Ancient Greek Medicine Essay

Ancient Greek medicines had a great influence and contributed part of the foundation of medical knowledge in today’s medicine. 1000 years before the birth of Christ, the Greeks were practicing medicine and the importance of physicians had already been recognised. Besides physicians, government, and research at that time also played an important role in development of medication.

Alexander the Great who conquered most of the known world, was Aristotle most illustrious and influential pupil. He helped to develop medicine by spreading Aristotle’s teachings far and wide throughout Greece, India, Persia, the Middle East as well as Egypt. The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander and it turned into a great centre of Greek medicine, science
[1] One of the most well known Greek physicians was Hippocrates of Cos, the “Father of Modern Medicine” who believed that medicine should be separated from the divine which go against most Greeks’ belief that if they pray to the great temples, Aesclepions, and God of Medicine, Asclepius, their ailments could be healed. [1] The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of 60 early Ancient Greek medical works, written by Hippocrates and his students. [2][3] The Hippocratic Oath is one of the most famous works in the Corpus and it was the first proposed document that set an ethical standard for doctors which is still used by the doctor today.
[1][7] The four humors in human body were then linked to four elements such as earth, air, fire and water as well as four seasons which are summer, autumn, winter and spring. It is believed that an imbalance in any of these would cause ailments and illness. However the balance of the humours can be restored by bloodletting because the elements were thought to be present in the blood. [8] Today leeches are also used as bloodletting in surgery for restoration of blood circulation and healing of skin grafts.