Junior Zachary Chen presented a paper about how Roman writers used the myth of Phaethon to argue for their different philosophies at the Ohio Classical Conference’s annual convention on Sept. 26. 

The paper, Chen’s seventh presented at an academic conference, was titled “Generosus Phaethon: The Uses of a Myth in Lucretius, Ovid, and Seneca the Younger.” Chen said he wrote this paper specifically for the conference and presented it for a panel of graduate students titled “Close Readings of Dirty Work.”

“I was very grateful for the opportunity to present at the Ohio Classical Conference,” Chen said. “The audience was a fantastic group to chat with and to discuss ideas. I also enjoyed hearing the other papers which were presented.”

Chen shows graduate schools that he’s already operating at the graduate level as an undergraduate junior by presenting papers at conferences, according to Chairman and Professor of Classics Joseph Garnjobst. 

“What we want our students to do is to practice like they’re going to play,” Garnjobst said. “We want them to act like graduate students, so that they get a better idea of what those demands are, so that if they really like it and thrive — and Zack is someone who really thrives in that environment — he knows what to expect.”

The presentation lasted for 10 minutes, with an additional five minutes for questions. 

“The questions at academic conferences help you refine your paper, and come back to your own thoughts with the input of your peers, and tinker around with your reading,” Chen said. “They give you a perspective on things that you’re just not going to have, and the opportunity for peer review forces you to sharpen what you’re saying, maybe respond, reformulate, and revise your work. It’s a very helpful and healthy experience.” 

Chen said he wrote on an intertextual treatment of the myth of Phaethon in Seneca, Ovid, and Lucretius. 

In the myth, the sun god Helios’ son Phaethon asked to drive the sun around the earth for one day so that he could prove Helios was his father. Phaethon fails to drive the chariot, and Zeus kills him so that he doesn’t burn the world, according to Chen. 

Lucretius used the myth of Phaethon to argue that the gods are not real, and only material fire exists, Chen said. Ovid used the myth to argue against Lucretius and re-mythologize the story, critiquing Lucretius’ Epicurean philosophy in the process. Seneca, finally, used the myth to portray Phaethon as an example of pursuing virtue and stoically accepting suffering, a position which “corrects” and acknowledges its predecessors, according to Chen. 

“There’s a tension there between each of the three authors, and the way that they pick up on each other,” Chen said. “There are verbal resonances there. There are thematic resonances, and I mean, this is the great conversation.” 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics Joshua Benjamins read a draft of Chen’s paper before he submitted it. 

“It’s a very interesting topic,” Benjamins said. “It is a manifestation of a theme that Zack is very interested in, which is intertextuality, that is the way that authors draw upon and interweave earlier authors and texts into the texture of their own work.”

Benjamins said Chen is an “outstanding” student who is strong in languages and research. 

“His language skills are very good, but in particular, what sets him apart is his ability to pursue serious research questions in a way that combines close reading of the text with scholarly and theoretical frameworks for interpreting the text,” Benjamins said.

Chen said he plans to continue presenting papers in the coming months. He said he wants to be a professional classicist because he finds writing and thinking about the ancient world intriguing. 

“I think toward the end of my high school years, I realized that this was something I wanted to pursue,” Chen said. “And then into my first year at Hillsdale, it kind of crystallized for me, and I thought, ‘Oh, this is something I’d like to devote my academic life to.’”  

Garnjobst called Chen “a budding classicist and an emerging scholar,” and said Chen has improved every semester as a student, scholar, and person. 

“He has done this all himself,” Garnjobst said. “He has looked for these opportunities, and every time he has found one and submitted, we have supported him, but he’s quite the force of nature on his own.”