Although the Greeks created rational medicine, their work was not always or even fully scientific in the modern sense of the term. Like other Greek pioneers of science, the doctors were prone to think that much more could be discovered by mere reflection and argument than by practice and experiment. For in their time there was not yet a distinction between philosophy and science, including medicine.

Hippocrates was the first to separate medicine from philosophy and disprove the idea that disease was a punishment for sin. Much of the traditional treatment for injuries and ailments practiced by the Greeks stemmed from folk medicine, a characteristic shared by the Greeks with other societies to this day.

Facts from Ancient Greek History

Folk medicine uses the knowledge of herbs and accessible drugs, which humans have collected piece by piece through the ages to cure everything from toothaches to infertility. Stray references in Greek literature give us a better understanding of folk medicine and magic in Greek society. In Sophocles tragedy Philoctetes, the hero Philoctetes treats a snakebite on his foot using an unspecified herb as a palliative. Elsewhere, the practice of singing incantations over wounds is mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus, wounded in his youth at a boar hunt, is said to have been skillfully bandaged by the sons of Autolycus, who stopped the bleeding with incantations (Odyssey XIX, 455-458).

Philoctetes bitten by a snake on Lemnos

While en route to Troy with the Greek army, the hero Philocteteswas bitten by a snake as he participated in a sacrifice to a minor deity named Chrse. The wound produced by the snakebite was so malodorous and caused Philoctetes to utter such inauspicious cries that his comrades marooned him on the island of Lemnos for the duration of the war. Philoctetes treated his wound with unspecified herbs until he was finally rescued from Lemnos and cured by the military doctors at Troy.

One of Hippocrates predecessors was Alcmaeon of Croton who operated on the eye and discovered passages linking the sense organs to the brain, which he recognized as the seat of thought and feeling (followed by Plato but not Aristotle). Alcmaeon was probably the first physician to formulate the doctrine of health as a balance among the powers of the body, these powers being constituent fluids with definite qualities and causal properties.

Hippocrates, the father of Medicine

Greek physician considered the father of medicine who lived from 460 BC to 377 BC, mostly likely born on the Greek island of Kos, an island off the coast of Asia Minor, near Rhodes and with a group of medical treatises known collectively as the Hippocratic Corpus, and died in Larissa, Greece. Little is actually known about Hippocrates, though he is its namesake, he probably did not compose the Hippocratic Oath.

It is probable that his analytical approach to medicine was the catalyst that moved ancient medicine beyond its supersitious roots; there are approximately 70 works ascribed to Hippocrates, the Hippocratic Collection, though Hippocrates may have written only six of them; the work Airs, Waters, and Places from the Hippocratic Collection proposes that environment , e.g., wather, drinking water, etc., not divine origin is the cause of disease; three other works’ Prognostic, Coan Prognosis, and Aphorism, expanded on the theory that a physician can predict the course of a disease by observing cases of the disease.

Other works in the Hippocratic Collection deal with such issues as preventative medicine, epilepsy, joint dislocations, and head wounds.

Hippocratic Oath

The oath taken by physicians in various forms for over 2,000 years; originally thought to have been composed by the Greek physician Hippocrates, researchers have shown that it most likely originated in a Pythagorean sect around the 4th century BCE; the oath originally prohibited physicians from participating in abortions and surgery; many modern physicians take a revised version of the oath upon finishing medical school.

I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and this covenant.
To reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring on the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this Art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the law of medicine, but no one else.

I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practise my Art.
I will not cut persons labouring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by such men as are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further, from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves.

Whatever, in connection with my professional practice, or not in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and practice of the Art, respected by all men, in all times. But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot.

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