The Invention of Medicine: From Homer to Hippocrates

by Robin Lane Fox

A preeminent classics scholar revises the history of medicine.
Medical thinking and observation were radically changed by the ancient Greeks, one of their great legacies to the world. In the fifth century BCE, a Greek doctor put forward his clinical observations of individual men, women, and children in a collection of case histories known as the Epidemics. Among his working principles was the famous maxim "Do no harm." In The Invention of Medicine , acclaimed historian Robin Lane Fox puts these remarkable works in a wider context and upends our understanding of medical history by establishing that they were written much earlier than previously thought. Lane Fox endorses the ancient Greeks' view that their texts' author, not named, was none other than the father of medicine, the great Hippocrates himself. Lane Fox's argument changes our sense of the development of scientific and rational thinking in Western culture, and he explores the consequences for Greek artists, dramatists and the first writers of history. Hippocrates emerges as a key figure in the crucial change from an archaic to a classical world.
Elegantly written and remarkably learned, The Invention of Medicine is a groundbreaking reassessment of many aspects of Greek culture and city life.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Medicine, Medical, Ancient History, History Of Science

432 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 2020

About the author

Robin Lane Fox (born 1946) is an English historian, currently a Fellow of New College, Oxford and University of Oxford Reader in Ancient History.

Lane Fox was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Since 1977, he has been a tutor in Greek and Roman history, and since 1990 University Reader in Ancient History. He has also taught Greek and Latin literature and early Islamic history, a subject in which he held an Oxford Research Fellowship, and is also New College's Tutor for Oriental Studies.[1] He is a lecturer in Ancient History at Exeter College, Oxford.

He was historical adviser to the film director Oliver Stone for the epic Alexander. His appearance as an extra, in addition to his work as a historical consultant, was publicized at the time of the film's release.

Lane Fox is also a gardening correspondent for the Financial Times.

He is the father of the internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, the founder of Lastminute.com.

They are not related to, and should not be confused with Robin Fox, anthropologist, and his daughter Kate Fox, social anthropologist.

Reviews

[Naia Pard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

OMG!
I have never EVER been so excited about a non-fiction book. I am myself incredulous at how much I have loved this book.

The writing, omg! I can barely contain my delight.

The author is not being ominous. He dosen`t derail from the matter at hand, he goes straight to the point. More than that, every statement made is accompanied by plenty examples!

But, I am getting way ahead of myself.

So, this is a book that talks mainly about the Ancient Greeks. They were among the first to have something that would translate in modern terms as “doctors” and “medicines”. That is not to say that there weren`t healers outside of ancient Greece`s aria. There were healers in Babylon and also in Egipt, but they did not leave behind a treatise, nor a corpus of written testimonials from doctors or patiences.

The Greeks let us what was to be called the Hippocratic Corpus. I would just love to give you some quotes, but as I understood, that is not really allowed as the book is not yet published.

But, God!

It is a really entertaining reading. The Greeks did not have the terminology that we have nowadays to name causes. For example, they did not see the pulse as being of any importance when consulting a patient. However, they followed patterns in things like urine`s color or dreams or fits of anger or mumblings.

They observed things happening in their society and they tried to observe their manifestation. It is just fascinating to follow how they described malaria or mumps.

The doctors were exclusively male. There comes an entire game when you read what they thought about the female organism. What produced the period or what was the connection between the breast milk and the menstrual blood.

Or you`ll find about exhibitionists and Homer`s knowledge in medical practice.
You have to give it a shot. It is not a try-harder book.

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[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even someone who knows nothing about the ancient Greek world will probably have heard of the Hippocratic Oath that doctors still have to take. This academic, and admittedly quite dense at times, book explores the legacy of Hippocrates and the growth and influence of Greek medicine around the world. Going back to the injuries mentioned in Homer, then on to Hippocrates himself and the first case studies as we would recognise them, the work ranges across many aspects of Greek daily life and culture and is a treasure trove of interesting facts and figures. I particularly enjoyed the case studies as they made these long dead people come alive and feel very human in spite of the centuries that separate them from us. The author is an erudite historian and it’s no surprise that this is an worthy and erudite tome, which sometimes went above my head – as I am neither erudite nor an historian. Nevertheless, I got a lot from it and although it’s probably not a book for the general reader, it’s still written clearly and accessibly and gives a real insight into ancient Greek life. Definitely worth the effort involved to learn more about the origins of modern medicine.

[Talent · Rating 1 out of 5]

I genuinely regret buying and reading this book—it was a waste of time to read in detail. The critics’ blurbs talk about an accessible book, but an editor would’ve done wonders for this book’s content and organization. It is a dense series of minutiae, which after many pages of tiresome reading, might wrap up into a semblance of a point. Other times, it devolves into an intellectual show-off peppered with remarkably speculative (yet arrogantly certain) ramblings about what surely must have happened 2500 years ago because the author said so. Some parts sound like the notes for a historical fiction movie, such is the frequency of the author’s opinion spilled out as fact. Then, there is an odd attempt to dissect medicine from epic poetry or ancient plays and compare them to ancient medical texts. What? Why would you do that? It’s as ridiculous as comparing the show ER to actual medicine.

At the end, I struggled to figure out what the whole point of this book is. Where is the invention of medicine? What is the summary of the Epidemics? Instead, I am left with as fragmented a story as a piece of shattered pottery, with one professor’s opinion imagining what the vase must have SURELY looked like—while drowning in useless detail about the winds and walls of Thasos. My time would have been better spent actually reading the Epidemics and Galen’s commentary than this book.

Next to the insufferable arrogance of the author is his ignorance of medicine and science. The chapter on Retrospective Diagnosis is comical and perfectly encapsulates this approach to history: speculative and not very useful.

If anything, I’ve lost a ton of respect for the field if this is considered “innovative and groundbreaking.” Sure, there are plenty of actual textual references, archeological finds, and the author is definitely erudite. However, there is strikingly large amounts of speculation, personal opinion, personal judgments, and egos clouding the text. So many conclusions are drawn from the absence of evidence. My own conclusion is that there is so much we simply cannot know about the past, and a large dose of humility and openness to other possibilities is necessary.

As someone in the medical field, I wanted to read about medicine. Instead, I got a load of uninteresting detail and tons of speculative leaps. Some speculation from myself: perhaps this book is not intended for me. Regardless, no matter what field you are in, you will likely have read the dry, boring research paper or thesis intended for the shelves. This book is that.

[❀ Diana ❀ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nu cred că am înțeles ce am citit: o teză de doctorat sau un manual de istorie de clasa a X-a? Oricare ar fi varianta, am fost dezamăgită de conținutul acestei cărți.

O abundență de date și nume care au prea puțină relevanță în contextul de față, foarte multe păreri și presupuneri personale fără atestări oficiale și 0 cunoștințe din domeniul medical. Luând în considerare subiectul abordat, te-ai fi așteptat la informații fixe care să rezulte din cercetări, nu la speculații specifice profesorilor de literatură. :)

[Shayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overall, I found this book to be a disappointing and at times frustrating read. The author has a tendency make sweeping generalizations and use his opinions as facts to base subsequent arguments on. The basis for many of these arguments I found to be unconvincing and the author’s certainty that his conclusions were correct was grating. Additionally, I found the retrospective diagnoses he makes were a stretch at times, and certainly would have benefitted from some additional clinical insight. That being said, there are some elements of the book that are interesting and worth reading. In particular, his discussions about the conceptual and philosophical changes in thought processes were thoughtful and intriguing. Moreover, there are quite a few wonderful anecdotes that give this time period a distinctive and interesting charm. Unfortunately, these do not compensate for what is otherwise a dense and often irritating book.

[Lisa Konet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great for anyone who is curious about the origins of Western Medicine. The author obviously is passionate about ancient Greece and well known philosopher's ideas. Well written and insightful.

Thanks to Netgalley, Robin Lane Fox and Perseus Basic Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 12/8/20

[Amanda | District Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely dry, although interesting at points. I would have appreciated more anecdotal storytelling - but it is likely meant to not be that kind of book. That said, it's definitely a resource, brings some unique perspective to the Greek philosophers and early medicine, which I found interesting.

[Joe Hilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a lot of the post-2010 Allen Lane books, this is simultaneously a mass market introduction to an academic topic (which is definitely how most readers will approach it) and an opportunity for the author to set down some slightly heterodox ideas in a setting where peer review isn't an issue. In this case, the author's aim is to show that Hippocrates, or at least someone commonly identified with Hippocrates, lived around 50 years earlier than is usually assumed. Not being a historian I'm in no position to judge how well they've made this case, but again, the fact that they're going through mass market publishing rather than academic publishing suggests this may not be as airtight a theory as the author lets on. Lane Fox makes an effective case for why this matters in the context of Ancient Greek intellectual history, but the downside is that around half the book is spent trying to piece together one specific doctor's biography at the expense of more general medical history. In particular, there's almost nothing here on Greek medicine after Hippocrates' (inferred) lifetime. This is a very enjoyable account of historical detective work, but if you're looking for an overview of classical medicine you'll be left wanting more.

[Arevik Heboyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant work of presenting the invention and development of medicine as a scientific filed and all the external and history/era specific stimuli, ideas, people who affected the development of ideas of healing, intervention, systematic understanding of the body and all organ-systems.
A fascinating read, highly recommended to students of all-natural sciences, as well as any person who wants to learn more on the natural development of ideas into schools and paradigms/

[Margaret Heller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed for Library Journal. What a treat.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comparison between the Iliad and Hippocratic corpus was well done. Just like in Traveling Heroes there is a lot of repetition which makes it seem like an essay or magazine article puffed out to be a book though.
The point about the division evolving between observations and documentation in a start at a true scientific methodology and oracles, soothsayers and Asclepiads suggested to me that the two have progressed in tandem for much longer than I thought. Superstition, snake oil and hope in magic bullets will always be in the mix. It does seem to be a way of thinking. A lesson of the Coronavirus response seems to be that desperate and hurting people will try just about anything and it seems of course always to have been so. I read Medusa and Snail at the same time and Lewis Thomas has an essay in there about how bad the track record of medicine has been and how much luck and happy accidents had to do with progress. Given the short life spans we have, being able to read everything that has been documented before in science and medicine illuminates how crucial that is to just keeping the human race alive. So my question is- is there a deep bunker somewhere where textbooks on PAPER are being stored so they can be retrieved when our digital assets are no longer accessible when civilization has its next crisis? We only have a remnant of the Hippocratic corpus because someone had to deem it important enough to preserve and protect. Is this something archivists (that aren’t attached to any political entity) do or think about?

[Blake Bartlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but it is important to note what this book is and what it is not. It is not an overview of diseases, their treatments, or even necessarily of medical practice in antiquity. As such, readers hoping for any sort of biological or pathological analysis should look elsewhere. That said, the book is a fascinating anthropological and archeological analysis of the founder of modern medicine, Hippocrates. Study of this figure is taken to a depth I have never seen before, to the point of cross-referencing the placement of streets in ancient ruins with the descriptions in Hippocrates’ attributed works. It is very interesting to see methods of textual criticism applied to the various books attributed to Hippocrates to see whether they truly trace back to that remarkable individual or whether some are pseudepigraphical works.

In short, this book is an academic deep-dive into the historicity of Hippocrates, as well as an impressive commentary on how his work revolutionized how we think about disease. However, the nature of this analysis makes for some dry sections where, say, a carved list of island governors is discussed for pages at a time.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robin Lane Fox's "The Invention of Medicine" is a thorough review of Ancient Greek views on medicine. The book is approachable if a little dense. Assuming you have even a passing interest in how our present-day thoughts on infections and cures differ from those of people far away in time, this is a good study to pick up. I particularly enjoyed the parts discussing Homer's detailed descriptions of injuries and anatomy in "The Iliad."

Recommended if you want to learn more about the Ancient' world from the perspective of its medical beliefs and practices. Some interest in Ancient Greece might be necessary.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for granting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jason Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hugely informative, though a bit dry, this gives an in depth picture of ancient Greek medicine. There are nods to other cultures of the time though not enough- given the importance of Mespotamia,Babylon, Egypt etc. to human history more would have been appropriate.

What's here though is fascinating- of especial interest is the Epidemics, a sort of ancient commonplace book for Doctors in which they wrote their findings . Some of the case studies given here are interesting. We get to meet Hippocrates and Galen too.

Medicine was taken seriously as a quasi-religious (whether practitioners were belivers in the gods or an unknown god or not) calling and often passed down. Ethics were paramount, hence the oath.

[Sarah Holz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very interested in the premise of this book, but I’m not sure who this was written for. Clinicians seem to find it too speculative, and the general audience, too dry. I usually really enjoy Lane Fox’s prose, but even I found my mind wandering as much as his wandering physician who might have been Hippocrates wandered about the Aegean. The sections specifically about the island of Thasos and its citizens were engaging, but other parts were less so. And I’m not against making new claims about the established (fragmentary) archeology, but I would have liked to have seen the methodology better woven into the moving text instead dumped in densely-printed endnotes; if only because I know Lane Fox more than capable of doing so.

[John Engelbert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less about medicine and more about the events occurring as the field developed, events that have virtually nothing to do with medicine. last chapter was the best, but it still bounced all over without ever feeling like a common objective was being addressed. i felt like this whole novel was written about why the author of epidemics 1&3 should be dated differently. that really had little to do with the actual invention of medicine, the timeline of when and how developments were made in the field. it weirdly contained several grammatical errors too. informative on many historical aspects of ancient greece and who hippocrates may have been, but overall was left wanting more, not just at the end but throughout the book

[Panaes · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Cnidos to Kos and then to Thassos and Thracian inland where the Epidemic Doctor, known as Hippocrates laid the first foundations of medicine craft. Before it was Homer and Hesiod who in their respective poems gave hints of how people perceived disease, injuries and medicine. And after Hippocrates was Thucydides who like Hippocrates approached plagues with a rational thinking. This is the conclusion of the book. In the 5th century Greece, rational thinking developed in the field of medicine and paved the way forward. Like politics & art it became the benchmark of western civilization.

Good reading to understand how medicine started.

[Lucas - Bits of Lit · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Invention of Medicine is a thorough study of medicine in the times of the ancient Greeks. Starting with portrayals in Homer's Iliad, it captures you with its exhaustively researched content. The origins of Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Oath come to life with Robin Lane Fox's examination. It can feel overwhelming and too academic, but this niche topic can be enjoyed by anyone, even if they are not familiar with medicine or ancient Greece. The difficult part to get through is the examination of the Epidemics books, as it can be dry, but it's good reading.

[Saffron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too lengthy, it cleared up a few misconceptions I had about Hippocrates and early medicine generally. It discusses the broad change from divine oriented medical intervention to a human/nature centered analysis. Lane Fox discusses the problems with dating various items in the Hippocratic corpus with depth, exhausting depth. For me the discussion of when each work ought be dated was overly lengthy. For a reader more interested in the practice of dating or a reader concerned with a definitive dating of the texts in question this would be an upside.

[Thomas Lambe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this!

This was terrific! I learned so much. The author was new to me. The writing was so good. This was a very engaging read. (Maybe not for the faint of heart though...). This was well done. Highly recommended. I think everyone should read this - you will look at your doctors differently! There are so many wrong assumptions made about the history of medicine. This work will go a long way towards correcting this!

[sinag · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 stars!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I learned a lot about the history of Western medicine in this book. However, I think it's too long and not that direct to the point for my liking. It is a great book for readers who are interested to know more about this topic though.

[William Schram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern Medicine is relatively recent. We have the Germ Theory of disease, a modern take on anatomy, and an understanding of genetics. However, Medicine as a whole is an ancient practice.

Robin Lane Fox uses The Iliad and other sources to find what the ancients understood about Medicine. It's interesting to see how they portrayed Doctors and other Medical Practitioners back in Homer's time.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating study of the Hippocratic corpus and the birth of Medicine as a craft. Really enjoyed his translation and discussion of the Hippocratic oath as well as his analysis of the sophistication of the Epidemic author whom he believes to be Hippocrates himself. Fox gets a bit lost in the weeds when discussing Thasos and his re-dating of the Epidemics. These parts could be skipped.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

there's a fascinating microhistory of ancient quotidian medical practice in thasos here but it's bogged down by a trifecta of eurocentrism, outdated historiography, and overleveraged assumptions in favour of a thesis born of the former. disappointing.

[Comes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't what I hoped it was. It's less of a survey of Greek medicine and more an analysis of the Epidemic books (especially books 1 and 3) and for a portion a survey on Thasos. I would have been better off just reading the Epidemic books themselves.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information.

[Emg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sections were a little too technical and detailed for but it was fun following a scholar's thoughts. Very witty; you just have to like a guy who can work Rosario Dawson into ancient Greece!

[Kendra Wilde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry.

[Ian Mason · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this. Just couldn’t. Dry. Irritated me after a reading a few pages that I had to put it down for a few days before going back to it.

[Anna L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the most exciting book, but if you are into history of medicine, it's an interesting read. Though it could probably be shortened by a half and not lose much value...