Classical Stuff You Should Know

A.J. opens the world of the Odyssey here, walking through some of its important scenes while exploring the story.

The Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid share one continuous story that ancient Greeks took as common knowledge; this episode supplies that background so the Iliad's plunge into the middle makes sense.

A.J. continues through the Odyssey, walking through the hero's journey and the theory of the cosmic journey, with a cameo from some tableware that turns out to be gold.

Thucydides recorded, as best he could, the funeral oration of Pericles, among the greatest rulers of Athens, give or take, played here in full before the hosts discuss it.

The second episode on the Landmark Herodotus covers the exploits of Cyrus the Great, with baby swapping, a kid kingdom, and blood wine offered to the dead.

Plato's Crito closes out the saga of Socrates's trial and death, with Socrates defending his choice to stay and drink the hemlock and not run away.

Thomas continues his series on the Landmark Herodotus with the reign of Cambyses, a king remembered here for bad gifts, bad spies, and failing to draw a fancy bow.

Continuing through the Landmark Herodotus, this installment reaches the chapter that earns him the nickname Father of Lies, a label the hosts think is overstated.

Herodotus put together a history the hosts call stellar, and the Landmark edition offers what they call an equally stellar translation, with several of its stories discussed here.

Jason needs a golden fleece in the Argonautica, and gets it with a crazy witch priestess, a talking ship, and a detour to Libya along the way.

This continues A.J.'s ongoing series working through Plato's Republic book by book, moving now into Book 2 of the dialogue.

Aristotle and Plato took very different approaches to epistemology, and the episode discusses the implications of each.

In Book X of Plato's Republic, the discussion covers his attack on imitative poetry, his argument for the soul's immortality, and the strange myth of a man named Er.

The series on Plato's Republic reaches Book III, where Plato goes a little off the rails, arguing that someone with a terminal disease might as well give up and die.

Antigone, the last play of the Theban cycle, ends with a string of deaths triggered by one already-dead man, and the hosts also get into questions of law.

This opens a series on Plato's Republic, promising it will not be as boring as it sounds, with A.J. likely to get distracted before too long.

Bees walks through the story of Oedipus, an ancient Greek figure who refuses to listen to the oracles, with the hosts repeating the same advice: listen to the prophets.

This closing installment finishes Aristotle's De Anima, which the hosts think they have finally cracked, more or less.

This penultimate chapter of Plato's Republic turns to tyranny, the government form the dialogue takes up here, given the nickname Tyrone by the hosts for the occasion.

Book V of Plato's Republic, an aside on something he glossed over earlier, holding women and children in common, and the hosts calling him the first true feminist before taking it back.

The fourth installment on Plato's Republic finally reaches the meaning of justice, with some sympathy along the way for the warriors, who the hosts feel are getting a raw deal.

Bees leads this episode on Oedipus at Colonus, a play by Sophocles, with the word Sophoclesian coined for it along the way.

In Plato's dialogue Meno, Socrates and Meno try to work out whether virtue can be taught, and the discussion leaves the answer that it cannot be.

Thomas walks through Aristophanes's 'The Frogs,' with the hosts also making animal noises.

While Socrates waits in line for his own trial, he meets Euthyphro, who plans to denounce his own father, and the two debate the definition of piety until Euthyphro excuses himself.

The writings of Epictetus are among the only Stoic manuscripts to survive, and the Enchiridion stands as his essential handbook for the budding follower of Stoicism.

In Book VIII of Plato's Republic, Socrates traces how an Aristocracy degrades into weaker forms of government, with democracy ranked well below the top by his account.

The Phaedo and the conversation Socrates had with his companions before he drank the poison, a conversation that, in short, was about the soul.

This episode looks at the person of Socrates, a man the hosts admit is tough to pin down, since he never wrote anything down himself.

Aristotle's four causes offer a way of thinking about definition, asking what something actually is in its essence, with four high school teachers weighing in on his answer.

The second installment on Aristotle's De Anima covers his definition of the soul, with one more book left before the discussion of the soul is done.

The Clouds, the play that helped doom Socrates, gets a bawdy tour from Thomas, with some of it edited out under jaunty music and a warning to listeners with small children.

Recorded live at Paideia, this covers book one of Aristotle's On the Soul, where he works through and dismantles rival theories before giving his own answer in book two.