Classical Mythology Final Essay PDF

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Classical Mythology Final Essay:

Prompt: The premise of this essay is as follows: due to COVID-19, President Bollinger has announced that he will be making cuts to the University’s budget. A number of courses in the Humanities are on the chopping block, including…Classical Mythology. Y...

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A Letter to the Columbia Administration Dear Administrative officers: I hope this letter finds you well amid the global pandemic. As many universities have tightened the funding for humanities in response to Covid-19, I am writing to explain why we should continue to offer the course Classical Mythology despite financial hardships. To begin with, classical mythology studies the Greco-Roman myths as well as their interpretations and receptions. Classical myths occupy a prestigious place in the western world because many people believe that western civilization originates from Greek antiquities. Such belief is vividly encapsulated by a quote from Stephen Fry, a British actor, that “no matter how much the sovereign debt crisis means [the Greek people] owe us, we will never repay the [cultural] debt that we owe Greece.” 1 Indeed, ancient Greece is commonly idealized as the cradle of values cherished by western societies nowadays, such as individualism, democracy, tolerance, and rational inquiry. This obsession with ancient Greece as the birthplace of western civilization carries serious implications. For example, Hannink, a professor of classics at Brown University, argued that Europe and America have frequently employed their imagined stakes in Greece’s remote past to justify their interventions in contemporary Greece’s issues, often through strikingly large loans. 2 The identification with ancient Greece also feeds the narrative of western supremacy: The best of the Greek culture is imagined to be passed down like a golden nugget to

1 Trevor, Timpson. “Stephen Fry’s Parthenon Marbles Plea Backed in Debate Vote.” The BBC News. June 11, 2012. Accessed July 02, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-18373312. 2 Dr Helen Roche. review of The Classical Debt: Greek Antiquity in an Era of Austerity, (review no. 2145). DOI: 10.14296/RiH/2014/2145. Date accessed: July 03, 2020

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the Roman empire, to the Venetian Republic during the Renaissance, and finally to modern Europe as well as the United States, distinguishing the West from the less civilized others. 3 However, the above reasonings are fundamentally problematic. Through reading classical myths, students will be able to realize that ancient Greece was not a utopia for democracy and cultural acceptance. Democracy then was limited to only a small segment of the city-state population. The right to participate in politics was generally reserved for elite male citizens and excluded women or slaves. Such exclusivity is reflected in various ancient Greek literatures. For example, when Aristophanes, a playwright of ancient Athens, recounted the mythical origins of human beings, he stressed that males who looked for male partners were the most superior. Aristophanes reasoned that this type of men was the most manly in their nature, embodying qualities such as boldness, bravery, and masculinity. Accordingly, male-oriented men were the only kind of people who would naturally become politicians and pay no attention to marriages or making babies. 4 Moreover, not only was the Athenian democracy an exclusive one, but the citystate hardly promoted cultural tolerance. Instead, classical myths actively contributed to the public discourse of Greek supremacy over the barbarian others. For instance, in Medea, an ancient Greek tragedy, the female protagonist, Medea, was devalued for coming from a “barbarian soil.” Her former husband, Jason, contended that Medea should feel grateful because he had brought her to Greece, where she could learn “how to use laws rather than indulge in violence.” 5 By studying classical mythology, students are exposed to the undesirable sides of the Greek past, which will enable them to critically evaluate the widespread idealization of ancient Greece as the origin of all western goodness.

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Kwame, Appiah. “There Is No Such Thing as Western Civilization.” The Guardian. November 09, 2016. Accessed July 02, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/09/western-civilisation-appiah-reith-lecture. 4 Aristophanes. “The Speech of Aristophanes,” in Plato’s Symposium. 25-31. 5 Euripides. Medea, 186.

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Due to the prestige associated with Greek antiquities, classical myths are often appropriated by various entities to convey critical messages. For instance, Nike, the leading sportswear company, is named after the Greek goddess of victory to emphasize the connection between Nike’s products and triumphs. Given the extensive presence of classical myths in our daily lives, learning classical mythology will equip students with the knowledge to contextualize those appropriations. To illustrate, the examples most relevant in the college context are appropriations about the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. The sculpture of Athena as alma mater sits at the front of the Low Memorial Library at Columbia. The statue features Athena holding a book and wearing an academic gown as well as a crown of laurels, which highlights Columbia’s role as the promoter of intellectual engagement. 6 Similarly, the untraditional undergraduate program, the Minerva Project, is named after the Roman equivalent of Athena. 7 By studying classical mythology, students obtain a more comprehensive view of Athena as someone more than just the patroness of knowledge and wisdom. For example, one surprising fact about Athena is her unwavering support for the patriarchal system. In Oresteia, an ancient Greek tragedy, Athena emphatically proclaimed that “no mother gave [her] birth,” “[she honored] the male,” and “with all [her] heart [she was her] father’s child.” The truth Athena believed in was that only men were the source of new lives, and the so-called mothers were simply nurses to the children. 8 In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Athena turned Arachne, an exceptional weaver, into a spider as a punishment partially because Arachne depicted the disgraceful rapes committed by Greek gods in her artworks. 9 As the examples of Athena have

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Athena as Alma Mater – Columbia University, NY, NY. https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMP2BD_Athena_as_Alma_Mater_Columbia_University_NY_NY. 7 The Minerva Project. https://www.minervaproject.com/. 8 Aeschylus. The Oresteia, 260, 264. 9 Ovid. Metamorphoses Book 6, 216.

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shown, there are many nuances in Greek gods and goddess that can be captured only through reading the original masterpieces. Offering courses on classical mythology is important also because students then become resistant to improper appropriations by extreme organizations. For example, the mythical almighty warrior-state Sparta is said to host history’s greatest warriors. When Persians invaded Sparta and demanded its inhabitants to give in, the Spartan king defiantly responded “come and take it,” preferring death to surrender. Spartans have become a cultural cult of strict self-denial and complete obedience to one’s convictions. In the U.S. and Canada, more than 100 high school sports teams are named “the Spartans.” While such appropriations are rather benign, others are used to advance nationalistic, racist, and militaristic agendas. The American Guard, an extreme right white-supremacist, anti-immigrant, and anti-refugee group, dubs itself as the Spartans safeguarding the country and puts the phrase “come and take it” on its flag. Similarly, pro-gun advocates use the phrase to signify their willingness to hold the line and resist the perceived government overreach. By digging into the myths of Spartans through classical mythology courses, students will learn that the Sparta fetish is full of holes. While common knowledge tells us that Spartans preferred death to capitulate, in reality, 120 of them surrendered to the Athenians at Sphacteria in 425 B.C.E. Spartans were allegedly frugal and abstinent, but Sparta was actually plagued by pervasive inequality which contributed to the oligarchical social order and its eventual downfall. 10 The case of Sparta is just one of the many myths that are appropriated misguidedly. The Spartan example illustrates the importance of educating students on classical mythology to improve their judgments and reduce the appeal of inappropriate appropriations by extreme organizations.

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Myke, Cole. “The Sparta Fetish Is a Cultural Cancer.” The New Republic. August 01, 2019. Accessed July 04, 2020. https://newrepublic.com/article/154563/sparta-myth-rise-fascism-trumpism.

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To conclude, as a student at Columbia, I sincerely urge the administration to keep offering the course classical mythology despite a tightening budget due to Covid-19. As western supremacist and xenophobic claims gain currency during times of uncertainty, it is even more necessary for students to critically examine classical myths, the supposed foundation of western civilization. Besides, since Columbia often prides itself on its core curriculum, Columbia should take on the responsibility of bolstering up liberal arts education during crisis and setting an example for the rest of universities in the country. It would thus be greatly appreciated if the Columbia administration can take the above mentioned reasons into consideration when deciding on the course offering of classical mythology.

Warm regards,...