Hippocrates was born around the year 460 BC on the Greek island of Kos and legendary genealogy traces his paternal heritage directly to Asclepius and his maternal ancestry to Hercules. He was probably trained at the Asclepieion of Kos, and took lessons from the Thracian physician Herodicus of Selymbria. Throughout his life Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine, traveling as far as Thessaly, Thrace, and the Sea of Marmara. He died, most probably in Larissa, at the age of 90, though some say he lived to well over 100.
