ABSTRACT
In his De ratione studii of 1512, the foundation text for the curriculum at the newly established St Paul’s School in London, Erasmus reminded prospective schoolmasters that they needed a proper knowledge of mythology:
Certainly in an exposition of the poets, who are accustomed to flavour their compositions with knowledge drawn from every quarter, you must command a good supply of mythology, and from whom is it better to seek this than Homer, the father of all myth? But the Metamorphoses and Fasti of Ovid, although written in Latin, are of no small importance. 1
Erasmus’s assertion here is part of a larger argument about how masters should select the best models for their pupils to imitate. But it is also a more specific observation on the exposition of poetry. Classical poetry is full of mythological allusions. Masters therefore need a sufficient grasp of mythology to explain these. Later in the work, when he turns in more detail to the selection of topics for the classroom, Erasmus reiterates his point. First, he reminds masters that, when choosing material, they should ‘avoid above all the common mistake of having topics vacuous in content or dull in form’; they should instead select ones that ‘have a certain point or charm which is not too remote from youthful capabilities, so that while they are concentrating on something else, they will learn material relevant to higher studies’. Then, he suggests two possibilities, two fields of knowledge that do appeal precisely to those ‘youthful capabilities’: either the master should ‘have a theme or memorable historical episode to set before the boys’, or he ‘should employ mythology’. Finally, he cites two examples of what he means by ‘mythology’: two fables from the classical world – how ‘Hercules won immortality for himself by vanquishing monsters’ and how ‘the Muses take special delight in springs and groves and shun the smoky cities’. 2 Knowledge of mythology, in other words, was required for a practical reason as well as a pedagogical one; it was needed not only to explain otherwise arcane references in schoolroom texts, but also more fundamentally to make lessons appealing to schoolboys.