I want to preface this post by saying thank you to all of the amazing Latin, Greek, and Classical Studies professors and teachers that I have had. They have taught me the nuances of the field and inspired a love for it within me that may not have existed had I had teachers who remained in the "old school" of Classics being only for the elite, white, male, able-bodied members of society. I (obviously) do not fit into that category.
Let's start out with how I got to where I am today: a Hellenist (sort of) writing an interdisciplinary thesis about wisdom literature in the Ancient Near East and Ancient Greece. I fell in love with Greek mythology and with Latin at the same time: 5th grade. I chose to take Latin in an impulse decision. But I found a community there. I found friends who supported me through the ups and downs of middle and high school. These friends supported me through some of the darkest times in my life, and I always knew that the Latin classroom was a safe place for me (I even hid from my bullies there). Fast forward a couple of years, through a battle with Ancient Greek (that I'm still not sure that I've won) and some other hard experiences and I find myself with a wonderful community, both online and off. I have no idea how I ended up a Hellenist, but that's a whole other story. At Brandeis, our Classics Department is small, but mighty. I've been involved in it from pretty much the day I set foot on campus, and my close friends from there are those who I turn too when the politics within the Jewish community gets to me too much or I need to talk about Classics with someone who won't roll their eyes and as about those damn Percy Jackson books.
The Classics community online has also played a large role in the last few months of my life. As you may be able to assume, since I have a chronic illness, I spend a lot of time in doctors' waiting rooms. During a particularly difficult medical experience about two months ago, I started engaging with the Classics community on Twitter. I had been lurking for a little while, but I finally started posting myself. This community, as seemingly odd as it may be to its outsiders is so REAL for us. It allows students to communicate with academics and for in-depth considerations of issues in the field (as well as quite amusing memes). Social media, in this regard, allows us to cross some of the boundaries that have traditionally been put up in academia. It has allowed me an escape into a place where people understand my feelings about Aristotle, and it has provided me with advice and distraction on difficult health days.
People in the Jewish community (and even in the Biblical Studies community), are often confused when they hear how much time and energy I put into my work in Classics, especially if they know that I want to be a rabbi. They often ask what Classics has to to with the modern world and with so-called "real people." This is fine. I don't know very many Jewish Classicists either. I'm tired of talking about this (and procrastinating studying for a myth final), so here's a blog post.
So, what does Classics have to do with the modern world? As much as we would like to pretend that we have changed a ton over the last 2000 (ish) years, we still think of things much the same way. For example, just as we talked about our political leaders thousands of years ago, we criticize them today. It is interesting to me that people put such value on very old books when they are religious texts (such as the Bible), but discount the other texts from those time periods. The values and ideas that are presented in those texts are still very applicable to humans today.
And that leads me to the second question: what does Classics have to do with real people? It is much easier to look at ourselves and our own structural biases and issues when they are presented as allegory in mythological texts. We can struggle with the idea of death through quotes from ancient historians and authors (see this blog post from my thesis advisor) and with constructions of gender by looking at the myth of Pandora in Hesiod.
Humanities, in theory, is supposed to teach us how to be more human. The only way that we can do that is by reading and working with what other humans thought about and said. Every time we read the Odyssey thoughtfully, we can use it to think about our agency over our lives. And that's just the first example that comes to mind. Classics has taught me how to think about those who are different than me and how to treat those around me.
At the end of the day, what does Classics have to do with Judaism? Classics has taught me that no culture develops in a vacuum and that there are two sides to every story (even when those stories include the destruction of Jewish sacred sites). It has taught me to think critically about the world in which I live by looking at the world through its texts as a lens, just as so many Jewish texts have. It has challenged my theology and philosophy of life, just as Judaism has. And it has given me so many wonderful people, just as my life in the Jewish community continues to do.
Frankly, I'm not so sure how I got to where I am today, but all I can say is that I am profoundly grateful to be here. I may not be going into Classics after college (and that may be disappointing to some of the amazing professors and teachers I've had), but I will forever hold it close to my heart.
<3 Love this.
ReplyDelete