HARLINGEN — The hot spoon sits on a wound, the cup drawing out blood.
The ancient Romans didn’t know it may have been drawing out germs. Hippocrates was one of those few revolutionaries of the ancient world capable of grasping the idea, although germ theory didn’t take hold until the 1900s.
“There’s nothing magical about this,” said Hippocrates, a physician in ancient Greece.
Hippocrates is featured in the display “Why Ancient Rome Matters” at Harlingen High School South. To most people, he’s the founder of the “Hippocratic Oath.” However, the students in Marie Garza’s Latin class have created a display revealing numerous aspects of the Roman world — along with a dose of the Greek world, which influenced Rome. One of the projects reveals that Hippocrates “attempted to remove magic and superstition from treatment of disease.”
Ana Garcia and Alexander Castillo explored science and medicine in the ancient world.
“What we really wanted to do is find out where we have come from,” said Alexander, 16, a sophomore.
Ana, 17, also enjoyed the experience.
“I liked learning about the medical instruments they used back then,” she said.
Garza was proud of how well the students had created their projects.
“I want the kids to be responsible for their own learning,” she said. “I want to test their interest in what they want to know, to learn about.”
Engaging them in a study of the past was her way of sparking their interest in the present.
“I wanted to interest them in the way we do things in the modern world,” she said. “Everything has a beginning, including our U.S. Constitution.”
That’s right, a display featuring “The Twelve Tables” from the fifth century BC says they were used to create the U.S. Constitution.
Many of these laws dealt with civil rights for the plebeians — the artisans, merchants, and farmers.
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By TRAVIS M. WHITEHEAD
Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — Zeus, you’ve been a bad boy, and you’re gonna pay.
A display at Harlingen High School South’s Information Literacy Center describes the ancient god the same way a wanted poster would do so in modern times.
“Crimes: Punished Prometheus for giving humans fire,” reads the display about Greek mythology, which then describes in grisly detail how Prometheus, an immortal Titan, was chained to a rock where his liver was eaten by an eagle each day. It was repeatedly regenerated and eaten again.
Such cruelty did not go unnoticed by the students of Marie Garza’s Latin class, who describe Zeus as “presumed dangerous with a quick temper, king of gods who controls thunder and lightning.”
He’s a tall strong older man approximately 2,000 years old, with long white curly hair, a white beard and blue eyes. He fears nothing except…. What? His wife Hera? Are you kidding?
Apparently, this frightening king of gods and universe, strong, ruthless, capable of the most heinous crimes, trembles like a leaf at the mere mention of his beloved wife, Hera.
Hey, Hera? How did you get Zeus wrapped around your finger?
