Interview with Paul Eberwine, New Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor

Can you tell us a little about yourself and what drew you to the study of ancient Greek?

I started studying Ancient Greek in college, mostly out of simple curiosity. At that point, I wasplanning to apply to law school, and had no idea I would end up pursuing a career in the field of ancient Greek literature. The moment I realized I wanted to stick with it came when I was able to read Homer's Iliad in the original Greek for the first time. The opening lines of the poem describe the god Apollo shooting arrows at the Greek army. The verb Homer uses to describe the sound of the arrows is eklanxan (ἔκλαγξαν). I remember sounding out that verb, and realizing that it sounded exactly like what it was describing –– that klang sound effectively reproduced the sound of the arrows launching from the god's bow. This was an example of Greek opening up registers of meaning that simply don't come through in translation: it was as if I could hear the arrows myself, three thousand years later. The possibility that knowing ancient Greek could allow for tangential contact with a world that had been dead for millennia was immensely exciting to me

We heard that you're teaching a section of one of our all-time student favorites - The Ancient Greeks(formerly known as "Greek Civilization"). What is something that you're doing in that class that students might not expect?

I believe that the study of antiquity can teach us a lot about ourselves. With that in mind, we'll be studying the Greek world thematically, rather than chronologically –– asking how ancient Greeks wrestled with some of the "big questions" of both ancient and modern life, including love, death, and democracy. This means having robust conversations about ancient and contemporary contexts, in order to understand how they compare with each other. In that sense, I hope the class will not only allow students to look differently at the ancient Greek past, but also help them see their own world from a new perspective.

Finally, will you tell us a little about yourself beyond the classroom?

I'm originally from Philadelphia, home of the reigning Superbowl champions (Go Birds). Outside the classroom, I like going for long walks and bike rides, taking on overly ambitious cooking projects, and searching for the best coffee shop in town (I'm open to recommendations!). I'm also an enthusiastically mediocre cello player.