“It’s magical that we keep laughing with a work from 2,500 years ago”

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“Our way of seeing the world and facing life comes from the Greek and Roman cultures,” says this expert, who has given a new heyday to the classics

Some know him as the Twitter Latinist, others as the madman in the toga and others simply as Emilio del Río (the least). But everyone agrees that when someone puts so much passion into defending the Greco-Roman classics, it’s hard to think they’re wrong. Through his weekly column ‘Verba volant’, on RNE, and books such as ‘Latín lovers’, ‘Calamares a la romana’ or the recently published ‘Locos por los Clásicos’, edited by Espasa, this professor from Complutense University (Logroño , 1963) and writer reveals to his listeners and readers how much our customs, our language and our thoughts owe to those madmen of classical Greece and Rome.

-Is yours with the ‘classics’ a crusade?

-There is a magical moment in the history of mankind when the foundations of our democracy, our civilization, our culture are being laid; that moment is that of the Greek and Roman cultures. Our way of seeing the world and facing life comes from there. Epic and love poetry, philosophy, theater, eloquence, novels, history, satire, all these forms of communication were invented by brilliant, funny, interesting authors, full of life, magic and energy: the Greco-Latins. Our western culture is just its extension. And yes, I’m working hard on this educational mission, in the form of a show, because Spain is a great country and I’m very proud to be Spanish, but we need to improve a few things, one of them is studying more Latin and Greek. Countries like Germany, England, France, not to mention Italy, study Latin and Greek for more years, and that Germany and England do not come from the Greco-Latin culture!

-Many people think that the ‘classics’ are a sandwich. Convince them that they are funny.

-Have them read “Crazy for the classics” and they’ll check it out. They’re going to have a good time! Classic authors are funny, witty, they tell exciting stories… If mankind has read them madly for thousands of years, it can’t hurt!

-If Cicero wrote a Catilinaria today against mediocre politicians, can you think of a possible recipient?

-Yes, a few. In ‘Mad about the classics’ I talk about Tito Livio’s ‘History of Rome’, in which he claims the virtues of the good ruler. I quote them in Latin because they need no translation: pietas, virtus, iustitia, clementia, libertas, concordia, moderatio, modesty, and discipline. He also says (and Machiavelli will copy it centuries later) that the difference between the despot and the prince is that the former rules for himself and the latter for the Res Publica. Is there anything more current?

-There are poets who write about love, but they do not know who Catullus was. Missing ground?

-There’s a reason Shakespeare placed in Verona the loves of one of mankind’s most famous couples: Romeo and Juliet. Catullus came from Verona and he is one of the great love poets, defending love and sex without anyone caring about the gender of the person they sleep with. It has taken us thousands of years to restore this normality and tolerance. And it also asserts, with exquisite literary sensibility, sex as a beautiful thing, whatever it is.

-When you were given the Cross by Alfonso X the Wise, your wife said it was time for them to recognize that you are a cross. Was Aristophanes the Gila of Antiquity?

Humor is one of the things that give meaning to this sigh, such as love, friendship, wine or sex. The form of humor is also cultural and we owe that to the classics. Do you remember what the Romans did for us? Well, also the way to understand humor. They laughed at everything, especially themselves, something very healthy to practice every morning before leaving home. Aristophanes was a Greek genius and joker who, mind you, in the midst of a civil war between Greeks writes a play, ‘Lisístrata’, in which women declare a sex strike while the war continues. And they stopped her. There’s something magical about still making us laugh at a play from 2,500 years ago. I don’t know if we could premiere Aristophanes now.

What do the concepts of merit, capacity, effort, sacrifice… suggest to you?

-The values ​​that the classics had and that they claimed for society. The values ​​that the education system and families should instill! Because the education system plays an important role, but something is wrong and that is that we outsource everything from the family. And we need to give more authority and more recognition to teachers.

Source: La Verdad

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