Orationes 7
Orationes 7 Imperial Aelius Aristides Greek- Hear, friends: a divine dream-vision came to me in my sleep—so said the dream itself. For this I thought to make the beginning of my speech, regarding the dream as a waking truth in my own case; let the dream, then, stand as a waking truth, and the thing enacted as the prediction had it. Now the purport was to compose an encomium for Podalirius; at first for Podalirius, but after this I was led on to Machaon. And as I was at a loss which of the two I ought to praise, in the end I resolved on both. For it was no longer lawful to pass over the one, since I had conceived a thought of both; and whichever was the one from the dream, it would in any case be one and the same thing, both being praised; and it would be well for me both toward him and toward both. Well then. Since the god has set the theme, whether one ought rather to fear or to take courage—to fear is necessary, lest we make a poorer showing before so great a judge, but the hopes are fairer; for it is likely that he himself will take care of it. For he would not have set the theme, had not the outcome of the speech been destined to fall out according to his mind. And besides, to call a helper to the speech is set before us as wondrously fitting. For if the poets, that they may speak what seems good to them, call upon Apollo and the Muses, surely the calling is fairer for us, when we entreat the very setter of the theme to become, together with his father, the leader of the Muses. But, O thou who hast been called upon many times indeed—and I can say that thou hast given proof both in other matters and concerning these very speeches—lead forth now too the speech wherever is dear to thee.
- And the beginning of the encomium is, in fact, not far off; for the same is father both of the speech and of the young men. For such a fourfold lineage no Greek has ever heard or recounted. For just as the thesmothetae are of noble birth through four generations—or rather as no thesmothetae are, nor any other race of men—for these are fourth from Zeus through all the highest. For Apollo sprang from Zeus himself, and Asclepius from Apollo, and these from Asclepius, having taken up their nobility through the whole of the mightiest stock. For Achilles is fourth from Zeus through Peleus and Aeacus; and Minos and Rhadamanthys are children of Zeus, and Theseus of Poseidon; yet neither pair is descended from either alone, but along with many gods and heroes besides, by some of whom they are surpassed, while to others they are made equal. But these alone are unrivalled in the multitude and the virtue of their ancestors, surpassing those sprung from Zeus and Apollo by the addition of Asclepius—at least as many of them as are heroes. And when they were born, the father reared them in the gardens of Health. And when their age admitted of it, he did not have them taught the art of healing, but taught them himself. For there was no longer need to go to Chiron's, when they had their master at home, beside whom Chiron was already, even by his very name, far the second. So born and reared and educated, as long as the affairs of the Achaeans were at peace, these men were in Thessaly an ornament far more conspicuous than its lakes and plains and rivers, and they set upright the Greeks of that region, both administering for the common good what befitted them and setting right each man's private misfortunes; nor was it possible to be sick where Machaon or Podalirius appeared. But when the Greeks were stirred up because of the wrong done by the Trojans, they neither thought fit to buy off their stay at home nor hid themselves away as certain others did, but, recognizing that the occasion was theirs and foreseeing the chances of the war, they took their stand willingly for the salvation of all. And arriving at Troy, they furnished a double service
- to the Achaeans, and were present not only as physicians but were also of use with their arms; and often, indeed, they are said to have routed the enemy. And the capture of Troy came to depend entirely on them, both in other ways and through the disease of Philoctetes, whom Odysseus and the sons of Atreus, having condemned him in advance as incurable, left behind in Lemnos unjustly; but these men cured a malady ten years grown. And Philoctetes becomes effective for the Achaeans, and to Philoctetes the arrows of Heracles become useful by their art. And when Troy was taken, foreseeing the colonies of the Greeks that would later go out into Asia, and at the same time wishing as many as possible to enjoy their benefaction, on the one hand they civilize Teuthrania for the reception of their father; on the other—as the Coan account has it—sailing to Cos the Meropian, which, being inhabited by the Meropes, Heracles, charging it with wrong as he returned from Troy still earlier, had sacked, they settle it and bring it into customs befitting the nature of the land, imitating in this, it seems, the saying about their ancestor. For the poets say that Apollo set Delos, which before was borne adrift, firm upon the deep, as soon as he was first born upon it; and these men, setting foot then upon Meropis and judging it the fairest of all islands of comparable size, both healed it and rendered it accessible to all Greeks and barbarians—it being before perilous and suspect—and established secure prosperity for the island. And I think that for the Rhodians too, who have had many august things from of old, among the first is the rule of those men, which they themselves chose in preference, electing the sons of Asclepius to rule over them, making them the successors of the sons of Heracles. And they held the Carian district too, and Cnidus, sacred to Aphrodite; for whatever the one or both did, let it be shared in common now. And Cyrnus also enjoyed something of them. But these things belong to a long discourse. And having made
- their sons fellow-workers and successors of their own science, they set this, as it were, as a crown upon their benefactions to the Greeks—and I will add, to all men by now—that the help and grace coming from them might never fail the race of mankind, but that from forefathers and descendants alike they might be immortal saviours of our nature, administering among men for all time and consorting with all just as with those of their own day. For indeed they overthrew the men renowned in Egypt, but made their benefactions the token of their race. And they are established neither in Thessaly nor in the suburbs of the Coans, but have filled all places with healing, just as Triptolemus did with grain through his seeds; for everything went forth from these men and from beside them. And just as they say that Medea, fleeing through the Thessalian plain, by the spilling of her drugs made all Thessaly rich in drugs, so the science and humanity of these men, poured out over the widest space, has adorned and adorns all the cities of the Greeks and many places of the barbarians too, and besides has saved and saves; and let the third tense be added over both. And if a single man, Hippocrates, was born of these as heir of the art, sufficient through all the ordinary men of middle rank would have been the yield to the earth and the grace to these men from mankind for that sowing; but as it is, just as a whole nation, that of the sons of Asclepius, was framed to preserve the art through their blood, so a divine portion led the way for Machaon and Podalirius in their begetting. And one might learn this by comparing them with the sons of Heracles, with regard both to the common service and to their private fortune. For the sons of Heracles, in the first and chief place, were scattered, and there came to be no single body of them—indeed, so to say, not even a single tribe. For they were not of equal rank, so that they stood to one another in the place of strangers; and then, whatever was mightiest of them is said neither to have been without a share of misfortunes nor to have wholly preserved their father's art. For not by benefactions to the common good, but by their own
- power did they acquire their splendour. But the sons of Asclepius, beginning from Machaon and Podalirius, have become a common security and salvation to all men, preserving their ancestor's art as another token, as it were, of their race. And besides, their fortune is worthy of their purpose. For they were neither driven out nor came as suppliants to any city, but passed through pure of misfortunes, having one brotherhood and one mind and one fortune to the end. But I return to the point from which I digressed, to the founders and the first to receive the name of the sons of Asclepius. They, as long as they were among men, by campaigns and converse and the begetting of children befitting themselves, and, in a word, by all their political power, benefited the cities, not only removing the diseases of the body but also healing the maladies of the cities—or rather not even allowing them to arise in the first place—saving their subjects from both, and framing their rule in accordance with their art. But when they were too great to remain among us, and, by their father and their forefathers, putting off their bodies, they pass to another ordinance, not, like Menelaus and golden Rhadamanthys, to the Elysian field and the islands beyond, but, having become immortal, they range over the earth, departing from their ancient nature only so far as they keep their age unchanged. And many have already, in Epidaurus, both seen and recognized them moving visibly, and many in many other places besides; let this too stand as the greatest thing in their favour. For Amphiaraus in Boeotia, and Trophonius, and Amphilochus in Aetolia, give oracles and appear; but these dart everywhere over the earth, like stars, common attendants and forerunners of their father. And wherever there are entrances to Asclepius, for these too the doors stand open everywhere on earth, and through all things their communion with the father is preserved—of temples,
- sacrifices, paeans, processions, and the works which they perform. O most blessed in your forefathers above on both sides, and happy in those sprung from you, and further in yourselves and in your sisters, with whom dwell Iaso and Panacea and Aegle, and Health, the match for all, the namesake children of Epione; nor have you seats apart from one another, nor have you tented separately. O fairest chorus yourselves to the father, and leading up many from among men, by far the best chorus-makers of all, and besides priests and overseers of mixing-bowls and of all graces—while the other sacrifices and festivals are established by custom, so to speak, those from you and from the workshop about you are most numerous each day, and beyond all the others, and come purely from the heart, bearing the good cheer that comes from our consciousness of you, traces of you most numerous and most manifest. And always, as the shadow to a man, the light follows wherever you move. O you who share an equal lot with the Dioscuri and are of like age at another season of birth, you who have already stilled many a third great wave and have kindled many bright beacons both in islands and on the mainland: this is the speech you have from me, composed straightway out of sleep and dream. And do you, by your gentleness and humanity, disposing it toward better things, both put an end to disease and grant such measure of health as is required for the body to obey the soul's will, and, to say all in one word, ease of life.