The oracles, whose intervention was principally or altogether sought for
the healing of the sick by means of divination founded on dreams, were
scattered over Greece, Italy, Egypt, and other countries. As regards
those of Egypt, it may be remarked, that although many of the Egyptians
believed there were thirty-six demons, or aerial deities, each of whom
had the care of a certain portion of the human frame, and when that
portion was diseased, would heal it on the patient's earnest prayer, yet
a variety of their oracles, such as those of Serapis, Isis, and Phthas,
the Hephaestos of the Greeks, appertained to the class, which is the
present object of our inquiry.
The oracle Serapis was situated near Canopus; it was visited with the
highest veneration by the wealthiest and most illustrious Egyptians, and
contained ample records of miraculous cures which that god had performed
on sleepers.[98] Isis, it is said, effected similar cures in her
lifetime, whence it became her office, in her after state of
deification, to reveal in dreams the most efficacious remedies to the
sick.
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