The Importance of Classics

     The Professor and the Siren, a story written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa is a fresh reminder of why reading the classics is so important. When the waiter at Via Po reveals the name of the smoking gentleman that frequents the café, Paolo Corbera instantly recognizes his name; the accomplishments of Senator Rosario La Ciura are renown throughout Italy, he is regarded as a “Great Humanist” and to be “the highest form of human being” (Tomasi, 62). And when Corbera visits his house, he recognizes the books, sculptures, and paintings that the senator has around as traditional and classic. The senator will not even let Corbera see the library saying, “all classics that could have no interest for one like you, who are morally failed in Greek” (70). He regards these books as sacred to morality and a way of life. Classical works, those related to Greek Mythology, are, often, an attempt to explain certain aspects of life unexplainable otherwise and Tomasi emphasizes the value of reading classics in his story. The Senator’s friend comes to him with advise during a stressful and confusing time in his life. Rosario, competing for “a Chair at Pavia University”, studies his Greek relentlessly but is confused by “the innumerable connections between literature and mythology, history, philosophy, [and] science” (75-6). But after his summer at Augusta and his relationship with Lighea the senator realizes the importance of simplicity and contextualizing ancient Greek poetry.