An investigation into the mythical and historical father of medicine.

Who was the so-called father of medicine, namesake of the Hippocratic oath? Elizabeth Craik takes a look at the evidence for the historical Hippocrates, who lived in the fifth century BCE, and explores the complex web of texts called the Hippocratic Corpus. Through a focus on locality and language, Craik shows how several different voices may all be regarded as Hippocratic. Hippocrates brings a vital new orientation to important questions of origins and authorship and provides a novel interpretation of a key figure in the history of medicine.