- 期刊
希臘醫神阿斯克勒庇俄斯（Asclepius）與夢療
The Greek Healing God Asclepius and Dream Healing
摘要
本文係討論希臘文明中夢療的現象。病人生病，會在醫神阿斯克勒庇俄斯神廟中過夜；醫神在求助者睡眠中入夢，治癒病人。這種神蹟般的醫療留下一些《還願碑銘》（Iamata，按：此為Iama複數）。這種醫療從西元前四世紀起開始大為流行，甚至被基督教視為基督及聖徒行使醫療神蹟時，最強大的競爭者。本文將對病人在醫神祭祀地點埃皮多陸斯（Epidaurus）的《還願碑銘》進行歷史探索：有關祂的祭祀、神明入夢的醫療、對《還願碑銘》及論述的分析。本文首先討論希臘人認為對夢境分析，係預測診斷疾病的合理方法。然後再從信徒病患的觀點，透過夢療與神明進入以信仰為基礎的治療關係。這夢療過程協助他重建一個被病痛所瓦解的世界，所以病人所作之夢乃是意義產生的方式之一。換言之，正是在夢療中進行「敘述重建」，使得病人被瓦解之世界有新的完整性。
並列摘要
This is an inquiry into the dream healing in ancient Greece. Patients stayed overnight in the sanctuary of healing god Asclepius, and god would enter in their dreams and cured them. Records are found either in inscriptions or personal accounts. This dream healing became popular from the 4th cent. BC onward; even after the Roman Empire was Christianized it remained popular and seen by the Church as a formidable opponent of the divine healing conducted by Christ and saints. This essay provides a historical inquiry into a set of inscriptions related to dream healing, Iamata, found in the shrine of Asclepius at Epidaurus. It places this healing within a ritual and religious context and to understand how these could be possible. It starts with Greek doctors' arguments for dream as a legitimate basis for prognosis. Then it will take Iamata as documenting how the patient-believer understood the disease he suffered and how he used the act of dream healing to form with god a medical relationship. This medical encounter with god would help patient ＂remake＂ a world previously unmade by the diseases he suffered. Dream is conceived in this encounter as a producer of meaning embedded in a strong feeling of despair and hope which the patient-believer underwent. It implies if a medical help is to be effective, it must offer him a vision of recovery and health. It is an entrance into such a relationship with a ＂narrative reconstruction＂ which gives a new sense to the disrupted world that the patient would see a world restored and taking on a new sense and thus regain health.