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Co-workers in the Kingdom of Culture
 Co-workers in the Kingdom of
Culture
Classics and Cosmopolitanism in the Thought of W.
E. B. Du Bois

DAVID WITHUN
 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the
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You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same
condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021052612

ISBN 978–0–19–757958–9
eISBN 978–0–19–757960–2

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197579589.001.0001
 Contents

Acknowledgments

W. E. B. Du Bois, the Classics, and Cosmopolitanism

1. The Classical Education of W. E. B. Du Bois
The Classics and Du Bois’s Enduring Moral Vision
Du Bois’s High School and College Education
Du Bois’s Education at Harvard
Classicism and Pragmatism at Harvard
Du Bois, Santayana, and Platonic Aesthetics
Du Bois Inside and Outside Western Civilization
Conclusion
2. American Archias: Cicero, Epic Poetry, and The Souls of Black
Folk
Cicero and The Souls of Black Folk
African American History and Epic Poetry
The Autobiography of a Culture Hero
Du Bois’s Epic Novels
Citizenship and Humanitas in Du Bois’s Thought
Conclusion
3. The Influence of Plato on the Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois
Contemporary Context: Plato and Egalitarian Elitism
Sources for Du Bois’s Egalitarian Elitism
Du Bois’s Commitment to Truth
The Philosopher-Kings and the Talented Tenth
Du Bois and Washington on Civilization and Education
The Talented Tenth and the Message of Black Folk
The Sorrow Songs and the Allegory of the Cave
 Marxism and Platonism in Du Bois’s Thought
Conclusion
4. Anti-Racist Metamorphoses in Du Bois’s Classical References
Background: Whiteness and the Classics
A Time before Race: Ancient Culture as Nonracial Culture
Black People in Antiquity
Classical Subversion in the African American Tradition
Conclusion
5. The History of the “Darker Peoples” of the World: Afrocentrism
and Cosmopolitanism in the Later Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois
The Miseducation of the Negro
The Negro and The Star of Ethiopia
The World and Africa
The Unity of the “Darker Peoples”
Africa in Modern History
“Home” to Africa
Conclusion
Conclusion
From the Particular to the Universal
From the Parochial to the Cosmopolitan
Du Bois and the Canon

Bibliography
Index
 Acknowledgments

MY STUDENTS in my first year as a teacher at Savannah Classical

Academy in Savannah, Georgia, were the initial inspiration for the
research and writing that would, now nearly a decade later, lead to
this book. I am profoundly grateful to every student who has ever
sat in my classroom for the inspiration and the challenge that you all
have presented to me. It was my desire to be a better teacher for
you that granted me the insight, perseverance, and impetus to
complete this project.
I also owe a great debt of gratitude to Robert Woods, Jason
Jewell, Chad Redwing, David Stark, Mark Linville, and Benjamin
Lockerd at the Great Books Honors College of Faulkner University.
Your support in my intellectual endeavors; your consistent prompting
toward better, deeper thought and analysis; and the depth and
breadth of learning you both modeled and encouraged have allowed
me to think and to speak with clarity and charity. I am grateful also
to all of my former classmates. Our deep dives into the classics—the
conversations and comradery—are irreplaceable and much missed.
I am grateful to the many who have provided me with insightful
conversations, citations, and encouragement during the writing of
this book. Among these are Matt J. Harper, Benjamin J. Wetzel, Lilian
Calles Barger, Azmar K. Williams, Keisha N. Blain, Michael Okyere
Asante, Christopher Butynski, Benjamin Payne, Jeff Kreh, Stephen
Mitchell, Carolivia Herron, Shirley Moody-Turner, John Norman, Anika
Prather, and Michael Benjamin. I want especially to thank Patrice
Rankine for his support and for reading and commenting on an
earlier manuscript of this book and Michele V. Ronnick for her
continual willingness to take the time to answer questions and to
provide resources and insights. My thanks also go to Stefan Vranka
and the anonymous reviewers at Oxford University Press for valuable
feedback that have significantly improved this book. Any remaining
shortcomings are, of course, my own.
Finally, I want most of all to thank Vanessa, my wife, and Isaiah,
Genevieve, and Manuel, our three children. Thank you for tolerating
my frequent absences as I researched, read, and wrote, and thank
you for tolerating my absence of mind even when I was present. You
have taught me more about the one essential question—what it
means to be human—than anyone. Thank you.
 W. E. B. Du Bois, the Classics, and
Cosmopolitanism

THE SIGNIFICANCE OFW. E. B. Du Bois as both a scholar and an activist

is widely acknowledged, and various aspects of his life and legacy
have been thoroughly explored by recent scholarship. His work as a
historian, including his 1896 doctoral dissertation on The
Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of
America, 1638–1870 and his 1935 Black Reconstruction in America,
1860–1880, as David Levering Lewis writes, has “been
transformative and enduring in the historiography of Reconstruction”
and slavery, often foreshadowing by decades the changes that would
take place in scholarly consensus on the interpretation of these and
related events.1 Similarly, Du Bois’s contributions to sociology have
had an enduring influence. His sociological studies of African
American communities during his time at Atlanta University and his
1899 study The Philadelphia Negro became models for subsequent
sociological studies of urban African American communities.2 A
recent issue of The British Journal of Sociology was dedicated to
reappraising the significance and renewing the acknowledgment of
these and other sociological works undertaken by Du Bois.3 There
has also been some recent resurgence in interest in Du Bois as a
philosopher and fiction writer.4 Du Bois’s legacy as an activist,
cultural commentator, and political and educational theorist have
been significant formative influences and catalysts for the Civil
Rights movement, the anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist
movements, the Black Power movement, and Pan-Africanism, among
other diverse influences. One aspect of his life and legacy that
deserves further elucidation, however, is Du Bois’s role as a
classicist.
While Du Bois’s classical education and the enduring influence of
that education on his thought are often acknowledged, there has not
yet been a full treatment of influences by and responses to the
classics in Du Bois’s works and thought.5 Du Bois’s primary and
secondary education in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, as well as
his undergraduate and graduate education at Fisk University and
Harvard University were steeped in the study of classical languages
and literatures. Du Bois’s first academic appointment was as a chair
of the department of classics at Wilberforce University. Allusions to
classical works are sprinkled throughout Du Bois’s writings, some of
which, such as The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911), his first novel,
rely directly on themes and stories derived from the classics. While
there has been some discussion of these influences, much of it has
been confined to identifying and explicating those classical
influences and allusions or treating Du Bois’s reliance on the classics
in the context of a larger discussion of philosophical influences.6
Alongside a resurgent interest in Du Bois’s work and its legacy,
there has also been a rising scholarly interest in classical influences
in African American literature and thought, at the forefront of which
has been the work of Michele Valerie Ronnick, Patrice Rankine,
Margaret Malamud, James Tatum, William W. Cook, Eric Ashley
Hairston, and others.7 These have included explorations of classical
themes in the works of African American authors like Ralph Ellison
and Toni Morrison, rediscoveries of the work of early African
American scholars of the classics, and evaluations of the role that
classical thought has played in shaping American thinking and
rhetoric in relation to slavery, abolition, and civil rights.8
This book contributes to both this growing body of scholarship on
Du Bois as well as the wider study of African American classical
receptions by focusing on four themes in the work of Du Bois in
relation to the classics:
The first of these themes is an examination of the ways in which
Du Bois’s classical education shaped the style of his rhetoric and
writing. Developing the line of thought begun by Cook and Tatum, I
argue throughout, but especially in Chapters 1 and 2, for a
significant and lifelong influence from Cicero and other classical
authors on Du Bois’s work in the manner of composition.9 This
includes especially the influence of Cicero’s Pro Archia Poeta, a work
which Du Bois mentions in The Souls of Black Folk and elsewhere,
and which he first read as an undergraduate student at Fisk
University, on the structure and message of The Souls of Black Folk
as a whole. In addition, I explain some of the peculiarities of Du
Bois’s later works, including especially John Brown (1909) and Black
Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 (1935), each of which was
criticized by contemporary reviewers for their departures from the
scholarly standards then prevalent in their respective fields, by
comparing them to classical models of biography and history.10
The second theme of this book, particularly of Chapter 3, is that of
classical philosophical influences in the thought of Du Bois.
Developing further the thought of Stephanie J. Shaw and Shamoon
Zamir, I explore the influence of Plato’s political and ethical thought
on Du Bois by expanding that discussion to bridge the gap between
Du Bois’s early Platonism and later turn to Marxism as well as
including in the discussion possible metaphysical and aesthetic
influences from Plato.
The third and fourth major themes of this book include positioning
Du Bois as a transition point from the race vindicationism that drove
the pursuit of classical studies by African Americans of the
nineteenth century to the turn toward greater interest in Afrocentric
education that arose in the twentieth century and opened the
pathway for a renewed cosmopolitanism in the present.11 The third
theme, then, places Du Bois in the line of thinkers, described by
Malamud, for whom the mastery of classical languages and
literatures was the presentation of living disproof of the popular
doctrine of Black intellectual inferiority.12 Adopting, in a somewhat
modified form, Malamud’s theory that Du Bois’s pageant The Star of
Ethiopia represents a turning point in African American perspectives
on history, Chapters 4 and 5 pursue the fourth theme, positing that
while Du Bois remained a devotee of classical Western culture, he
simultaneously looked to the ancient histories of non-European
peoples, including especially those of Africa and India, as a means of
answering the claims of advocates of white superiority.13
In pursuit of these themes, this book includes five chapters.
The first chapter examines Du Bois’s classical education and the
continued significance of the classics throughout his life. Among the
primary source documents discussed are the texts he studied in high
school, as an undergraduate at Fisk University, and as a graduate
student at Harvard University, as well as allusions and other
mentions of those texts in Du Bois’s later works. I argue here that
Du Bois’s education presented him with the challenge that would
later form the basis of much of his treatment of classical literature in
his later writing, namely, that he developed a passion for the
classical tradition but simultaneously found himself excluded from
participation in it because of his race.
The second chapter argues that his frequent allusions to classical
mythology, philosophy, and history in his various works present
evidence of the continued role of the classics in shaping his ideas.
Through a comparison of the structure of The Souls of Black Folk
with Cicero’s Pro Archia Poeta, a work Du Bois references in Souls as
well as elsewhere, I demonstrate the possibility that Du Bois relied
on the ancient Roman work, in part, in shaping the structure and
argument of Souls through their shared goal of recognizing the full
citizenship rights of poets (in Du Bois’s case, the singers of the
Sorrow Songs, or African American Spirituals) regarded as foreigners
or outsiders.
The third chapter focuses on the numerous influences of Plato on
the thought of Du Bois. These include frequently noted influences,
such as the influence of Plato’s idea of a Guardian class of
Philosopher-Kings on the development of Du Bois’s idea of a
Talented Tenth, as well as influences that have received less
attention, such as the influence of Plato on Du Bois’s thought on
music and aesthetics, as well as Du Bois’s commitment to attaining
justice through the exposure of ignorance. The argument here
focuses primarily on two points: 1. That Du Bois’s conflict with
Booker T. Washington over the education of African Americans is
best understood through the framework of Du Bois’s Platonist social
and educational ideals and 2. That Du Bois did not abandon his
earlier Platonist-influenced aristocratic ideals with his adoption of a
Marxian outlook, but, rather, fitted this Marxian vision within a larger
and enduring Platonic vision.
The fourth and fifth chapters focus on Du Bois’s engagements with
the ancient and contemporary history of Africa in such works as The
Negro (1915), Africa, Its Geography, People and Products (1930),
Africa—Its Place in Modern History (1930), Black Folk Then and Now
(1939), The World and Africa (1947), and other works on African
history by Du Bois, as well as the work of Frank Snowden, Jr., and
Du Bois’s interest in it.14
Chapter 4 argues that Du Bois uses the ancient history of Africa in
relation to classical Greco-Roman history to advance his argument
for the intellectual and cultural equality of African people with
Europeans while also, continuing in the line of Phillis Wheatley, David
Walker, Charles Chesnutt, and other earlier writers, positioning Black
people at the foundations of Western Civilization as a means by
which to demand equal participation within contemporary Western
culture.
The fifth chapter continues the discussion of the previous chapter
by shifting focus to Du Bois’s engagement with the history of Africa
on its own terms rather than merely in relation to the history of the
classical Mediterranean and widening to encompass Du Bois’s
internationalism as exampled in his 1928 novel Dark Princess, which
places the ancient and contemporary history of India and the rest of
Asia in a relationship with the contemporary experience of African
Americans.15 Chapter 5 also expands upon Malamud’s argument that
Du Bois represents a turning point in the history of African American
engagement with the classics away from a focus on knowledge of
Latin and Greek as a means of race vindication and toward a greater
focus on the history of non-European peoples. In so doing, Du Bois
presents these non-European civilizations as worthy of equal
appreciation to that given to Greece and Rome, thereby undermining
ideas of racial inferiority. Chapter 5 also positions this discussion
within the context of a rising interest in ancient Asian civilizations
among European and American intellectuals at the turn of the
twentieth century as well as the increasing size and importance of
nationalist movements in those countries opposing European colonial
rule.
Finally, drawing upon Du Bois’s engagement with the classics as
well as these contemporary appeals to the ancient world, I formulate
an argument for a cosmopolitan education and outlook today. I
argue that Du Bois laid the groundwork for a democratic culture as
well as a concept of universal world heritage that surpasses, but,
importantly, does not negate, the particular and the local.

1. David Levering Lewis, Introduction to Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–

1880, by W. E. B. Du Bois (New York: The Free Press, 1998), xvi. See W. E. B. Du
Bois, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America,
1638–1870 (1896), in W. E. B. Du Bois: Writings, edited by Nathan Huggins (New
York: Library of America, 1986), 1–356 and W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction
in America, 1860–1880 (1935; reprint, New York: The Free Press, 1998).
2. See W. E. B. Du Bois, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899; reprint,
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996) and W. E. B. Du Bois, ed.,
Atlanta University Publications, vols. 1–18 (Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, 1897–
1914).
3. The British Journal of Sociology 68, no. 1 (March 2017): 1–142.
4. See, for example, Stephanie J. Shaw, W. E. B. Du Bois and the Souls of Black
Folk (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013) and Shamoon Zamir,
Dark Voices: W. E. B. Du Bois and American Thought, 1888–1903 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1995).
5. As I wrote this book, a classical journal, the International Journal of the
Classical Tradition, finally published a collection of essays exploring classical
influences in Du Bois’s thought and writings. I was pleased to find that I had
independently reached some of the same conclusions as the authors, confirming
my interpretations, and that the portions of my own research that had already
been written offered substantial contributions to the discussions opened up by that
volume. I have incorporated aspects of the conclusions of the authors into my own
discussion when relevant. See Harriet Fertik and Mathias Hanses, “Above the Veil:
Revisiting the Classicism of W. E. B. Du Bois,” International Journal of the Classical
Tradition 26, no. 1 (March 2019): 1–9.
6. For an example of the former, see Carrie Cowherd, “The Wings of Atalanta:
Classical Influences in The Souls of Black Folk,” in The Souls of Black Folk: One
Hundred Years Later, ed. Dolan Hubbard (Columbia: University of Missouri Press,
2003), 284–97. Shaw’s discussion of Platonic and Pythagorean influences on Du
Bois delves much deeper into Du Bois’s intellectual relationship to the classics, but
situates itself within a framework of other philosophical influences, including
especially those of G. W. F. Hegel, rather than focusing solely on classical
influence.
7. See, for example, Patrice D. Rankine, Ulysses in Black: Ralph Ellison, Classicism,
and African American Literature (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006);
Michele Valerie Ronnick, ed., The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough:
An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship, by William Sanders
Scarborough. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005); Margaret Malamud,
African Americans and the Classics: Antiquity, Abolition and Activism (New York: I.
B. Taurus, 2016); William W. Cook and James Tatum, African American Writers and
Classical Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010); and Eric Ashley
Hairston, The Ebony Column: Classics, Civilization, and the African American
Reclamation of the West (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2013).
8. See, for example, Edith Hall, Richard Alston, and Justine McConnell, eds.,
Ancient Slavery and Abolition: From Hobbes to Hollywood (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2011); Tracey L. Walters, African American Literature and the
Classicist Tradition: Black Women Writers from Wheatley to Morrison (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); and Brian P. Sowers, “The Socratic Black Panther:
Reading Huey P. Newton Reading Plato,” Journal of African American Studies 21,
no. 1 (March 2017): 26–41.
9. See Cook and Tatum, African American Writers.
10. See W. E. B. Du Bois, John Brown (1909; reprint, New York: International
Publishers, 1996) and Du Bois, Black Reconstruction.
11. St. Clair Drake uses the term “vindicationism” to refer to the attempts of
African American authors and thinkers to “vindicate” the race by proving the
intellectual and cultural equality of Black people with white people. See St. Clair
Drake, Black Folk Here and There: An Essay in History and Anthropology, Vol. 1
(Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies, University of California at Los
Angeles, 1987). Orlando Patterson has referred to the same phenomenon as
“contributionism,” that is, the attempts to call attention to Black “contributions” to
civilization. See Orlando Patterson, “Rethinking Black History,” Harvard Educational
Review 41 (August 1971): 297–315.
12. Margaret Malamud, African Americans and the Classics: Antiquity, Abolition
and Activism. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2016.
13. W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Star of Ethiopia” (1911), in The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois
Reader, edited by Eric J. Sundquist (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 305–
10. I depart from Malamud in that I posit Du Bois’s 1947 book The World and
Africa as the better point from which to date Du Bois’s turn toward Afrocentric
history. See W. E. B. Du Bois, The World and Africa and Color and Democracy
(1946–1947; reprint, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
14. See W. E. B. Du Bois, The Negro (1915; reprint. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2007); W. E. B. Du Bois, Africa, Its Geography, People, and Products and
Africa—Its Place in Modern History (1930; reprint. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2014); W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Folk, Then and Now: An Essay in the History and
Sociology of the Negro Race (1939; reprint. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2007); and Du Bois, The World and Africa. Snowden’s work on Black people in the
classical world culminated in the publication of two books: Frank M. Snowden, Jr.,
Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Cambridge:
Belknap Press, 1970) and Frank M. Snowden, Jr., Before Color Prejudice: The
Ancient View of Blacks (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983).
15. W. E. B. Du Bois, Dark Princess: A Romance (1928; reprint. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2007).
 1
The Classical Education of W. E. B. Du Bois

THE EDUCATION OF W. E. B. Du Bois was similar to that of many of his

educated white contemporaries in its focus on knowledge of classical
languages and literatures. As was common at the time, the classics
were central to Du Bois’s education beginning with his high school
education in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and continuing
through his undergraduate and graduate education at Fisk
University, Harvard University, and the University of Berlin (then
Friedrich Wilhelm University). The impression of his education in the
classics on Du Bois’s intellectual and moral formation would continue
to mark his thought and work throughout his life. The education of
W. E. B. Du Bois marks the beginning of an intellectual life steeped
in and informed by classical thought—especially that of Cicero and
Plato—as well as classical mythology and rhetorical forms.1 While
influences on Du Bois’s thought include a number of sources that
depart in significant ways from classical thought, Du Bois often
adapted these influences in such a way that they became compatible
with the classical foundations of his most firm ideological
commitments. While at Harvard, for example, Du Bois was able to
incorporate elements of William James’s pragmatist philosophy into
his essentially Platonic metaphysics with the assistance of the
simultaneous influence of George Santayana. However, Du Bois’s
classical education also presented him with the challenge that would
later form the basis of much of his treatment of classical literature—
and Western canonical literature more generally—in his later writing,
namely, that he had discovered a passion for the tradition of
received canonical texts and thought, but simultaneously found
himself excluded from full participation in it because of the racist
ideas of his contemporaries. In spite of the persistent classical
foundations of Du Bois’s ideas, his life and thought were also marked
by an awareness of the profound injustice of racial and class
discrimination at the heart of the culture which claimed this classical
heritage as its own.
The central role of classics in Du Bois’s education provides the
background for a more complete understanding of Du Bois’s later
conflict with Booker T. Washington. While a number of
commentators have attempted to place Du Bois within the paradigm
of incipient progressive education represented by pragmatist thinkers
like John Dewey, this chapter instead places Du Bois in the camp of
the defenders of traditional classical education, such as Irving
Babbitt at Harvard.2 Such an understanding of Du Bois’s thought on
education entails a re-evaluation of his conflict with Washington over
the education of African Americans and the role that Du Bois’s
intellectual legacy continues to play in shaping contemporary African
American thought on education.

The Classics and Du Bois’s Enduring Moral Vision

While Du Bois was far from being a professional scholar of classics,
his thorough acquaintance with classical literature and thought,
beginning with his earliest education, remained a major resource for
his thought throughout his life.3 Du Bois, in fact, asserts in the first
of his three biographies, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
(1920), that he “did not know anything about Latin and Greek” when
he assumed his first academic appointment as a professor of
classical languages at Wilberforce University in 1894.4 As is
demonstrated by his high school and university academic records,
this assertion is far too modest to be true for someone who studied
these languages and read the works written in them for more than a
decade. In his final autobiography, published posthumously in 1968,
Du Bois offers a more honest evaluation of his appointment at
Wilberforce:
 I had been hired to teach “Latin and Greek.” They were not my specialty and
despite years spent in their study I really knew far too little to teach them.
But I had assumed that I was to assist Professor William Scarborough, a well-
known Negro scholar long working at Wilberforce. To my amazement I found
that I was to replace him, since in a quarrel between him and the President,
he had been ousted and I had been advertised as a learned professor just
from Germany.5

As this later passage reveals, Du Bois’s sense of inadequacy for the

position may have arisen from the expectation that he was to
replace William Sanders Scarborough. In spite of his long education
in Greek and Latin, Du Bois’s experience with classical languages
could not compare with that of Scarborough. Scarborough was, at
the time, undoubtedly the leading African American scholar of
classics who, as Du Bois’s senior by sixteen years, had helped to
pave the way for some of Du Bois’s ideas and achievements.6 While
Du Bois’s classical knowledge and skills in classical languages pale in
comparison to those of a scholar of classics like Scarborough, Du
Bois was not entirely unprepared for the job and brought to it an
enthusiasm for the ideas conveyed in classical works acquired in his
earlier education.
The influence from classical literature and thought evinced in Du
Bois’s work, as Carrie Cowherd has pointed out, can be classified
according to “three broad categories”: (1) “casual, incidental use” of
phrases in Latin and references to classical history, philosophy, and
mythology; (2) “direct references” that contribute to the structure of
a work or chapter of a work as a whole; and (3) “underlying
attitudes, associated with Cicero, Socrates, and Plato that are
expressed in varying ways throughout” Du Bois’s works.7 Du Bois’s
casual references and direct references to classics are numerous and
important to understanding the magnitude of classical influence in
his work, but it was the attitudes and ideas of the classical world
that were the greatest influences on his work and that helped to
shape Du Bois’s approach to his more central concerns throughout
his life.8 For example, drawing on the memories of Du Bois’s
students at Wilberforce, David Levering Lewis notes that at
Wilberforce Du Bois worked intensively “to convey to his first-year
Greek class something of the meaning and excitement of Sophocles’
Antigone.”9 The choice of Antigone by Du Bois as well as its place in
the memory of his students as recorded by Lewis is noteworthy as
an example of a text with a strong moral message applicable to the
circumstances of African Americans at the turn of the twentieth
century in its dichotomy between human law and divine law.10 As
Keith Byerman has noted of the whole of Du Bois’s work, “the moral
element” of his critique of American society “is ancient, and the
cultural aspect is common in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
thinking. What is distinct in Du Bois is the application of the critique
to black life.”11 In spite of his relative lack of expertise and interest
in the intricacies of the languages, then, the ideas of classical works
were central to Du Bois’s outlook and interests from an early point.
That the influence of Du Bois’s early exposure to classical
literature persisted lifelong is evinced by the consistency exhibited in
his perspective and self-understanding throughout his life. A number
of quality biographies of Du Bois have been written in the past
several decades, including especially Lewis’s two-volume Pulitzer
Prize-winning biography of Du Bois.12 It has also become something
of a commonplace of Du Bois scholarship to rehearse the remarkable
events and circumstances of his early life. The most insightful
sources for Du Bois’s formative years, however, remain his own
autobiographies and the numerous autobiographical references and
insights sprinkled throughout his writings.13 Importantly, as Byerman
has noted, these autobiographies “are consistently narratives of
education, in which he knows more than he did and thus has a fuller
view of truth.”14 Notably, they are not generally narratives of change
or progression in viewpoint.
Throughout his life, however, Du Bois seems to have changed his
positions and ideas a number of times. This has led some
commentators, most notably Wilson Jeremiah Moses, to see Du
Bois’s self-presented trajectory of development as an ex post facto
teleology, imposed in retrospect rather than lived in reality.15 Du
Bois, for example, praised Washington’s famous Atlanta Compromise
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Suomen Kansan
Vanhoja Runoja ynnä myös Nykyisempiä Lauluja
2
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
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Title: Suomen Kansan Vanhoja Runoja ynnä myös Nykyisempiä

Lauluja 2

Compiler: Zacharias Topelius

Release date: January 30, 2024 [eBook #72833]

Language: Finnish

Original publication: Turku: J. C. Frenckell ja Poika, 1823

Credits: Jari Koivisto

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUOMEN

KANSAN VANHOJA RUNOJA YNNÄ MYÖS NYKYISEMPIÄ
LAULUJA 2 ***
SUOMEN KANSAN VANHOJA RUNOJA YNNÄ MYÖS NYKYISEMPIÄ LAULUJA II

Koonnut ja pränttiin antanut,

Z. TOPELIUS

Läänin Lääkäri ja Ritari

Turussa, Präntätty J. C Frenckellin ja Pojan tykönä, 1823.

SISÄLLÄPITO:

Vanhoja Runoja.

Pistoksen Synty.
Ilmarisen kosiominen.
Maon eli kärmeen Synty.
Sikaliskon Synty.
Mehiläisen Synty.
Väinämöisen kaikenlaisia toimituksia.
Rauan Synty.
Talvikon Sanat.
Ähkyn Sanat.
Pakkaselle.
Merimiesten Rukous Ilmariselle.
Rukous, jolla Ahto kutsuttiin.
Päivän koittaissa.

Nykyisempiä Lauluja.

Lystilline Runolaulu Kala-Kukosta.

Sinä 24 päivänä Kesäkuuta 1791.
Kirkkoherra Joh. Laguksen ja Neitsyn Benedicta
Lovisa Kraftmannin hääpidoissa.
Ajan käyttämisestä.
Merimiehet.
Neion valitus.
Koira joka kuljetti lihamurua suusansa joen poikki. Satu.
Loru.

Lukioille.

Muutamalta maan-mieheltä kehotettu ilmottamaan näistä

vanhoista runoista, misä maan-paikasa kuki on veisattu taikka löytty,
josta tiedosta kaikenmoisia valistuksia mahtais noudatettaa sekä
Suomen kielen selitykseksi että entisten tapojen ja elokeinoin
tuntemiseksi kusakin maasa, saan minä nyt tiedoksi jättää että:
Ensimmäisen Osan runoista ovat Laulajan alku ja loppu virret,
Kanteleen synty, Väinämöisen kosiominen ja Kalevan poika Pohjan
maalta, Kemin tienoilta kotosin, Oluen teko, Väinämöinen ja
Joukamoinen, Mailman alku munasta ja Venehen teko Arkkangelin
läänistä ja Vuokkiniemen pitäjästä, Kärmehen synty Kajanin puolesta
ja Jauho-Runo Savon maalta. Täsä toisesa osasa ovat Pistoksen
synty, Ilmarisen kosiominen, Väinämöisen kaikenlaiset toimitukset ja
Rauan synty Arkkangelin läänistä ja kaikki muut Pohjan maalta.

Kuitenkin löytyy monisa, vaikka toisistaan kaukoisisa maan-

paikoisa jäänöksiä ja sekoituksia samoista lauluista, jotka osottavat
yhteisen vanhan aikasen alun. Niin olen löynny Rauan Synnyt sekä
Karjalasta että synkiältä Pohjan perältä, melkeen yhtä pitävät, vaikka
ei yhdenkään niin täydellisen kuin se joka täsa on kerrottu.
Muutamista keksitään myös etelämpi sekä runoin että kansan
syntymämaja, koska esimerkiksi Lapin maan rajoilla Runo mainittee
tammipuusta, joka ei luonnan kasva koko Pohjan maalla.

Nykyisinä aikoina ovat ne vanhat runolaulut Pohjan lahden

rantamailta kokonansa kadonneet. Niitä veisataan nyt ainoastansa
Suomen itäisillä äärillä, vaan erinomattain muutamisa pitäjisä
vanhasa luoteisesa Venäjän maasa, josa lavialta asuu selvä
Suomen kansa alku puhtaudesa ja arvosa.

Vanhoja Runoja.

Pistoksen Synty.

Nelj' on neittä, kolm' uroista,

Yhen niityn niittäjiä
Min' on niitty, sen haravoitti,
Senpä karhilla veteli.
Tuli kokko Turjan maalta,
Laskien Lapista lintu
Syömähän kylän kiroja,
Lainehia lappamahan:
Se poltti porolla heinät,
Kypenillä kyyvätteli.
Tuuli tuli Pohjolasta,
Tuonne tuuli tuhat vei,
Vaaran vankan liepiöhön.
Meren mustihin mutihin,
Pimeihin pyörteihin,
Tarkkahan Tapiolahan.
Siellä miehet mettä juopi,
Simoa sirettölööpi.
Siihen kasvo kaunis tammi,
Vesa verratoin yleni;
Olovahk'on oksiltahan,
Leviähk' on lehviltähän.
Pietti pilvet juoksemasta,
Hattarat hasertamasta.
Ikävä imehnosille,
Kavelo vein kaloille
Ilman päivän paistamata,
Kuun kuumottamata:
Katsellen kanervo juuret,
Jakoallen hienot heinät
Etsitään tammen kaatajata.
Pikku mies merestä nousi,
Uro aallosta yleni,
Kolmen sormen korkeuinen,
Pystön peukalon pituunen.
Sill' on kassa kantapäässä,
Nännit polvessa eessä,
Pikku kirvehet käessä,
Vaski varsi kirveessä,
Pääs' on paasinen kypärä,
Jalois' on kiviset kengät,
Hyiset kintaat käessä;
Hyistä kelkoa vetäävi,
Hyistä tammia taluuvi.
Hyys' on ilmat, jääs' on järvet,
Hallas' on hamehen helmat.
Himelöövi kirvestähän
Viiellä virosimella,
Kuuella kovasimella,
Seitsämällä sieran päällä,
Kaheksalla kannikolla.
Astua tuhutteloo
Juurella ryti-morain,
Äkähillä puun punasen.
Iski puuta kirvehellä,
Tammia tasa terällä:
Eipä ollut aikoakaan,
Taitto tammen, maahan kaato,
Latvan suurehen suvehen
Tyvin työnti Pohjolahan.
Hän tuon sanoiksi virtti:
Tuosta noita nuolet saisi,
Ampuja pahat piilet,
Oksista tulisen tammen,
Äkähistä puun punasen.
Paha pääty kuulomassa,
Jumala tähystämässä.
Kolm' on poikoa pahalla
Yks on rujo, toinen rampa,
Kolmas on peri-sokia;
Rujo jousten jännitsiä,
Rampa nuolien vanuja,
Ampuja peri-sokia.
Varret tammesta vanuuvi,
Päät teköö tervaksista.
Millä nuita sulatahan,
Sulatahan, karretahan?
Maon mustilla verillä,
Hiuksilla Hiien neien,
Varpusen vivuttimilla.
Ampu yhen nuoliahan,
Valitsi parahan varren,
Maa emää jalkoihin:
Tahto maa Manalle mennä,
Hieta harju halkiella.
Ampu toisen nuoliahan,
Valitsi parahan varren,
Päällä päähän taivoseen:
Tahto taivonen haleta,
Ilman kaaret katkeilla.
Ampu nuolen kolmannenkin
Ylitse meren yheksän,
Meri puolen kymmenettä,
Hiitolan kivi mäkehen,
Kalvatellen kalliosta
Ihoon alastomahan,
Varsin vaatteettomahan.
Itse virkki, nuin saneli:
Tuo nuoli perittänee,
Kutsu Hiien Hiitolasta,
Jumaloista Jukko-selän
Syömähän tätä pahoa,
Luonnotarta loppamahan:
Juokse korvet konteina,
Oravina kuusen oksat,
Kärppänä kiven koloot,
Veit on saukkona samoon — —
Ota Piru pistoksesi
Keitolainen keihääsi,
Äkähäsi Älön poika
Verisistä vaattehista,
Hurmehisista sovista,
Urohosta uhkaavasta,
Miehestä möksevästä,
Ihosta ihmenos raukan,
Emon tuoman ruumihista
Ennen päivän nousemista.
Koi jumalan koittamista,
Isäntäsi itkemässä,
Muorisi murehtimassa
Verisellä mättähällä,
Verisillä kyynelillä:
Otas — urohosta uhkaavasta,
Miehestä mökisevästä.

Ilmarisen Kosiominen.

Annikk' oli saaren neiti,

Se oli poukkujen pesiä,
Vaattehitten valkasia,
Sinisen meren selällä,
Laavun laiturin nenässä,
Niemessä nenättömässä,
Saaressa sanattomassa;
Loipa silmäns luotehelle,
Käänti päätä päivän alle,
Keksi mustasen merellä,
Sinervöisen lainehilla.
Hän tuon sanoiksi virtti:
"Kuin ollet Isäni pursi,
Veikon vestämä venonen,
Käännätes kohin kotia,
Perin muille valkamoille.
Kuin ollet vesi hakonen
Vesi päälläsi vetele.
Kuin ollet vesi kivinen
Vesi päällesi vetele.
Kuin sie ollet lintuparvi,
Niin sie lentohon leviä.
Kuin ollet vanha Väinämöinen
Niin pakinoille painehile".
Tuopa vanha Väinämöinen
Se pakinoille paineli.
Lasutteli matkamiestä,
Kysytteli tien käviää:
"Kunne läksit Väinämöinen"?
"Läksin lohta pyytämähän".
"Tuosta tunnen Väinämöisen,
Tuon vanhan valehtelian.
Toisin ennen miun isäni,
Toisin valta vanhempani,
Verkkoja venehen täysi,
Lasuksia laiva kaikki".
"Jo vainen valehtelinki".
"Kunne läksit Väinämöinen"?
"Läksin hanhien ajohon
Puna suisen korjelohon".
"Tuosta tunnen Väinämöisen
Tuon vanhan valehtelian
Toisin ennen miun isäni.
Toisin valta vanhempani.
Suur' oli koira kahlehissa
Suuri jousi jäntehissä".
"Jo vainen valehtelinkin".
"Kuin et tosin sanone,
Käännän purtesi kumohon".
Täytyypä tosin sanoa.
"Läksin neittä kosiomahan
Pimiästä pohjolasta,
Miesten syömästä kylästä,
Urohon upottajasta".
Annikk' oli saaren neiti,
Se oli poukkujen pesiä,
Vaattehitten valkasia,
Käsin käänti vaattehia.
Koprin helmahan kokosi,
Meni juossua pajahan,
Hän tuon sanoiksi virtti:
"Oi on Seppä veikkoseni!
Takoja ijän ikuinen!
Otettihin ostettusi,
Satoin markoin maksettusi,
Tuhansin lunastettusi,
Kolmin vuosin kosiottusi".
Lankesit pihet pivoisin,
Vaipusi vasara käestä,
Meni savuna pihallen.
"Oi emoni kantajani,
Lämmitä saloa sauna,
Pian pirtti riunuttele
Pikkusilla pilkehilla,
Lai tiimaista poroa,
Tuo sie paita palttinainen,
Tuo sie kauhtana kaponen
Päälle paian palttinaisen,
Tuo sie ussakka utunen
Päälle kauhtanan kapoisen"
Teki olkisen hevoisen,
Pani varsan valjahisin,
Ruskian reen etehen,
Laski virkkoa vitalla,
Helähytti helmispäällä.
Virkku juoksi, matka joutu,
Reki vieri, tie lyheni.
Tuli Hiitolan kotihin.
Hiitolan koirat haukkumahan,
Ilman lukku luksuttamaan.
Itse virkki, noin saneli:
"Jok' on valmis valvattini
Valmis valvateltavasi"?
"Ei ole valmis valvattisi
Valmis valvateltavasi.
Kuin sä kyntänet kyisen pellon
- Kärmehisen käännättelet
Miesten, miekkojen terillä,
Naisten neulojen nenillä".
Sata sarvi Hiien härkä
Pajan teki polvillahan,
Sitten kynti kyisen pellon,
Kärmehisen käännytteli
Miehen miekkojen terillä,
Naisten neulojen nenillä.
"Jok' on valmis valvattini
Valmis valvateltavani"?
"Ei ole valmis valvattisi
Valmis valvateltavasi.
Kuin kylpenet kyisen kylvön
Rauta-kylvön rapsuttanet".
"Oi Ukko, yli-Jumala
Tahi taata taivahainen!
Nossas pilvi luotehelta,
Toinen suurelta suvelta,
Kolmas kohta koillisesta;
Nepä yhteen yhytä,
Lommakkohon loukahuta
Sa-a lunta sauan varsi
Kiehittele keihäs varsi
Nuille kuumille kiville
Palavoille Paateroille".
 Sitte kylpi kyisen kylvön,
Rauta-kylvön rapsutteli.
"Jok' on valmis valvattini,
Valmis valvateltavani"?
"Ei ole valmis valvattisi,
Valmis valvateltavasi.
Kuin saanet Hiitolan joesta
Hauin hirmu-hampahisen
Kalan suuren miesten syöjän"
Sitte tuli tuskaksi,
Pahon loiksi paineli.
Tuo oli seppo Ilmarinen
Teki rautasen kokon,
Kuin on hauki sukelteleksi
Niin on kokko liiteleksi,
Liiteleksi, laateleksi.
Tuonpa kokko koprin kavahti
Saipa kokko kynsihinsä.
"Jok' on valmis valvattini,
Valmis valvateltavani"?
"Jo on valmis valvattisi,
Valmis valvateltavasi".

Kotia tultuansa kohtaisi Ilmarinen Äitinsä, joka paljon moitti tätä

miniätä sanoten: "Luulin minä paremmaksi". Jonka jälken Ilmarinen
meni pajaansa ja muutti tytön Lokaksi. Lokana lentää siis nyt
vanhempi Hiitolan tyttäristä. Väinämöinen otti sitte eronsa,
odottaaksensa nuorempata sisarta.
Maon eli Kärmeen Synty.

Souti Syöjätär vesiä,

Tuli kurkku turjutteli.
Lapa lieto lainehia,
Punasella purjehella.
Laski kuolan laitumelle
Putken rautasen sisähän,
Paksun heinän palteheseen.
Tuuli tuli, tuon kokosi,
Aalto rannalle ajeli
Varalle teräsperälle,
Vankan vasken karvaselle;
Vesi sen pitkäksi venytti,
Paisti päivä pehmiäksi.
Siihen Herra hengen antoi,
Piru silmät siunaeli,
Lempo leukaluut sukesi.
Mistä hampaat häjyllä?
Orahasta Tuonen otran.
Mistä kieli kelvottoman?
Hiitolaisen heinä hanko.
Mistä pää pahalle pantu?
Välisestä Väinättären.

Sikaliskon Synty.
 Sikalisko Hiien silmä,
Se on vaskesta valettu,
Kasarista kannettuna.
Vingas vankaan makasi,
Kanto kohtua kovoa,
Kiikutteli, röyhytteli
Rannalla rekeä vasten,
Pinon pitkän reunan alla.
Tullus tulla taivahasta,
Kekäleenä keikuttele,
Tule työsi tuntemahan,
Pahasi parantamahan!
Voi on suusi, voi on kieles.
Sima suustasi suloa,
Mesi heitä kielestäsi,
Kipehille voitehiksi!
Haavoille parantehiksi!
Juos viinana vihasi,
Olunna omat pahansi,
Mennä mieli karvahaksi,
Läpi luisen pää-lakesi,
Läpi haisu-hammastasi,
Vahtaasi vaskisehen,
Kupeheesi kultaihiseen!
Suluon sun vihasi!
Suli voi sulattaisa,
Rasva räyvyteltäisä,
Sulemmat sinun vihasi,
Sulempi sinä itekkin.
Mehiläisen Synty.

Mehiläinen ilman lintu,

Lähe mettä noutamahan,
Simoa tavottamahan
Meren yheksän ylihte,
Meri puolen kymmenettä;
Ota vastat siiviksesi,
Lapioinen purstoksesi.
Vielä on aikoa vähänen
Pikkuruinen piramata.
Jo tulla tuhutteloo,
Saaha hypelöittelöö;
Kuusi on kuppia käessä,
Seihtemän selän takana,
Sata muuta muskulata.
Missä on mettä, kussa vettä,
Missä voietta hyvää.
Koita Jesus kielelläsi
Suullasi sula Jumala,
Mikä on paras voitehista,
Kaikista kahteista,
Joka kaikkein pätöö,
Eineän kelpoaa;
Sillä voian voipunutta,
Pahoin tullutta parannan,
Läpi luun, läpi jäsenen,
Keskeä kivuttomaksi,
Päältä kivuttomaksi,
Alta aivan terveheksi.