Written by Konstantinos Konstantinidis of Amphiktyon
I will not deal with the medical work and books of the Great Hippocrates because it is the work of doctors. However, I will emphasize the greatest contribution of this giant doctor and philanthropist to Greek patients and to those of neighboring countries. Above all, what characterizes Hippocrates is his love for his homeland. He refused to sell it for a hefty fee offered to him by King Pesis and others and with his miraculous works he promoted it to the world of the time. According to the testimony of Professor Georg. Prinar: “He was so admired throughout Greece as a healer that even under Perdiccas, the Macedonian king, who was considered to be suffering from tuberculosis, he was publicly requested to come to him with Euryphon, who was older than him and was marked by the passion of the soul.” (Healing the sick throughout Greece, he was also invited by the king of Macedonia, Perdiccas, who was thought to be suffering from tuberculosis, went with Euryphon, who was older than him in age and they diagnosed that he was suffering from a mental illness) (The illness was cured by the concubine Hera after the death of Alexander’s father, who was the girlfriend of his own concubine. She was informed of the fact of the illness by her friend and cured him the king with her charms. And let the wise man understand) He was also invited by the Abderites to go there to cure Democritus who was suffering from madness (a mental illness). However, since the whole city was suffering from a plague, he cured it. “But also in the land of the Illyrians and Paeonians (Skopje) barbarians, a plague had spread, and the kings there, having begged to come to them, despite the ambassadors who were there, who were very knowledgeable about the spirits, sent them away as idle, thinking that the disease would spread to Attica, foretelling what was happening and taking care of the cities and the students” (He was also invited by the barbarians Illyrians and Paeonians to go there and after learning from the ambassadors what was happening there He expelled those who were inactive, but thinking that the disease could come to Attica, he took the necessary sanitary measures for the cities and the students. “He was such a philhellene that his glory spread as far as the Persians, and for this reason Artaxerxes, through Histanides, the governor of the Hellespont, invited him to come to him, but because of his modesty and avarice and love for his family, he refused, as this is also stated in the letter to him.” He refused money and love for his homeland, as is evident in the letter to him). He was honored by the Thessalians, the Argives and the Athenians who honorably initiated him into the Eleusinian Mysteries and granted him the privilege of free feeding in the Prytaneum for himself and his children. He did not stop teaching the medical art according to his oath, which is still valid to this day, because in essence the very greedy doctors have violated it with the sachet and the trade in health. Istomachus places his birth in Kos in the 80th Olympiad, approximately in 460 BC, a fact that is also confirmed by Soranus of Kos. They say that he breathed his last in Larissa at the age of 104 in the 106th Olympiad, which coincides with the time that Democritus also died. He was buried between Gyrton and Larissa, but his grave is unknown. It is rumored that he was buried with a hat on his head, while others say that he was buried in official uniform and the decoration of nobility on the hat or uniform. He was the son of Heraclides and Phanarete, 19th in the line of succession after Asclepius and 20th after Heracles, and had two children, Asclepian physicians. His biographer Grammaticus the pseudo-Soranus gathered information from others before him and wrote many lies regarding the life of Hippocrates. He visited many places and visited cities in Macedonia, Thrace, Scythia, Smyrna and Athens, and islands in the Aegean Sea, and particularly stayed for a long time in Thasos and Thessaly. I visited the most important Asclepia, which had so many sick people that they looked like real hospitals. Many kings and rulers of his time sent invitations to receive him, but he rejected every invitation from the barbarians and the financial donations that were promised to tempt him. He also saved his homeland, which was about to become a war target of the Athenians after its apostasy from the Athenian Alliance, because he acted as a self-willed negotiator. Most report that Hippocrates went to Athens when the great plague broke out, which they say started from Egypt or Abyssinia during the first year of the Peloponnesian War, and cured the disease by fire.
This philhellene and patriot doctor cured all of Greece of the plague that had spread to many islands and the coasts of the land of the barbarians and Greece. The disease, Thucydides says, began in Athens and spread to Lemnos, etc. But the glory of great men was always followed by envy and slander, as happened to Hippocrates. The surviving writings in the name of Hippocrates are 72 in number. From these it appears that in addition to those published by Hippocrates, there were also anecdotes published by his sons according to Hippocrates’ medical theory. If he is famous for being a great pioneer of Medicine, it is because he reduced the experience of many centuries to science. And one should think that at that time religious prohibitions on autopsies were in force. The Hippocratic doctrines and axioms of this general nosology cannot be overturned by time and will always be valid And Professor G. Prinaris concludes: “Such an equal life lived, O most beloved young people, our fellow countryman, a great man and a great physician, Hippocrates. If the doctors of all the enlightened nations have not ceased to respect him, of course in your Greek soul the respect must be deeper and the willingness to imitate him warmer. “This is rather what I prefer (I) because we live in the bosom of a free homeland under the powerful auspices of the music lover and protector of the sciences, OTHONOS our KING. (18/10/25
(Sources: “ON HIPPOCRATES” Speech delivered on May 20, 1851, ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF OTHONOS UNIVERSITY, UNDER GEORGIO PRINARIS Professor of General Nosology and Hygiene and during the current year, PROVIDERS OF THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE)
*Amphiktyon Major General (retd) Konstantinos Konstantinidis Author, Member of the Society of Greek Writers http://www.amphiktyon.blogspot.com (My main blog AMPHIKTYON ARTICLES & BOOKS-POEMS(old) AMPHIKTYON.BLOGSPOT.COM (In English) ANCIENT OLYMPICS-ATHLETICS (The Olympic Games) amphiktyon-poetry.blogspot.com (My poetry collection) AMPHIKTYONBOOKS (Books, Studies and timeless texts) https://amphiktyon.org (My personal website) Anyone who wishes to delete it should request it “delete”