Hippocrates
Man, Medic, Myth
Elizabeth CraikA vital new look at the ‘father of medicine’
Who was the so-called ‘father of medicine’, commonly associated with the celebrated Hippocratic Oath? Elizabeth Craik explores evidence for the historical Hippocrates, who lived in the fifth century bce, and combines it with documentation and compelling excerpts from the ‘Hippocratic Corpus’, a vast and surprisingly varied collection of Greek medical texts, linked in transmission with his name. Craik draws on a wide and vivid range of texts, and through a focus on place in the ancient world and with an innovatory attention to language she shows how several different ‘voices’ of the Corpus may all be regarded as Hippocratic. Hippocrates: Man, Medic, Myth brings a vital new orientation to important questions of origins and authorship and provides a novel interpretation of a key figure in the history of medicine.
A vital new look at the ‘father of medicine’
Who was the so-called ‘father of medicine’, commonly associated with the celebrated Hippocratic Oath? Elizabeth Craik explores evidence for the historical Hippocrates, who lived in the fifth century bce, and combines it with documentation and compelling excerpts from the ‘Hippocratic Corpus’, a vast and surprisingly varied collection of Greek medical texts, linked in transmission with his name. Craik draws on a wide and vivid range of texts, and through a focus on place in the ancient world and with an innovatory attention to language she shows how several different ‘voices’ of the Corpus may all be regarded as Hippocratic. Hippocrates: Man, Medic, Myth brings a vital new orientation to important questions of origins and authorship and provides a novel interpretation of a key figure in the history of medicine.
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An original and insightful examination of the historical Hippocrates and the subsequent crafting of his sacralization. A beautifully written work of supple scholarship, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the shifting dynamics and enduring impact of Hippocrates on the formation of the Western medical tradition.
'Julius Rocca, Humboldt University, author of Galen on the Brain
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In this learned, lucid, and highly accessible volume, Elizabeth Craik takes a new and original approach to the collection of ancient medical writings known as the Hippocratic corpus. Basing her analysis on commonalities of language and of content, she identifies three main strands among the many authors whose work the corpus preserves and locates them in the cultural and intellectual background of the regions in which they developed. The result is an unconventional and stimulating biography that takes questions of authorship seriously, situating ancient medicine not only in its original ancient Greek contexts, but also in its wider reception history.
'Douglas Cairns, Professor of Classics, The University of Edinburgh
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Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the Hippocratic Corpus, Elizabeth Craik reconstructs the different voices of Hippocrates, offering an authoritative, sophisticated, and methodologically original survey of the evidence surrounding the life, thought, and legacy of this puzzling figure.
'Chloe Balla, Professor of Ancient Philosophy, University of Crete
Note on Abbreviations
Introduction
1 The Hippocratic Phenomenon
2 The Hippocratic Corpus
3 Cos and Cnidus
4 The Western Greek World
5 Athens
6 Thessaly and Thrace
7 Thasos
8 Retrospection
9 Reception: Late Antiquity and the Renaissance
10 Modern Medicine
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
Elizabeth Craik is Honorary Professor in the School of Classics at the University of St Andrews. She has published widely on literature, social history and history of medicine in ancient Greece, including The ‘Hippocratic' Corpus (2015).