Justin Lorenzo Biggi, University of St. Andrews
This paper explores the relationship between anatomical votives and the “miracle” inscriptions in the Asklepeion of Epidauros (the so-called iamata), in particular as this pertained to the role and agency of women within their own healing process and their unique and individual experiences of illness and disability.
My aim is to explore the presence of women's bodies and experiences throughout the sanctuary, and their interaction and relationship with these votives, within the context of recent reinterpretations of the architectural space at Epidauros and new developments in the interpretation of epigraphy as an “embodied text”. Furthermore, this paper pushes back against previous readings which have interpreted anatomical votives as proof of a view of the ancient disabled body as “fragmented” or “broken” (Adams 2017; Hughes 2017; Rynearson 2003), which in turn risk imposing anachronistic, modern-day views of disability onto an ancient context (Rose 1997).
This paper utilises two case studies. The first one is that of Ambrosia, a woman from Athens who came to Epidauros seeking healing for blindness in one eye, and was healed despite her lack of belief in the god's powers. The second is that of Arata, a woman who appears to have been healed “by proxy” when her mother came to the sanctuary for her sake. Ambrosia showcases the close ideological relationship between iamata and anatomical votive. Building on this, Arata's experience showcases how the interactions between these objects and texts conveyed the complex realities of disabled life in the ancient world, and how, in this case, this emphasises often-overlooked networks of women's relationships (Taylor 2011).
In Ambrosia's visit to the sanctuary, the didactic relationship between inscription and votive object is emphasised (Dillon 1996; LiDonnici 1992, 1995, Solin 2013), and her experience of incredulity serves as a warning. The text's description of this role of the votives (which ought to remind the pilgrim of the god's power, described in full in the iamata) reinforces Thomas (1989, p. 51)'s definition of epigraphy as a “mixture of symbolic (unwritten) and written aspects”. According to this model, inscriptions created a web of meaning both parallel to and intertwined with their physical environment (Dimartino 2014; Low 2020; Luraghi 2010). In this way, the surrounding man-made landscape can be read as a paratextual document—the so called “epigraphical landscape” (Lasagni 2018)—within which Williams (2022, p. 14) describes the inscription as “a multivalent social object which both influences and is influenced by the ebbs and flows of its environment”.
In the case of the iamata, the environment was that of the healing sanctuary, a space which had been intentionally constructed and articulated towards the accommodation of disability and impairment, as has been demonstrated by Sneed (2020), and rife with the representation of disabled and impaired bodies in the anatomical votives. Within this environment, Arata's (and her mother's) experience of Arata's illness unfolds and is articulated, a reality which is described by the text of the iamata, and given context by the anatomical votives which surrounded and enriched these inscriptions.