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.
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