Abstract
The paper discusses the sharp semantic shifts of the Greek expressions psuche and soma between the Archaic and Classical era. Concerning the documentary evidence of the medical, rhetorical and philosophical literature at the end of the 5th century BC, I argue that speculations on human health and disease attested in some of the Hippocratic treatises involved a specific notion of the body-soul distinction and also that this notion provides an important contrast to the definition of philosophy as a therapy of soul.