The ideas, decisions and actions we take today shape our future. The same can be said about our past. On a global scale, our history has shaped the development of the political, economic and philosophical system we know today. One of the biggest influences in history comes from ancient Greece and a man named Hippocrates. Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician and philosopher, practiced and taught medicine to his students. His philosophies and practices influenced the development of modern Western medicine. Hippocrates (c. 460-377 BC) was born on the Aegean island of Kos, Greece. He learned his medical practices from his father, Heraclides, and the ancient Greek physician Herodicos of Selymbria. Like many great Greek names of the time, Hippocrates was considered to have descended from the gods. He was considered a descendant of Asclepius, the god of medicine. Two major creations of Hippocrates have had the greatest influence on the history of medicine. The peak of his career occurred during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), where his healing tactics aided Athenian warriors (“Hippocrates,” 1998). He wrote the first comprehensive medical books, called the Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of approximately 70 different works describing his medical theories and practices ("Hippocrates", 1998). He also created the Hippocratic Oath, a document that outlines the ethics and morals of medicine. Although not in their original forms, the Hippocratic Corpus and the Hippocratic Oath are used today. At the start of the school year, graduating medical students across the United States recite a modernized version of the Hippocratic Oath. This oath guarantees doctors the ethical code of medicine, allowing the patient to receive the best possible medical care. The origin...... middle of document ......ame=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=true&displayGroups=&sorBy =&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=GALE%CAAA000042732&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CK131003056&source= Bookmark&u=inspire&jsid=82777b3dd9b1d79c27e5b69abba89e4eJones, M. C. (1909). The Hippocratic Oath. The American Journal of Nursing, 9(4). 256-260. doi:10.2307/3403543Miles, S.H. (2005). The Hippocratic Oath and the Ethics of Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Orfanos, CE (2007). From Hippocrates to modern medicine. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 21(6), 852-858. doi:10.1111/j.1468-3083.2007.02273.x8Shi, L., Singh, D.A. (2013). The essential elements of the American health care system. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning Willyard, C. (2011). Lifestyle: Breaking the Cancer Habit. Nature, 471(7339), S16-S17. doi:10.1038/471S16a