Latin is Alive!

An essay by Lily ‘17 is published in the literary journal Philomathes, a peer reviewed academic journal produced by the Classics program at Austin Peay State University. Her paper, The Objectification of a Heroine in Catullus 64, argues that women and female characters in poetry function as the vehicles for elegists’ political statements. 

 

Lily is the first Upper School Latin student to publish work in a peer reviewed academic journal, and she is the only high school student to be published in the undergraduate journal.

 

“I focused on Catullus 64, a poem that Catullus has been praised for, because — on its surface — it seems the way he writes about the heroine, Ariadne, recognizes her strength, value, and independence as woman with her own thoughts and feelings,” Lily said. “But, because I still got a pretty sexist vibe from the poem, I singled out seven or eight words, mostly adjectives, and studied their histories, comparing them to the way Catullus used them in his other poems. Doing this, I realized that I might be able to show how this “feminist” poem was actually full of negative stereotypes about women.”

 

Last year, Lily presented her paper during the 2016 Latin Colloquium at Friends. Dr. Christel Johnson, Lily’s teacher, was so impressed by her work, she encouraged Lily to submit the paper for publication. During this year’s Latin Colloquium, Lily served as the event’s keynote speaker.

 

"Last year Lily prepared one of the finest papers I have ever heard at the Annual Latin Colloquium,” Dr. Johnson said. “She engaged scholars such as Ju­dith Hallett, Paul Allen Miller, Hunter Gardner, and Basil Dufallo to argue that Catullus does not elevate the feminine position. She furthered her position by learning to use a concordance to track Catullus's use of specific words and phrases throughout his corpus. This is a skill most Classics majors master as a junior or senior in college. Her close reading of texts, rooted in philological study, crafted a convincing argument. Lily has always approached each academic task with vigor and willingly challenged herself. I am pleased by her early success with this article." 

 

Lily said that studying Latin and the way its words have changed in meaning as they’ve passed through different languages has given her insight into why we think the way we do today.

 

“Latin isn’t a dead language,” she said. “It’s a study of past and of current thought, culture, and history and it is threaded around everything we do and think. It is the strongest intellectual foundation that has been laid for me in all my time at Friends.”