Jeffrey B Pettis, Earth, Dream, and Healing: The Integration of Materia and Psyche in the Ancient World.Journal of Religion & Health. Spring2006, Vol. 45 Issue 1, p113-129.
Influenced by the methods and practices of Hippocrates, the Asclepius cult used herbal formulae and medicinal applications intricately connected with Asclepius cult rituals and worship. An understanding of the types of herb and medical applications surrounding their use by the cult aids understanding of the inner world and symbolism of ancient dreams.
p 114 The Asclepius cult used herbal formula and medicinal applications In the Isis to Horus, The Papyri Graecae Magicae- the elixir of life
p 114 Asclepius the medicines were mostly plant and minerals
Asclepius ordered her to apply the shell of an oyster, burnt and ground down by her with rose ointment, and to anoint her finger with mallow, mixed with olive oil. And thus he cured her. (Inscriptiones Creticae I, xvii, no. 19)
p 115 Since, then, it was time for her to drink the potion (farmakon), filling the cup, I addressed a prater to it [i.e., the potion]: ‘‘O child of earth, remedy, O gift of Asclepius, let your promises come true...and save my dear one for me...’’ (De Clitophontis et Leucippes Amoribus [Erotici Graeci, I, p. 126, 14–18])
Odysseus searches for a deadly drug to smear upon his bronze-tipped arrows (Od. 1.261). Prayers may accompany the use of drugs in Homer. In the Iliad Agamemnon prays to the ‘‘Son of Asclepius,’’ as he looks at the bleeding Menelaus, who then receives soothing ointments on his arrow wound (4.IV.189–219). Within the Homeric tradition drugs have the power to change and take life.
Theophrastus (370–287 BCE): plant types, cultivation, and medicinal uses. Theophrastus, successor of Aristotle at the Lyceum, sets out a systematic cataloguing and discussion of ancient plants and their medicinal use. In his Inquiry Into Plants he examines ‘‘all kinds of drugs’’ which include the medicinal use of fruit, extracted juice, leaves, roots, and herbs (IX, 8). He records how druggists and herb-diggers harvest plants, some of which have toxic properties: in the cutting of some roots one should stand to windward—for instance, in cutting among others, and that one should first anoint oneself with oil, for that one’s body will swell up if one stands the other way. Also that the fruit of the wild rose must be gathered standing to windward, since otherwise there is danger to the eyes. (IX 8.5)
p 117 Greek and Roman perceptions of the basic causes of pharmaceutical properties—in particular those of plants—continually fused religious and empirical data...This pattern combined the conviction of divine powers of drugs—whether beneficial or deleterious—with deeply rooted observations gathered by farmers over hundreds of generations; and the properties attributed to varying favrmaka quite frequently were amalgams of venerated rituals fused with carefully deduced pharmaceutical effects, for instance, the association of squill with the purification ceremonies and its treatment in the Materia Medica of Dioscorides. (Scarborough 1992, 162)
This is similar to the Asclepius suppliant who moves from the altar to the inner chamber of the abaton and epiphany. Here too one is readied into a state of psyche-soma reception, until the flames are extinguished, and one is left to encounter the god (Aristophanes, Plutus 633–747). The process of kataskeueˆ yields the secrets of re-generation. This entails a bringing to consciousness the deeper regions and images within the initiate (and the one engaged in the text). These become themselves the material of metamorphoses and/or healing. Becoming aware—obtaining knowledge—appears to have a positive value in the Isis to Horus story. Elixirs may have the potential to heal or poison. Dreams may heal and/or madden.
Influenced by the methods and practices of Hippocrates, the Asclepius cult used herbal formulae and medicinal applications intricately connected with Asclepius cult rituals and worship. An understanding of the types of herb and medical applications surrounding their use by the cult aids understanding of the inner world and symbolism of ancient dreams.
p 114 The Asclepius cult used herbal formula and medicinal applications In the Isis to Horus, The Papyri Graecae Magicae- the elixir of life
p 114 Asclepius the medicines were mostly plant and minerals
Asclepius ordered her to apply the shell of an oyster, burnt and ground down by her with rose ointment, and to anoint her finger with mallow, mixed with olive oil. And thus he cured her. (Inscriptiones Creticae I, xvii, no. 19)
p 115 Since, then, it was time for her to drink the potion (farmakon), filling the cup, I addressed a prater to it [i.e., the potion]: ‘‘O child of earth, remedy, O gift of Asclepius, let your promises come true...and save my dear one for me...’’ (De Clitophontis et Leucippes Amoribus [Erotici Graeci, I, p. 126, 14–18])
Odysseus searches for a deadly drug to smear upon his bronze-tipped arrows (Od. 1.261). Prayers may accompany the use of drugs in Homer. In the Iliad Agamemnon prays to the ‘‘Son of Asclepius,’’ as he looks at the bleeding Menelaus, who then receives soothing ointments on his arrow wound (4.IV.189–219). Within the Homeric tradition drugs have the power to change and take life.
Theophrastus (370–287 BCE): plant types, cultivation, and medicinal uses. Theophrastus, successor of Aristotle at the Lyceum, sets out a systematic cataloguing and discussion of ancient plants and their medicinal use. In his Inquiry Into Plants he examines ‘‘all kinds of drugs’’ which include the medicinal use of fruit, extracted juice, leaves, roots, and herbs (IX, 8). He records how druggists and herb-diggers harvest plants, some of which have toxic properties: in the cutting of some roots one should stand to windward—for instance, in cutting among others, and that one should first anoint oneself with oil, for that one’s body will swell up if one stands the other way. Also that the fruit of the wild rose must be gathered standing to windward, since otherwise there is danger to the eyes. (IX 8.5)
p 117 Greek and Roman perceptions of the basic causes of pharmaceutical properties—in particular those of plants—continually fused religious and empirical data...This pattern combined the conviction of divine powers of drugs—whether beneficial or deleterious—with deeply rooted observations gathered by farmers over hundreds of generations; and the properties attributed to varying favrmaka quite frequently were amalgams of venerated rituals fused with carefully deduced pharmaceutical effects, for instance, the association of squill with the purification ceremonies and its treatment in the Materia Medica of Dioscorides. (Scarborough 1992, 162)
This is similar to the Asclepius suppliant who moves from the altar to the inner chamber of the abaton and epiphany. Here too one is readied into a state of psyche-soma reception, until the flames are extinguished, and one is left to encounter the god (Aristophanes, Plutus 633–747). The process of kataskeueˆ yields the secrets of re-generation. This entails a bringing to consciousness the deeper regions and images within the initiate (and the one engaged in the text). These become themselves the material of metamorphoses and/or healing. Becoming aware—obtaining knowledge—appears to have a positive value in the Isis to Horus story. Elixirs may have the potential to heal or poison. Dreams may heal and/or madden.
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