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2713 Amphora Fall 03 TM A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 2 • Issue 2 •Fall 2003 The Palace of Fine Arts: MYTHS FOR MILLIONS Classical Architecture in San Francisco by Marie Cleary by Mary-Kay Gamel n 1853, Thomas Bulfinch was fifty- family had been wealthy and renowned hen we think of architecture in San Iseven years old, a full-time bank in Boston, he himself grew up in some WFrancisco, what usually comes to clerk in Boston’s financial district, financial difficulty because, in the year mind is nineteenth-century houses in various living as a bachelor in a respectable of his birth, his father lost his own and styles – Queen Anne, Eastlake, Stick, Ital- boarding house. His formal academic his wife’s sizable fortunes in a daring ianate – now often painted in bright colors, life as a member of Harvard’s Class of building project of his own design, the 1814 and, briefly, as a teacher at Boston Tontine Crescent, which aimed at or the Beaux-Arts buildings in Civic Center, Latin School had ended almost forty bringing Boston to the aesthetic level of such as City Hall and the War Memorial years earlier. Nevertheless, in 1853, contemporary London. Opera House. A few significant buildings Bulfinch made up his mind to write the In spite of little money, his family in San Francisco, however, are inspired by book that made him famous, The Age of helped him receive a gentleman’s edu- Greco-Roman architecture. Two are tem- Fable; or, Stories of Gods and Heroes. In cation. Bulfinch had learned classical ples to commerce. The Old Mint at the cor- this work, Bulfinch democratized classi- mythology along with a great deal of cal mythology, a branch of knowledge Latin and some Greek at Boston Latin ner of Fifth and Mission Streets was one of traditionally reserved for members of School, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the last Greek Revival buildings in the Unit- the small minority who had studied Harvard College. In the standard course ed States. Completed in 1874, it survived Greek and Latin. A public-spirited man, of readings in the ancient languages, the great earthquake and fire of 1906 and he aimed to give to Americans (both prose predominated, but boys in Latin for years was one of only three mints in the men and women) in the middle and school and college typically read four country, as late as 1934 holding one-third lower classes knowledge they lacked for ancient poems – Vergil’s Aeneid and the cultural activities to which they Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Latin, and of U. S. gold reserves. Its severe exterior of aspired. The Age of Fable became one of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in Greek. the most popular works ever published They learned their mythology above all in the United States. For the rest of the through the Metamorphoses of Ovid. For nineteenth century, and well into the centuries, Ovid’s long poem was the twentieth, the words Bulfinch and main repository of stories from the clas- mythology were inseparable because of sical myths. People who knew Ovid had the alternate name of his book, a great advantage in understanding Bulfinch’s Mythology, given to it after he Western literature and art, which died. Today the book is still being reis- abounded in mythological images and sued and sold. references. Bulfinch was born in 1796 in New- When Bulfinch was entering college ton, Massachusetts, the son of Hannah at age fourteen (the usual age at the and Charles Bulfinch, the architect of time), his expectation and that of his Fig. 1. The Palace of Fine Arts in San the Massachusetts State House, Univer- family had been that he would enter Francisco. Looking over the lagoon sity Hall at Harvard College, and the continued on page 2 towards the peristyle and the rotunda. Capitol in Washington. Although his Photo credit: Thomas A. Vogler. On Hannibal and Elephants .............4 Notable Web Site: “Dr. J’s Illustrated Guide to the Classical world”.......12 Book Review: “Route 66 A.D.: On the granite and sandstone features a pediment- Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists”....5 Ralph Ellison, Ulysses, and ed central temple façade with Doric “Invisible Man” ...............................................12 Book Review: “Literature in columns. The Bank of California at 400 the Greek World” ...........................................7 A Note on the Transmission of Catullus ......................................................15 California Street, completed in 1908, fea- Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus: Homer on Military Leadership ........8 From Italy to India: Mediterranean tures six huge Corinthian columns on each Amphoras and Roman Economic Book Review: “Literature in History................................................................16 of its three unpedimented façades. When the Roman World” ........................................9 Inside Film Review: “Barabbas” ............................17 expansion of the bank became necessary Myth in the MirroR: Journeying With Aeneas .....................................................10 An Operatic “Agamemnon” PremierEs in 1967, the original structure was not in Washington, D.C. ................................19 continued on page 3 Myths for Millions continued from page 1 one of the “learned professions.” Pro- With its publication, for the first time in fessional training, however, required the his life, he became prosperous and well financial stability his family would only known. attain later when his father became Why would a man of Bulfinch’s age, Architect to the Capitol. Alternatively, with a “day job,” spend his free time Bulfinch might have chosen to be a writing a mythology book? The answer writer. In that era, however, few Ameri- is that he knew Americans needed such cans earned a living in that field. a book and that he was uniquely quali- In 1815, he found himself at a cross- fied to write it. He tried with his book to roads. Under pressure from his parents, solve a vexing cultural problem: most and wanting to spare them the expense Americans did not know the classical of further education for him, he went myths. Although images and references Fig. 2. In this illustration from an 1875 into his older brother’s hardware busi- from those tales permeated the culture edition of Bulfinch’s The Age of Fable, a ness. In an autobiographical sketch in literature and the decorative arts, modestly clad Icarus drops from the sky. found among the family papers at the most people had only vague knowledge The same illustration appears in the first Massachusetts Historical Society, he of the myths as told in ancient litera- edition (1855). describes this choice as “the great mis- ture. Bulfinch wrote for a rapidly take of my life.” His “great mistake” expanding and enthusiastic audience of calls it “a Classical Dictionary for the led to a long period of stops and starts in readers, many of whom were acquiring parlor.” The Age of Fable contains, in the ways he earned his living. After education at a rate never before forty-one chapters, mythological stories repeated business failures, he finally attained. Along with this trend came a in prose, and quotations from English found employment, in 1837, as Collec- hunger for refinement and gentility. and American poetry that allude to tions Clerk at the Merchants Bank of In his Preface, Bulfinch describes his those stories. Thirty-six chapters consist Boston, which guaranteed him a steady anticipated readership and his mission. of Bulfinch’s narratives of classical income and peace of mind. He would Knowledge of the classical myths was myths, chiefly his own translations from hold that position until he died in 1867. vital for understanding literature and Greek and Roman authors, especially The life he led as a bank employee also, although Bulfinch mentions this Ovid, as well as explanations of related was seemingly placid, but inwardly he only in passing, painting and sculpture. material, such as oracles, sculpture struggled with an idea that had been Formal instruction about the Greek and based on myths, and mythical monsters. taking shape in his mind. Throughout Roman myths was generally included The remaining five chapters consist of his adult life, Bulfinch had continued on only in classes in Greek and Latin, what accounts of Asian and Norse myths and his own the studies of history and litera- he calls in his Preface “the languages of information about the Druids. In addi- ture he had loved in college. In the Greece and Rome.” People who did not tion to an “Index of Names” at the end 1840’s, however, his mind branched out know those languages – he would have of the book, Bulfinch includes a short in new ways. Boston was churning with known this was the great majority – section, “Proverbial Expressions,” of ideas. Scientists were launching new could not be expected, he says, to study brief quotations from Ovid and Vergil, fields, a process he chronicled as mythology on their own as a separate in Latin with English translations. Recording Secretary, 1842-1848, of the subject; there was too much else to From the start, he figuratively takes Boston Society of Natural History. The study of “sciences of facts and things” readers by the hand and reassures them Transcendentalists – some people in that “practical age.” He rejects the that ignorance of mythology is nothing active in the group were among his idea of people learning the myths by to be ashamed of, information is close at acquaintances – were creating contro- reading translations from the classics as hand, and acquiring it will be a pleasant versy with their philosophy. People in those are full of allusions difficult to experience. For instance, readers mysti- the Unitarian circles he frequented, understand. A classical dictionary is too fied by the name “Daedalus” in a poem such as Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth dry and the accounts too condensed. or story would first consult the “Index Palmer Peabody, and Bulfinch’s close Readers needed the stories from the of Names.” Looking at Bulfinch’s list of friend George Barrell Emerson, were myths told in the manner of the ancient mythological names, with accents breaking ground in education, including poets, “with the charm of a storybook.” included, readers would see that the improvement of education for He cites Vergil and Ovid as his main Daedalus is accented on the first sylla- women.
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