For much of his adult life, the celebrated orator Aelius Aristides was tormented by a baffling array of illnesses. In despair, he turned to the healing god Asclepius at his sanctuary in Pergamum — and there, in dreams and waking visions, the god spoke to him. The Sacred Tales is Aristides' extraordinary record of those divine encounters: the god's strange prescriptions, from ice-cold baths to induced vomiting; his commands to compose and deliver orations; and his saving presence in moments of crisis. Written in the second century CE, this intimate spiritual autobiography offers a rare, unguarded glimpse into the religious imagination of the ancient world. This new edition renders Aristides' Greek into clear, present-day English, faithful to the meaning and spirit of the original, and invites today's readers into the dreamer's world. Part of The Founding Texts Library.