President's Message: Does the Sybil Want to Die?

Does the Sybil Want to Die?

Classicists have been an embattled species for a long time; but of late the languages which we teach have come under almost constant attack from critics who range from administrators to politically correct colleagues. Like the Sibyl at Cumae, our profession must be a guide to the past, and likewise it must be its prophetic voice of self-discovery. Petronius wrote in his Satyricon 48

        ...Trimalchio "Hoc" inquit "si factum est 
        controversia non est; si factum non est, nihil est."
        Haec aliaque cum effussimis prosequeremur
        laudationibus, "Rogo" inquit "Agamemnon mihi
        carissime, numquid duodecim aerumnas Herculis
        tenes, aut de Vlixe fabulam, quemadmodum 
        illi Cyclops pollicem forcipe extorsit?
        Solebam haec ego puer apud Homerum legere
        Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis
        vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent:
        Sibulla, ti theleis; respondebat illa:  apothanein thelo.

In this passage from the Cena Trimalchionis Petronius uncovers the inanity of the wealthy freedman's erudition. To prove his literacy, Trimalchio outlines how, as a boy, he read in the works of Homer about the labors of Hercules and about the Sibyl of Cumae. Trimalchio is full of misinformation: The names are there; the what's-it'all-about is not. A parallel can be drawn between classical learning at the end of the twentieth century and the middle of the first.

Then, as now, knowledge of the classics was not very deep. Then as now, those who were acquiring great fortunes know little of the past. But there is an important difference: Trimalchio needed to make at least the pretense. He recognized, in only by his lack of culture, the civilizing value of classical erudition. Modern day Trimalchios do not. The men and the women who run our society know very little about classical antiquity or literature. They have managed to pass through every grade level, college, and professional school without ever having been touched by Achilles and the death of Hector, or by Aeneas and the passion of Dido, without having learned the lessons of the Platonic dialogues or the conpiracy of Catiline, without having been shown sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt. How many of our colleagues and administrators place little or no value in classical literature because they never studied it?! Our Sibyl is old and wise, but nobody wants to listen to her. This is Trimalchio's warning for our profession.

Why does the Sibyl at Cumae want to die? Because she has eternal life without eternal youth. She is withering away with old age. So, too, will our professsion if we do not infuse it with youth, with a strength of numbers, and with an effort to keep the Classics alive. We can revivify it; it can create a renaissance in us.

Welcome to the Home Page of the Washington Classical Society as it says Ave! to the 2lst century.

Egoni Verheyenensi maximas et optimas gratias agimus!

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