Hippocrates (460 BC-370 BC) was a Koan Greek physician who was considered the "Father of Medicine" in recognition of his founding of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. His school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing medicine as a profession.
Biography[]
Hippocrates was born on the Greek island of Kos in 460 BC, and he served as a healer assistant in Argos as a young man. Hippocrates became a physician himself and opened up his own practice in Argos, where he revolutionzed medicine by subjecting it to systematic study rather than depending on religious guidance, angering the devoutly religious people of Argos. Hippocrates' secular approach to curing disease was considered to be impious by the faithful Greeks, but large groups of people secretly left their homes to seek treatment by Hippocrates and his apprentice Sostratos. In 431 BC, the Priestess of Hera Chrysis threatened to gather an army of faithful and destroy Hippocrates' clinic, but, with the help of the mercenary Kassandra, Hippocrates was able to protect himself and his patients, and Chrysis was driven out of town by Kassandra. Hippocrates was then able to advance the study of clinical medicine, to create the "Hippocratic Oath" (which started with "First do no harm"), and wrote the 60-article Hippocratic Corpus. He died in Larissa in 370 BC at the age of 90.