Hippokrate ̄s of Ko ̄s (ca 440 – ca 370 BCE)
Hippokrate ̄s is considered the father of medicine, just as H is considered the
father of history.
Life: It is not always easy to untangle the historical and the legendary in the life of this
doctor of the 5th/4th c. BCE, who was famous during his lifetime. According to P
(in the Protagoras and the Phaidros), he was the best doctor, in his teaching as in his method
of medical discovery. According to A, Hippokrate ̄s was great, not in size but
in talent.
Born on Ko ̄s in 460 BCE, Hippokrate ̄s belonged to the aristocratic family of Askle ̄piads.
Famed for its medical knowledge, the family traced its lineage to Askle ̄pios, prince of Trikka
in Thessaly in the Homeric era (later the god of medicine). Askle ̄pios’ two sons, Makhao ̄n
and Podaleirios, were the best-known doctors among the Greeks at Troy. Podaleirios, upon
his return after the war, fell in Karia. Three extensive branches of the family each in a
specific area (Rhodes, Ko ̄s, Knidos) traced their descent from him; the Rhodian branch
rather soon died out. The best-known, due to Hippokrate ̄s, was that of Ko ̄s. The Knidian
branch included both E, to whom is attributed the Knidian Sentences, in fact a
compilation of the Knidian doctors, as well as K, doctor to Artaxerxe ̄s and author of
a Persian history.
Hippokrate ̄s was considered the 17th (or 18th or 19th) descendant of Askle ̄pios in the
male line. In the Koan branch of the family, the best-known doctor before Hippokrate ̄s was
Nebros (summoned by the Pythia at the time of the “first sacred war,” ca 590 BCE). Son of
He ̄rakleidas, Hippokrate ̄s was named after his grandfather; his ancestry was also traced to
He ̄rakle ̄s, probably through his mother, Phainare ̄te ̄. Medicine was taught in each of the
branches of the family by father to son. Hippokrate ̄s had two sons, T and
D, who were also doctors, and a daughter who married one of his students, P-
. Hippokrate ̄s’ notoriety came about because that familial instruction was opened to
unrelated students, instructed for a fee, under the terms of the H C
O.
The reputation of the doctor from Ko ̄s is shown also by two widely-told tales popularized
by the Hippokratic Letters:
1 Hippokrate ̄s and D: summoned by the residents of Abde ̄ra to treat
De ̄mokritos, whom they believed stricken with madness, Hippokrate ̄s established the
wisdom of the philosopher, who laughed at others’ madness.
2 Hippokrate ̄s and the King of Persia: Artaxerxe ̄s I attempted to hire Hippokrate ̄s, who
refused to serve barbarians.
Leaving his student Polubos on Ko ̄s, Hippokrate ̄s went to mainland Greece, arrived in
Thessalia and traveled, probably with his students, in northern Greece (Thessalia, Macedon,
the Thrakian coast, esp. Abde ̄ra and Thasos, and the Propontis, esp. Perinthos), as the
provenance of the patients in the H C E attests.
Two other anecdotes belong to this period:
1 Summoned before Perdikkas, king of Macedon, believed stricken with phthisis after
the death of his father, Hippokrate ̄s is said to have diagnosed love-sickness.
HIPPOKRATE ̄S OF KO ̄S