In a speech yesterday Classics Professor James Tatum made many comparisons between Maya Lin, the architect of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the ancient Greek poet Homer.
Tatum gave his speech, "Homeric Maya Lin: Reflections of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Vietnam," to about 75 people in Carpenter Hall.
His speech was presented in part by the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and is taken from a new book he is currently writing titled, "The Iliad and the Imagination of War."
Tatum begun his speech by comparing and contrasting Lin, who constructed the famous memorial to missing and dead veterans, and Homer, who was famous for his works "Iliad" and "The Odyssey."
Lin said herself that she designed the memorial to be a wall that "could be read like an epic Greek poem," Tatum said.
Tatum then related in detail the other similarities both artists shared in the construction and design of their projects, although both employed different mediums to get their messages across.
Like Homer, Lin ushers her viewers into the middle of things, Tatum said.
Viewers are witness of the sum total of all the deaths of the war immediately upon entry, Tatum said.
The War Memorial, which was dedicated in 1982 and lists names of soldiers who died between the 1959 and 1975, also makes use of ring composition, a common motif in Homeric poetry, Tatum said.
For instance, Lin designed the memorial so that the bulk of the names are in the center of the memorial. The names do not follow a usual chronological order but juxtapose the names of the first and last victims of the war.
The next division of Tatum's speech examined the use of war memorials in Vietnam and what the Vietnamese thought about the war.
Because the war was fought in Vietnam, Tatum said the entire country serves as a glaring reminder of the war.
War memorials are infrequent or in ruins in the country partly because of the country's poverty.Also there is less attention given to them than in America.
