Reconsidering the Position for Herophilus of Chalcedon in the Tradition of Hippocratic Exegesis

This paper aims to answer the question as to whether Herophilus of Chalcedon(c.330–c.250 BC), most highly evaluated as one of the greatest contributors tothe advancement of medical knowledge of a human body in Hellenistic period,may also be regarded as the initiator of the tradition of Hippocratic exegesis inPtolemaic Alexandria. Admitting that he may have been strongly interested inHippocratic ideas and doctrines, since he was familiar with some of the Hippocratictexts, such as the Hippocratic treatise On the Sacred Disease, the HippocraticPrognostic, and Book VI of the Hippocratic Epidemics, leaving his comments onthem, we should have reservations to give him a status as an exegete of Hippocratictexts in the tradition of Hippocratic exegesis, like his disciple Bacchius andmany others who contributed as commentators on them to the development ofHippocratic exegesis and lexicography.