Temple of Asclepius, Epidaurus
The Temple of Asclepius was a sanctuary in Epidaurus dedicated to Asclepius. It was the main holy site of Asclepius. The sanctuary at Epidaurus was the rival of such major cult sites as the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi. The temple was built in the early 4th century BC. If still in use by the 4th century AD, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire, when the Christian Emperors issued edicts prohibiting non-Christian worship. Myth and history. Pausanias described the myth around  the foundation of the temple, as well as its religious significance to the worship of Asclepius in the 2nd century: Structure. The temple was Doric, six columns by eleven, measuring ca. 80 feet in length. An inscription excavated near the temple ("Inscriptiones Graecae" IV, 2nd ed., no. 102) gives a public record of the temple's construction. The inscription names Theodotus as architect. The project took nearly five years to complete. The temple had pedimental sculpture, front and back, and figural acroteria. These, the work of master sculptors of the period, occupy a prominent room in the National Archaeological Museum  at Athens. The gold and ivory cult statue of the god is described by Pausanias, who described the sanctuary in the 2nd century: The sanctuary is preserved in foundations only. Fragments of the upper structure, recovered in excavation, are in the archaeological museum at the site. The Temple of Asclepius itself was, however not alone on the site. Pausanias recorded several smaller buildings within the holy area and grove of the temple complex, such as a theatre, a temple of Artemis, an image of Epione, a sanctuary of Aphrodite and Themis, "a race-course... and a fountain worth seeing for  its roof and general splendour." Recently added at the time of Pausanias' visit (2nd century), was several donations by a Roman senator Antoninos, counted as being: "a bath of Asklepios and a sanctuary of the gods called Bountiful. He made also a temple to Hygeia, Asklepios, and Apollon, the last two surnamed Aigyptios (Egyptian). He moreover restored the portico that was named the Portico of Kotys, which, as the brick of which it was made had been unburnt, had fallen into utter ruin after it had lost its roof. As the Epidaurians about the sanctuary were in great distress, because  their women had no shelter in which to be delivered and the sick breathed their last in the open, he provided a dwelling, so that these grievances also were redressed. Here, at last, was a place in which without sin a human being could die and a woman be delivered..." Worship. The temple had major religious importance in the cult of Asclepius. It was a site for holy pilgrimage from the entire ancient world, and influenced the worship of Asclepius in many other sanctuaries dedicated to him. Pausanias described how serpents were considered sacred to the god on the site : "The serpents, including a peculiar kind of a yellowish colour, are considered sacred to Asklepios, and are tame with men." Pausanias described the worship and the site's importance as a pilgrimage in the 2nd century: There were many legends, stories and miracles said to have taken place in the temple during the centuries of pilgrimage to it. Cicero alluded the merciful nature of Asclepius when he recounted how Dionysius of Syracusa allegedly committed sacrilege at the sanctuary without divine punishment: "He gave orders for the removal of the golden beard of Aesculapius at Epidaurus, saying it was not fitting  for the son to wear a beard when his father [Apollo] appeared in all his temples beardless... Nor did Aesculapius cause him to waste away and perish of some painful and lingering disease." In the 3rd century, Aelian describes a legendary miracle taking place in the sanctuary: The temple could not have been in function to a later date than the 4th or 5th century, when all pagan shrines were closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.