"Aristides’ work provides us with another dimension to the interpretation of the divine family. He conceptualizes them as a chorus that accompanies Asklepios and teaches worshippers how to dance. This image was probably modeled on the archetypical chorus of the Muses following Asklepios’ father, Apollo. Just as the Muses were personified talents of an educated man, Asklepios’ children were a symbolic expression of medical skills that a perfect doctor should possess. Moreover, the chorus and its dance most likely possessed healing qualities on its own. In the Sacred Tales, which are an intimate memoir of Aristides’ health struggle, he recounts how a chorus of boys singing paeans helped him in a sudden attack of his illness. Since the epigraphic texts and their oral counterparts were so insistent on invoking the divine women, their presence at the performed hymns and prayers was perhaps considered to reinforce their heal ing qualities. Thus, the enumeration of names, previously considered unartful and uninteresting from a literary point of view, was an imperative in healing rituals and speech acts."
-Oral Prayer Patterns in Epigraphic Songs to Asklepios
