Lesson plan based on Fallen Warrior

Read ancient Greek texts to explore ancient healing practices and compare them to modern—day medicine.

Skills and Focus: Biology

Subject Area: Science

Thematic Connection: Comparing Cultures

Grade Level: Secondary School

Time Needed: 100 minutes

Objectives

• Understand Greek healing practices for wounds.

• Compare ancient healing practices to those of modern times.

Instructional Materials Needed

Warrior.text

Patroclus bandage

(found at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1992.07.0327&type=vase)

Activity

Step 1: Have the class read the passages provided. Then ask the following questions:

• What are the main techniques of healing wounds?

• How did the Greeks treat problems like infection, wounds, and bleeding?

• Was a special doctor needed to perform medical procedures in ancient Greece?

Step 2: Direct the class to study the image of Achilles binding the wound of Patroclus. Ask the following questions:

• How different do ancient Greek medical practices seem to be from today’s?

• Is this a surprising scene for a 2,500 year—old vase? Why?

Step 3: Have students conduct research into modern first-aid practices, using a standard medical reference. Ask students to compare and contrast today’s approach to emergency medicine with the techniques used in the ancient world.

Goals

This activity meets Illinois State Goal 12: Have a working knowledge of the fundamental concepts and principles of the life, physical, and earth/space sciences and their connections.

This activity meets Illinois State Goal 13: Have a working knowledge of the relationships among science, technology, and society in historical and contemporary contexts.

 

Pseudo-Apollodorus Library e.3.20 (Loeb)

[E.3.20] But Telephus, because his wound was unhealed, and Apollo had told him that he could be cured when the one who wounded him should turn physician, came from Mysia to Argos, clad in rags, and begged the help of Achilles, promising to show the course to steer for Troy. So Achilles healed him by scraping off the rust of his Pelian spear.

Aristotle Posterior Analytics 1.13 (Loeb)

To know the fact of the rainbow's existence is for the natural scientist; to know the reason is for the optician, either simply as such or as a mathematical optician. Many of the sciences which are not strictly subordinate stand in this relation; e.g., medicine to geometry. It is for the doctor to know the fact that circular wounds heal more slowly, but it is for the geometrician to know the reason for the fact.*

* Philoponus offers two explanations: (1) because such wounds have the greatest area in relation to their perimeter, (2) because the healing surfaces are farther apart and nature has difficulty in joining them.

Homer, Iliad, XI.963 ff. (Fagles 1990 trans.)

"Sprinting close to king Odysseus’ fleet

where the Argives (Greeks) met and handed down their laws,

the grounds where they built their altars to the gods,

there he met Eurypylus, Euaemon’s gallant son,

wounded, the arrow planted deep in his thigh,

and limping out of battle…

"Save me at least. Take me back to my black ship.

Cut this shaft from my thigh. And the dark blood–

wash it out of the wound with clean warm water.

And spread the soothing, healing salves across it,

the powerful drugs that they say you learned from Achilles

and Chiron, most humane of Centaurs taught your friend…

"… Patroclus stretched him out,

knelt with a knife and cut the sharp, stabbing arrow

out of Eurypylus’ thigh and washed the wound clean

of the dark running blood with clear warm water.

Pounding it in his palms, he crushed a bitter root

and covered over the gash to kill his comrade’s pain,

a cure that fought off every kind of pain…

and the wound dried and the flowing blood stopped.

Homer, Iliad XVI.26 ff. (Fagles 1990 trans.)

"Our former champions, all laid up in the ships,

are all hit by arrows or run through with spears.

There’s powerful Diomedes, brought down by an archer,

Odysseus wounded, and Agamemnon too, the famous spearman,

and Eurypylus took an arrow-shot in the thigh…

Healers are working over them, using all their drugs,

trying to bind the wounds…"

Euripides Trojan Women 1232

Hecuba: Your wounds in part I will bind up with bandages, a wretched healer in name alone, without reality; but for the rest your father must look to that among the dead.

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