A British university has issued a trigger warning to undergraduate students studying Greek mythology, advising them to reach out to support services should they find the material distressing.
The University of Exeter in the United Kingdom has advised undergraduates studying Homer’s ancient poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, the two major Greek epic poems, that if the subject is “causing distress” they should “feel free to deal with it in ways that can help (e.g., leave the classroom, contact well-being services and/or talk to the lecturer).”
The advise has been particularly strong to students taking the module “Women in Homer,” who at the beginning of the course are warned that they may find the material “uncomfortable and challenging,” particularly the references to rape, infant mortality and sexual violence.
The details of the advice given to undergraduates studying the works of Homer at Exeter University were published in an exclusive report by British Mail Online, and were obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
British university criticized for issuing trigger warning on Greek mythology
Critics have been blasting the University of Exeter for issuing the warnings yet it wasn’t until Saturday night, when even former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a fan of Homer’s works and the classics, openly slammed the move calling the warnings “absurd” and adding that they must be “withdrawn.”
“Are they really saying that their students are so wet, so feeble-minded and so generally namby-pamby that they can’t enjoy Homer?” Johnson said.
Several professors at British universities have also slammed Exeter’s move.
Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, told Mail Online: “Poor old Homer. A university that decides to put a trigger warning on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey has become morally disoriented to the point that it has lost the plot. It is obvious that this university is unaware of the temporal distinction between the present and past and regards these foundational mythologies as if they are contemporary statements about the world.”
The Iliad and the Odyssey were written in the seventh or eight century BC by ancient Greek poet Homer. They had been inspired by the mythic Trojan War and they are two of the oldest works of literature still read by modern audiences.
The Iliad was set towards the end of the Trojan War in the siege’s final weeks and depicts the fierce rivalry between King Agamemnon and Achilles, a celebrated warrior. The Odyssey, which in 2018 was voted the greatest story ever written, by experts around the world in a poll by BBC Culture, follows the Greek hero Odysseus, King of Ithaca, on his ten-year journey home after the end of the war.
Jeremy Black, the author of “A Short History of War,” a book in which he examines war as a global phenomenon, told Mail Online that “Trigger warnings proliferate like knotweed and the latest, on Women in Homer at Exeter, can surely only be a parody.” Black added that “Homer’s work on the Trojan War inherently focuses on violence and is realistic precisely because heroism and cruelty are shown to be related. There is no need for the emotional incontinence of walking out of lectures.”
Exeter University stands by its move to issue the warning
A spokesman for the University of Exeter told Mail Online that the university “strongly supports both academic freedom and freedom of speech and accepts that this means students may encounter views and content that they may find uncomfortable during their studies.”
The spokesman added that content warnings “help ensure students who may be affected by specific issues are not subjected to any potential unnecessary distress.”
