Hippocrates

Philosopher · 384 BC – 322 BC

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath whose writings on logic, ethics, biology, politics and metaphysics shaped Western thought for over two millennia.

• Formal logic
• Virtue ethics

Why A fellow Greek pioneer of empirical, natural inquiry into the living world.

Philosopher · 470 BC – 399 BC

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as a founder of Western philosophy, famous for the Socratic method of questioning and for his trial and execution in Athens.

• Socratic method
• The examined life

Why A contemporary in classical Greece, when reason was reshaping medicine and philosophy alike.

Chemist · 1822 – 1895

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist whose work on germ theory, vaccination, and pasteurization revolutionized medicine and saved countless lives.

• Germ theory of disease
• Pasteurization

Why Worked in medicine · Comparable historical impact

Writer · 1860 – 1904

Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short-story writer — and a practising physician — widely regarded as among the greatest masters of both the short story and modern drama, whose plays like The Cherry Orchard transformed the theatre.

• The Cherry Orchard
• The Seagull

Why Also a physician · Comparable historical impact

Writer · 1859 – 1930

Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician who created Sherlock Holmes, the most famous detective in fiction, whose stories of brilliant deduction defined the detective genre and remain among the best-loved in the world.

• Sherlock Holmes
• The Hound of the Baskervilles

Why Also a physician · Comparable historical impact

Nurse · 1820 – 1910

Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer and statistician, the founder of modern nursing, whose work in the Crimean War and pioneering use of data transformed hospital care and public health.

• Founding modern nursing
• Crimean War reforms

Why Worked in medicine · Comparable historical impact

Philosopher · 1632 – 1704

John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as the father of liberalism, whose theories of empiricism, natural rights, and government by consent shaped the Enlightenment and the founding of modern democracies.

• Empiricism
• Natural rights

Why Also a physician · Comparable historical impact

Composer · 1098 – 1179

Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess and one of the most remarkable polymaths of the Middle Ages — a visionary, composer, writer, healer and natural philosopher.

• Visionary theology
• Sacred music

Why Worked in medicine · Comparable historical impact

Biographer · 46 – 120

Plutarch was a Greek philosopher and biographer of the Roman era whose Parallel Lives paired famous Greeks and Romans and became one of the most read and influential works of biography in history.

• Parallel Lives
• Moralia

Why From the same civilization · Comparable historical impact

Physician · 980 – 1037

Avicenna was a Persian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, one of the greatest physicians and philosophers of the medieval world, whose Canon of Medicine was a standard text for six centuries.

• The Canon of Medicine
• The Book of Healing

Why Also a physician · Worked in medicine

Philosopher · 1126 – 1198

Averroes was a philosopher and polymath of Al-Andalus whose commentaries on Aristotle profoundly shaped medieval European philosophy and the relationship between reason and faith.

• Commentaries on Aristotle
• Defending reason and philosophy

Why Also a physician · Worked in medicine

Psychologist · 1856 – 1939

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis, a revolutionary theory and therapy of the unconscious mind whose ideas about dreams, sexuality and the self transformed psychology, medicine and modern culture.

• Psychoanalysis
• Theory of the unconscious

Why Also a physician · Worked in medicine

Military Leader · 356 BC – 323 BC

Alexander the Great was the king of Macedon who built one of the largest empires in history by his early thirties, spreading Greek culture across three continents.

• Conquest of Persia
• The Hellenistic Age

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Mathematician · 287 BC – 212 BC

Archimedes was an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist and inventor, widely regarded as the greatest mathematician of antiquity and a founder of mathematical physics and engineering.

• Archimedes' principle
• Calculating pi

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Mathematician · 325 BC – 265 BC

Euclid was an ancient Greek mathematician, the "father of geometry", whose treatise the Elements is the most influential mathematics textbook ever written.

• The Elements
• Euclidean geometry

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Historian · 484 BC – 425 BC

Herodotus was a Greek writer of the 5th century BC, called the "Father of History" for his Histories, the first known work to systematically investigate and narrate past events as a connected inquiry.

• The Histories
• Father of History

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Poet · b. 800 BC

Homer was the legendary ancient Greek poet to whom the great epics the Iliad and the Odyssey are attributed, foundational works of Western literature.

• The Iliad
• The Odyssey

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Philosopher · 428 BC – 348 BC

Plato was a Greek philosopher who founded the Academy in Athens, wrote the foundational dialogues of Western philosophy, and developed the influential theory of Forms.

• Theory of Forms
• The Academy

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Mathematician · 570 BC – 495 BC

Pythagoras was an ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher who founded the Pythagorean school and is remembered for the Pythagorean theorem and the idea that number underlies the cosmos.

• Pythagorean theorem
• Pythagoreanism

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Historian · 460 BC – 400 BC

Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general whose History of the Peloponnesian War set the standard for rigorous, evidence-based history and remains a foundational text of political and military analysis.

• History of the Peloponnesian War
• Scientific history

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Philosopher · 334 BC – 262 BC

Zeno of Citium was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded Stoicism, teaching that virtue and reason are the path to a good life, in lectures given at the Painted Porch (Stoa) in Athens.

• Founding Stoicism
• Teaching at the Stoa

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Playwright · 480 BC – 406 BC

Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, whose psychologically searching, often unsettling plays such as Medea and The Bacchae made him the most modern-feeling dramatist of the ancient world.

• Medea
• The Bacchae

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Poet · 630 BC – 570 BC

Sappho was an ancient Greek lyric poet from the island of Lesbos, celebrated in antiquity as one of the greatest of all poets and revered for her intimate, intensely personal verse on love and longing.

• Lyric love poetry
• The 'Tenth Muse'

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Playwright · 497 BC – 406 BC

Sophocles was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, author of Oedipus Rex and Antigone, whose dramas shaped Western theatre and gave us some of its most enduring stories.

• Oedipus Rex
• Antigone

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization