Modified: 2010-01-31
Another original Greek contribution to civilization was medicine. Like philosophy, Greek medicine shed its early mythological roots. Unlike philosophy, however, medicine evolved into an empirical practice. Alcmaeon was an early writer and teacher of the medical arts. Hippocrates was among the first persons to emphasize the natural nature of disease and to firmly reject supernatural explanations for illness. Galen, who lived hundreds of years after Hippocrates, collected and published the corpus of ancient Greek medicine and added his original knowledge to it. His medical writings became the basis of Western medicine for over 1000 years after they were systematically organized and made popular by Galen nearly 500 years after Hippocrates’ death.