Skip to main content
Side portrait of a bust of Hippocrates, a bearded man with wavy, receded hair.
<p>Engraving of Hippocrates by Peter Paul Rubens (1639).</p>

Hippocrates born in Greece.

Date: 460 BCE

The Story of The Colonizer Wound
EUR
MED
TFCM
<p>Engraving of Hippocrates by Peter Paul Rubens (1639).</p>

Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician whose "Hippocratic Oath" is still in use today, is credited with developing the theory of the "four humours" of the body, which are elemental temperaments that must be kept in balance to prevent disease. The four humours are blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Each relates to an element and a state of being (dry/damp, etc.), and shows some similarities to understandings of the body in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The theory of the humours first originated in Egypt and Mesopotamia.