Hippocrates
460–370 BC 2 entries
Biography
Hippocrates was a Greek physician from the island of Kos, traditionally called the father of medicine. He lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, taught at a medical school on Kos and travelled widely through Greece, but little else about his life is known for certain. He is credited with freeing medicine from superstition by teaching that diseases have natural causes rather than being punishments sent by the gods.
Under his name has come down the Hippocratic Corpus, some sixty medical writings that were in fact written by several authors over a long period, among them the Aphorisms and the Oath. The Hippocratic Oath, in which a physician swears to help the sick and to keep their secrets, inspired the oaths that doctors still take today. His teaching stressed careful observation of the patient, the healing power of nature and moderation in diet and way of life. He is said to have died at Larissa in Thessaly at a great age.