The Myths of Hippocratic Oath

HIPPOCRATES, the celebrated Greek physician, was a contemporary of the historian Herodotus. The works attributed to Hippocrates are the earliest extant Greek medical writings. Among these is the famous “Hippocratic Oath” which shows that in his time physicians were already organized into a corporation or guild, with regulations for the training of disciples, and with an esprit de corps and a professional ideal which, with slight exceptions, can hardly yet be regarded as out-of-date. It is the first of his ‘Aphorisms’: “Life is short and the Art long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgment difficult.” The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to co-operate with the patient, the attendants and externals.