From the Falcon:

The annual C. May Marston lecture was given by Owen Ewald, assistant professor of classics, in Demaray Hall on the evening of Feb. 14. The lecture, entitled, "What Are You Laughing At? Humor in the Ancient World," drew a crowd of almost 100 students, faculty and community members.

The C. May Marston lecture is given every year by the faculty member who holds the position of C. May Marston Professor of Classics, said Susan Gallagher, Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development director and professor of English, who spoke briefly at the event.

Ewald has given this lecture for the past three years. His predecessors are Drs. Christine Roseman, Winifred Weter and C. May Marston, Gallagher said.

This is the 10th C. May Marston lecture that Gallagher has attended. The Marston lecture is an event where the whole SPU community is invited to celebrate scholarship, she said.

With a number of published scholarly essays and a heavy teaching schedule, Ewald, who is fluent in both Latin and Greek and speaks five additional languages, is an excellent example of both a teacher and a scholar, Gallagher said.

Gallagher was pleased with the topic of "Humor in the Ancient World."

"I thought it was a wonderfully intriguing topic that would appeal to students and also draw on a lot of classic literature," Gallagher said.

"It showed Dr. Ewald's strength as a teacher-scholar," she said.

His lecture covered, as Ewald put it, "material that is still funny, and material that takes a footnote to understand."

Comedy can be traced as far back as the epic poet Homer in 800 B.C., Ewald said. In Homer's "The Odyssey," the heroic Odysseus tells the one-eyed Cyclops Polyphemus that his name is "Nobody." When the hero drives an iron pole through the monster's eye, Polyphemus can only call out in vain, "Friends, Nobody is killing me now!"

A parody from 400 B.C. describes an epic battle between frogs and mice, mocking the meticulous way that Homer describes how and in what area of the body each person was killed. The narrative also shares Homer's compulsion to name every minor character to enter the story and keeps his affinity toward continually signifying death with the ominous phrase, "death veiled his eyes."

Ewald addressed the popular comedian Aristophanes, whom he compared with TV's Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show."

Aristophanes devised a satire of the jury system of Athens where two dogs fight over a piece of cheese, Ewald said. The case was overseen by a canine jury and judge, he said. "Animals doing human things is always funny," Ewald said.

Aristophanes also parodied new Greek scientific advances, as well as the teachings of his contemporary philosopher Socrates, who was eventually put to death, Ewald said.

Comedy was of interest to the philosopher Aristotle, who believed it could be studied empirically, with a more scientific and fact-based approach, Ewald said.

History's first comedy book was "Philogelos," or "Laughter Lover," thought to have been written in 350 A.D., Ewald said. Most of these jokes revolved around the comedic exploits of an idiotic "egghead" character, he said.

Early Christian monks had their own brand of humor, which can be seen in the 700 A.D. "Ioca Monachorum," Ewald said. These jokes were meant to provoke smiles, as opposed to outright laughter, which the monks considered unholy, he said.

Ewald's lecture also covered puns in the New Testament, such as in Matthew 16:18, where Jesus says, "And I tell you that you are Peter (petros), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church." Puns like these were usually more significant than humorous, Ewald said.

"I thought there was a great student turnout. People laughed at Dr. Ewald's jokes," Gallagher said.

"The Marston lecture represents a different way to learn on campus and represents one of the great traditions of learning," Gallagher said.

Junior Skylar Gingrich attended the Marston lecture with other students in Ewald's Elementary Classical Greek I class.

"We think he's a marvelous teacher so we were very excited to come," she said.

"It's very enjoyable to be in a class environment or in a seminar like this," Gingrich said.

"I really liked the biblical references," she said. Learning Greek will allow her to read the New Testament in its original form, so that nothing will be lost in translation, Gingrich said. She will also be better able to understand biblical humor, Gingrich said.

"I'm sure people will find something there that grabs them, something that appeals," Ewald said.

"This is something that gives people a taste without obligating them to a whole discipline," Ewald said.

The lecture was videotaped and is currently available on iTunes University.

Well ... I know what podcast I'll be listening to on our class ski trip tomorrow ... I can't seem to give the link this a.m., but if you go to iTunes, click on iTunesU, then Seattle Pacific University, then the Marston lectures button, then the video tab. Not sure if clicking this will get you most of the way through that ...