Hippocrates, << hih POK ruh `teez` >> (460?-380? B.C.) was a well-known ancient physician who practiced medicine on the Greek island of Cos. Long after his death, Hippocrates became the most famous person in ancient medicine.
Hippocrates’ fame probably resulted from about 80 anonymously written medical works that became part of the collection of the Library of Alexandria after about 200 B.C. Those writings became linked with Hippocrates and are known by scholars as the Hippocratic corpus. However, none of these “Hippocratic” works can be proved to have been written by Hippocrates.
Hippocrates is often called the father of medicine. This image of him emerged from the writings of Galen, a great physician who lived during the A.D. 100’s and 200’s. Galen believed that the life and practice of Hippocrates represented all that was good in medicine. For example, a Hippocratic tract called Nature of Man maintained that illness was caused by an imbalance of four different humors (liquids) in the body–blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. This belief dominated theories of disease until the late 1800’s. To Galen, the Hippocratic oath served as a model for the ethical practice of medicine. Today, many graduating medical students still take an oath modeled on this text.
Hippocratic medicine challenged the methods of many physicians who used magic and witchcraft to treat disease. It taught that diseases had natural causes and could therefore be studied and possibly cured according to the workings of nature. Under Hippocratic medicine, a well-trained physician could cure illness with knowledge gained from medical writings or from experience. Modern medicine is still based on this assumption.
Little is known for sure about Hippocrates’ life. So-called facts about his birth, medical practice, and death are more attributable to myths or legends than to actual evidence. The earliest known biography of him is Life of Hippocrates, by Soranus, a Roman physician. This work was published about A.D. 100, more than 400 years after Hippocrates’ death.
