Reclaiming the Wonder of the Humanities
In this episode of the Philosophy Hour at Literary Tales we examine the symbolism, mythology, and esoteric reading of Plato’s Symposium – revealing that Plato has much more in common with the “poets” than the “philosophers.”
In this episode of Literary Tales we explore the great Greek poet playwright Sophocles and offer a reading of some of his surviving plays (Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Electra) and how they revolve around the themes of filial decadence, dissolution, and deliverance in the broader movement of “Tragedy.” Family loyalty and dissolution, I argue, is the context to Sophoclean tragedy […]
In this episode of Literary Tales we offer a reading of Euripides: The Bacchae and Medea. In Euripides we find very modern themes of power, feminism, and masculine domination. As such, we might go as far as to say that Euripides was the prophet of modernity and put his thumb on the very issues we are now grappling with.
In this episode of the Philosophy Hour at Literary Tales we offer a concise half-hour tour of the moral philosophy of Plutarch through the Parallel Lives and Moralia. We find Plutarch advocate a philosophy of intimacy, friendship, and moral progression.
In this episode of Literary Tales we introduce the greatest of the Greek playwrights, Aeschylus, and his magisterial tripartite play: The Oresteia. In covering the Oresteia we provide some background to the Greek literary and cosmological world before Aeschylus and then proceed to see how Aeschylus moves the pathological cosmos of love (from Homer) to include justice.
In this episode of Literary Tales we fast forward to the great English poet, writer, and clergyman Jonathan Swift and examine his monumental and enduring satirical travel-book Gulliver’s Travels. Far from a fanciful and funny children’s story (which we have inherited due to several films very much detached from the work), we realize Swift’s profound criticism of the Enlightenment, modern philosophy, and emerging […]
In this episode of the Philosophy Hour at Literary Tales we pivot to an examination of the “Father of History” Herodotus and his infamous book The Histories. Is there some unifying theme to this seemingly disparate work? Indeed there is. Historia, in Greek, means inquiry. And what Herodotus inquires about is the nature of human action. He finds, over the […]
In this episode of Literary Tales we continue from Homer’s Iliad to Homer’s Odyssey. In this lecture we explore the theme of marital fidelity in contradistinction to marital infidelity and how only human love, and not human-divine love (or vice versa) can bring healing and wholeness to human life. Love, the great theme of the Iliad, is again explored in […]
In this episode of Literary Tales we contrast Homer’s Iliad against Hesiod’s Theogony to reveal the stark break from the poetic past and how Homer’s Iliad is really a cosmic epic of love and forgiveness caught in the rapture of war. I have written extensively on the Iliad (and Homer, more generally) for numerous publications. Links to various Homeric essays […]
In this lecture of Literary Tales, before we can proceed into any substantial dealing with Greek literature and mythology, we must first begin with Hesiod’s Theogony to set the stage and establish the cornerstones of the Greek pathological cosmos. I’ve written extensively on Greek literature and history in the public square. You can you my associated essays and articles here: […]
In the inaugural lecture of the “Philosophy Hour” at Literary Tales, we begin with the very source of systematic philosophy: Plato. In this half hour lecture we provide the tools for understanding Plato as a political thinker, ethicist, satirist, and architect of foreshadowing. This lecture introduces the reader/listener to how to extract the richness from Plato primarily by drawing these […]
In our continued pilgrimage into the Epic of Gilgamesh we concentrate on the figure Enkidu and the spirit of love and sex in the foundation of civilization and how sex civilizes mankind in accord with Aristotle, Catholic sexual ethics, and Camille Paglia.
In the inaugural episode of Literary Tales we lay out the premise of the podcast and begin a two-part examination of the oldest work of extent literature: The Epic of Gilgamesh. Journeying through the epic we come to realize that the work contains the consciousness of the early human struggle for civilization. In this lecture, we discuss Gilgamesh as the […]
