Epidauros (Epidaurus, Sanctuary of Asklepios) Epídavros

Epidauros, the most widely famed sanctuary of the healing god Asklepios, lies in a quietly beautiful setting in the Argolid.

In pre-Greek times the god of Maleas (Maleatas) was worshipped on the hill of Kynortion (above the theater, outside the enclosure), and the Greeks equated this earlier divinity with their god Apollo. Then Apollo was joined by his son Asklepios, who had grown up at Trikka in Thessaly. Every four years games were held in honor of the god, and from 395 B.C. there was also a dramatic festival. From the end of the fifth century B.C. the cult of Asklepios spread widely throughout the ancient world, reaching Athens in 420 B.C. and Rome (under the name of Aesculapius) in 293 B.C. To cater for the great numbers of pilgrims who flocked to Epidauros in quest of healing much new building was carried out at the site in the fourth and third centuries. On the evidence of the votive inscriptions the priest-physicians were already practising psycho- therapeutic methods of treatment.