What was the cult of Asclepius in ancient Greece?

Asclepius was the Greek god of healing and medicine, and his cult became widespread in the classical and Hellenistic periods. Major sanctuaries, or asklepieia, offered rituals that included purification, sacrifice, and sleeping in sacred spaces called enkoimesis. Patients hoped the god would appear in a dream and reveal a cure. The sanctuary at Epidaurus is the best known, though many others existed across the Greek world. The cult shows how religion, medicine, and therapy overlapped in antiquity.