p. 51-54.
10 E.J. Stafford (2000), op. cit., p. 157-158 ; cf. E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., vol. II, p. 85-89.
11 E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., T592 vol. II, p. 200. The daughters first appear in votive reliefs around the same time, e.g. Athens NM 1402 ; LIMC Asklepios 248* ; U. Hausmann, op. cit., no. 7 ; C. Kerényi, op. cit., fig. 47 ; F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R19 fig. 66 ; Leventi, op. cit., R24 pl. 21.
12 E.g. C. Kerényi, op. cit., p. 27-32.
13 AR trihemidrachma, LIMC 84* ; J.W. Riethmüller (2005), op. cit., pl. 10.3.
14 Athens NM 1407 ; ThesCRA Sacrifices 88 ; F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R27 (fig. 61).
15 F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., p. 64-65. See also Sommerstein 2001, 13 and ad loc. The scene is probably set at the Piraeus sanctuary : S.B. Aleshire, The Athenian Asklepieion : the people, their dedications, and the inventories, Amsterdam, 1989, p. 13 ; K. Clinton, op. cit., p. 24, 30 and 34 ; cf. R. Parker, Athenian Religion : a History, Oxford, 1996, p. 181-182.
16 Artemidoros, Oneirokritika 4.70 : “snakes signify men being transformed into heroes and women into heroines.”
17 I. Leventi, op. cit., p. 79 : she sees Hygieia, as well as Asklepios, as in some sense chthonic, but this is difficult to justify. There is some debate about the assumption that Asklepios travelled to Athens in the form of a snake : see K. Clinton, “The Epidauria and the arrival of Asclepius in Athens”, R. Hägg (ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence, Stockholm, 1994, p. 2324, and contra R. Parker (1996), op. cit., p. 178.
18 E.g. IG IV2 I.123 xliv. See E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., T5-6 for the snake as symbol of healing, and more generally T688-706. Pausanias 2.28.1 comments on a particular kind of ‘yellowish-coloured’ snake being bred at Epidauros.
19 R. Parker (1996), op. cit., 182.
20 Coins : AE, Antoninus Pius and Caracalla, LIMC Asklepios 4*. Relief : Athens NM 1426 ; LIMC Asklepios 204* ; C. Kerényi, op. cit., fig. 15.
21 IG IV.1 122.xxvi (E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., T423). There were likewise dogs at Asclepius’ sanctuary on the Tiber island, their presence explicitly linked to the suckling myth by Festus, De Verborum Significatu 110m (E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., T691).
22 Fragments of relief, side A : i) Hygieia (?) : Athens NM 2477 and London BM 1920.6-161 ; ii) Asklepios : Padua Mus. Civ. ; iii) Telemachos (?) : Verona, Mus. Maffeiano. Reconstruction : L. Beschi, “Il mounmento di Telemachos, fondatore dell’Asklepieion ateniense”, ASAtene, 45-6, 1967-1968, 1969, p. 381-463 and L. Beschi, “Il rilievo di Telemachos ricompletato”, AAA, 15, 1982, p. 31-43. Inscription : IG II2 4960 fr.a.1-20 (SEG 25.226 ; Athens EM 8821) ; see the text proposed by K. Clinton, op. cit., p. 21-25. Recent discussions : A. Verbanck-Piérard, op. cit., p. 302-305 ; I. Leventi, op. cit., p. 135, R14 pl. 15 ; J.W. Riethmüller (2005), op. cit., p. 241-250.
23 See F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., p. 92-100 on hero reliefs, several of which feature horses and/or snakes and/or dogs. See A. Verbanck-Piérard, op. cit., p. 304-305 for cautionary notes on the banqueting imagery.
24 Athens NM 1351 ; LIMC Asklepios 5 (= Artemis 1279*) ; Riethmüller (2005), op. cit., pl. 1.2.
25 C. Roebuck, Corinth XIV : The Asclepieon and Lerna, Princeton, NJ, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1951, p. 138-143 no. 50 (cf. no. 37 for a cock’s head) ; M. Lang, op. cit., title page. See S.B. Aleshire (1989), op. cit., p. 14 and n. 4, for such votive cocks also at Athens, and cocks appear as akroteria on the roof of the propylon on side B of the Telemachos Monument’s main relief. Also amongst the finds from the Corinthian Asklepieon are terracotta horses with riders, and dogs (C. Roebuck, op. cit., nos 27-8 and 29-30, pl. 56 ; M. Lang, op. cit., fig. 30), which might allude to the Epidaurian birth story.
26 H.W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians, Ithaca, New York, 1977, fig. 25 (Eleusis Museum) ; London S1304-6 (Knidos). Cf. F.T. van Straten, “Gifts for the gods”, H.S. Versnel (ed.), Faith, Hope and Worship, Leiden, 1981, p. 87-86, fig. 24-26.
27 See e.g. C. Gill, “The death of Socrates”, CQ, 23, 1973, p. 25-28. Earlier theories are reviewed by J. Labarbe, “Dernières paroles d’anciens Grecs, dernières paroles de Socrate”, BAB, 6 s. 1, 1990, p. 189-222, and G.W. Most, “A Cock for Asclepius”, CQ, 43.1, 1993, p. 96-111. See E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., T523-31, for the ancient texts.
28 G.W. Most, op. cit.
29 J. Labarbe, op. cit.
30 ThesCRA I, 76 : “l’offrande de coqs ou d’autres volailles rappelle les aspects héroïques et chthoniens du culte du dieu…”. C. Kerényi (op. cit., p. 58-59) connects the cock sacrifice with Asklepios’ ‘solar epiphany’. M. Lang, op. cit., p. 28-29) sees the cock as ‘bird of morning’, symbolising the cure brought by the new day after a night’s incubation.
31 On the Koan cult : S.M. Sherwin-White, Ancient Cos (Hypomnemata 51), Göttingen, 1978, p. 334-359 ; see 349-352 on the Herodas.
32 Cf. S.B. Aleshire, Asklepios at Athens : epigraphic and prosopographic essays on the Athenian healing cults, Amsterdam, 1991, p. 74 : dedications made by private individuals at the Athenian Asklepieion range from 1 obol to 500 drachmas, and ‘presumably the economic resources of their dedicants varied over a similarly wide spectrum’.
33 R. Parker and D. Obbink, “Aus der Arbeit der ‘Inscriptiones Graecae’ VII. Sales of priesthoods on Cos II”, Chiron, 31, 2001, no. 4A, p. 237-243, fig. 4-5.
34 ThesCRA Sacrifices 89 ; V.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R33 (fig. 58).
35 Cf. the sacrifice to Eirene detailed in Aristophanes’ Peace (937-62) ; F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., 31-43.
36 E.g. Athens NM 1330 ; ThesCRA Sacrifices 87 ; LIMC Asklepios 63 ; F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R6 (fig. 62) ; I. Leventi, op. cit., R69 (p. 45) ; C. Kerényi, op. cit., fig. 21.
37 E.g. Athens NM 1377 ; ThesCRA Processions 61 ; LIMC Asklepios 201* ; F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R18 (fig. 67) ; I. Leventi, op. cit., R 37 pl. 27 ; S.B. Aleshire (1989), op. cit., p. 25-26.
38 Athens NM 1333 ; ThesCRA Processions 63 and Sacrifices 86 ; LIMC Asklepios 66* ; F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R8 (fig. 59) ; I. Leventi, op. cit., R70 (pl.70).
39 See also E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., T534 (Sextus Empiricus, Hypotyposeis 3.220-1).
40 Berlin, Staatliche Museen 685 ; ThesCRA Processions 65 ; LIMC Asklepios 69 ; F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R35 (fig. 69) ; I. Leventi, op. cit., R61 pl.38. For lack of a sacrificial animal, cf. Athens NM 1332 ; ThesCRA Processions 64 ; LIMC Asklepios 313*.
41 See A. Verbanck-Piérard, op. cit., p. 314-317. The same priest ruled on the division of meat at a festival of Asklepios : IG II2 47 ; LSCG 21.
42 On cakes, see E. Kearns, “Cakes in Greek sacrifice regulations”, R. Hägg (ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence, Stockholm, 1994, p. 65-70.
43 Cf. the stromata carried by Dionysos’ slave Xanthias in Aristophanes’ Frogs (first mentioned l.165). I thank Athanassia Zographou for this suggestion.
44 Athens NM 1335 ; LIMC Asklepios 96* ; F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R10 (fig. 70) ; U. Haussman, op. cit., no. 145 ; C. Kerenyi 1956, fig. 16 ; F.T. van Straten (1981), op. cit., p. 8586, fig. 19 ; I. Leventi, op. cit., R5 (pl. 36).
45 F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., p. 70 ; cf. A. Verbanck-Piérard, op. cit., p. 310 and S.B. Aleshire (1989), op. cit., p. 308.
46 Athens NM 1393 ; LIMC Asklepios 41* ; J.W. Riethmüller (2005), op. cit., pl. 14.4 ; E.J. Stafford (2000), op. cit., p. 163, fig. 20 ; E.J. Stafford (2005b), op. cit., fig. 6.4.
47 M. Lang, op. cit., fig. 14 and 16-27 ; F.T. van Straten (1981), op. cit., p. 100-102, fig. 50-64.
48 Paris, Louvre MA 755 ; ThesCRA Processions 62 and Sacrifices 85 ; LIMC Asklepios 64* ; van Straten (1995), op. cit., R23, fig. 63 ; F.T. van Straten (1981), op. cit., p. 84-85, fig. 16 ; I. Leventi, op. cit., R53, pl. 35.
49 Cf. a relief from the Piraeus sanctuary, with both a bull and the basket, though not the slave-girl carrying it : Athens NM 1429. F.T. van Straten (1995), op. cit., R28, fig. 65.
50 On such oppositions, see G. Ekroth, Th e Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults, Athens and Liège, Kernos Suppl. 12, 2002, p. 99-100, and R. Parker, ‘ὡς ἣρωι ἐναγίζειν’, R. Hägg (ed.), Greek Sacrificial Ritual, Olympian and Chthonian, Stockholm, 2005, p. 37-45.
51 Pausanias 2.26.10. On Pausanias’ use of terms connected with sacrifice, see G. Ekroth, “Pausanias and the sacrificial rituals of Greek cult”, R. Hägg (ed.), Ancient Greek Hero Cult, Stockholm, 1999, p. 145-58, and V. Pirenne-Delforge, “Les rites sacrificiels dans la Périégèse de Pausanias”, D. Knoepfler and M. Piérart (ed.), Éditer, traduire, commenter Pausanias en l’an 2000, Geneva, université de Neuchâtel, 2001, p. 109-134 (p. 124-125 on this passage).
52 S. Scullion, “Heroic and chthonian sacrifice : new evidence from Selinous”, ZPE, 132, 2000, p. 163-171 ; see E.J. Stafford (2005a), op. cit., on Herakles. For difficulties posed by the term ‘destruction sacrifice’, cf. J. Svenbro, “La thusia et le partage. Remarques sur la ‘destruction’ par le feu dans le sacrifice grec”, S. Georgoudi, R. Koch Piettre and F. Schmidt (ed.), La cuisine et l’autel. Les sacrifices en question dans les sociétés de la Méditerranée ancienne (Bibliothèque de l’École des hautes études sciences religieuse 124), Turnhout, 2005, p. 217-225.
53 G. Ekroth (2002), op. cit., p. 308-309, n. 1.
54 See G. Ekroth (2002), op. cit., p. 313-25, arguing against S. Scullion, “Olympian and chthonian”, Classical Antiquity, 13, 1994, p. 99-112 ; R. Parker (2005), op. cit., 42, offers cautious support for ou phora as possibly indicative of, though not confined to, hero cult.
55 E.J. Edelstein and L. Edelstein, op. cit., T561-2 ; cf. no.563 (IG IV2 1.47) for Epidauros’ colony Astypalaia contributing sacrificial animals ‘in the procession of the Epidaurians’.
56 G. Ekroth (2002), op. cit., p. 224-226.
57 S.M. Sherwin-White, p. 341 and 357-358.
58 Philostratos, Life of Apollonius 4.17 ; Pausanias 2.26.8 ; H.W. Parke, op. cit., p. 63-65 ; K. Clinton, op. cit.
59 Aischines 3.67 ; IG II2 1496.109-10, 133-5, 150 ; SEG 38.26.11 (restored).
60 See by V.J. Rosivach, The System of Public Sacrifice in Fourth-Century Athens (American Classical Studies 34), Atlanta, Ga., 1994, p. 48-64 ; also R. Parker (1996), op. cit., p. 227-237.
61 J.W. Riethmüller, “Bothros and tetrastyle : the heroon of Asclepius in Athens”, R. Hägg (ed.) Ancient Greek Hero Cult, Stockholm, 1999, p. 123-143 ; cf. I. Leventi, op. cit., p. 78 (on Athens NM 2417, R18 pl. 18) ; also J.W. Riethmüller (2005), op. cit., p. 267-273 and p. 313-324. Contra : E.J. Stafford (2005a), op. cit. ; G. Ekroth (2002), op. cit., 226 n.55 and A. Verbanck-Piérard, op. cit., p. 329-332.
62 A. Verbanck-Piérard, op. cit., p. 312-313.
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