The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c14.24

c14.24

Demokedes was certainly an eminent doctor although his cures at the court of Persia have probably been more fortunate than difficult. The sprain of Darius, painful as it naturally is during the first days, was not very serious, otherwise it could not have been rapidly cured as is said to have been the case by Herodotos. Undoubtedly Demokedes was lucky to have been called in a little before the normal attenuation of painful phenomena, but it is certain that the medical school of Crotona, the town of athletes, had specialised in the treatment of traumatisms and that Demokedes had personally acquired a great renown in the Hellenic world before he got attached to Polycrates. He was, therefore, capable of spreading in Iran Greek medical knowledge of great value as also of learning foreign theories and methods.¹ As he was able to come back to Crotona and was probably able to write there, he could have made known the Oriental data and techniques. The Achaemenian Court was certainly a meeting place for intellectual exchanges as reports from all the satrapies converged there and as the story of Demokedes himself tells us about Egyptian doctors and a Greek one assembled there. Moreover, relations between Susa and Crotona existed independently of the chance captivity of Demokedes at Susa as, according to Herodotos, Milon was well known in the Iranian Court.