L’Ancienneté de lamédecine hippocratique: un essai de bilan

Abstract

It is currently difficult to assess the possible influence of Babylonian medicine on the Greek Hippocratic medicine. Cuneiform studies take a step back to the tradition of Greek Studies to trace, in many respects, a Hippocratic influence on Western medicine. This chapter attempts to, from the state of discussion between Hellenists, evaluate the criteria permitting them to trace the history of this Hippocratic medicine from two points: the nature of the controversy of the treatment for sacred illness and discussion around medical schools. Attention is given to different ways that were on the Hippocratic physicians to build, from the classical period, the history of their art, in expanding or restricting the area of medicine or by certifying the reality of a collective and progressive construction in the multifaceted competition between physicians and physician groups that characterizes without doubt the status of this profession in Greece, and in the East. Keywords: Greek Hippocratic medicine; cuneiform studies; Western medicine; Hellenists; Classical period