This fall semester on the California campus, the community came together to discuss Sophocles’ Philoctetes. The students, prompted by opening questions from their tutors, dug into the story of the mythic archer Philoctetes, whom the Greeks left stranded on an island nine years earlier during the Trojan War. After a prophecy reveals that Philoctetes will defeat the Trojans, Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus, is sent to trick him into returning to Troy to aid the Greeks. Students engaged in lively conversations, considering the psychology behind Neoptolemus’s betrayal and Philoctetes’ hatred of the Greeks, uncovering themes of honesty and deceit, isolation and friendship.
After their seminars, the students and tutors headed to St. Joseph Commons, where they enjoyed each other’s company over late-night pizza and reflected on their classroom discussions. “It was nice to see how the upperclassmen interact in the discussion,” recalled freshman Josephine Potter (’28). “Everyone was complimenting what others were saying, even when they weren’t necessarily agreeing.”