Timeline: Hippocrates, c. 460–c.370 BCE

Hippocrates is considered the father of medicine. Though it is not certain that the Hippocratic oath was composed by Hippocrates, the oath is considered to represent his principles.

It's thought that Hippocrates was born on Cos, one of the Greek Dodecanese islands located close to the coast of Turkey, where he reportedly studied under his physician father as well as in Athens. He opened a medical school on Cos (known as the Coan School or Hippocratic School), which is credited with separating medicine from superstition and bringing medicine to a scientific level through the use of observation, deductive reason, and study of the body. Numerous writings came out of his school and two in particular, which are attributed to Hippocrates himself, are considered the most significant: The Aphorisms (which sums up his observations and deductions) and Airs, Waters, and Places (which recognizes a link between environment and disease).

Some of Hippocrates' more "modern" beliefs include that the goal of medicine is to build a patient's strength through appropriate diet and hygiene; that the body should be treated as a whole and not as parts; and that thoughts, ideas, and feelings come from the brain, not the heart. And, of the 257 medicinal plants he listed as being useful for restoring health, all but 27 are today recognized as pharmaceuticals.

Hippocrates, however, did not totally abandon the wisdom of the day. For example, he also held the belief that disease resulted from an imbalance of the four bodily humors – phlegm, blood, black bile, and yellow bile – an idea that remained popular into the Renaissance.

The Hippocratic Oath (Classical)

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art – if they desire to learn it – without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

(Translation from the Greek from The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1943.)

The Hippocratic Oath (Modern)

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

(Written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, and used in many medical schools today.)

Meanwhile … 431 BCE: The Peloponnesian War between city-states Athens and Sparta begins. Several great writers of classical Greek drama are active (including comic playwright Aristophanes and tragic playwrights Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles). 461–379 BCE: Athens experiences its Golden Age under Pericles. 470–399 BCE: Philosopher Socrates is active. 460 BCE: Historian Thucydides is born. c. 485–420 BCE: Historian Herodotus is active. 450 BCE: The Athenians beat the Persian fleet in the Battle of Salamis. 448 BCE: Phidias finishes a nine-meter high statue of Athena on the Acropolis. 447 BCE: Athens begins construction of the Parthenon on the Acropolis. 435 BCE: The Statue of Zeus at Olympia is completed by Phidias; it is one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. 429 BCE: Plague strikes Athens. c. 427–347 BCE: Lifetime of Philosopher Plato. 451 BCE: Mausolus' Tomb, the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (in modern-day Turkey), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is completed. 469–399 BCE: Lifetime of philosopher Socrates. 384–322 BCE: Lifetime of philosopher Aristotle. 413 BCE: Battle of Syracuse (Greek colony in Sicily), which ends in massive defeat for the Athenians. 384 BCE: The Academy is founded in Athens. (460–c.370 BCE) Democritus poses the existence of indivisible particles, which he calls atoms.

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