Hippocrates’ Competitors : The Healing Heroes and the Thracian Rider

Parallel to the winning paradigm of Hippocratic medicine, a host of figures – healers, heroes, deities – accompanied the world of ancient medi-cal practice. Among them is the heros iatros, the Hero-doctor (or, Heros the physician) mentioned in literary and epigraphical sources. This figure is here investigated and explained by way of the so-called Thracian Rider, a healing hero sometimes deified and made object of worship, portrayed while riding his horse in thousands of objects, mostly votives. It is further argued that some features of Athenian healing cults are to be interpreted as due to the influence of Thracian culture, and that the Apollo iatros often mentioned by the sources is also part of the same picture.