Orationes 6
Orationes 6 Imperial Aelius Aristides Greek- O you who have been called upon by us many times indeed, both by night and by day, both in private and in public, lord Asclepius, how gladly, to us who were full of longing, you granted, as it were, out of a great sea and despondency, both to lay hold of a calm harbour and to address the common hearth of mankind—of which no one, surely, beneath the sun is uninitiated, while one may affirm that of the Greeks, at least, no one up to this day has enjoyed more of it than I. For even if I am very much accustomed to say these things, I must by no means hesitate the more on that account. We do not, then, omit these daily addresses out of any wish to flee custom, but on this very account we keep them up, that we have been accustomed
- to them from the beginning. For me, surely, the grace and the honour rendered through sacrifices and incense are a care, whether it be done according to the exhortation of Hesiod or even more eagerly than my power allows. But that which is rendered in speech seems to me much the most fitting. For if, on the whole, the occupation with discourse is a profit to a man's life and, as it were, the chief part of it, and if of discourses those concerning the gods are the most necessary, and if even our very capacity for discourse appears, in our case, to have come from the god himself—then there is, I think, no fairer grace for the god than that of discourse, nor any better use to which we could put discourse. And let us speak, beginning from the beginning—common things, I know, and on every tongue, for how could they not be? Yet by so much the more just for us, inasmuch as by adding to and increasing our services we should be better than by leaving out what no one in the world thinks fit to be silent about. The powers of Asclepius are great and many—or rather all of them—as much as the life of men can contain. And not without reason did the men here found a temple of Zeus Asclepius. But if my teacher is clear to me—and it is likely beyond anything—then, in whatever manner he taught these things and however it is said in the sacred discourses, this is he who leads and governs the whole, the saviour of all things and the guardian of the immortals, or, if you wish to speak more in the tragic vein, the overseer of the helms, saving both what ever is and what comes to be. And if we account him the son of Apollo and third from Zeus, again we also join him with the names; since indeed they say that Zeus himself once came to be, and yet again declare that he is the father and maker of the things that are. But let these things, as Plato says, be held and said as is dear to the gods themselves. Let us return to the point from which we digressed. Having all the powers, the god, then, chose to benefit men in all things, rendering to each what was fitting. And the greatest and most common
- benefaction he laid up for all by making the race immortal through succession, working through health both marriages and the begetting of children and the resources and means of nurture. And the things that concern individuals he then distributed with an eye to each man—such as arts and pursuits and all ways of life—using health as a common drug for all toils and all actions. And he established surgeries in the midst, and dedicated himself to the love of his art night and day, for the good cheer of those who ever need and shall need him. Others, then, sing and shall sing other things for all time; but I wish to make mention thus of the things that touch myself. There are those who say that they rose up when they had been laid low—saying things, surely, agreed upon and long practised by the god. We, then, not once—indeed it is not easy to say how often—obtained this benefaction. And there are some to whom he even granted longer spans of time by his prediction; among these are we, for this is the least painful thing to say. But some, men I mean and women too, even claim that members of the body have come to be for them by the god's providence, where what nature gave had been destroyed. And they recount, one one thing and another another, some declaring it thus by word of mouth, others setting it forth in their dedications. For us, then, not a part of the body, but the whole body, composing and compacting it himself, he gave as a gift, just as Prometheus is said in old time to have moulded man. Many pains and aches and difficulties, both by day and by night, he has taken away from many—indeed one could not say from how many. And our own surging troubles in these matters he himself knows best, and he himself is plainly the one who put an end to them. And indeed the most paradoxical thing is greatest in the visions of the god: as that one should drink chalk, another hemlock, another strip himself and bathe in cold water, needing no heat at all, as one would suppose. Us too, then, he has honoured in this manner, putting an end to catarrhs and chills by rivers and the sea,
- healing helpless confinements by lengths of journeys, adding by continual abstinence from food the unspeakable purgations, and, when I was at a loss for breath, ordering me to speak and to write; so that, if there is any boast attaching to those thus treated, we too are not without a share of it. And indeed some recount their own acts of endurance, and how much and what manner of things they bore under the god's leading, while others tell how they found ease of the things they needed. But by us, surely, very much has been endured in many and manifold ways, while some things have come about very lightly in pleasure, so that those who live in luxury would be nowhere, if you should choose to compare them. And though I could name the other cities of Asia and Europe, and the gatherings about these, and men rejoicing together as over their own good things—how shall I not set this beyond luxury? And what could you say of the uproars in council-chambers and zealous attentions beyond all precedent, and of being trusted, before I had said anything whatever, to surpass? Is this not some divine grace, and one that holds the first place of ease? I, at least, would say so, if it be permitted to make mention of the higher powers. Indeed, I have already heard some say that, when they were at sea and in confusion, the god appeared and stretched out his hand. And others will say that they set certain matters right by following the god's suggestions. Nor have we more to hear these things than to tell them, from our own experience. And as many of them as it is possible to record are set down too in the sacred discourses. But the god is even said to have foretold boxing-tricks to a certain boxer of our day as he slept in the temple, which, using, he had to throw one of his most brilliant antagonists. And to us he gave learning and melodies and themes for discourses, and besides these the very thoughts and the diction, as men give children their letters. Setting, then, as it were a crown upon the benefactions of the god, I shall now close my speech somewhere here. For to me, lord Asclepius, many things and of every kind,
- as I said before, have come from you and from your humanity; but the greatest and worthy of the most thanks, and almost, one may say, the most proper to me, are discourses. For you reversed the saying of Pindar. For of his paean Pan danced, as the story goes; but I—if it is permitted to say so—am, as it were, the interpreter of those whose mouthpiece I am; for you yourself both turned me toward them and became the leader of my training. And these things did not suffice you, but the things which it was likely should follow upon these, of these too you took care, that my work might be in repute. And there is neither city, nor private man, nor any of those ranked among rulers, who, having consorted with us even a little, did not welcome us, extending the praise as far as he was able—not, I think, my discourses bringing this about, but you, the lord. And the greatest of the things in this kind is to have made me so familiar even to the divine emperors, and, apart from intercourse through letters, to have shown me speaking among them and esteemed as no one ever was, and this alike from the emperors and alike from the empresses, and from all the royal company. To Odysseus it fell, by the grace of Athena, to make his display in the house of Alcinous and among the Phaeacians; this too, surely, is a great thing, and very much in season. And these things had thus been accomplished, and the signal was at hand to call us back, since you had shown by the deed that for many reasons you had led me forth into the midst, that we might appear in our discourses, and that the most perfect might become hearers in their own person of the higher powers. For these and many other things, both among ourselves in private and in our intercourse with those we meet, having such thanks as we can, we shall not cease, so long as any share of memory and of understanding remains to us. And I, for my part, would say that I have received this grace too from you—that you, the best in all things, should be present with us and put your vote upon our discourses.