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 prehistoric people was poor due to the fact that they ate mostly raw foods, and to stay healthy it was necessary to cook their foods. This all resulted in the “art of medicine”. The first part of On Ancient Medicine argued that whomever decided to hypothesize that good or bad health was only caused by the “four elements” (hot/fire, cold/air, moist/water,dry/earth) were mistaken and unskilled.
Hippocrates argued that by only using these “four elements” to explain the root of disease narrowed their thinking and did not allow for further investigation of the real cause. In this segment, Hippocrates claimed that had people not learned about medicine, everything concerning the sick would have been left up to chance. Hippocrates also stated that hypotheses that were “occult and dubious” did not give the truth. Hippocrates argued that supernatural explanations should not have been used anymore; the explanations should have been natural to find out the real truth.
Before these advancements in medicine, the ancient Greeks believed that health and sickness was constituted by many of the Greek gods and goddesses. Hygeia was the goddess that was considered to be in charge of ancient Greek health. Prior to the text of Hippocrates, the practice of ancient Greek medicine was mostly limited to the temples of Esculapius and the priests in ancient Greece. The patients brought gifts, sacrifices and often fasted in attempt to have the gods cure them of their diseases.
Another part of the text concentrated on the importance of exercise and diet on staying healthy and being strong. Hippocrates stated that those who “devote themselves to gymnastics and training…by eating and drinking certain things, they are improved and grow stronger than they were”. The ancient Greeks were known for their beliefs in the importance of fitness. The ancient Greeks believed that keeping the body fit and healthy was extremely important, and societies of this time, Sparta for example, required all males to partake in special fitness programs starting at the age of six.
The ancient Greeks also considered gymnastics to be very important to their fitness regimen, and it was believed that a strong physical fitness resulted in a strong and healthy mind. The fact that the Olympics started in ancient Greece, was an example of their beliefs in the importance of superior overall fitness. Part 5 of On Ancient Medicine focused on the importance of the diet in depth, and more specifically, the actual cooking of the foods and the diets of healthy and unhealthy individuals. Hippocrates stressed the idea that when a person was sick, he or she should abstain from foods not beneficial to health.
In this section, Hippocrates argued that there was a correspondence between medicine and cooking. The discovery of cooking demonstrated that humans require foods different from what animals require, namely that humans were less able to eat raw foods than animals. If the food was cooked, it was less likely to sicken a person. The ancient Greeks relied heavily on fish, and used lots of different cooking techniques such as boiling, frying, simmering and stewing. Hippocrates also discussed the invention of soups for the sick, simply because when someone is sick, they sometimes find it difficult to eat their normal food.
The idea of soup was to mix or blend a few strong food items with water to diminish their strength or concentration so it would be easier for the sick individual to eat. Farther into Hippocrates’ text, part 21 focused on accidental sickness from recuperation strategies. Hippocrates argued that the doctors should take into consideration the fact that a therapy had not worked for an individual. Hippocrates said that the doctor or the prescriber should be able to learn that a certain technique was or was not going to result in further sickness.
The doctors of ancient Greece used lots of different techniques including surgery, blood-letting, changing of the diet, and even drugs from their time. Many doctors and Hippocrates believed that some diseases were caused by excess of one of the “four humors”, which explained the therapy of blood-letting. Hippocrates said that the quality of care and quality of the patient both played a role in whether or not the individual recovered from their illness; consequently, the more knowledge a doctor had, the more likely his patient was to get better simply because this doctor was more aware of the results of therapies.
Knowing the results helped the doctors decide which therapy to use on an individual and how to apply it. A technique still used today, observation, is discussed in part 23 of Hippocrates’ text. This part of the text explained the differing structures of the body and how the observer could relate it to causes of illness. Hippocrates made a lot of his assumptions on observation of the appearance of an individual. The condition of the face, eyes, tongue, voice, hearing, abdomen, sleep, breathing, excretions, posture, and so on helped him diagnose his patients.
Hippocrates stressed the importance of learning what caused the differences in structures of each individual’s body, for example the shape and size of the neck, and using this knowledge to make a more accurate observation. He claimed that the best doctor was able to determine an illness and diagnose it merely by looking at the patient and listening to the details of the patients’ symptoms. From these diagnoses, the ancient Greeks would record the signs and symptoms for future reference, similar to a medical journal.
Documenting the signs and symptoms for further reference made it easier for the ancient Greeks to diagnose and treat illnesses. Hippocrates is also credited with writing The Hippocratic Oath, a text that required all ancient Greek physicians, and even some physicians today, to abide by when handling patients. The basic principles of this oath were to treat the sick to the best of ability, preserve patient privacy and teach the secrets of medicine. The classical version of the oath required the physicians to swear to the ancient Greek gods, including Apollo and Hygeia.
While Hippocrates did stress the idea of natural causes as opposed to supernatural causes of illness, the importance of the ancient Greek gods in this time was still apparent. Hippocrates merely suggested to physicians of this time to consider other natural causes as opposed to limiting the causes to supernatural ideas. Hippocrates is responsible for revolutionizing the health and medical field. His writings helped the ancient Greek people and physicians become more educated on the cause of disease and important ways to aid in the treatment and prevention of disease.
By shifting the ancient Greeks’ focus from solely supernatural to natural causes, more methods of treatment and techniques were used to make the sick healthy again. Had Hippocrates not shared his ideas with the ancient people of Greece, it is possible that they would not have ever altered their beliefs in medicine, resulting in lack of knowledge about true causes and true remedies for illnesses. Highlighting ideas regarding natural causes of illness as well as the importance of fitness and diet to keep the body strong helped revolutionize the ancient field of health and medicine.
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