Figen Geerts, New York University
Money constituted an important material reality of ancient care. Indeed, from the Greek archaic through the Roman era, both divine and mortal healers were known to make a fortune from their medical services: Pindar sings of Asklepios’ healing driven by the pursuit of gold (Pyth. 3.47-60); Herodotus recounts the physician Demodokes’ exorbitant annual salary of 12,000 drachmas a year (3.131-38); while Diodoros Sikolos depicts the avaricious Sulla, who laid hands on the healing shrines of Apollo, Asklepios, and Zeus, to pilfer their abundant riches (37.7).
Despite the important “matter” of money in ancient therapeutics, scholars in the field have yet to fully explore the topic. Although some works treat the favorable economic position of physicians (Scarborough, 1969; van der Eijk et al., 1994); or the ethical implications of profiting from patients’ illnesses (Carrick, 1985; Jouanna, 2012); or even acknowledge imperial Rome’s institutionalized healthcare system (Gourevitch, 1984; Israelowich, 2015; Nutton, 2004), discussions often rely solely on later literary sources, neglecting the material dimension. The numismatics, epigraphy, and archaeology of Greece’s medical––and, particularly, medico-sacred––economy, are frequently left aside. Even if the payment of Greek healing gods and goddesses is mentioned in passing (Krug, 1984; Melfi, 2007; Renberg, 2017; Riethmüller, 2005), no single study comments on the material implications of currency circulation in contexts of ritual care.
The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap––by offering an introduction to the economy of healing cults in late-Classical and Hellenistic Greece. Drawing on socio-cultural approaches (Bloch & Parry, 1989; Kurke, 1999), the paper argues that money served as a material agent in the production, promotion, and commodification of sacred therapy. For example, epigraphic evidence from the sanctuaries of Asklepios in Epidauros (IG VI2 1, 121, 122, 126); Amphiaraos in Oropos (I. Oropos 277); or even the Egyptian Sarapis in Delos (I. Delos 2116), illustrates that health was sold as a commodity for cash. So too, a dedicant’s acquisition of an anatomical votive to give to the gods was an essentially commercial affair, implying the investment of money in the process of ‘(re)coining’ bodily health. From the fourth century, not only offertory boxes (thesauroi) were incorporated as a standard feature in centers of divine care (e.g., in Asklepieia in Kos, Lebena, Pergamon; in Artemisia in Ephesos and Messene), but also marble quarries were consecrated to healing gods (IG II2 47) to fund the expansion of their cults. In the Hellenistic period, moreover, Kos and Epidauros began to mint festival coinage, depicting Hygieia and the Asklepiads, to further advertise their healing across Greece (HN 442). As the paper collects data for the economic output and transaction of divine care, it ultimately shows how money provides a valuable material lens through which we may further examine the marketing industry behind healing cults and their distribution of health as a product of sale.