ANCIENT EPIDERMAL SITE

This is the site of the cult of Asclepius, god of Medicine whose symbol is the snake, which is found today on the caduceus of doctors. Asclepius could heal the sick and even raise the dead, which did not please Zeus at all. The cult at Epidaurus, which dates from around the 6th century BC, only really became important in the 4th century BC. The patients arrived by the north, at the level of the propylaea, and passed by the sacred Way. After rites of purification, they spent the night in the portico which one can still see today. There, Asclepius appeared to them in dream and indicated the treatment to them to follow. Epidaurus, a great ancient therapeutic center, was also the place of the Asclepeia games, less famous than those of Olympia or Delphi. Sport and lyrical contests were on the program. The stadium is partly preserved.

For a very quick visit,

one should not miss the theater, located a little higher on the right after the entrance, which is the main curiosity since it is considered to be the best preserved in the ancient world, and enjoys an exceptional resonance. The museum is also worth a visit. If, however, you wish to make a more in-depth visit, it is better to start with the museum, then go to the site, before finishing with the famous theater.

Museum.

The excavations of Epidaurus were carried out by the archaeologist Kavvadias in 1881, whose bust can be seen in front of the entrance. They are still in progress, but most of the finds are kept in the museum, which consists of three rooms. In room 1, one can see medical instruments, linked to the cult of Asclepius. In the room 2, one discovers statues of which many are with the effigy of Asclepius or Athena, which is very related to him. Finally, the room 3 presents reconstitutions of the temples in drawing and sculpture. One can notice the rose window in relief coming from the tholos, and the very worked capital.

Take on the left when leaving the museum and follow the small road which goes towards the entrance of the site. On the right, one discovers the katagogion

, a square of 76 m of side, cut out in four equal parts. It was a reception pavilion with 160 rooms built around the four courtyards still visible.

Let's go back to the beginning of the route, which is marked by a path.

On the right, we notice the gymnasium or restaurant, the archaeologists are not sure. It has different rooms for accommodation, but it is difficult to find your way around if you are not an expert, because the Romans built an odeon on top of it, which blurs the foundations a bit. On the left of the path, the Greek baths of which there remains, there too, only the foundations. We can still identify some baths in the remains of these baths. Continue along the path to find, a little further to the left, the stadium.

The stadium

no longer has many tiers, but it allows one to appreciate the length and scale that such a structure represented in antiquity. It measures 181,30 m. On its right side, one can see the underground passage that led to the athletes' accommodation.

This is where they entered the track on race days, with a standing ovation of course. On the left side, remains of Hellenistic bleachers. But the most interesting thing is to go down and observe the remains of the starting line which allowed the participation of at least nine athletes. On the sides are dug the gutters to let the water flow. Unlike many stadiums, this one is rectangular instead of having rounded ends.

After the buildings outside the sanctuary, let's go to the places of worship.

Opposite is a porticoed palaestra or sanctuary of Egyptian deities. The wall that we see was built later to protect the sanctuary from the invasion of the Heruli.

Take then to the left, along the palestra, a little more to the left, for the temple of Artemis of which we could see the reconstitution in the museum. It sheltered a statue of the goddess surrounded by ten columns. On the right, a little further, was the temple of Themis.

Continue straight on, observing, on the right, the temple of Apollo, a little further on. Then turn left along the residence of the priests to arrive finally at the temple of Asclepius.

The temple of Asclepius

sheltered the famous statue of the god to which one reached by a ramp. The statue was placed in a 50 cm deep pit, a characteristic of healing deities. Go along the temple by the left to arrive on the tholos.

The tholos

is a circular building of which only three concentric tuff corridors remain. The building had metopes, stones placed on the columns, in the shape of rosettes of which one saw the representations in the museum. The floor was made of an arrangement of black and white tiles, and 14 columns made up its surroundings. In the middle, a rolling stone, framing the entrance to an underground passage. It is thought that the building must have been 12 m high. Its use is not well defined, but it could be the home of the snakes of Asclepius.

Continuing to the right of the tholos, one finds the portico of 70 m length, called enkoimeterion or abaton

.

It is there that the sick people waited to be cured by the god who visited them in their dreams. To the east, one can notice a well for the sick.

Continuing north, one finds, on the left, the baths of Asclepius, then the library.

We thus catch up with the sacred Way from which we had deviated and which started from the propylaea, which we will discover while going to the temple of primitive worship after having passed by that of Asclepius. On the right, the other buildings were intended for trade: stores, etc.

The propylaea, or monumental propylon , represented the entrance to the sanctuary of Asclepius. It is by there that entered the pilgrims or the sick people who came to seek the cure. On the other side of the entrance, a ramp is still well preserved. The chariots, however, had to enter through another entrance because passage was not possible on this side. A little further, on the right, the foundations of a basilica of the^5th

century.

To go back to the theater, take a way parallel to the Sacred Way, forking left when leaving the propylaea. You pass in front of the Roman baths and a Roman villa with the remains of two atriums. Then you leave the site and go towards the theater situated beyond the museum. One has thus a very good view of the gymnasium.

Theater.

One of the best preserved of ancient Greece, raised on the mount Kinorkion. This theater could, and can still during the summer festival, accommodate 12 300 spectators. Dating from the 3rd century, it cannot have been built by Polyclitus the Younger, as some affirm. The orchestra is a circle of 20 m of diameter. The first part of the theater could accomodate 6 200 people on the first twelve rows, and one sees the difference between the two types of terraces well.

The sets, intended to be shown to the audience as the play unfolded, were kept in the proscenium or backstage area. But the most precious and famous element of this theater is its exceptional acoustics. From wherever you are in the cavea

(the whole of the stands), you can hear the demonstrations of the guides who drop a coin or crumple a paper above the center of the circle. Various explanations are brought by the archaeologists to this phenomenon, in particular the proportions of the building, but the most interesting remains that of the vases: the impeccable acoustics of this theater would be due to empty earthenware vases placed under the terraces. A theory which, for the moment, has not been proven!

Theater of Archaia Epidauros (or PalaiaEpidauros). Nicknamed the small theater of Epidaurus, its tuff benches have a capacity of 2,000 seats only. It is located on the peninsula which begins not far from Archaia Epidauros, at the edge of the sea. In the 4th century BC, tragedies and comedies were performed here. Today, the inhabitants of the region revive it by organizing classical music concerts.