CLAS/HIST3051

The Hippocratic Corpus and the Hippocratic Question

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

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

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

Hippocratic Corpus

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

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

Hippocratic Question

Who was Hippocrates? When did he live? Where did he live? How did he gain such a reputation for healing?

External Evidence

Outside the corpus The earlier the better What do we learn in Plato's Protagoras? (LIV.1)

and Aristotle Politics (LIV.2)

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

Place of Birth

Island of Cos Ionian region Temple to Asclepius

Ancient Biography

Ps.-Soranus Soranus 2nd c. AD

What were his accomplishments according to biographical tradition?

What is interestingly lacking?

Hippocrates and the Asclepiadai

L1V.6 What was his method here? How does this fit with, e.g., Sacred Disease?

Temple to Asclepius at Cos

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?

Problems with Using Method to Ascribe Authorship

Intellectual schools Lack of direct quotation

Hippocratic Question Unresolved

Is he “a man without a work”? Is it likely that one individual began all this?

Compare tradition down to him