Sphinx

The discipline of Classics considered as an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Institute of Ancient Wisdom, one of the oldest and most prestigious organisations in Sunnydale, comes to the school to deliver some curriculum enhancement activities and recruit new members. Willow is entranced by their erudition and sophistication, and the promise of, well, ancient wisdom. Cordelia is attracted by the aura of power and social status. Xander is suspicious and hostile at first, but then they explain that he too is an inheritor of their great traditions, simply by virtue of being himself, and so he should help defend them.

Only Buffy feels that the whole thing is a bit elitist, and rather too keen on metaphors of purity and light, and generally icky. Giles remarks that Americans always obsess about this, and it’s just a function of being such a young country; everyone else assumes she’s simply looking for attention.

Further investigation reveals that, behind its energetic programme of school outreach and earnest scholarly debates and advising the Mayor on architecture, the Institute is indeed involved in mystic activities – but apparently on the side of good, as it draws on Ancient Wisdom to combat the forces of darkness. And yet some of its members appear to be vampires and demons, using Ancient Wisdom to ensnare the innocent.

Xander gets a tattoo with incomprehensible writing, and talks a lot about Sparta.

Cordelia ends up in a perilous yet also humiliating situation; it’s unclear whether this is a sophisticated commentary on genre tropes or gratuitous cruelty from the writer/director.

After extensive archival research, Giles stumbles across the terrifying, hitherto unsuspected truth that the Ancients were slave-owning imperialist bastards. The whole thing about civilisation and enlightenment is a lie!

Breaking into the Institute’s headquarters – because of course they do – the true situation becomes apparent: virtually all the members are entirely sincere, but they have been infected by an Ancient spirit that is completely indifferent to good or evil but simply seeks to survive and replicate by tempting people with genuine insights and the endorphin rush of superiority.

Can its influence be managed or diluted by expanding and diversifying the membership, and by rooting out those who use its power for evil? Or does the combination of brilliance, utter self-interest and toxic behaviour permeate the whole enterprise so much that it devalues everything it touches, and needs to be burnt to the ground? Is Xander’s tattoo just silly, or a harbinger of disaster..?