Humanism

Since first being introduced to the classics as an undergraduate I have found an overwhelming fondness and appreciation for the Greek and Roman civilizations.  I regretfully say this, because I failed to read them at an earlier age. Nonetheless, I am always amazed with the knowledge and technological advancements antiquity possessed. 

My favorite playwright Euripides has often led me to question and want to understand the role of women in antiquity, not to mention his attitude toward women.  His tragic play, Medea, probably at best gives 21^st century readers a glimpse of what life must have been for women.  Aside from understanding the life of women, I find myself asking the “big questions”.  Did Euripides write Medea as a feminist supporter or a misogynist?    Did he feel sympathy for the lives women endured, or did he despise them for unknown reasons?  Why does Euripides lead us to feel sorrow for the protagonist and then transform our feelings of empathy for repudiation and condemnation when she becomes the antagonist?   In my mind, I see words and papers floating everywhere with a repetitive question; “Why?” In the end, I am fascinated and inundated with curiosity to learn more about antiquity. 

Reading Nicholas Mann’s The Origins of Humanism brought to my attention the period modern thinkers term as the “Dark Ages”.  So it seems this period wasn’t so dark after all.  Mann’s explanation on the origins of humanism describes men like Petrarch and Boccaccio incessantly searching for manuscripts and any evidence or clues that could be linked to the ancient civilizations.  Although, the medical and scientific fields did not advance for reasons of what we are familiar classic literature flourished and mostly thanks to the work of these two men.  Not only was Petrarch able to find new manuscripts, but he also managed to rectify incorrect interpretations as he did in Aeneas. 

Nicolas Mann states, “The more we learn about the period following the decline of Rome, the less dark and uncultured it appears; the more we inquire into what was reborn in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the more we become aware of vital continuities with the past.”  Mann’s statement reminds me that somehow we cannot get away from that cyclical pattern man so desperately tries to avoid, but in an optimistic sense society certainly tries to learn and improve from the past.   

Although I have much more to learn about the history of humanism, Nicolas Mann has presented an interesting account.  I know that, as many others, I am very grateful for the rediscovery of the Greek tragedies during the “Dark Ages”.