Pilgrimage from Epidaurus

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Pilgrimage from Epidaurus above the Tsipianiti stream

In ancient times, the pilgrimage from Epidaurus connected the Greek port city of Epidaurus with the Asclepion of Epidaurus . The path was about 12 km long and overcame a difference in altitude of 320 m.

description

The pilgrimage route began at the port of Epidaurus, where many pilgrims landed, and initially headed southwest to bypass the mountain west of Epidaurus. Shortly after leaving the city, one passed the graves of Prokles and his daughter Melissa . Now it ran west to the dry river bed without crossing it, continued west through the present-day town of Epano Epidavros and south of the Koloti hill. Remnants of settlements from the Early Helladic era were discovered on this hill , and it is believed that the Hyrnethion was also located here. Pausanias reports that there was a sacred grove with wild olive trees here and that it was forbidden to take broken branches with you. Now the ancient route followed roughly the national road Ethniki Odos 70 to the bridge over the dry river bed.

From here it ran south to a spring below the church of Agios Andreas. After the pilgrims had refreshed themselves here, they followed the gorge to the west. The path ran along the slope north of the Tsipianiti stream. After about 1 km you came to the place Klimaki ( Greek Κλιμάκι = steep ascent , stairs ), where a Bronze Age Tholos grave was uncovered. Now the path turned south, crossed the stream and slowly climbed up parallel to the gorge until it reached the national road Ethniki Odos 10, built in 1970, and followed it for about 2 km. In the big loop of the national road, the route now led south between the mountains Velanidia and Theokafto and after about 1 km reached the Propylaea of the Asclepion of Epidaurus.

Copy of the marked stone at the start of the hiking trail

history

As the finds along the way and at the sanctuary of Apollon Maleatas show, the way was already used in the Bronze Age . With the beginning of the worship of the healing god Asklepios in the middle of the 5th century BC. The number of visitors, especially pilgrims, those seeking salvation and those who were healed, increased in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. A maximum. But also in the following Hellenistic and Roman times many visitors came. In addition to the visitors, many goods and food had to be brought to the sanctuary by cart.

Especially to the Asclepian Games, which have been taking place since 480 BC. Were held every four years, the flow of visitors swelled. At the beginning there was a procession with nobles, priests and official envoys from the colonies of Aegina , Kos , Astypalea , Nisyros , Kalynda and Samos and other cities. They were followed by athletes, sacrificial animals and bystanders.

Probably the path was used until modern times . Edward Dodwell traveled through Greece between 1801 and 1806 and described the route as very poor. William Gell , who toured the Peloponnese in 1811, also used the route from Asklepion to Epidavros. In the upper area he saw a watchtower and at Epano Epidavros a tumulus and Roman ruins. In 1949 G. Katsaros, a farmer from nearby Koroni, discovered a labeled slab of slate 0.54 × 0.39 m in size and 1.5 to 4 cm thick near Lygourio . The inscription dates from the 3rd century BC. And reads: 

ΑΔΕ ΟΔΟΣ ΕΙΣ ΙΑΡΟΝ ΚΛΕΙΝΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ Ω ΠΑΡΙΟΝΤΕΣ
Reisende diese Straße führt zum Heiligtum des Gottes der Heilung

The pilgrimage today

In 2000, a 1.7 km long section of the pilgrimage route was exposed and paved. The path was secured with retaining walls and escape routes were set up above the gorge. The section was included in the network of hiking trails around Epidaurus. At the upper end, which is about 2.5 km north of the excavation site on the national road Ethniki Odos 10, a holding strip for visitors was created and a copy of the inscription found was placed at the entrance to the path. Most of the ancient retaining walls have been destroyed by erosion , only in places they are still visible. In some places, ancient cart tracks can be seen in the rock and some stone waymarks have been preserved. The lower end of the pilgrimage route is at the end of the narrow valley near Agios Andreas. Here the area around the source has been redesigned.

Since 2010 there has been an annual running event initiated by the marathon runner Vlasi Karavasili, in which the old pilgrimage route is integrated.

literature

  • Klaus Tausend: Transport routes of the Argolis: reconstruction and historical significance (= Geographica Historica. Volume 23). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-515-08943-2 , pp. 149, 165 ( online ).
  • Ioannis Papadimitriou: ΕΠΙΓΡΑΦΑΙ ΕΞ ΕΠΙΔΑΥΡΟΥ in Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς , 1948–1949, pp. 135–145 ( online )

Web links

Commons : Pilgrimage of Epidaurus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 2, 28, 8
  2. ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 2, 28, 3–7
  3. ↑ Edward Dodwell: A classical and topographical tour through Greece, during the years 1801, 1805, and 1806 , part 2, London 1819, pp. 161–2 ( online )
  4. ↑ William Gell: Itinerary of the Morea: Being a Description of the Routes of that Peninsula , London 1817, pp. 190–191 ( online )
  5. ↑ Christos Piteros: Αρχαία (Παλαιό) Επίδαυρος in Αρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 55 (2000), Part B1, Athens 2009, pp. 192-3
  6. ↑ 9ος Επιδαύριος Δρόμος (9th Epidaurus run)

Coordinates: 37 ° 37 ′ 21.2 "  N , 23 ° 4 ′ 26.7"  E