Hippocrates is Greek physician, who is often called 'the father of medicine.' Despite the existence of an elaborate tradition surrounding his name, modern scholarship recognizes that actually very little is known about his life, his activities, or his writings, and what is known is based indirectly on authors who lived at least 200 years after his death. The only contemporaries or near contemporaries who mention him are Plato, Aristotle, and Menon, a pupil of Aristotle. The influence of Hippocrates and of the Hippocratic writings has, however, been very real. …
