Medical writers from the Hippocratic corpus

Summary

The Hippocratic corpus is a collection of medical writings by different authors representing different schools of thought. We do not know for certain when specific works in the corpus were written, but we believe that some of them come from the later fifth century and so belong to our period. The texts translated below belong to the group which is considered early. It is unlikely that any of the preserved texts was written by Hippocrates himself.

Airs, Waters, Places

This work is an essay on the effects of environment on human culture. The following excerpts introduce political considerations (16):

These, then, are the features of physical nature (phusis) and appearance that distinguish the peoples of Asia. As for the lack of courage and spirit in these people, the fact that Asians, by comparison with Europeans, are less aggressive in battle and more docile in character is primarily explained by the climate: their seasons do not produce sharp fluctuations between hot and cold, but are nearly the same. For they do not receive the sudden shocks to the mind or the strong changes in their bodies that would be likely to give them harsher tempers and more passionate spirits than those who are always in the same condition. It is change in all circumstances that stirs up the human mind and makes it restless.