Augustine's Confessions

In Book I of the Confessions, Augustine sharply criticizes his experience with what is today called classical learning. He confesses that he is not overfond of Homer but that he did enjoy Vergil. He is also fully conversant with the Roman playwrights, citing Terence's references to Jupiter's seduction of mortal women, and he declares himself to have had histrionic talent in declaiming classical verses. His overarching points, however, are (1) that the literary narratives were trivial by comparison to the weight of importance that he should have attached to the ways of God, and (2) that the practice of holding up the literary masters and their characters, including those of the Greco-Roman theogony, as models of behavior and thought was altogether corrupt:

[I]t is no wonder that I was swept away into vanities and that I went out of your presence, my God. These men would be thought little of and would be thoroughly abashed if while relating some of their own actions which were not at all bad, they made use of some solecism or barbarism of speech; but if they told the story f their lusts n a neat, well-decorated style and with an apt use of words, they would be praised for it by others and would take pride in it themselves.

While grateful to have been taught to read and write in both Latin and Greek, Augustine expresses disdain for the content of his pagan education because, as he analyzes the situation, it fed his vanity, pride, and ambition. Whereas he wept for Dido and

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Category: Philosophy - A