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Unraveling the Mystery of Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Corpus

Explore the enigmatic origins of the Hippocratic Corpus and its attributed author, Hippocrates, through internal and external evidence, ancient biographies, and historical contexts.

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Unraveling the Mystery of Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Corpus

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  1. The Hippocratic Corpus and the Hippocratic Question CLAS/HIST3051

  2. Organizing Books • You receive a new book, perhaps as a gift • Where is it stored? • What is the organizing principle? • C. S. Lewis thought the card catalogue would be seen by Middle Ages as greatest invention

  3. Ancient Libraries • Only 'Villa of the Papyri' here remains • Busts of authors decorated the room • catalogues listed authors under subject headings • Public libraries began at Alexandria in late 4th c. • 500,000 scrolls

  4. Libraries Create Distortion • Works accrue to popular authors • More popular the author, more he acquires • Dialectical differences? • Anonymous texts, in particular • Hippocrates is worst case

  5. Hippocratic Corpus • 'Hippocratic' > 'of or pertaining to Hippocrates' • corpus > body of work • term that sets aside question of authorship

  6. Internal Evidence? • Ionian dialect • Lack of divine causation • diverse in purpose • healing • defining disease • diverse in origins of disease • Work like 'On the Heart' probably 3rd c. BC, much later than Hippocrates • No work can be ascribed to him internally

  7. Hippocratic Question • Who was Hippocrates? • When did he live? • Where did he live? • How did he gain such a reputation for healing?

  8. External Evidence • Outside the corpus • The earlier the better • What do we learn in Plato's Protagoras? (LIV.1) and Aristotle Politics (LIV.2)‏

  9. Period of Life • Floruit = that of Socrates • Socrates d. 399 BC • Not alive at time of Politics' writing • After his return to Athens in 335 BC? • Squares nicely with our story of the progress of philosophy and medicine

  10. Place of Birth • Island of Cos • Ionian region • Temple to Asclepius

  11. Ancient Biography • Ps.-Soranus • Soranus 2nd c. AD • What were his accomplishments according to biographical tradition? • What is interestingly lacking?

  12. Hippocrates and the Asclepiadai • L1V.6 • What was his method here? • How does this fit with, e.g., Sacred Disease?

  13. Temple to Asclepius at Cos

  14. Statements about Hippocrates' Method • LIV.8-9 • What does Anonymous think Aristotle thinks about Hippocrates? • What does Anonymous think about Hippocrates? • How does LIV.10 fit? • How about LIV.11 or 12?

  15. Problems with Using Method to Ascribe Authorship • Intellectual schools • Lack of direct quotation

  16. Hippocratic Question Unresolved • Is he “a man without a work”? • Is it likely that one individual began all this? • Compare tradition down to him

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