Agnodice on stage
Personajes:
Tema: Agnodice's trial. Clothing
Competencias
Competencia en Comunicación Lingüística
Competencia Personal, social y de aprender a aprender
Competencia Ciudadana
Competencia en conciencia y expresiones culturales
Materias y cursos por Sistema Educativo
España > Cultura Clásica > 1º ESO > Raíces clásicas del mundo actual. Vida cotidiana
Enunciado
Write a short play describing the trial of Agnodice in Athens and telling the story of this famous physician. To do so, you will need to follow the steps below:
1) Research the life of Agnodice and summarise all the information you have found.
2) From the information gathered, determine how many scenes the play could have. Examples: in one scene, she talks to her father and tells him that she wants to become a doctor; in another scene, several male doctors talk to each other complaining about the fame of the new "doctor" working in town; another scene with Agnodice in front of the jury...
3) If you are working as a whole class, it is advisable that, once you have decided on the scenes of the play, you divide into small groups (3-4 people) and that each group is responsible for writing the dialogue of one of the scenes. You will also need to decide on the location of the scene and the props needed. One of the groups can be in charge of writing the narrator's part, which will serve as a thread between the scenes.
4) You will have to put all the scenes together with the narrator's part, make any suggestions and changes you consider necessary and write the play in its final version.
5) Once the play has been written, you will divide up the roles. The play will probably have to be adjusted so that the number of characters is equal to the number of students who wish to participate. This can easily be done by expanding or reducing some of the characters, such as the number of women intervening on behalf of Agnodice, the number of male doctors acting as prosecutors... None of the characters will have a very long speech, but it is important that everyone who wants to participate has at least one sentence.
6) Do some research on the internet about the clothing of Greek men and women in classical times and the people who do not wish to perform will be in charge of the set, after finding the materials, and reproducing as well as possible garments such as peplos, chiton or himation. Fortunately, these are simple garments that are easy to reproduce.
7) Rehearsals of the play.
8) Final representation. Ideally, the performance should take place in front of a real audience, which could be, for example, other groups in the school.
Observaciones y contexto
Prehistoric women gatherers discovered and used the healing properties of plants. In Egypt, before 3000 BC, there were already female physicians or surgeons, and by 1500 BC, the schools of Sais and Heliopolis were open to women like Sephora and Queen Hatsepshut. In Mesopotamia, female healers were very important, and in Greek cities there were female physicians and surgeons, but their role was gradually restricted to that of midwives. Popular medicine also stood out: one of the first herbalists was Artemisia II of Caria. In Athens, in the 4th century BC, women were prevented from practising medicine, being accused of performing abortions; it was in this context that the figure of Agnodice appeared. In Rome there were many prominent female physicians who also wrote treatises, such as Elephantis, Lais, Olympias the Theban, Antiochis and Metrodora. Among the women who wrote about gynaecology and obstetrics, the texts of Cleopatra and Aspasia stand out, which were the most important until the work of Trota in the 11th century.
Although this activity can be carried out individually, it is ideal to work in groups. Since it is a large project that can be divided into many sub-tasks, it is possible to work on it with the whole class at the same time.
The activity has been assigned to the 1st year of ESO, specifically related to the content block Classical roots of today's world. Everyday life. However, it can be carried out perfectly well at all levels of ESO. It is very interesting to ask for the collaboration of the language and literature teachers of that level and to work at the same time on the characteristics of dramatic texts.
Descripción
Dramatisation of a historical episode: the trial of Agnodice.