Núcleo de Cultura Clássica
Federal University of Ceara
Welcome to the NUCLAS - Núcleo de Cultura Clássica (Portuguese for "Center for Classical Studies") at the Federal University of Ceara (Universidade Federal do Ceará - UFC, more information here). Currently, the NUCLAS is a part of the Department of Foreign Languages within the Humanities Center at UFC, located in the campus of Benfica, in the capital city of the Ceara State, Fortaleza. All of its members are also professores in the Portuguese and Classics Licentiateship undergraduate course and have shared appointements in other departments at UFC (Culture and Arts Institute, Vernacular Language and Literature Department, Law School etc.), being also members of the post-graduation program in Comparative Literature at the Department of Literature.
Our mission is to offer courses in ancient Greek, Latin and Sanskrit both to UFC students and members of the comunity, as well as to promote different cultural activities aiming at spreading the knowledge of those ancient cultures to a wider public while raising the awarness of the importance of Classics to our modern society. On a scholarly level, one of our most important objectives is to produce and foment research in Classics by connecting scholars from around the country and overseas with an aim at advancing, sharing and spreading knowledge through a network of collaborative professionals and students with similar aims and interests.
Our vision is to become a center of reference in the study of Classics both in Brazil and abroad, specializing at educating young students and professionals so they can become competent translators of Greek, Latin and Sanskrit as well as academic profesionals able to pursue careers in national and international universities.
Our values are (a) commitment to high standards in researching procedures and teaching, (b) interest in the cultural development of the comunity to which UFC and NUCLAS are linked, (c) commitment to the advance of Classical studies in Brazil, (d) transparency and accountability towards the public.
Our motto is pulchra colamus ("let us cultivate what is beatiful") and our logo is the gorgoneion as painted by Ergotimos (Attic, black-figure, ca. 570 BC) at the top of a terracotta stand. The gorgoneion is a pictorial representation of Medusa (one of the three Gorgons, daughters of Phorcys and Keto) who was once a beautiful woman, but who was turned by Pallas Athena into a monster so horrible that everyone who looked at her would be immediatly turned into stone. The gorgoneion, however, is not only the effigie of a terrible monster, as it is also a powerful apotropaic against the forces of evil and chaos, so powerful indeed it was given by Perseus to Athena, goddess of knowlege and wisdom, to be placed in the centerof her shield. In some accounts and representations it also appeares as a clasp in Athena's (or Zeus') aegis. The gorgoneion therefore stands for the perils one must face to achieve knowledge, but it also represents the danger of knowledge itself, when misused. It is the guardian of all knowledge as it stands between us and Athena and in order to get to her we must firs find the courage within our hearts to look into its eyes.