Hippocrates

In ancient Greece around 400 B.C., many historical events took place. Hippocrates, who is credited as the “father of medicine”, wrote On Ancient Medicine which revolutionized the way the ancient Greeks viewed health and medicine. The text On Ancient Medicine is a piece contained in the Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of ancient Greek medical texts. This writing was important to this time period, and heavily impacted the ancient Greek society. In this text, there is an oath, simply titled The Oath, which is still used by doctors today. From these texts, many Greek philosophers discovered valuable ideas that they used in this new field which Hippocrates believed should be separate from religious ideas. Without the ideas of Hippocrates, modern medicine may not be what it is today. The text of Hippocrates, On Ancient Medicine, holds his views on medicine, highlighting the argument of natural causes as opposed to supernatural causes of illness, the importance of diet and the importance of fitness to keep the body strong and healthy. The text, On Ancient Medicine was divided up into 24 parts, where each part highlighted a certain idea of his. The main focus of this document was to argue the absurdity of relying on chance to treat the sick, and targeted the philosophers of that day and criticized their beliefs. Hippocrates claimed that it was easier to learn about nature and diseases by studying the human body, rather than focus on the supernatural aspect of health and medicine. One of the main ideas of this text was based upon equilibrium of the body and the four bodily fluids he referred to as the “four humors” which consisted of blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Basically, Hippocrates believed that to stay healthy all four of these “humors” must stay in balance. Another main idea of this text focused on foods and what should and should not be consumed while an individual was sick so they could get better. The text suggests that the health of