The worship of Asclepius: incubation and miracles

• A typical visit to the sanctuary of Asclepius included preparatory bathing, sacrifices and sleeping in a stoa of the sanctuary, known as incubation, or under the open sky
• The length of stay at the sanctuaries depended on the nature of the individual’s illness and the success of the recovery
• Individuals could be cured by the god instantly, during their sleep at the sanctuary, through surgery as instructed by the god and exercised by the temple staff or through prescription of medicine or a specific diet and exercise received in dreams during the incubation 
• Next to the bathing and healing facilities, the snakes of the god were kept
• Their poison supposedly cured several illnesses
• Most evidence for the cult comes from votive offerings thanking the god for a cure from illness
• The most famous offering was an inscription and relief of a leg made by Tyche to Asclepius and his daughter, Hygeia, very probably at the occasion of the healing of a leg wound or broken leg
• Prescribed Source: Anatomical votive relief from the shrine of Asclepius on the island of Melos 

  Date: 1st century AD

  Style: Relief 

  Material: Marble relief 

  Current location: British museum 1867,0508.117

  Significance: an important example of a votive offering to Asclepius after cure was received in one of his sanctuaries