Reporter Volume 25, No.23 April 7, 1994

Student with rock band and yen for Homer wins NEH award
By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Bureau Staff
Thomas Dietzel, an undergraduate classics and English major at UB, is
the recipient of a 1994 National Endowment for the Humanities Younger
Scholars Award, one of the most highly competitive college awards in
the humanities field.
The award money will be used to fund a summer project on Aeschylus'
Orestia under the direction of John Peradotto, Andrew V.V. Raymond
Professor of Classics at UB.
Peradotto calls Dietzel "one of the most brilliant guys I've ever
met."
"Tom is absolutely in love with the classics, and in particular with
Homer," he says. "He's one of the best majors we've had in many years.
He's made great progress in languages very quickly and right now is
doing an independent study in Homer and Herodotus. He writes poetry
himself, and has an impressive ability to translate that combines
scholarly skill with a brilliant grasp of the creative intent of the
author."
	Dietzel's original plan was to acquire a doctorate in English
and teach in a university. His interest in the classics began when he
set out to satisfy the undergraduate language requirements associated
with his English program.
"I remembered my dad saying years ago that no one understands Western
culture without understanding the Roman and Greek civilizations,"
Dietzel says. "So I thought I'd try Greek."
That was a language or two ago. Since then, he has developed an
interest in Latin, Sanskrit, Egyptian, Coptic and other ancient
languages, and has added a major in classical literature to his
undergraduate program. He leavens his readings in Greek philosophy,
literature and history with the work of Lao-tzu and other Eastern
philosophers, and a study of the Koran and the Old and New Testaments.
He has more than a fleeting interest in Chinese.
If Dietzel's love of the Attican way began with his father, William
Dietzel, who once taught European history in high school and college,
he owes his success to both parents. Both his father and mother
strongly encouraged him to read everything he could when he was
growing up.
And the influence flows both ways. His father, says Dietzel, began
studying ancient Greek language and literature when his son did and
they now engage in hour-long telephone debates about Thucydides and
his historical cohorts.
Tom Dietzel's sideline is the rock band in which he is the
singer/guitarist. His group is about to cut a compact disc, which, he
says, "could be successful precisely because I'm not attached to that
idea of success in that field at all. 
 It would be great, he admits, if his music was able to fund further
his education, research and writing. In any case, he expects to
eventually explore the rich metaphorical connections among the texts
of ancient cultures. In this regard, he sees himself, he says, as
something of a prophet.
"I'm not the only one around," he says. "There are many of us out here
interested in looking at old texts in new ways. I think my role in
that regard is to explore those hidden metaphors that all seem to
point toward the same ideaQthat the truth is nameless, the light has
no name, the act of naming is itself a lie."