The first lines of the Hippocratic oath provide the background for the history of supervision as a tradition:
“I SWEAR by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation – to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share by substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to loop upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers…(Hippocrates, ca 400 B.C.)