Quo Vadis?

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

SYNOPSIS
At the beginning of Quo Vadis, after being injured and cared for at the house of the
general Plautius, warrior hero and tribune Marcus Vinicius tells his uncle Petronius about
his unquenchable desire for a beautiful woman he saw at the general’s home and seeks his
help in obtaining her. After the pair visit the general, Petronius tells Vinicius he has a plan
to obtain the woman.

Petronius tells Nero that Lygia, a hostage of Rome who therefore belongs to Caesar,
dwells in the home of Plautius. When Nero sends a centurion to retrieve Lygia from the
general’s home, Pomponia fears they are coming to kill her husband but is little relieved
when she discovers their real mission. Encouraging her adopted daughter to be strong in
her Christian faith, she and the general release her to Nero’s care, sending with her
Christian servants, including the giant Ursus. The angry general rightly suspects Petronius
is behind the taking of Lygia and perhaps intends to make her a concubine for himself or
Vinicius.

Placed among the concubines, Lygia is directed to the care of Acte, a freedwoman
and Nero’s former lover, by a letter from Pomponia, who knows Acte has sympathy for the
Christians. Acte promises to keep her from the lustful gaze of the emperor. At first believing
Petronius betrayed him, Vinicius is delighted to learn that his uncle intends to see that
Lygia be given to him. At one of Nero’s debauched parties, a drunken Vinicius tries to
seduce Lygia, who is saved by Ursus.

Vinicius eagerly anticipates the arrival of Lygia from Nero’s palace and is enraged
when he learns that someone has spirited her away. In a fit of anger, he smashes the skull
of one of the slaves who had failed to prevent her being taken, even though the slave had
nursed him from boyhood.

At the recommendation of Petronius’s slave girl Eunice, the enraged Vinicius hires
the traitorous Chilon to find his displaced property, Lygia. Chilon deduces that Lygia is a
Christian, discovers the Christians’ secret worship place, and informs Vinicius that he can
find her there. Vinicius, accompanied by the gladiator Croton, follows Lygia home from the
worship meeting and attempts to forcibly recover her. Ursus intercepts them, kills the giant
gladiator, injures Vinicius, and takes the injured man to Lygia, who nurses him back to
health. In the company of the Christians and under the influence of the apostles Peter and
Paul, Vinicius begins to recognize the inherent moral superiority and spiritual power ofthe
Christian faith. After eventually converting, he is restored to his love, Lygia.

Nero’s madness grows, and he torches Rome to create an artistic moment. When the
people suspect Nero of starting the fire, his wife and his adviser Tigellinus suggest that the
Christians could be blamed instead. Thus begin the horrors of Nero’s persecution, in which
Christians are dressed in animal skins, placed in an arena, and set on by wild beasts, or
used as human torches to light the emperor’s garden at parties. In the arena, Lygia is saved
from death on the horns of a bull by Ursus and released by Nero at the spectators’ demand.
Lygia and Vinicius eventually escape to Sicily where they lived happily.

Because Christians in Rome insist that Christianity’s chief spokesperson be spared

martyrdom, Peter leaves Rome with young Nazarius. On the Appian Way, Peter has a vision
in which he sees the Lord walking and queries, “Quo vadis, Domine?” or “Where are you
going, Lord?” to which Jesus replies he must go to Rome to be crucified a second time if
Peter deserts his people. Profoundly moved, Peter returns to Rome where both he and Paul
suffer martyrdom, as church tradition has held.
Petronius falls from Nero’s favor and comes under a death sentence for his defense of
the Christians Vinicius and Lygia. At a party hosted for his friends, Petronius commits
suicide along with his beloved slave Eunice, but not before writing a sarcastic and
humorous letter to Nero enjoining him to commit any crime he wants but to please stop
murdering the arts. Under the threat of being captured by rebellious legions and dying a
horrible death at the hands of the people, Nero takes his life with the faithful Acte by his
side.

THE NOVEL

❖ Quo Vadis is a novel set in ancient Rome in the four year period of 64 – 68 A.D. at
the time of the Emperor Nero and the early Christians. The title, a quotation from the
New Testament, is Latin for “where are you going?.”

❖ First published in 1895 in Polish and has since been translated into 50 languages.

❖ Henry Sienkiewicz’s most internationally known novel.

❖ Adapted in films many times with the 1951 adaption nominated for 8 Oscars.

GENRE
❖ Historical novel
❖ Religious theme

THE AUTHOR

❖ Henryk Sienkiewicz, in full Henryk Adam Alexander Pius Sienkiewicz,

❖ pseudonym Litwos, (born May 5, 1846, WolaOkrzejska, Poland—died November 15,

1916, Vevey, Switzerland), Polish novelist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1905 for the novel Quo Vadis.

❖ Sienkiewicz’s family owned a small estate but lost everything and moved to Warsaw,
where Sienkiewicz studied literature, history, and philology at Warsaw University. He
left the university in 1871 without taking a degree. He had begun to publish critical
articles in 1869 that showed the influence of Positivism, a system of philosophy—
popular in Poland and elsewhere at the time—emphasizing in particular the
achievements of science.

❖ His first novel, Na marne (In Vain), was published in 1872, and his first short story,
“Starysługa” (“An Old Retainer”), in 1875. Sienkiewicz traveled in the United
States (1876–78) and, upon his return to Poland after a prolonged stay in Paris,
published a number of successful short stories, among them “Janko muzykant”
(1879; “Yanko the Musician”), “Latarnik” (1882; “The Lighthouse Keeper”), and
“Bartek zwyciezca” (1882; “Bartek the Conqueror”). The last story appears in a
volume of his stories entitled Charcoal Sketches and Other Tales (1990), and there is
also a volume of his stories entitled Selected Tales (1976).
❖ From 1882 to 1887 Sienkiewicz was coeditor of the daily Słowo (“The Word”). In
1900, to celebrate the 30th year of his career as a writer, the Polish people presented
him with the small estate of Oblęgorek, near Kielce in south-central Poland, where he
lived until 1914. At the outbreak of World War I he went to Switzerland, where,
together with the famous politician and pianist Ignacy Paderewski, he promoted the
cause of Polish independence and organized relief for Polish war victims.
❖ Sienkiewicz’s great trilogy of historical novels began to appear in Słowo in 1883.
It comprises Ogniemimieczem (1884; With Fire and Sword; filmed
1999), Potop (1886; The Deluge; filmed 1974), and Pan Wołodyjowski (1887–88; Pan
Michael, also published as Fire in the Steppe; filmed 1969). Set in the later 17th
century, the trilogy describes Poland’s struggles against Cossacks, Tatars, Swedes,
and Turks, stressing Polish heroism with epic range and with clarity and simplicity.
 The finest of the three works, With Fire and Sword, describes the Poles’ attempts to
halt the rebellion of the Zaporozhian Cossacks led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
❖ Sienkiewicz’s other novels include the widely translated Quo vadis? (1896; Eng.
trans. Quo vadis; filmed 1909, 1913, 1951, 2001), a historical novel set
in Rome under Nero, which established Sienkiewicz’s international reputation.
Although Sienkiewicz’s major novels have been criticized for their theatricality and
lack of historical accuracy, they display great narrative power and contain vivid
characterizations.

POLAND

Republic of Poland

 Central Europe, east of Germany

 Catholic 85.9% (includes Roman Catholic 85.6% and Greek Catholic, Armenian
Catholic, and Byzantine-Slavic Catholic .3%).

 1.768 million WARSAW (capital, 2018)

 name derives from the Polanians, a west Slavic tribe that united several surrounding
Slavic groups (9th-10th centuries A.D.) and who passed on their name to the
country; the name of the tribe likely comes from the Slavic "pole" (field or plain),
indicating the flat nature of their country

 two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; colors derive from the Polish
emblem - a white eagle on a red field
 Poland's history as a state began near the middle of the 10th century. By the mid-
16th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ruled a vast tract of land in
Central and Eastern Europe.
 During the 18th century, internal disorders weakened the nation, and in a series of
agreements between 1772 and 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned Poland
among themselves.
 Poland regained its independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the
Soviet Union in World War II.

History of Poland

 It became a Soviet satellite state following the war. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the
formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" that over time became a
political force with over 10 million members. Free elections in 1989 and 1990 won
Solidarity control of the parliament and the presidency, bringing the communist era
to a close.
 A "shock therapy" program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform
its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe. Poland joined NATO in
1999 and the EU in 2004. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented
country largely completed and with large investments in defense, energy, and other
infrastructure, Poland is an increasingly active member of Euro-Atlantic
organizations.
SYMBOLISM

Appian Way
❖ TheRoyal road outside Rome that is the site of the incident that gives the novel its
title.

❖ Symbolizes the choice between the way of Caesar and the way of Christ.
Amphitheater

❖ ThePublic area that Nero has had built for the brutal games in which Christian and
pagan Rome meet.
❖ Symbolizes blood-sacrifice of the Christians, through whose innocent lives Rome will
ultimately be redeemed.

THE TITLE: Where are you going?

❖ Refers to Poland’s struggle with Russia in the 19th Century.

The Fire

❖ The death and cleansing of Rome (Paganism) paving way to the birth of new Rome
(Christianity).

Peter’s Staff

❖ Peter’s surrender to the will of Christ.

❖ Growth of Christianity.

The Fish

❖ The symbol Ligia was scribbling on the ground with a stick.

❖ Refers to when Jesus was recruiting his disciples who were fishermen and he told
them He will make them fishers of men.

LITERARY DEVICES
Simile

❖ “Suddenly the thought came to her that Ceasar whom she loved, whom she held
involuntary as a kind of demigod, was as pitiful as any slave…”

Allusion

❖ Christians’ martyrdom for Christianity alludes to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for
mankind.

Imagery

❖ The author used vivid imagery to describe the fire, Nero’s feasts, the massacre of
Christians.

“The air filled with odor of flowers and the perfume of oils with which beautiful boys had
sprinkled the feet of guests during the feast, permeated with saffron and the exhalations of
people, became stilling, lampsburned with a dim flame...”
Irony

❖ The palace of Nero

The novel repeatedly contrasts houses. Nero’s Roman palace is the home of a beast
who “devours.” Evenings, the palace is the site of excessively lavish and wasteful meals,
lascivious sexuality, mediocre artistic performances, superstition, malicious court intrigue,
militant atheism, and savage brutality. (Christians are occasionally used as human torches
to illuminate evening garden parties). The ultimate waste is Nero’s order to burn Rome so
that its destruction may inspire his poetry.
❖ Sands pit and tombs

Forbidding and forlorn places in Rome where Christians gather in secrecy at night to
find fellowship and encouragement. In these places, the Christians perform baptisms and
the Eucharist, preach, and pray at the same hours during which Nero’s orgies take place—a
study in the marked contrast of two philosophies.

UNIVERSAL TRUTH

1. Love conquers all.

2. Faith is a real power; not just an expression of believe.
3. The world is round, may also be the beginning.

21ST CENTURY IMPLICATIONS

Massacre/Persecution of Christians
 Easter attacks on churches in Sri Lanka are tragic, but hardly surprising

John L. Allen Jr.

Apr 21, 2019

▪ https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/04/21/easter-attacks-on-churches-in-
sri-lanka-are-tragic-but-hardly-surprising/

Inter-religious Marriages

 What happens when you fall in love across the religious divide?
Reza Aslan and Jessica Jackley

Sat 18 Nov 2017 06.30 GMT

Last modified on Tue 21 Nov 2017 11.59 GMT

The Guardian
▪ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/nov/18/muslim-wife-christian-
interfaith-marriage-reza-aslan

REFERENCES

▪ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pl.html

▪ https://www.britannica.com/art/Polish-literature/Positivism
▪ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henryk-Sienkiewicz

▪ https://www.enotes.com/topics/quo-vadis

▪ https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/04/21/easter-attacks-on-churches-in-
sri-lanka-are-tragic-but-hardly-surprising/

▪ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/nov/18/muslim-wife-christian-
interfaith-marriage-reza-aslan
▪ [email protected]
 QUO VADIS?
by Henryk Sienkiewicz

A Report in European Literature

Summary Notes

Suzzainne Joy R. Gabasa - MAEL

Reporter

Dr. Rica Marcet Obsequio-Funtecha

Professor

September 28, 2019