AIO 3516 Hymn to Asklepios, Hygieia, and Telesphoros

Hymn to Asklepios, Hygieia, and Telesphoros

AIO 3516 Date: 3rd century AD

With good fortune,^[1] Hymn 1 Awaken, Paieon Asklepios, ruler of people,^[2] gentle-minded child of Leto’s son and awesome Koronis, cast sleep from your eyelids and (5) heed the prayers of your humans, who most cheerfully appeal for your first strength, Hygieia, gentle-minded Asklepios! Awaken and hear—ieie!—your hymn. Hail! uninscribed space Hymn 2 Hygieia, most venerable of the blessed ones for mortals,^[2] may I dwell with you (10) for the remainder of my life, and may you willingly abide with me. Then, if there is any joy (charis) in wealth or children, or if in royal rule that brings people blessings, or in desires, [which] we hunt due to the wounds of Aphrodite mistress of the marriage bond, and if in other respects any delight from the gods is apparent (15) to people or relief from toils, with you, blessed Hygieia, it flourishes and shines, in conversations with the Graces, while without you no one is happy. uninscribed space Hymn 3 O new, immortal offspring (i.e. of Asklepios) . . . Telesphoros^[4] (20) your virtues (aretas) . . . all-wise [son of a] pain-releasing [god?] . . . People (demon) . . . death, grief-banisher . . . rouse the races of people who speak all languages from troubles, you two, (25) by driving away grievously painful sickness,^[5] and Paian of the uncut hair (i.e. Asklepios) is cheerful because he has you as a new shoot, Telesphoros, around whom Doom (Kēr) comes to a standstill, and many times, personally bringing a mortal from deep trouble into calm light with you, grievous . . . Hymn 4 (30) Now, hail to you, o healer, most honoured one, play Telesphoros, play—ie!—and, for your part, pour out laughter,^[6] to [your] cheerful priests, before their beaming faces. We hymn you, blessed one, light to mortals, giver of good things, Paian’s foundation (idruma), Telesphoros, famous expert (daēmon). And (35) even as the Epidaurians cheerfully celebrate you with songs that defend with choruses, lord (anax), calling you Akesis, since you bring mortals a cure (akos) from horrible agonies, so the Kekropidai sing of you as Telesphoros,^[7] ever since you, spirit, having driven away sickness of the land, quickly established fertility (eutokiēn) for them, that grief-banisher, (bringing them) to a wheat-bearing result (purēphoron es telos). (40) It is not only thanks to this, Telesphoros, that we sing of you thus, but also because, with the treatments of Paian of the uncut hair (i.e. Asklepios), Bakchos himself [did or does something] you, life-bearer (zōophoron), oh, blessed one!

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References:

AIO 3516 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 4533 + add. p. 353 (PHI)

IG II³ 4 939 (IG Online)

Furley and Bremer, Greek Hymns 6.3

Furley and Bremer, Greek Hymns 7.6

Furley and Bremer, Greek Hymns 7.7

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Hessen Kassel Heritage - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Hymn (Asklepios), Hymn (Hygieia), Hymn (Telesphoros), Metrical (dactylic hexameters), Metrical (anapaestic tetrameter)

Findspot: Athens (Hessisches Landesmuseum SK 61)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual note: The text is characterised by numerous errors. Ariphron’s paian (ll. 9-18) is manifestly “corrupted to the point of nonsense” (Furely and Bremer, II p. 225 n. 48), as shown by parallel versions transmitted by IG IV 1² 132, Ath. Deip. 15.62; Codices Ottoboniani Greci 59, 31v; Plut. Mor. 450b, 497a; Luc. Slip of the Tongue 6; Maximius of Tyre 7.1a; Sextus Empiricus, Against Ethicists 49, which are, however, also corrupt or fragmentary in places. AIO mostly follows the text of IG II³ 4, with some divergences. At ll. 9-10, we follow Furley and Bremer, where IG retains the reading of the stone νε|ιν (“to swim” or “to spin”). At ll. 12-13, we retain IG’s text, but the parallel versions show the text of the original poem read ἢ τᾶς ἰσοδαίμονος ἀνθρωποις βασιληίδος ἀρχᾶς ἢ πόθων / οὓς κρυφίοις Ἀφροδίτας ἕρκεσιν θηρεύομεν (“or in royal rule that is equal to divinity for people, or in desires, which we hunt with Aphrodite’s secret snares”). In l. 17, we follow Furley and Bremer, where IG has Χαρίτων ὄαρο[ι] (“conversations with the Graces”, apparently understood as the ungrammatical subject of the preceding verbs). In l. 27, we retain IG ’s reading, but Furley and Bremer have τὸν περὶ κῆρι φιλεῖ (“whom Asklepios loves on account of doom”). In ll. 27-28, we follow Furley and Bremer, where IG and the stone read π[ο]λλάκις σεμνὰ θέου καμάτου (“many times, the solemn things of a god of trouble”?). The division between hymns 3 and 4 is placed at l. 30 by IG II³, since the meter seems to change here; Furley and Bremer place it at the abrupt transition in the middle of l. 32. At ll. 36-37, AIO follows the emendation of IG and Furley and Bremer; the stone reads οὐδὲ τάχος θν[η]τοῖσι φέρεις (“and you do not bring speed to mortals”). At ll. 38-39, where the stone has the unmetrical πυροφόρον (“wheat-bearing”), AIO follows Furley and Bremer in reading πυρ<η>φόρον (“wheat-bearing”), a metrical variant, which preserves the etymological point (see n. 6); all editions of IG propose πυροφ<θ>όρον (“wheat-destroying,” as an attribute of the illness). At ll. 41-42, AIO and IG decline to restore; Kaibel, Epigrammata graeca, 1878, 1027 proposed ζωοφόρον σ’ ἔθ[ρεψεν]| … αὐτὸς ὁ Βάκχος (“Bakchos himself… [raised] you, life-bearer”), Furley and Bremer suggest <τ>ε<λ>[εσ’ οἶνον] (“created life-bearing [wine]”), which makes the required etymological point, but does not connect it to Telesphoros and will not fit in the space available. Why not ζωοφόρον σ’ ἐ<τ>έ[λεσ<σ>εν] (“[initiated] you, life-bearer” i.e. into Paian’s treatments)? [CdL].

This stele presents a series of hymns: (1) a hymn to Asklepios in dactylic hexameters (ll. 1-8), (2) a paian to Hygieia (ll. 9-18), (3) a hymn to Telesphoros in anapaestic tetrameter (ll. 19-29), (4) a hymn to Telesphoros in dactylic hexameters (ll. 30-42). These hymns were composed separately at different times – hymn 2 dates to the fourth century BC or early Hellenistic period (see n. 3), while hymn 4 postdates the arrival of the cult of Telesphoros in Athens in the 2nd century AD (see n. 4), but they combine neatly to present a family of healing deities and perhaps provided a daily sequence of hymns. An empty pediment is carved in shallow relief at the top of the stele. The stele was taken by Hessian mercenaries serving under the Venetians in the Morean War, during their occupation of Athens in 1688. The exact findspot within the city is unknown; it may have come from the Asklepieion on the south slope of the Acropolis (see IG II³ 4, 665 with notes), the hypothesised sanctuary of Asklepios and Telesphoros in the Diogeneion gymnasium (see IG II³ 4, 871 with notes), or some other sanctuary. [2] The hymn to Asklepios (ll. 2-8) is a morning hymn, rousing the god from sleep. This recalls the practice of incubation, in which worshippers would sleep in Asklepios’ sanctuary in the hope of receiving a cure from a god in a dream (see IG II³4, 718 and 885 with note). In l. 5, “your humans” might refer specifically to Asklepios’ priests (Curbera in IG II³ cf. IGUR 102 l.7; Luc. Tragopod. 193) or assert a special bond between Asklepios and human beings in general (Furley and Bremer, II, pp. 234-35). For other inscribed hymns to Asklepios at Athens, see Browse by inscription type: Hymn. [3] The hymn to Hygieia (ll. 9-18) was very popular in Roman times, as shown by the many attestations of it in literary sources (see textual note). The author, Ariphron of Sikyon is usually dated to the mid-fourth century BC (see IG II³4, 500). Furley and Bremer point out that the name is common and argue that various features of meter and content better fit in the late fourth or third century BC (I, pp. 226-27). The text asks Hygieia to abide with the singer (ll. 9-11), then enumerates various blessings that can be received in life: wealth, children, royal power, the objects of love, pleasure, and leisure, none of which can be enjoyed without health, thus establishing the primacy of Hygieia (ll. 11-18). This idea was a commonplace already in Classical times (e.g. Plat., Gorg. 451e) [4] The two hymns to Telesphoros (ll. 19-29 and 30-42) are distinguished by their meters, but share features which indicate that they were composed together, e.g. both refer to Asklepios as “Paian of the uncut hair” (ll. 25-26, 41, usually an epithet of Apollo), present Telesphoros “thrusting away” sickness (ll. 25 and 38), and use the rare word “grief-banisher” (lathikedes, ll. 23 and 39). On Telesphoros, a child god, identified as a son of Asklepios, who was introduced to Attica in the 2^nd century AD, see IG II³ 4, 938 with note. [5] The text uses plural and dual grammatical forms at ll. 24-25; Asklepios and Telephoros are implored to work together. [6] The final hymn presents the child-god Telesphoros playing (ll. 30-34), equates him with the hero Akesis worshipped at Asklepios’ cult centre in Epidauros (as in Paus. 2.11.7), thereby presenting him as a core component of Asklepios’ cult rather than a latecomer, and explains the etymological derivation of this name from akos (‘cure,’ ll. 34-37). Then it provides folk etymologies for the name Telesphoros (literally “fulfillment-bringer”): bringing about a “wheat-bearing season” (pyrephoron es telos) and something to do with being a “life-bearer” (zoophoron), which is obscured by the lacuna (ll. 37-42). The connection with Bakchos should build on Asklepios’ links to the Eleusinian cult at Athens (cf. IG II³ 4, 810 and 891). [7] Kekropidai is a poetic name for the Athenians.

Added: 19 Aug 2025
Updated: 19 Aug 2025
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ID: AIO_3516