ABSTRACT
The significance of a hero’s healing miracle is profoundly affected by any likeness it bears to actions of gods or heroes already known to the audience. Part 1 presents a selection of texts which represent those favorite gods and heroes who were attributed with the power to heal. Since it is particularly helpful if a narrator comments about the significance of the hero or god’s miracle, I also include any interpretive remarks attached to the story’s presentation. In this way we can better reconstruct the “lens” of the Greco-Roman world, better understand why certain tellings of miracle stories were especially popular so that they survived. The particular telling of the Jesus miracles that survived until the writing of the gospels must have held special significance. The texts in this part help to create a set of meanings and “echoes” that were available as reasons, at least in part, for the unforgettable character of those gospel accounts.
