Incubation; or, The Cure of Disease in Pagan Temples and Christian Churches (c. 1906) - Mary Hamilton

What if the ancient world believed the surest way to find a cure was to fall asleep in a temple?

In Incubation; or, The Cure of Disease in Pagan Temples and Christian Churches (1906), Carnegie Research Scholar Mary Hamilton explores the extraordinary practice of sacred sleep: people travelled to temples, shrines and churches, slept in designated holy places, and hoped to receive healing, instructions or divine visions in their dreams.

Beginning with the sanctuaries of Asklepios in ancient Greece, Hamilton follows this remarkable tradition through the classical world, into medieval Christianity and onward to surviving customs of her own day. Drawing on ancient inscriptions, classical literature, saints’ lives and accounts of local practice, she reveals a world in which dreams, ritual and medicine were closely intertwined.

Inside this fascinating historical study

• Healing dreams at Epidauros: inscriptions describing extraordinary cures attributed to Asklepios, including encounters with sacred snakes and temple dogs.
• Divine surgery: vivid accounts of sleepers who believed a god had removed an object, treated a wound or performed an operation while they dreamed.
• The ritual of incubation: sacred sleeping halls, purification, offerings and the interpretation of dreams.
• Dreams as prescriptions: the remarkable experiences of the ancient orator Aristides, who recorded baths, diets, remedies and other treatments revealed through visions.
• From pagan temples to Christian churches: how traditions of sleeping for healing became associated with saints, shrines and holy places.
• Living folklore: traces of sacred sleep and healing pilgrimage that endured into more recent centuries.

For readers drawn to ancient religion, dream interpretation, forgotten healing customs, folklore and the meeting place of medicine and the mystical, Hamilton’s work is an absorbing journey into the history of belief.

Book details

Full title: Incubation; or, The Cure of Disease in Pagan Temples and Christian Churches
Author: Mary Hamilton, M.A.
Originally published: 1906
Publisher: W. C. Henderson & Son, St Andrews; Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., London
Format: Digital PDF facsimile of the historical work
Language: English
Collection: Hearthwise Historical Library

Presented as a historical study of healing beliefs and practices, rather than modern medical guidance.