The Library of Philodemus

Celebrating the Vesuvius Challenge

Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan by Diego de Velázquez, 1629

I want to be buried like a human.

Pummeled by plum-sized ash.

Treated by scorching desire

Screams of the departed

Styx flows about

roaring waves

parting seas

cremated 

textiles

time

unfurls

monuments

few documents

reincarnate streets

muttering archeologists

Breakthrough Technology

Trumpeting Grace; I am reborn.

I wrote this poem in 2013 after visiting Herculaneum. Herculaneum is the mysterious beautiful younger sister of Pompeii. While Pompeii was covered in ash and soot and pumice stones, pyroclastic flow (lava) destroyed and fossilized Herculaneum. In some respects, the liquid rock preserved it better than the permeable soot layers preserved Pompeii. In one Villa there was a library filled with Epicurean works. These texts were dominantly written by what Cicero called “a most learned man” named Philodemus. While (pulverizing) attempts to unroll and read the burnt crisps have happened on and off since their 18th century discovery, the remaining papyri are now preserved and imaged without damage.

Even then in 2013 when I first went to Herculaneum, it was clear that one day we would be fishing more text out of the library of Philodemus - if only the right resources were thrown at the problem… And it was only this year 2023-2024, that a major prize was awarded for deciphering charred, crispy texts via powerful machine learning tools. Thank you to all those teams - Trumpeting Grace! - who are unraveling mysteries in our world.

Technology and hard application work allowed this resuscitation of words and ideas, and so long as people read them they live still.