Hippocrates

Rebecca Fallas (The Open University)

Ed. by Laura Swift, The Open University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool)

Dates

Born c. -460
Died -357
Activity c. -440--357

Places

Born in Ancient Greece
Active in Ancient Greece

Activities

Primary

Physician/ Doctor
Scientist

Resources

Hippocrates' Works

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Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician, who from the sixteenth century onwards has been known as the ‘father of medicine’. The Hippocratic Corpus, formed of around sixty treatises which now bears his name, is well known, but little is known about the man himself, including his part in authoring the treatises of the corpus. His name has become synonymous not only with medicine, but also with medical ethics particularly through the Hippocratic Oath. Hippocrates is represented as the ideal physician whom all doctors should aspire to be like. However, it is difficult to separate facts about Hippocrates’s life from later stories about him as the ‘father of medicine’.

Life of Hippocrates

Life of Hippocrates

According to Plato, Hippocrates was born on the Greek island of Kos around

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2020 words

Citation: Fallas, Rebecca. "Hippocrates". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 April 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2148, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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