Ancient Greek Medicine

In Ancient Greek culture there was a high priority placed upon healthy lifestyles, and this helped to make medicine very important to the Ancient Greeks.

Ancient Greece was much different from the Greece of today. In Ancient Times, Greece was a collection of City States. Each of these was independent from the others but shared a similar culture and religious beliefs. Despite the lack of a coherent government, the Greeks developed a society that matched, if not bettered, that of the Ancient Egyptians.

Medical practice in Ancient Greece, like Egypt, was based largely upon religious beliefs. The Cult of Asclepios grew in popularity and was a major provider of medical care. This cult developed old theories and introduced several treatments not too dissimilar from modern "alternative medicines".

The Ancient Greeks made major strides in medical knowledge. The works of Hippocrates and his followers led to several scientific facts being recorded for the first time.

Most important, the work of philosophers like Hippocrates began a tradition of studying the cause of disease rather than looking solely at the symptoms when prescribing a cure.

The legacy of the Ancient Greek world on medical practice has been great. Hippocrates theory of the Four Humours was, for a long time, the basis upon which to develop medical reasoning. Likewise the methodology employed by the Greeks has, to a large extent, been retained and modified to form what we now consider to be conventional medicine.