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Secret Museum


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Secret Museum in the Snake Tower

Since antiquity the snake has been the sacred symbol of healers. Entwined on a staff it marked the statues of Asclepius, the god of health of ancient mythology. It is thus reasonable to suppose that the emblem of the snake emblazoned on a tower in the Bodrum Castle marks a former place of healing and that this Snake Tower, as it is known today, was very likely used as an infirmary by the garrison of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John. Now it houses the Secret Museum, an exhibition of statuary and various artifacts associated birth, life and death.

When the multitudes of the First Crusade advanced towards the Holy Land, their ignorance of medicine or even basic personal hygiene brought on disease and death from infection that followed wounds sustained in battle. At the same time Blessed Gerard, recognized as the founder of the Hospital of St. John, was fortunate to be in Jerusalem where he and his followers already practiced the arts of healing which they had learned from the skilled Muslim practitioners of medicine. The Knights of St. John, though they later became primarily a military religious order, carried on treating the sick and wounded and established hospitals in many of their possessions and one such small hospital, or infirmary, was probably located in the Snake Tower of the Bodrum Castle. What these knights were very likely unaware of was that the arts of healing had been practiced since antiquity in this ancient land.

The Secret Museum exhibition in the Snake Tower brings evidence of the practice of ancient medicine to a location where treatment of the sick and wounded was, in all probability, practiced again. Since the cycle of birth, life and death begins with procreation, a matter of intense interest to the ancients, the exhibit includes a number of artifacts that symbolize male virility, particularly the god Priapus. The inborn procreative drive is illustrated in the Caunus Altar where Tellus Mater, the goddess of nature and marriage, holds Eros in her arms. When viewing this exhibit it is well to remember that Hippocrates, the father of medicine and author of the Hippocratic oath, taught his students on the nearby island of Cos. It is also well to note that the sacred snake of antiquity is a most potent symbol as it represents not only medicine but also power, fruitfulness, sexuality, sin and death.

Other Departments:  
 Carian Pricess Hall line Amphoras Exhibition line Glasswreck Hall
Commandant's Tower line Galley Slaves line German Tower line Secret Museum line English Tower line Uluburun Shipwreck Exhibition line Tektas Shipwreck line Turkish Bath line Dungeon

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