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Distributed for Reaktion Books

Hippocrates

Man, Medic, Myth

An investigation into the mythical and historical father of medicine.

Who was the so-called father of medicine, namesake of the Hippocratic oath? Elizabeth Craik takes a look at the evidence for the historical Hippocrates, who lived in the fifth century BCE, and explores the complex web of texts called the Hippocratic Corpus. Through a focus on locality and language, Craik shows how several different voices may all be regarded as Hippocratic. Hippocrates brings a vital new orientation to important questions of origins and authorship and provides a novel interpretation of a key figure in the history of medicine.


192 pages | 22 illustrations | 5.43 x 8.5 | © 2026

Great Lives of the Ancient World

Biography and Letters

History: Ancient and Classical History


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Reviews

"An original and insightful examination of the historical Hippocrates and the subsequent crafting of his sacralization. A beautifully written work of supple scholarship, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the shifting dynamics and enduring impact of Hippocrates on the formation of the Western medical tradition.

Julius Rocca, author of 'Galen on the Brain'

“Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the Hippocratic Corpus, Elizabeth Craik reconstructs the different voices of Hippocrates, offering an authoritative, sophisticated, and methodologically original survey of the evidence surrounding the life, thought, and legacy of this puzzling figure.”

Chloe Balla, University of Crete

“In this learned, lucid, and highly accessible volume, Elizabeth Craik takes a new and original approach to the collection of ancient medical writings known as the Hippocratic corpus. Basing her analysis on commonalities of language and of content, she identifies three main strands among the many authors whose work the corpus preserves and locates them in the cultural and intellectual background of the regions in which they developed. The result is an unconventional and stimulating biography that takes questions of authorship seriously, situating ancient medicine not only in its original ancient Greek contexts, but also in its wider reception history.”

Douglas Cairns

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