Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter One. Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales; Introduction; 1. The Composition of the Sacred Tales; Date of Composition; Method of Composition; Motives for Composition; 2. The Sacred Tales as an Autobiography; 3. The Ancient Readers of the Sacred Tales; 4. A Narrative of Redemption; Conclusion; Chapter Two. Society, Disease and Medicine in the Sacred Tales of Aristides; Introduction; 1. The Graeco-Roman Health-Care System; Towards a Definition of a Medical Discourse; Medicine in the Graeco-Roman World; Roman Medicine and Its Greek Influences. - Dreams2. The Sick, Medicine and Physicians in the World of the Sacred Tales; The Place of the Sick in Society; Medical Discourse in the Sacred Tales; The Physicians in the Sacred Tales; 3. Towards a Medical History of Aelius Aristides; Falling Ill; Aristides and Asclepius; Wider Contexts; Conclusion; Chapter Three. Reconsidering Private Religions; Religion and Religious Experience in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides; Introduction; 1. Theology; 2. The Myth of Asclepius; 3. Divination, Oracles and Dreams; Dreams; Oracles; 4. Visual Culture and Social Forms of Cult-Organisation. - Cult, Festivals and GamesThe Power of Images; Conclusion; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index. - This monograph offers a study of the inter-relations between medicine, religion, and literature in the Sacred Tales of the Second Century CE Greek scholar Aelius Aristides
