Physician; b. c. 460 BC (Cos, Greece), d. c. 377 BC (Larissa, Thessaly)
Not much is known about Hippocrates' life. According to Plato he was a member of the "Asclepiad," believed to have been a family in which there had been a series of physicians over several generations. Others interpret Plato's remark as a reference to a guild of physicians, to which Hippocrates belonged.
In a different context Plato refers to Hippocrates as an Asclepiad with a philosophical approach to medicine (presumably in contrast to the traditional magical-religious approach). Other reference to Hippocrates are found in Aristotle's writings and in the works of Meno, one of Aristotle's students. All speak highly of him and his skills as a physician.
Hippocrates practiced and taught medicine at the medical school of Cos but travelled widely to improve his knowledge. He was one of the Greek physicians who consulted the library of Imhotep's temple in Egypt to study Egyptian medicine.
There can be no doubt that Hippocrates existed and was a great physician, who influenced not only the science of medicine but also its ideals and ethics. It is much more difficult to identify his writings. His "works" became known as the Hippocratic Collection (Corpus Hippocraticum); but how many of these he actually wrote is unclear. The earliest surviving manuscript of the Collection dates from the 10th century AD. The"Hippocratic Oath" was definitely not written by him, although it probably expresses his position accurately.
That not all works "of Hippocrates" were from his authorship was recognized very early. It is generally agreed that the works were actually the library collection of a medical school, probably that at Cos, and that it passed to the Library at Alexandria some time between 300 and 200 BC. In Alexandria the collection was edited and made available to the public. In that form it contained books on