Ancient Greek & Roman Medicine
You're Dead to Me
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The Healing Ritual at Asclepius' Temples
The signature practice at Asclepian temples was the healing ritual called incubation. It required a sick person to sleep in a special sanctuary where they hope to have one of two kinds of dreams. Either the God would treat them within the dream and they would wake up healed or they would receive a dream in which the God prescribed a treatment plan that upon waking, they would follow with the help of the priests. The snake wrapped around Asclepius's staff was something he was known for in the depictions of him.
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