Medicine and healing in the pre-Socratic thought. A brief analysis of magics and rationalism in ancient herbal therapy.

BACKGROUND Medicine has gone through many thought processes until it has arrived in our days. At the beginning, it was based on the religion, superstition and magic plants for therapy. This has been for many centuries until arrived a period of cultural development. This will happen in the Greek world and new theories about nature (physiokratia) and humans advance. From the various mythical traditions, we passed to understand the natural phenomena that surround the universe, thanks to the knowledge of the "hidden causes" by the philosophy. METHODS The contribution to Western medicine of the ancient Greeks was the development of a rational system of thought that was transmitted in medical culture. This attempt to interpret was called philosophy. Hippocrates, with the arrival of the pre-Socratics, changes the old method of approach to the sick and the sick itself. So, he changed the approach to medicine and healing, influencing the therapy of other ancient popular cultures before and after the arrival of the preSocratics. We have researched ancient texts to determine the common roots between myth and therapy and religious separation from other medical cultures before Hippocrates. RESULTS This study is focused, particularly, on the period from the age before and during the world of pre-Socratic thought, showing that there are many similarities in the approach of therapy of various diseases. The ancient Greeks were influenced by the other civilizations on therapy, especially with plants with a different mythological view. Despite rationalism, remained the supernatural beliefs while the use of herbs does not remain in the magic myth. The first detachment of the magical therapy will happen later with the father of medicine, Hippocrates. CONCLUSION The ancient Greeks invented rationalist doctrine for the medicine. The birth of the philosophy, crossing many stages, influenced the therapy models, especially with the medicinal herbs.