Latin Club provides engaging space for students to dive into Latin

Omnia Mihi Lingua Graeca Sunt. In Latin this means: it’s all Greek to me. If you knew that, or maybe more so if you didn’t, you might want to spend your next X-block with the Latin Club.

The club is about a lot more than just the language. It provides an engaging space for students who are interested in exploring the Latin language, history and mythology to come together.

Seniors Momoko Howell, Robbie Watkins, Rahul Kolluri and Raphael Grieco are the club leaders. They hope to bring in people with a variety of interests and levels of knowledge.

Latin teacher and club adviser Eli Williams supports drawing in students with a range of interests in Latin language and Roman history.

“It’s for kids who are interested in the past, who want to do stuff that doesn’t happen in class that has to do with the ancient world,” Williams said.

The stuff that doesn’t happen in class includes a classical scavenger hunt, a classical movie night and building a catapult, all of which are in the planning stages. In previous years, the club has also done costume design and dressed up like Roman Gods.

According to Kolluri, there are people in the club who don’t even take Latin but are interested in Roman history or culture.

“The history nerds are a big demographic for us,” Watkins said.

That doesn’t mean that the Latin Club members aren’t also seriously interested in the study of Latin. On the club’s agenda is setting up tutoring for Latin students and participating in a state Latin competition called Certamen.

The Latin word Certamen literally translates to competition, and the game features jeopardy-style questions about classical mythology.

Howell was drawn to the study of mythology.

“I was really big on Greek mythology. Now I’ve moved on more to Roman because of Latin,” Howell said.

Kolluri loves seeing ancient texts in their original language.

“This year we started translating the Aeneid. That’s really cool because you get to see stuff that some people wrote 2000 years ago come alive,” Kolluri said. “You could read the article and get the basic facts, but seeing it come to life on paper is just the coolest thing.”

Junior and new club member Julia Starrett is in her third year of Latin classes. She enjoys the study because it gives her a comprehension of history and other romance languages.

“If you’re studying Latin, you are studying history and linguistics,” Starrett said. “You get an insight into both our past in the Western world, but also into other languages and other cultures.”

Latin may be a dead language, but no one in this club doubts that it remains highly relevant. According to Williams, the Latin Club members are looking for new and creative ways to draw on the legacy and the language of ancient Rome.

“There are so many lessons you can take from the ancient world that you can apply today,” Williams said.