(iv) about the environment (including weather, food etc.). Observation was, therefore, guided
by dogma, “facts” became “facts” through dogma. All medical fields (i–iv) were considered
interdependent; but since data collected within this framework are (in modern terms)
incommensurate, “there is,” as one of the texts admits, “a difficulty of evaluation, even if
one knows the method” (Epide ̄miai 6.8.26). The theoretical activity of the physicians who
wrote the Epide ̄miai may aptly be called “research,” and a spirit of criticism is not absent.
This skeptical attitude, however, concerns only details. Fundamental dogmas remain
unchallenged. In the Epide ̄miai pre-existing theories or methods are never submitted to
criticism by questioning their value or by restricting their range of applicability; instead,
there is a marked tendency to ask only constructive theoretical questions which extend the
validity of existing doctrines and prompt an affirmative answer.
Apart from their high value as documents of Greek medical history, the Epide ̄miai are,
more generally, monuments of the evolution of Greek thought in the “classical” period and
as such hitherto little explored.
Ed.: Jones (1923) [Epide ̄miai 1 and 3]; W.D. Smith, Hippocrates v. 7 [Epide ̄miai 2, 4–7] (Loeb 1994).
G. Baader and R. Winau, edd., Die hippokratischen Epidemien (1989); Volker Langholf, Medical theories
in Hippocrates. Early texts and the “Epidemics” (1990); L.A. Graumann, Die Krankengeschichten der
Epidemienbücher des Corpus Hippocraticum. Medizinhistorische Bedeutung und Möglichkeiten der retrospektiven
Diagnose (2000).
Volker Langholf
Hippokratic Corpus, Gynecological Works (ca 470 – 370 BCE)
The gynecological works of the Hippokratic Corpus comprise eight works: (1) Diseases of
Women I and II (Mul. I and II) contain the bulk of material treating female anatomy, physi-
ology and pathology as well as many issues of reproduction. (2) On Sterile Women (Steril.)
continues Mul. II, but focuses primarily on causes and treatment for infertility. Some of the
material in these books may date from the first half of the 5th c., but their ancient compiler
also inserted later material, including an independent treatise on women’s diseases written
by the author of On Seed or On Generation (Genit.) and On the Nature of the Child (Nat. Puer.).
(3) Nature of Women (Nat. Mul.) contains descriptions of female diseases and remedies corres-
ponding to what are considered the earlier sections of Mul. I and II and Steril. (4) Superfetation
(Superf.) also includes some material found in Mul. I and II and Steril. The first part of the
treatise focuses on the problems of pregnancy and childbirth and the second part on steril-
ity. The treatise is named for the topic of the first chapter: the rare occurrence of a second
conception in an already pregnant woman. (5) Excision of the Fetus (Exc.), a very short treatise
on childbirth and its attendant problems, also takes its title from the topic of the first
chapter. (6) On the Seven Month Fetus (Sept.) and On the Eight Month Fetus (Oct.), which deal with
embryology and the problems of premature births, are a single treatise most often cited as
Oct., though the title Sept. is sometimes retained when referring to the chapters of what was
traditionally thought to be a self-contained work. Similarly, (7) Genit./Nat. Puer. form one
continuous treatise on conception, gestation and parturition, with Genit. indicating the first
11 chapters. There is also a brief treatise, maybe a fragment of a treatise on epilepsy, (8) On
the Diseases of Young Girls (Virg.).
Genit./Nat. Puer., and therefore the latest sections of Mul. I and II and Steril., is the most
reliably datable of the treatises. Diseases IV (Morb. IV), by the same author, aims to reduce
the humors into a tetrad schema similar to that of Nature of Man – the watery humor
HIPPOKRATIC CORPUS, GYNECOLOGICAL WORKS