The earliest reference to athletics games at Epidavros, called “gymnikoi” because the competitors were nude (Gr. gymnos), is in a victory hymn of the fifth century BC by the lyric poet Pindar.

There were four bathhouse complexes in the Asklepieion of Epidavros during the period of Roman rule (31 BC-AD 330). This is not surprising, considering the catharctic nature of water and the magical and therapeutic properties that the ancients attributed to it. 

The entrance gateway to the Asklepieion of Epidavros was so impressive that on passing through it visitors felt they left the everyday world behind them and came out into a sacred space.

This building is considered the most perfect one of circular plan in the history of ancient Greek architecture. The traveller Pausanias (2nd c. AD) called it Tholos, whereas in the related building inscription it is referred to as Thymele (altar).

Only the patient who had permission from the god could enter the Abaton or Enkoimeterion, a place prohibited, as its name denotes, to those who had not made the appropriate preparations. 

In the cella stood the cult statue of Asklepios, work of the Parian sculptor Thrasymedes. Housed there too was the thesauros of the temple, a special construction in the floor.

Artemis, twin sister of Apollo, was worshipped in the Asklepieion of Epidavros in her own temple, built in the late fourth century BC. However, her presence in the sanctuary goes back much earlier.

In this sanctuary Apollo, Asklepios and his daughter Hygeia were worshipped as Osiris, Horus and Isis, respectively.

As its name denotes (in Modern Greek hestiatorion = restaurant), the Ceremonial Hestiatorion housed ceremonial meals, in which the god himself participated alongside the pilgrims.

Holy water was ubiquitous in the Asklepieion of Epidavros, as purificatory ablutions were a prerequisite of the devotees’ participation in the rituals. Asklepios ordered the patients to bathe.

The numerous visitors to the Sanctuary of Asklepios, patients and pilgrims, needed somewhere to stay nearby, as the city of Epidavros was 15 km. away, a long distance for the means of transport of the day.

This is the most perfect and famous monument of its kind, attracting over one million visitors a year.