THE PARALLELS BETWEEN ASCLEPIAN AND HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE ON THE ISLAND-OF-KOS

At the end of the 20th century, Hippocratic medicine - which developed at the cross-roads between the occidental and oriental civilisations - acts as a link, a bridge and a symbol for the need to combine both t he experience of traditional (Eastern) and the trends of modern (Weste rn) medicine. Hippocratic medicine is one vital pathway to the proper study of the evolution of the medical art. Not only is it the beginnin g of the art and science of medicine, but modern medicine can still le arn from the Hellenic medicine of ancient Greece, Hippocratic medicine is both an antidote to an over-concentration and overemphasis on medi cal technology and a stimulus to more humane technical achievements. H ippocratic bedside examination has not died, but is merely pushed asid e temporarily by modern technology, The fact that ancient Hellenic med icine was based on the coexistence of both Asclepian (traditional) and Hippocratic (rational) medicine on the island of Kos reveals and symb olises the necessary coexistence and cooperation of both systems, a sy nthesis of their concepts being essential to solve the problems threat ening the future of humankind, Hellenic medicine serves to highlight t hat the parallels between Asclepian and Hippocratic medicine are close r than medical historians usually realise, and that alternative medici ne may function in a complementary way to conventional primary medical care.