Hippocrates is considered by scientists to be the founder of medicine. He may have been the most important doctor of the ancient times and the best representative of the Medical School of Kos. He was also a profound philosopher and humanitarian. He was born in Kos in 460 BC and was the son of the doctor Irakleida and Fenareti.

According to tradition he was an Asclipiadi and the 20th grandson of Hercules on his mothers side and the 18th grandson of Asclipios on his fathers side. His sons Drakon and Thessalos and his son in law Polubus continued the medical tradition of the family. Following his father’s profession, he studied medicine at the Asclipio school of medicine in Kos. He studied the patients records and therapy methods. He had as teachers the paediatrician Irodiko from Silimbria and the philosophers Gorgia, Prodiko and Dimokrito. At a young age he left Kos and worked as a doctor in Thaso, Thraki and Thessalia.

Pausania the traveler mentions that at the ancient temple of Apollo in Delfous, ther is a copper skeleton which was donated by Hippocrates.  Soon his reputation spread all over Greece. It is said he helped the Athenians during the period of the great plague of the Peloponissos war. According to tradition  he reached the gates of the Persian King Artaxerxi but then refused to offer his services. He died of old age near Larissa. Up until the 2nd century AD on the banks of Piniou there was a sign showing his grave. One of the biographers wrote that for many years bees nested on his grave and the honey which was considered therapeutic was used by mothers to help their children. Studies considered to belong to Hippocrates and the Medical School of Kos are around 60 volumes. The most important are: Aphorism, Diet related to illness, The Prognostics, Head injuries.