Abstract
The aim of my essay is to discuss Hippocratic dietetics as a model for construing philosophical ethics in the Classical Era of ancient Greece. I shall demonstrate how the author of De victu and other Hippocratic authors presented medicine (or more specifically dietetics) as a therapeutic technique aiming at independence from the traditional religious beliefs and practices, from the role of chance in our lives, from disadvantages of our particular natural conditions and predispositions, and even from the need of professional medical care.
I will also try to distinguish the object of the dietetic health care from the object of the philosophical “care of soul” advocated by Socrates, his contemporaries and followers.