Along with many other sophomores this summer, I'm taking Classical Studies 4, or "Classical Mythology," having never been exposed to Greek tragedy before. Originally, I thought that this class would involve learning about topics to which few Dartmouth students could relate. Incest, bloody war and interactions between Gods and mortals likely do not appear to be applicable to the daily lives of many here on campus.
But while these myths certainly do explore extraordinary circumstances, I've found that many of the fundamental messages that underlie these stories are actually very relevant to us. In particular, "Thyestes" by Seneca explores desire and the consequences of conceding to it. The overindulgence and want of excess examined in this play can be seen in parallel with much of the gluttony that seems to be rampant today.
"Thyestes" involves a story of two brothers named Atreus and Thyestes. Even after Thyestes was exiled for sleeping with Atreus' wife, Atreus becomes increasingly obsessed with seeking vengeance for this crime and finally sends for Thyestes to come out of exile, promising him a shared throne. Once Thyestes arrives, Atreus murders Tyestes' three sons and feeds them to him in a feast.
Both of these characters concede to desire, ultimately leading to the tragic finale. This excess and never-ending want for more more power, more revenge only leads to continued turmoil and strife for these characters and their families.
While the plot of this myth is very different from our day-to-day lives, I think there is something to be learned from this message on the consequences of leading lives driven by desire. Many of the problems that continue unabated in our world have uninhibited desire as their fundamental cause.
In the news, these problems appear as the growing crisis of obesity in America, the sex scandals in the political sphere and the chaotic lives of celebrities due to the consumption of drugs. At Dartmouth, these problems appear in our overindulgence of alcohol to the point of blacking out, our complacency with an ambiguous and meaningless hook-up culture, and our dependence on caffeine (or Adderall) to stay up all night to cram for a test ("(B)Adderall?," May 6). This culture of addiction, something Matthew Ritger '10 addressed in his last column for The Dartmouth ("The Gospel According to Ritger," May 28), is something that is is very real at Dartmouth and has its root in the social norm that wrongly allows us to live free of all inhibitions.
This is not to say that desire is inherently bad. On the contrary, on a much more elementary level, it is in fact our basic human drives for food, sex and sleep are essential for survival and allow us to lead lives of contentment. All are born with these drives referred to as "id" by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud but as we grow older we learn to mitigate these wants with reality and moral values.
It seems, however, that over the past few decades, it has become increasingly socially acceptable to resort to "id" behaviors with no inhibitions. This cultural transformation is largely due to a media industry that targets these desires and desensitizes consumers to the point that we believe it is normal and perfectly fine to live without limiting our fundamental desires.
This belief comes with a cost. While at Dartmouth we try to counter criticism with the "work hard, play hard" defense, it is important to remember that this does not actually imply a balanced life. Rather, it invokes notions of constantly vacillating between two unhealthy extremes at an ultimate cost to the individual.
Maybe the ancient texts are actually closer to our Dartmouth lives that we initially thought.
