BC (Boston College and Before Christ)

So, I know a few of us used the long weekend to do a bit of college touring.  Chloe and I went up to look at some schools in the Boston area, Boston College included. 

A quick summary: Boston College is a liberal arts university founded in 1863, and it is "grounded in the ideals that inspired [their] Jesuit founders."

The school really emphasized their Jesuit origins and how that continues to influence them today.  It wasn't until we got back to our hotel for the night that I noticed the school's shiny motto on the nice little pamphlet they gave to me: "Αἰέν ἀριστεύειν."  Mostly I noticed it because a lot of schools seem to have mottos in Latin, but I didn't remember many that had mottos in Ancient Greek (UK schools, such as St. Andrews, use Greek mottos more than US ones).

"Oh, cool," I thought.  Then: "Wait, what does that mean?"

It turns out that the motto, translated in English, is "ever to excel," and it comes from Book Six of The Iliad (which is attributed to Homer around the 8th century BC and was translated by, you know it, Alexander Pope)!  The phrase stems from a speech made by Glaucus, a captain in the Lycian army (allies of the Trojans), to Diomedes (a Greek fighter) after a face-to-face battle.  Diomedes is like, "Dude, you're super brave, who the heck are you?" (exact wording there) and Glaucous says, "Hippolochus begat me. I claim to be his son, and he sent me to Troy with strict instructions: Ever to excel, to do better than others, and to bring glory to your forebears, who indeed were very great ... This is my ancestry; this is the blood I am proud to inherit."

So I thought this was pretty cool, but also kind of ironic.  As I mentioned, BC seems really proud of their Jesuit influences, but they're using a motto from a work produced by a pagan society, and more than that, the phrase is delivered during a super bloody battle, and more than that, at least part of the meaning behind Glaucus' words seems to be "kill people well" even though the school also has a lot of emphasis on service work and helping the community.

Just some food for thought that I thought was interesting!  I wonder how many BC students are aware of this?