Pseudepigraphic Writings

HipÚcrates, Wesley D. Smith

Brill Archive, 1990 - History - 133 pages

The biography and personality of the "Father of Medicine" were known to the world through these important, but little studied letters and speeches. W.D. Smith here presents them newly edited from the most important manuscripts, with a facing English translation, and offers an introduction that gives a literary analysis and places them in relation to ancient history and ancient medical science. The speeches appear to be early (III B.C.) propaganda for the Island Cos, whose presence in the Library at Alexandria contributed to the characterization of the Hippocratic Corpus, while the Democritus Letters belong to the Roman period, after the firm establishment of Hippocrates' reputation.

Popular passages

Page 27 - Arts as such, are yet helpful by stimulating the minds of those who practice them, so also this contemplation of the nature of things, although it does not make a practitioner, yet renders him more apt and perfected in the Art of Medicine. And it is probable that Hippocrates, Erasistratus and certain others, who were not content to busy themselves over fevers and ulcerations, but also to some extent searched into the nature of things, did not by this become practitioners, but by this became better...‎

Page 71 - For example, herbs should be gathered when the weather is excellent, for it makes a great difference if the collecting is done after recent droughts or heavy rains. Similarly, sites are important, whether they are in the mountains, high up, windswept, cold and arid, for the properties of such plants are stronger.‎

Page 81 - Democritus answered with a rather conventional, cynic-flavored indictment of humanity (Stuart 1958): "you think that there are two causes for my laughter, good things and bad. But, I laugh at one thing, humanity, brimming with ignorance, void of right action, childish in all aspirations...‎

Page 107 - Hippocrates chose, he scorned the promises of the barbarian because he was a foe and the common enemy of Greeks, Therefore, so that the Athenian people may show itself to desire the best always for the Greeks and so that they may show proper gratitude to Hippocrates for his beneficent acts, It is decreed by the people to initiate him into the great mysteries at public expense as was done with Heracles, the son of Zeus...‎

Page 71 - Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 4 (1982): pp.‎

Page 26 - Democritus investigates madness by investigating its seat, an activity that seems simple and straightforward to us, and did to later antiquity, but is too sophisticated for the period that provides the dramatic date of the letter, and probably before the first century BC...‎

Page 119 - ... time in which the plague was running through the barbarian land north of the Illyrians and Paeonians, when the evil reached that area, the kings of those peoples sent to Thessaly after my father because of his reputation as a physician, which, being a true one, had managed to go everywhere. He had lived in Thessaly previously and had a dwelling there then. They summoned him to help, saying that they were not going to send gold and silver and other possessions for him to have, but said that he...‎

Page 53 - Hippocrates the physician to Hystanes, governor of the Hellespont. Greetings. In response to the letter you sent which you said came from the King, write to the King and send him as quickly as possible what I say: I have enough food, clothing, shelter and all substance sufficient for life. It is not proper that I should enjoy Persian opulence or save Persians from disease, since they are enemies of the Greeks. Be well!‎

Page 51 - He cleanses the earth and sea over wide areas, not of wild beasts but of beastly wild diseases, and as Triptolemus sowed everywhere the seeds of Demeter, he sows the cures of Asclepius.‎

About the author

Wesley D. Smith has taught Greek and Roman literature in the Classical Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania since 1961. He has been resident at the Hellenic Center in Washington, D.C., the Institute for the History of Medicine in London, and has served as visiting Professor of the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine in Ontario. He is author of The Hippocratic Tradition (Cornell U.P., 1979) and of numerous studies in ancient Greek literature and in ancient science. In particular, he has studied the nature of early Greek medical writings and the ways in which they were interpreted in later centuries.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Pseudepigraphic Writings; Volume 2 of Studies in Ancient Medicine, 2
• Editors: HipÚcrates, Wesley D. Smith
• Publisher: Brill Archive, 1990
• ISBN: 9004092900, 9789004092907
• Length: 133 pages
• Subjects: History / World