Euryphon () was a celebrated ancient Greek physician of

Cnidos Knidos or Cnidus (; , , , Knídos) was a Greek city in ancient Caria and part of the Dorian Hexapolis, in south-western Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. It was situated on the Datça peninsula, which forms the southern side of the Sinus Ceramic ...

Caria Caria (; from Greek language, Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian main ...

, who was probably born in the first half of the 5th century BC, as Soranus says that he was a contemporary of

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

, but older. Soranus also says that he and Hippocrates were summoned to the court of

Perdiccas II of Macedon Perdiccas II () was the king of Macedonia from 454 BC until his death in 413 BC. During the Peloponnesian War, he frequently switched sides between Sparta and Athens. Biography Family Perdiccas II was the oldest son of Alexander I. He had f ...

, but this story is considered very doubtful, if not altogether apocryphal. He is mentioned in a corrupt fragment by the comic poet

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

, preserved by

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

. He is several times quoted by Galen, who says that he was considered to be the author of the ancient medical work entitled Κνίδιαι γνῶμσι, and also that some people attributed to him several works included in the

Hippocratic Corpus The Hippocratic Corpus (Latin: ''Corpus Hippocraticum''), or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings. The Hippocratic Corpus cov ...

. From a passage in Caelius AurelianusCaelius Aurelianus, ''de Morb. Chron.'', ii. 10 it appears that Euryphron was aware of the difference between

arteries An artery () is a blood vessel in humans and most other animals that takes oxygenated blood away from the heart in the systemic circulation to one or more parts of the body. Exceptions that carry deoxygenated blood are the pulmonary arteries in ...

and

vein Veins () are blood vessels in the circulatory system of humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are those of the pulmonary and feta ...

s, and also considered that the former vessels contained

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

. Of his works, nothing is now extant except a few fragments, unless he is the author of the treatises in the Hippocratic collection that have been attributed to him.

Notes

*{{SmithDGRBM 5th-century BC Greek physicians Ancient Cnidians Ancient Greeks from the Achaemenid Empire