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Although Hippocrates
of Cos (c.460-380 BCE) is considered to be the "Father of Medicine" little
is known about him. It is generally accepted that he was roughly a
contemporary of Socrates and was a practicing physician. It also seems
likely that Hippocrates would have been an Asclepiad. The Asclepiads were
members of a guild of physicians which traced its origins to Asclepius,
the god of healing by ancient Greeks. Tradition also tells us that Hippocrates was the most
famous physician and teacher of medicine of his time. Over 60 medical
treatises that have traditionally been attributed to him. These treatises
are collectively referred to as the Hippocratic Corpus. Most of these
treatises, however, were not written by Hippocrates himself. In fact,
several of the existent treatises were written well after the life of
Hippocrates. The treatises themselves were written over about a two
hundred year period and range in date from c.510-c.300 BCE, so clearly one
man could not have authored all of them. Although It is likely that
Hippocrates did compose some of the treatises, none of the 60 treatises
can positively be attributed to Hippocrates. Therefore at times they
contain conflicting materials and different ideas. In the main, however,
they are similar in looking for
natural
explanations and treatments of illness and rejecting sorcery and magic.
In addition, the nature of the society encouraged a fear of poisoning, and this fear opened the door for doctors to promote antidotes. Roman medicine was thoroughly mixed with religious and supernatural elements. For example, the cult of Asklepios (Latin: Aesculapius), patron god of healing, thrived from around 500 B.C. until 500 A.D. With its sanctuary at Epidauros, in Greece, the cult served as a center of healing for the entire Roman province of Asia. Sick or injured persons from anywhere in the Empire would make the journey to Epidauros, hoping to be healed. Typically they would sleep in a special room called the Abaton. Dreams sent from Aesculapius would come to them and heal their ailments. With inscriptions, attendants at the shrine would record the dreams and their miraculous results, so that today we have evidence of what went on at Epidauros.
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