Wesleyan's mythical hero: Dr. Lynn Sawlivich

Mythological heroes come in all shapes and forms, so it was not surprising to find that Dr. Lynn Sawlivich’s favorite hero is Argos, Odysseus’ dog, mentioned in Homer’s “The Odyssey.” Argos waited 20 long years for his master to return from the Trojan War only to greet him, then die.

Sawlivich is the professor of mythology at Virginia Wesleyan. Before coming here, he taught in other places, arriving in the fall of 2003. He received his Ph.D. in classics and history from Harvard University in 1991.

Sawlivich was inspired to teach mythology when he was a teacher’s assistant in graduate school at Harvard. He said that the professor there could talk to everyone and get everyone interested.

“I try to give that kind of excitement to my students,” he said.

Sawlivich said that he would desire greatly to teach Latin but that mythology is where the students are: “Everyone wants mythology.”

When Sawlivich is not in the classroom and out of the office, he can likely be found at home reading a book or at the theater watching a movie.

“I go to the movies relentlessly,” he said. “Just about every day.”

Sawlivich never acted in any classical mythology plays. He said he would rather sit and read a book. He was the quiet type in class during his college-bound years, which is ironic in that he forces his students to get up in front of the class and do selected dramatic readings.

“It surprises me how many students come up to me saying ‘Please don’t make me do this’ after class,” he said.

Sawlivich feels it is important for them to do it. Plays are supposed to be watched, not read. It helps to give the class a better understanding of what has been spoken if the students read aloud and examine each passage. He has said in class, “Man must suffer to be wise.”

There are good and evil characters in classical mythology. The bad guys, the villains, are what make myth work, Sawlivich said when asked what character he disliked.

“We need to like the bad guys, because they are what make the story,” he said.

A hero, in his words, is someone who is remembered in myth or history. If someone was important enough to be noted in history or myth, Sawlivich said it was because of some heroic thing they did. “A hero has to be someone who died,” he said.

In today’s society, political figures who died for what they believed in, Sawlivich said, make the best heroes.

“Martin Luther King Jr. started great things but never knew how they ended,” he said.

National tragedies make way for heroes, as well, Sawlivich said. World War II is so far away that, until Sept. 11, it had been the biggest thing in people’s memory.

“It has become a national mythology,” he said. Sawlivich believes that people are still culturally affected by their society in much the same way that mythology had established an identity for its people.

“We live in a mythological-based society,” he said.

Sawlivich said that science tried, but cannot replace myth. Our heroes made us who we are, he said. When people suffer, heroes are formed. He said they give us our identity.

“The culture has a memory now,” he said in class. “The memory gives culture identity through myth.”

Sawlivich has traveled to many places and visited a number of sights, more historical rather than mythological settings. He has even traveled to Greece where classical mythology was popular.

“The Civil War in the south is history turned into myth,” he said. Historical events have to be turned into myth if that happens by building museums, establishing parks, producing plays, and writing books. They have to be brought back to life, Sawlivich said.