Narratologies of healing and Mnemonics in the Asclepian Healing Tablets

This project investigates the iamata healing tablet inscriptions of the Asclepion at Epidaurus that were preserved on marble stelae during the temple’s 4th century BCE renovation. Every patient that was healed at an Asclepion was required to dedicate a votive tablet containing a formulaic statement that said their name, illness, and type of treatment. We interpret the inscriptions on these votive tablets using the framework of “narrative medicine.” The narrative approach to modern medicine outlined by Charon (2008) discusses four fundamental divisions between the patient and the doctor: relation to mortality, context of illness, etiology, and shame/ fear / blame about illness. Charon suggests that viewing the patient as a complete human being bridges the divide between doctor and patient. Ancient patients, perhaps more than modern medical patients, had difficulty understanding and coming to terms with their illness. Verbalizing one’s illness and cure, as we find in the iamata, might have helped the patient psychologically come to terms with their illness. This serves as my starting point for discussing how a narrative approach to medicine may have been in use 2,300 years ago at sanctuaries of Asclepius.

We interpret a few of these 42 preserved inscriptions as not only didactic, as suggested by Dillon (1994), but also theorize about the role they played in helping the sick Asclepian suppliants understand their illness. After they were healed, they would be able to tell others about the healing powers of Asclepius since they knew how to talk about both their disease and the treatment method.  We then apply theories of the orality and literacy to suggest how this information would have been read aloud, heard, and passed on to others by word of mouth. Having done this, we suggest that the iamata inscriptions that appear on the marble stelae in the 4th century BCE were carefully curated by the Asclepiad priests to show the all-encompassing healing powers of Asclepius.  We analyze these inscriptions through a structuralist hermeneutics by analyzing the meanings of names of the patients and the narratives selected by the Asclepiad priests. The individual inscriptions are read as stories in a frame tale telling the greatness of Asclepius’s healing abilities. Each inscription tells a small, formulaic story with a simple plot that builds a narrative of the god and his temple’s greatness as a healing center. We suggest that the names of the patients in these stories serve as mnemonic devices for remembering Asclepius’ ability to heal illnesses affecting various body parts or organs.

We conclude by connecting these iamata inscriptions to other marble stelae erected by private citizens near Athens in the 2nd century BCE. These are found outside the Asclepion premises and provide more detailed healing narratives complete with medical recipes. We suggest that this is a further development of the Asclepian iamata healing narrative tradition, and demonstrates the democratization of medical knowledge as patients show greater curiosity about and knowledge of cures and treatments.  

Select Bibliography

Charon, Rita. Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Dillon, M. (1994). The Didactic Nature of the Epidaurian Iamata. Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie     

            Und Epigraphik, 101, 239-260.

Edelstein, Emma, and Ludwig Edelstein. Asclepius: a Collection and Interpretations of the Testimonies ; Volumes I and II. Vol. 2, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.