“Ephemeral” is the perfect word to describe the fleeting experience of life in the world as of late. With the advent of shorter content on the Internet that breeds smaller attention spans, it could be helpful to slow down and enjoy more timeless pleasures. Classics, such as Greek and Latin, for me in times when I feel academic are like a garden of refuge as I walk through the rest of the chaos of the world
Over my experience in learning Latin since the fifth grade, and Greek as of this year, it has been far from a leisurely walk through a perfect field, and though it has come with its challenges, I do believe that it has offered great relief from the noise that surrounds me.
Reading Greek myths inspired me to learn Latin. The Heroes of Olympus series, the sequel to Percy Jackson, tied Latin directly to myths by incorporating characters with Roman backgrounds. The teenagers in those stories could read Latin fluently, and I chose to devote myself to that same goal. Back then, all I had was the red Cambridge Latin Course text and a burning desire to understand something no one else did in my community. Latin remains one of my favorite subjects at school, and now I can read Cicero or Ovid with some fluency–a leap forward from Caecilius est in horto. I gradually built up my understanding of the Latin language because I wanted to, because it was fun for me, and because it made me feel unique.
After Latin, I started studying ancient Greek to delve further into my passion for classics. I found the subject to be horrifically difficult grammatically, and oftentimes made me want to tear my hair out. However, to an even greater extent than Latin, Greek has allowed me to slow down as I pieced together the grammar and syntax of a sentence like a jigsaw puzzle. There are few things more satisfying than the awareness that I am sharing the same thoughts as a writer from thousands of years ago after I translate a sentence.
Throughout my journey in Classics, I have been told innumerable times that there is no sense in learning them: they’re dead languages, with no practical application in “the real world.” In turn I ask, what is the real world to you? Is it devoid of enjoyment, joy, and wonder? Is education merely a means to a job, or can its foremost purpose be to enrich the mind of a learner and equip them to play all possible openings and gambits in the grand chessboard of life?
Education is so multifaceted, and choosing something unlike the main fields of study like mathematics, science, or writing and rather, Ancient Greek or Latin, is a choice that should be equally respected. It effectively shows that someone enjoys slowing down and working meticulously on something grand in scope. It is different from the joy of solving a math problem, or from writing an essay, because it is something in your making that ties you to a timeless past, to cultures that first asked and often answered the most fundamental questions of human life.
We should never measure classical languages by how “useful” it is in a practical sense, but always by how useful it is in an intellectual and moral sense. Classics allow us to take a break from the ordinary and be human at heart. Socrates once said that we as humans must ally ourselves with the magnitude of education; instead of being distracted by the ephemeral background noise of the 2020s, we could benefit from listening to the lasting magic of Greek and the classics. I implore you to make a step out into Elysium and into Benny’s classroom, to express something slow, new, and refreshing.