Greek medicine

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Medicine of ancient Greece, the most powerful and advanced civilization in Europe around 1000–300 BC. Building on the traditions of ancient Egyptian medicine, and those of India, China, and Mesopotamia (Iraq), the Greeks developed two major contrasting medical movements: the cult of Asclepius, god of medicine, and the rational medical theories of the Greek physician Hippocrates. Unlike Egypt, where spiritual and rational medicine were inextricably combined, patients were able to choose between the two traditions, although they often used both spiritual and rational treatments.

The civilization of ancient Greece was at its most powerful and advanced around 600–300 BC. During this period Greek wealth and power allowed doctors and philosophers to develop advanced medical theories as part of a mass of cultural and scientific innovations. Greeks travelled and traded widely, collecting and developing medical ideas from other and earlier civilizations.

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