Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Cos (Ἱπποκράτης) (c. 460–c. 370 BCE), probably born on the Mediterranean island of Cos (or Kos) off the west coast of present day Turkey, was a physician in ancient Greece on whom history bestowed the honorific cognomen, "The Father of Medicine", inasmuch as his contributions to medicine known through his writings, and those of his disciples (the 'Hippocratics') of about 200 years following his death, influenced Western medicine for some 2000 years. Hippocrates' life overlapped that of Socrates and Aristotle and spanned that of Plato, but historians know little of his personal life. History gave his name to an oath of medical ethics called the Hippocratic Oath.
Because historians know so little about the life of Hippocrates, and because of the great influence he and his disciples have had on medicine for millennia, his fame as a physician has led to a plethora of writings about him that have the character of legend:
We still know very little about Hippocrates. And yet, like the physicians of Imperial Rome, the doctors of our days want to know all about the life of the "Father of Medicine." Where there are no historical sources available, imagination will step in, and the poet will replace the historian.[1]
Hippocrates founded a school of medicine known by his name, and advocated a basic approach to the diagnosis and treatment of disease that still has applications in modern medicine. "The code of conduct for doctors outlined in the Hippocratic Oath, a vow commonly taken by modern doctors", remains an ethical guideline in medicine.[2]