Simon Goldhill
On Knowingness

The sex education lessons at my school—this is early 1970s North London—were famous among the lower forms and much anticipated. The teacher, a polymathic communist, would walk in, slam his hand on the desk and declare, loudly, `Fuck. You all know what that means. Let's get down to details'.

The details indeed followed, over several hours and days. I remember nothing at all, except one friend asking a question in the anonymous, written-question time about adolescent depression, and the teacher's evident fascination with finding out who had asked it. I was as gripped by the teacher's interest in the question as I was baffled by the very notion of articulating such a self-reflexive question about adolescent depression. But I was young for my class.

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SIMON GOLDHILL is professor of Greek at Cambridge University and director of the Research Centre at King's College. He has published widely on Greek literature and culture and is a regular lecturer and broadcaster in Europe and the United States. His most recent books include Who Needs Greek? (2002), Love, Sex, and Tragedy (2004), and The Temple of Jerusalem (2004). He is currently running a project on `Abandoning the Past in Victorian Britain'.