The Power of Greek & Latin

How the Classics Seek to Make Whole What the Woke Want to Fragment

In the midst of woke iconoclasm across the English-speaking world, the French minister of education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, has led France, Italy, Greece, and Cyprus in promoting the study of Latin and Greek. At a time when universities like Princeton have cancelled the requirement that classics majors learn the languages in which the texts they study are written, Blanquer is calling for vocational students to learn these ancient tongues in order to grow culturally. The French education minister and his counterparts in Italy, Greece, and Cyprus recognize the foundational nature of Latin and Greek and of the literature recorded in them.

No Disadvantage in Learning

Of course, such a decision flies in the face of woke orthodoxy. If a person, a work of art, a text, or—now—a language is rooted in the past, then it must be dismissed because it must be a source of white supremacy. The critical theorists, however, overlook the inconvenient contradictions in their characterization of the classics as oppressive and heteronormative. For example, Ovid's accounts of the stories of Jupiter and Ganymede and of Apollo and Hyacinthus are far from heteronormative. Neither are they rare exceptions in Latin literature. Aristophanes even penned the Lysistrata, a play about the women of Athens and Sparta joining together in a sex-strike during the Peloponnesian War in order to force their men to make peace. Moreover, racial whiteness never actually appears as a theme in classical literature.

In an article for the UK's Daily Telegraph, Marie Daouda, a native of Morocco and a lecturer in French language and literature at Oriel College, Oxford, asserts, "Classics are neither about Europe, nor about dead white men, nor even just about antiquity." She makes a case for the diversity of both classical writers and others trained in the classics. She cites the Jewish St. Paul, the North African St. Augustine, and the Syrian St. John of Damascus. Her examples of Benjamin Larnell, the Native American poet who composed in Latin, and Phillis Wheatley, the African American poet who was taught Greek and Latin by the family who emancipated her, belie the view that the classical languages are too difficult for disadvantaged minorities to learn. Of course, having learned Latin, neither Larnell nor Wheatley was disadvantaged.

Further, Greek and Latin literature includes classical philosophy. Thinkers falling under that broad category include those with such diverse points of view as Plato and Aristotle, who frequently disagree. More divergent still are the views of Epicurus and Zeno. Far from being monolithic, classical philosophy offers a full menu of ideas from which to taste. Over the centuries, that is exactly what thinkers around the world have done, taking up one view or another, and paring away the particulars to uncover what is universal to the human condition. While race theorists fragmentize humanity, the classical tradition searches for what all people share in common.

Multiple Benefits from Learning

The study of the Greek and Latin languages and their heritage of writings enriches and challenges each student who engages them. Because more than half of the English vocabulary consists of words formed from Latin and Greek elements, the study of these languages both promotes and enhances the understanding of English. This is especially valuable knowledge to acquire for those who want to pursue a career in medicine or the sciences. Starting even before the Renaissance, Greek and Latin scientific terms were either brought directly into the vernacular language or were coined from elements of either or both languages. (The symbols of eleven chemical elements actually make more sense to students when they realize that the word from which the symbol was derived is the element's Latin name.)

The languages are of value to students of the law and theology as well, both of which disciplines still use full phrases from the original languages, as well as terms derived from Greek and Latin originals.

On a practical level, studying Greek and Latin affords a student the opportunity to learn grammar, a subject long missing from most public-school curricula. Such study also correlates to success on such higher-education entrance exams as the SAT, GRE, and LSAT. According to the Princeton Review, classics majors actually have a better rate of admission to medical school than do those who majored solely in a science.

One Nefarious Objective

Latin and Greek speakers, in large part, gave birth to Western civilization. Those who wish to eliminate the classical languages (even as requirements for a major in classics) can only have one objective: to eliminate Western civilization. In truth, such proponents are not reticent about that goal.