As the Thanksgiving holiday slithers up towards us like a snake in a Pilgrim’s hat, what activities do you employ in your classroom to connect this holiday to antiquity? This task is certainly much easier with other holidays. We break out copies of Pliny’s ghost story before Halloween, and we craft sigillaria before our kids go off to celebrate Saturnalia with Santa Claus. Should we, like every major retailer, skip from pumpkins and ghosts to pine trees and elves?
In an upper level course, why not read selections from Columbus’ De insulis nuper inventis? Not only does the Latin version of this letter demonstrate the continued vibrancy of the language long after the dissolution of a Latin-speaking Roman Empire (and, notably, the last vestiges of the Greek-speaking Roman Empire had been consumed by the Ottomans a mere fifty years before the explorer’s voyage), it elicits comparisons with ethnographic passages from Roman authors. As the students read Columbus’ descriptions of customs and possessions of the indigenous peoples whom he encounters, have them also examine Caesar’s description of the the Gauls and Germans, or Tacitus’ of the Germans, or Pliny’s of the peoples of North Africa or India, or Ammianus’ of the Persians. I am partial to this succinct description of Egyptian customs, by the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela (De chorographia I.48-49):
cultores regionum multo aliter a ceteris agunt. mortuos fimo obliti plangunt; nec cremare aut fodere fas putant, verum arte medicatos intra penetralia conlocant. suis litteris perverse utuntur. lutum inter manus, farinam calcibus subigunt. forum ac negotia feminae, viri pensa ac domus curant; onera illae umeris, hi capitibus accipiunt; parentes cum egent, illis necesse est, his liberum est alere. cibos palam et extra tecta sua capiunt, obscena intimis aedium reddunt.
colunt effigies multorum animalium atque ipsa magis animalia, sed alia alii — adeo ut quaedam eorum etiam per inprudentiam interemisse capitale sit, et ubi morbo aut forte extincta sint sepelire ac lugere sollemne sit. Apis populorum omnium numen est — bos niger certis maculis insignis et cauda linguaque dissimilis aliorum. raro nascitur nec coitu pecudis, ut aiunt, sed divinitus et caelesti igne conceptus, diesque quo gignitur genti maxime festus est.
If I might suggest a couple of simple discussion questions for the class —
( 1 ) How might Columbus’ description of indigenous Americans have been shaped by how Greeks and Romans traditionally wrote about “barbarian” peoples?
( 2 ) What can we discern about the worldview of the authors themselves in how they depict “barbarians”?
I hope this recommendation is at least mildly useful, and, as I stated earlier, do share if you have any unique Thanksgiving activities!
