Hippocrates

Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician who is best remembered as the namesake of the Hippocratic Oath. He is one of the most influential figures in the history of medicine and is credited for shifting the discipline away from superstition towards empiricism.Hippocrates (c. 450—c. 380 B.C.E.)
==Early life and historicity==
Little about Hippocrates can be said with any great certainty. He was probably born on the Greek island of Kos, was not from an aristocratic background, worked, and died in mainland Greece. A few contemporary ancient Greek philosophers explicitly referenced him, including Plato and Aristotle, both of whom seemed to have held him in high regard.Aristotle, Politics. "just as one would pronounce Hippocrates to be greater, not as a human being but as a physician, than somebody who surpassed him in bodily size" But, no major biographies about him appeared until The Life of Hippocrates. This book has been attributed to Soranus of Ephesus, another physician, who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries."Hippocrates". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2022-06-04. It is the major source on the personal life of Hippocrates. 
A large number of works (~60) are attributed to Hippocrates and have become known as the "Hippocratic Corpus".Pederson, Tracy. Who Was Hippocrates? May 08, 2018. There is, however, much uncertainty as to who authored the numerous treatises, letters, essays, and speeches attributed to him. A number of these documents were likely written by pupils or acquaintances. While others may have been written before or after his own lifetime. Despite this ambiguity, it is generally agreed that Hippocrates worked as a healer and teacher of some repute and was very likely the author of at least some documents attributed to him.ibid."Hippocrates". (c. 460-370 BC)". library.uab.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-04. He may have lived to be anywhere from 80-100 years.Margotta, Roberto (1968), The Story of Medicine, New York: Golden Press.
==Contributions to medicine==
The historical consensus is that during the lifetime of Hippocrates Greek medicine drifted away from being largely supernatural to more rationalist in approach. Medicine had been heavily intertwined with Greek Gods. How much Hippocrates himself was responsible for this is unclear. His name, however, was consistently associated with a realist approach to the human body and medicine from antiquity. Hippocrates emphasized things like cause and effect, self care, and the importance of the physical body itself. He believed that disease was a natural affliction with natural explanations and not the result of magic. Generally speaking, the world of Greek medicine was moving towards a genuinely scientific understanding of disease, medication, health, anatomy and surgery.Tsiompanou, Eleni; Marketos, Spyros G (2013-7). "Hippocrates: timeless still". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 106 (7): 288–292. The works associated with him contain numerous important biomedical observations and insights into patient care (essentially early medical ethics). 
Hippocrates was also staunch advocate of both formalism and professionalism, that is, treating being a doctor as a serious line of work with high standards.Garrison, Fielding H. (1966), History of Medicine, Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company
==Hippocratic Oath==
Unlike other ancient Greek physicians, such as Galen,Until the early modern period Galen was probably the most influential Greek physician in not only the Western world but also the Islamic world. As more of his theories were shown to be wrong or inadequate he faded from memory but Hippocrates' reputation continued on. Hippocrates continues to be widely remembered. This was do to the very famous Hippocratic oath attributed to him. Like many of the other works associated with him it is unclear how much the historical Hippocrates had to do with writing it. The oldest surviving version (~275 CE) is held by the Vatican.https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Urb.gr.64 The famous line "Do no harm" does not appear in that version although the phrase "I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm" does. Despite its antiquity and the anonymity of its true author, some doctors still find it relevant today.Relevance of the Hippocratic Oath in the 21st CenturyThe Hippocratic Oath: Still relevant after 2,400 years? 
A number of different versions and translations are available online including modernizations that remove references to Greek Gods.The Hippocratic Oath: The Original and Revised Version Greek Medicine
==See also==
*Galen
*Herophilos
==Further reading==
*Hippocrates: The "Greek Miracle" in Medicine
*Works by Hippocrates
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Medicine
Category:Physicians
Category:History