The dissertation is a comprehensive study aimed at characterizing the results of research conducted by American scientists on the cult of Asclepius in Ancient Greece and Rome. Among the distinctive features of the cult of Asclepius are the specialization of temples in the treatment of chronic diseases, the combination of both religious and rational methods of therapy, the openness of asclepieions to representatives of all social classes and genders, as well as its adaptability to local cultural characteristics. Research into this cult provides valuable information about the relationship between religion and medicine in ancient society, social stratification, and the specifics of cultural development in individual regions of Ancient Greece and Rome.
The historiography of the cult of Asclepius spans almost a century and a half. American researchers joined its study in the last quarter of the 19th century. In 1881, the American School of Classical Studies was founded in Athens. It became one of the oldest American scientific institutions abroad, founded to promote research into classical Greek civilization. In 1929, representatives of this school began excavations of the temple of Asclepius in Corinth, and in 1931, in the Athenian Agora. However, the dominance of American historiography in this field was only consolidated after the publication of E. and L. Edelstein's fundamental monograph “Asclepius: A Collection and Interpretation of Sources” (1945), which remains of great scientific importance today. Despite many years of research, the cult of Asclepius remains a relevant subject of scientific analysis, given its complexity and multifaceted nature. In the first centuries of our era, it spread to the territory of modern Ukraine, in particular to Chersonesos, as evidenced by indirect sources. Despite many years of fruitful efforts by American scholars in the study of the cult of Asclepius, their achievements have been studied only fragmentarily. Thus, determining the achievements of American researchers of the cult of Asclepius is an important task for contemporary scholars, as this will not only allow them to systematize scientific knowledge about the cult of Asclepius and gain a deeper understanding of its religious, social, and medical significance in the ancient world, but also to comprehend the role of individual scientific schools in the development of classical studies, in particular, to determine the contribution of American researchers.
The source base of the dissertation research consists of historiographical sources of various forms and genres, namely monographs, articles, dissertations, autobiographies, reviews, obituaries, and other texts that reflect the attitude of American historians to various issues related to the cult of Asclepius.
Thematically, historiographical sources on the cult of Asclepius can be divided into the following groups: works devoted to the study of material and epigraphic sources on the cult of Asclepius; works devoted to the study of syncretism and sacred practices in the cult; and works devoted to the study of the medical aspect of the cult of Asclepius.
The important results of the dissertation research were a comprehensive analysis of the scientific work of American scholars who studied the cult of Asclepius and the determination of their scientific contribution to the historiography of the problem; the systematization of the works of American historians of the cult of Asclepius according to a problem-thematic principle; the creation of a periodization of the historiographical process and a description of the main stages of the study of the cult of Asclepius, as well as the identification of leading experts who determined the specifics of a particular historiographical period. The understanding of the contribution of individual American researchers to the study of the cult of Asclepius was also improved; the understanding of the peculiarities of the interaction between American and European historians, in particular, regarding the study of the cult of Asclepius in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire and the use of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the cult of Asclepius, was further developed.
By classifying American scientific research on the cult of Asclepius into groups and subgroups according to problem-thematic characteristics and applying other methods of historiographical analysis, the stages of the corresponding historiographical process were identified. As a result, it was possible to propose a periodization of the formation and development of American studies of the cult of Asclepius and to identify the factors that influenced this process. Such a comprehensive view broadens our understanding of ancient society, emphasizing its syncretic nature, where faith and knowledge, politics and medicine, private and public space were intertwined into a single whole.
