Medicine in the Golden Age of Greece

Before we can learn about medicine in the Golden Age of Greece we need to learn about what led up to it.

Early Greek science dealt with magic, spells and gods. Two of the Greek gods are Asclepius, who is the god of healing, and Hygiea, the goddess of the sick. This is where we got the word hygiene.

The knowledge of surgical procedures and the treating of illnesses was fairly well developed before the Golden Age as can be seen in Homer’s story The Illiad.

The years of the Golden Age were from 479 to 431 BC. During this time temples were built, trade grew, fine sculptors, architects, philosophers and actors came to work in Greece, and centers for learning and the arts were opened. Many things were developed in the field of medicine also. At this time doctors used observation and experience to treat a patient’s disease. These doctors were paid for their skills. Some people involved with medicine during this time were Empedocles, Hippocrates, and Aristotle.

First of all there was Empedocles. He was a poet and philosopher from Italy who lived from 493 to 433 BC. He thought that a person’s illness was caused by the imbalance of the four humors. The four humors are blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm. He felt that too much blood in the body caused a fever, so to treat it he would cut a vein in the arm to let out blood or have leeches suck the blood.

During the Golden Age there lived another man named Hippocrates who is called the "Father of Medicine." He was from the island of Kos, Greece and lived from 460 to 377 BC. He freed medicine from superstitious thinking and used observation and experience for finding the disease a person had. He believed that pain and anxiety came from the brain, not from the heart. In this fifth century when he lived, many medical schools were founded on Kos, the homeland of Hippocrates, and in Cnidus. Also, Hippocrates wrote a book entitled Program of Health, which had to do with health and exercise. There is an oath taken by all physicians today which is named after Hippocrates, although he probably didn’t write it, which is called the Hippocratic Oath. Modern medical practices still base their principles upon it. It binds doctors to act ethically and morally.

Another important person who lived was Aristotle who was a philosopher. Philosophers are people who love to learn and gain knowledge of things. He studied with the philosopher Plato and was the tutor of the great general, Alexander the Great. Aristotle wanted to learn more about health and the body. He dissected animals to study anatomy.

The discoveries of medicine in the Golden Age of Greece have made a great influence with the Romans and Arabs. They lead to the opening of schools of medical study in other parts of the world and have helped lead to better treatment of diseases, the performance of surgery and the use of pharmaceuticals to treat illnesses.