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Prophets and healers are mentioned by Homer as the first itinerant professionals. The word used to describe the mobility of both was epidemia. No clear distinction was made between the two, and most of the mythological prophets, as well as those who were active in historical times, were regarded as endowed with unusual magical and therapeutic powers. There were many myths connected with their life and work, such as the prolonged slumbers of Melampus and Epimenides. Their life and travels contain a specially existentialist dimension. Frequently they have committed some excess; have been harshly punished; and have been compensated by the gods with the gift of prophecy. This was so in the case of Tiresias, blinded by Hera; and Cassandra, who denied Apollo (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1198-1212). Calchas and Helenus had denied their homeland and given their services to its enemies.
The idea of pollution, probably posthomeric, was already widely accepted by the 7th century B.C. It developed gradually both in parallel with the cult of the shades of the dead and the chthonian deities. According to it, any person guilty of manslaughter was unclean, and his stain brought down the wrath of the gods upon the whole community he belonged to. For the Erinyes to be satisfied, the guilty man had to submit himself to purification. Pollution was removed by cleansing, the ritual for which, although different in each case, always had as its aim to propitiate the gods. Either because it was more closely connected with the Orient or because older traditions survived there, Crete was famous for magicians and prophets specializing in cleansings. Even Apollo himself was cleansed, after killing the Python, by the Cretan Carmanor. Later, indeed, cleansings became a matter about which the oracle was the best adviser. When Athens had to be cleansed from the curse (agos) of Cylon, the Pythia advised that the prophet and priest Epimenides be summoned from Crete. In another case, Delphi gave instructions to Pythagoras tyrant of Ephesus that the city be rid of a pollution that was causing a plague. Sparta, too, had earlier had recourse to the assistance of Thales of Gortyn to rid herself of a plague. Onomacritus the Locrian is named by Aristotle as the teacher ot Thales. Diotima, the witch from Mantinea is said to have saved many from the great plague at Athens at the start of the Peloponnesian war, by suggesting sacrifices. Lastly, it is well known that after Pausanias' death the Lacedaemonians asked that their city be cleansed by necromancers from Phygalea. |
The descendants of Podalirius settled at Cos and practised healing, always transmitting their skills from generation to generation. The most celebrated member of this family, who were called the Asclepiadae, was Hippocrates. The healing families continued to specialize in the traditions of the |
Healing skills had already started to be systematized even before Hippocrates. One of the most important doctors at the end of the Archaic period was Democides of Croton. Taken prisoner by Darius as a member of the court of Polycrates of Samos, he managed to get himself appointed personal doctor to the queen Atossa. After winning her trust by spectacular therapies, he was freed with her help. It was at the same period that the healer Alcmaeon was active: he too came from Croton. |
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