File:Letters from foreign lands (1910) (14801017333).jpg

Identifier: lettersfromforei00eccl (find matches)
Title: Letters from foreign lands
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Eccles, R. G. (Robert Gibson), 1848-1934
Subjects: History of Medicine Physicians
Publisher: St. Louis, Mo. : Medical Fortnightly
Contributing Library: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School

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e received from Apollo the gift he mostcraved—the power of converting everythinghe touched into gold. It proved to be afatal gift for him. A few yards from the temple is a cleft inthe mountain, from which tlows the CastaleanFountain—the original holy water and bap-tismal font. Before entering the temple everypilgrim had to sprinkle his face and bodywith this water. Ovid describes this sacra-ment in these words: 13 To the pure precinct of Apollos portalCome, pure in heart, and touch the lustral wave ;One drop sufflceth for the sinless mortal;All else, een oceans billows cannot lave. In the museum we saw the original Om-phalos—a stone in the shape of half of anegg, that originaly marked the centre of thetemple and what was claimed to be thenavel of the earth. Boston speaks of itselfas the hub,5 but the ancient Delphianscalled theirs the navel. Tradition saysthat Apollo sent forth two eagles to circle,the earth. Both were started simultaneous-ly and both reached the Omphalos at the
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Temple of Health at Bassae (2300 years old/. same instant, although flying with the samespeed. There is a suggestiveness of a roundearth in this, and the Omphalos slightly cor-roborates this suggestion. The carvings onits surface are wonderfully like little globeswith lines of latitude and longitude uponthem. The place this stone occupied tradi-tion likewise declares was the original spotwhere Apollo,when but a few days old,slew thepython or dragon that was devastating thatpart of the world. He was thus representedas the first destroyer of the great type ofhuman evil and danger. His son, Esculapius,had the subdued serpent as a representativeof his power to conquer disease—the productof the serpent. The Old Serpent being slainthe younger progeny were at hia mercy indefiance of their venom. On the Halos, 14 or thrashing floor, near the temple, a festivalwas held every seven years to commemoratethis destruction of the serpent. Much hasbeen said about the humbuggery practicedupon the pu

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