Asclepion
The Asclepion of Kos
The Asclepion of Kos was built on a hill at a distance of about 2,5m from the
city in a cypress grove that was sacred and the cutting down of trees was
banned. At 32 BC Tyroullius an Admiral of Antony, cut cypress trees from the
sacred grove, to use them for shipbuilding, next year, after the defeat of
Antony at Actium, he was killed at Asclepion by order of Octavian for sacrilege
Lord of the sacred grove was Apollo, to whom the Corinthian temple in the second
terrace is dedicated . The sacred grove was cleared during the Turkish occuption
and reforested after the incorporation of the Dodecanese islands with Greece. In
the area of Asclepion aside from Apollo the people of Kos also worshiped other
gods such as Zeus and Athena.
Findings from the third terrace shows that the building activities in the field
of Asclepion started from the Mycenaean era, but the ruins of the excavated
complex are from the 4th century. Since nothing was found from the Asclepion of
the 5th century, when Hippocrates was born and taught medicine it is impossible
to make any speculation of the building during the time of Hippocrates.
