As someone who teaches Latin, I am often surprised by the ways in which popular culture sometimes generates interest in this long-dead classical language. A few years ago, I noticed a trend of students who were registering for Introduction to Latin courses after reading the Harry Potter books or playing Total War: Rome. The interest of these students wasn't purely academic, but rather, the language connected them more deeply with something they already loved. These days you practically need to be a Latinist to make sense of what’s happening in the world. Not so long ago, quid pro quo was on the lips of nearly every journalist and politician involved in the Trump Ukraine scandal. As was explained at the time, this phrase means “something for something,” and is used in the context of the exchange of goods or favors.
Now, a few months later, the daily news cycle is dominated by references to the “crowned poison” (coronavirus) COVID-19 wreaking havoc throughout the world as governments struggle to contain a global pandemic (itself a technical term from Greek, meaning “all-district”).
It would seem, then, that Latin is enjoying a kind of micro-renaissance in the current moment. Even popular culture is hopping on the linguistic bandwagon. In just the last couple of weeks, two much anticipated science fiction TV series have employed Latin phrases in key episode titles.
Season 3 of HBO’s Westworld recently began streaming, with Episode 1 being titled, “Parce domine.” This little bit of liturgical Latin is taken from a medieval chant based on Joel 2:17.
Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo:
ne in aeternum irascaris nobis.
Spare, Lord, spare your people:
Be not angry with us forever
Presumably, this phrase is meant to foreshadow the violence soon to be unleashed by surviving artificial “hosts” on humanity. However, who turns out to be “Lord” and who will be “spared” remains to be seen.
Similarly, the penultimate (“next to last”) episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 1 was called “Et in Arcadia ego.” This phrase, meaning “I, too, in Arcadia…” is the title of a 17th century pastoral painting by French baroque painter Nicolas Poussin. The painted scene, which depicts classical shepherds gathered around a tomb, is often interpreted to mean that even in the idealized, pastoral landscape of Arcadia (a kind of classical utopia), death too is present.
The phrase is also the title of 1965 poem by W. H. Auden:
Who, now, seeing Her so
Happily married,
Housewife, helpmate to Man,
Can imagine the screeching
Virago, the Amazon,
Earth Mother was?
Her jungle growths
Are abated,
Her exorbitant monsters abashed,
Her soil mumbled,
Where crops, aligned precisely,
Will soon be orient:
Levant or couchant,
Well-daunted thoroughbreds
Graze on mead and pasture,
A church clock subdivides the day,
Up the lane at sundown
Geese podge home.
As for Him:
What has happened to the Brute
Epics and nightmares tell of?
No bishops pursue
Their archdeacons with axes,
In the crumbling lair
Of a robber baron
Sightseers picnic
Who carry no daggers.
I well might think myself
A humanist,
Could I manage not to see
How the autobahn
Thwarts the landscape
In godless Roman arrogance,
The farmer’s children
Tiptoe past the shed
Where the gelding knife is kept.
The poem describes a primordial wildness subjugated and subdued by technological intervention, while at the same time ominously invoking the violent potential of that same intervention’s tools. Incidentally, a “gelding knife” is used in castration.
Aside from their individual artistic merits, both Westworld and Picard are currently dealing in different ways with anxieties around artificial intelligence. In both cases, dreams of techno-utopia threaten to collapse into dystopian nightmares as the savage realities of the slavery, exploitation, and violence upon which these future Arcadiae are built begin to be laid bare. As such, they are again exploring the well-worn sci-fi question—what happens when the creature turns on its creator? A question previously explored in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, etc., and one that, as it happens, is as old as the Bible itself.
The same theme was also explored in the 2014 film Ex machina, the title of which is based on the Latin phrase Deus ex machina, usually referring to a contrived plot device. The deliberate excision of Deus from the title emphasizes through omission the terrifying (quasi-divine) creative power of technology and invites philosophical and even theological reflection.
In all these cases, the use of Latin serves as an effective form of exegetical shorthand, which points the viewer to other works of art or literature which offer an important reservoir of humanistic reflections on the unprecedented pace of technological change. They speak to the valuable contribution that past artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions can and must make to understanding and giving meaning not only to our present, but to our many possible futures.
For those in the gaming community, this weekend marks an important event in the on-going history of Magic: The Gathering. In case you don't know, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a strategy card game created in 1993 by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and marketed by Wizards of the Coast. Currently the world's most popular trading card game, MTG outpaces both Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon and was recently recognized to be the "world's most complex game." The comprehensive rule-book currently runs to nearly 200 pages.
MTG, as its name implies, involves players acting as dueling mages who cast their spells by playing various card types (creatures, instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, etc.) and managing resources (mana, energy) in the hopes of outmaneuvering and defeating their opponents. These spells can be cast at different times and at different speeds, leading to an intricate web of card interactions. Moreover, even though there is a complex set of rules governing gameplay, individual cards frequently allow players to violate those rules on a conditional basis--adding to the game's complexity. A variety of MTG formats exist (both 1v1 and multiplayer) which allow players to use cards from different card sets (in both paper and online versions). Several of these sets are released each year, which both add to the evolving dynamics of the game and continue to develop its rich mythologies and story-lines. Lore and aesthetics are important aspects of the game's enduring appeal.
This weekend the newest set is being released--Theros: Beyond Death--which marks the return of the game to Theros, a realm of the MTG multiverse modeled on the Graeco-Roman past. Although much of the game's early story-line took place inside its own self-generated sci-fi fantasy universes (such as Dominaria and Phyrexia), later expansion sets came to be inspired by various world cultures--such as medieval Japan (Kamigawa), early modern Europe (Innistrad), colonial South America (Ixalan), central and south Asia (Tarkir and Kaladesh), and, in the case of Theros, classical antiquity.
Are these depictions historically accurate? No. To be clear, the realm of Theros is an alternate classical universe. There are gods, demigods, archons, titans, satyrs, centaurs, gorgons, and hydras, as well has human cultures loosely based on Athens and Sparta. The gods make war with one another, as do the various sentient beings that populate this classical corner of the Magic multiverse. The fact that Theros is only an approximation of the ancient world allows for more creative license on the part of the games developers than would be the case with a more strictly historically accurate depiction. If anything, this quasi-classical world might inspire players to look more closely at the historical period it is meant to reflect. In my view, this is a plus. There are many areas of popular culture--gaming included--in which the ancient world is represented with varying degrees of accuracy. Assassin's Creed is another prime example. For the most part, the target audience of such productions are not classical scholars, but the general public. Yet, for many people, film, television, novels, and gaming are their first point of contact with depictions of the ancient world. Academics, instead of dismissing them as "inaccurate" and "popular," would do well to pay attention to how how antiquity is engaged with by means of such cultural products. They provide important opportunities for learning and debate both inside and outside the classroom. So, this pre-release weekend, if you're a classics nerd or gamer (or both), you might want to take a moment to investigate or reflect upon Magic: The Gathering's creative and intriguing take on the Graeco-Roman world.
U2 are arguably the world's biggest "Christian" rock band. Christian, not in the tediously parochial WOW worship style, but, to put it another way, U2 are one of the world's biggest bands that just happens to be Christian. That an Irish band would be interested in religious questions is by no means surprising. To be sure, many popular musicians have private religious sympathies which are sometimes expressed in a public way, even in their music, but the pervasively profound yet understated spirituality of U2 is of an entirely different order. In fact, it is totally unique.
What's surprising is that U2's religiosity is curiously unknown to many, even those familiar with their music. Yet anyone who's inquired into their back story will understand that the band members met at Mount Temple, a north Dublin Christian school. If fact, as chronicled the classic biography of the band, spirituality seems to have been the band's primary motive early on, as well as a source of great tension with bassist Adam Clayton, the only non-religious member of the group.
IN TE DOMINE
U2's religious optic is somewhat obscured on their first album Boy (1980), which deals primarily with themes of maturity and relationship, but is on full display in their 1981 follow-up October, notably in songs such as "Gloria":
I try to sing this song
I I try to stand up
But I can't find my feet
I try, I try to speak up
But only in you I'm complete
Gloria in te domine
Gloria exultate
Gloria Gloria
Oh Lord, loosen my lips
Similar sentiments are expressed even more explicitely in other songs such as "Rejoice" and "With a Shout":
Shout, shout
With a shout, shout it out
Shout...shout it out...
I want to go
To the foot of the messiah
To the foot of he who made me see
To the side of a hill
Where we were still
We were filled
With our love
We're gonna be there again
Jerusalem Jerusalem
At appeared at this point that the band was indeed headed down the path of producing "Christian rock" in a more conventional sense. Fortunately, they took a more ambitious direction.
On 1983's decidedly more political War, the lyrical piety is more tempered but still evident, as in "Sunday Bloody Sunday," a song which itself deals an infamous case of sectarian religious violence, and pointedly asking: "Has the real battle yet begun / to claim the victory Jesus won?" The album also contains "40" a song based on Psalm 40 and that the band used frequently as a set closer.
I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
Hymnic, biblical, and totally U2. The spiritual content of U2's early songs is sometimes a juxtaposition of frustration and elation; frustration with intolerance and religiously motivated violence, yet elation as the potentiality of divine encounter.
IN GOD'S COUNTRY
1984's Unforgettable Fire saw the band breaking new sonic territory, thanks to the production efforts of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. As we might expect, even though Bono suffered from a severe case of writer's block through much of the recording sessions, spiritual themes came to run alongside images of nuclear annihilation and drug addiction. "Pride", for instance, evokes the legacy of Martin Luther King (as does the closing track "MLK") while simultaneously referencing "one man betrayed with a kiss". It was in this period that they gave a now historic performance at 1985's Live Aid concert for African famine relief. This was an era when musicians wore their social conscience on their sleeves.
After a string of progressively impressive albums, it was in 1987 that U2 gained full control of their writing and performing abilities, releasing their first masterpiece The Joshua Tree. Although the title references a park in California, the name also has obvious biblical implications. The album opens with the majestically soaring "Where the Streets Have No Names." In this song, Bono can be heard striving for a state of mystical ecstasy beyond the reference points of language and location.
I wanna run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside.
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
Even more spiritually poignant is track two, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," a song which chronicles a desperate, but hopeful, search for the sacred amid darkness and confusion.
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes, I'm still running
You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Of my shame, you know I believe it
Other tracks from the album, such as "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "In God's Country" evoke more powerfully biblical imagery. The latter is a kind of Solomonic ode to sensuality in the holy aridity of the American wilderness.
After a period of extensive touring in support of the Joshua Tree, which was both a critical and commercial success, U2 released at live album and concert film called Rattle and Hum in 1988. Conceived by the band as a sort of love letter to Americana, some observers considered the project a misstep, although both the album and film remain beloved by many fans and contain a number of strong compositions. One in particular, "God Part 2", is in hindsight a clear foreshadowing of the band's radical re-invention in the early 90s. True to form, biblical references abound, especially in a collaboration with B.B. King.
FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE
Critical ambivalence about Rattle and Hum aside, there can be no denying that U2 released a second master-stroke with 1991's Achtung Baby. Arguably the band's crowning achievement, the album inaugurated a new era of musical experimentation and (as yet untapped) sexual energy. Although perhaps less overtly religious than previous releases, Achtung Baby nonetheless contains one of Bono's most darkly spiritual meditations--"Until the End of the World":
Haven't seen you in quite a while
I was down the hold just passing time
Last time we met was a low-lit room
We were as close together as a bride and groom
We ate the food, we drank the wine
Everybody having a good time
Except you, You were talking about the end of the world
I took the money
I spiked your drink
You miss too much these days if you stop to think
You lead me on with those innocent eyes
You know I love the element of surprise
In the garden I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart
You, You were acting like it was the end of the world
Love, love, love
In my dream I was drowning my sorrows
But my sorrows, they learned to swim
Surrounding me, going down on me
Spilling over the brim
Waves of regret and waves of joy
I reached out for the one I tried to destroy
You, you said you'd wait
'Til the end of the world
Recounting the betrayal of Jesus from the perspective of Judas, the song is both violent and sexy; qualities which aptly describe the epic multimedia extravaganza that became the subsequent ZooTV tour.
Achtung Baby's juxtaposition between spirit and flesh is also evident in the hugely popular video for "Mysterious Ways" filmed in Morocco. Again, the title has obvious spiritual implications.
Remarkably, as the Achtung Baby tour worn on, Bono's on-stage persona morphed into a character called "Macphisto", a demonic trickster fond of making prank phone calls. This, however, was not the only unexpected development. In 1993, while on tour, the band released Zooropa, in many ways a companion piece to Achtung Baby. The lead single, "Stay (Far Away, So Close)", rivals "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" in its longing spiritual pathos.
If I could stay, then the night would give you up.
Stay, and the day would keep its trust.
Stay with the demons you drowned.
Stay with the spirit I found.
Stay, and the night would be enough.
Three o'clock in the morning
It's quiet, there's no one around,
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel runs to ground.
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel hits the ground
Once again, a classic video accompanied the song, replete with angelic imagery filmed by "Wings of Desire" director Wim Wenders.
What's also notable about Zooropa is that it gives us the first inklings of spiritual desolation in U2's catalogue, as subtly expressed in "The First Time":
My father is a rich man
He wears a rich man's cloak
Gave me the keys to his kingdom coming
Gave me a cup of gold
He said I have many mansions
And there are many rooms to see
But I left by the back door
And I threw away the key
Similar sentiments are expressed in the stand-alone single from 1995 "Miss Sarajevo". As it happens, much of the ZooTV and Zooropa tours coincided with the Bosnian War. This track, produced in collaboration with late Italian opera singer Pavarotti, captures the confusion and despair of this brutally sectarian conflict.
Is there a time for first communion
A time for east 17
Is there a time to turn to Mecca
Is there a time to be a beauty queen
...
E non so pi pregare
E nell'amore non so pi sperare
E quell'amore non so pi aspettare
[And I cannot pray anymore
And I cannot hope in love anymore
And I cannot wait for love anymore]
After an extended hiatus, U2 returned in 1997 with Pop, once again considered a misstep by some, brilliant by others. It seemed to depend on whether one saw irony in the apparent commercialism surrounding the release. Nevertheless, Pop does contain two more highlights from U2's spiritual song book--"If God Will Send His Angels" and "Wake Up Dead Man," both of which continue the theme of spiritual desolation by powerfully evoking the apparent absence of God.
Jesus, Jesus help me
I'm alone in this world
And a fucked up world it is too
Tell me, tell me the story
The one about eternity
And the way it's all gonna be
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man
Jesus, I'm waiting here boss
I know you're looking out for us
But maybe your hands aren't free
Your father, he made the world in seven
He's in charge of Heaven
Will you put a word in for me
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man
These later songs display a lack of optimism and spiritual conviction that characterised early U2 efforts. On these tracks the band explores the depths of spiritual despair and alienation--to powerful effect.
WALK ON
2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind sees the band returned to form. As the title seems to imply, there's a searching for simplicity and essential value on this album--a sense of renunciation and loss. This is a sentiment we see in one of the standout tracks "Walk On", which in the live version ends with a powerful spiritual refrain.
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
After another short break, U2 released How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, a sonic and lyrical extension of the previous release. Here, spiritual themes pervade songs such as "Miracle Drug" and "Yahweh", and continue to be expressed on subsequent albums.
***
As we can see, a deep spiritual sensibility can be discerned throughout much of U2's musical catalogue. Yet what is so remarkable about many such tracks is their often understated ambivalence. The listener is invited to take it or leave it. Those with no religious background might not even notice the spiritual imagery and themes, while those that do may enter into something deeper. It's entirely up to them. U2 does not overtly "evangelize" their audience, but allows them to pick up the themes as needed. Moreover, although ostensibly "Christian", the band's denominational orientation is left ambiguous. In fact, such sectarian divisions are set aside in favour universal themes of longing, alienation, love, and desire. They provide a positive, constructive, and accessible spiritual vision. One that isn't hung up on questions of doctrine or the politics of exclusion. In this way, it surely appeals to the "spiritual not religious" demographic. Those who search for meaning and encounter but do not necessarily fit into conventional religious categories. This, it seems, would at least partly explain the band's enormous and enduring appeal.
