On Youth Worship and the Virtues of the Impostor Syndrome

The Return of the Prodigal Son (Pompeo Batoni, 1773)

When wealthy Romans died, those surviving them would display wax masks of their faces in their homes, often in prominent locations like the home’s atrium, where it was plainly visible to visitors. It was not uncommon to pray to ancestors and, along with Roman gods, ask for their favor. To take pride in ancestors, to remember them, and to place them in the Roman Pantheon indicated a profound…