Hippocrates

Rebecca Fallas (The Open University)
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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

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 28 March 2024.]

2148 Hippocrates 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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