Ancient literature for people who want to start reading it; only the Greek episodes are indexed
161 episodes indexed · 32 hours
Presented by Bethany Banner
Periods · The Bronze Age, Archaic Greece, The Persian Wars, Classical Greece, Philip and Alexander, The Hellenistic world, Greece under Rome
Themes · Theatre Religion War
Bethany Banner covers the literature, philosophy and history of the Greek and Roman world, irreverent at times and always affectionate, for listeners who want to start reading ancient texts; only the Greek episodes are here, 161 of 245, 2 eras, 33 hours.
Where to start. The earliest indexed episode is 'Greek Epics XLI: Odyssey Book 16, or When Two Epics Become One' (2020); 161 episodes of this show are in the section; the show stopped in 2024.
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Minoans and Mycenaeans c. 3000 - 1100 BC · 50
Book 24 of the Odyssey closes out Odysseus's long journey, bringing the epic to its final resolution.
Book 9 of the Odyssey finally has Odysseus begin his own tale, after Alkinoös asks him to speak in Book 8, likely the story readers expect from the epic.
Book 4 of the Odyssey continues the Telemachy, with Telemakhos still travelling in search of news about his missing father.
This chapter traces Dardanus, Ilus, Priam, Aeacus and Telamon in what the title bills as a brief history of Troy, despite featuring Cassandra.
Book 11 of the Odyssey has Odysseus speaking with a long line of ghosts, all without any actual ghostbusting involved.
Book 1 of the Odyssey opens the second great Homeric epic, following Odysseus's journey home from Troy after the war's end.
Book 19 of the Odyssey turns on an old scar on Odysseus's leg, which triggers memories tied back to his identity.
Book 24 of the Iliad closes the epic with a farewell to Achilles, Patroklos, Hektor and the rest of its cast.
This chapter of the Bibliotheca Epitome works through Tantalus, Pelops and Atreus, a family line marked by repeated cannibalism.
Book 10 of the Odyssey follows Odysseus and his men visiting several islands, most of which go badly, though not every stop proves fatal.
Book 8 of the Odyssey has the Phaiakians hosting games and songs, still without learning the identity of their guest, Odysseus.
Book 21 of the Odyssey shows Odysseus's skill with a bow, which sets the host wondering how good Teukros must be, except that Teukros is not in the Odyssey.
Book 20 of the Odyssey keeps delaying the suitors' comeuppance, with Homer stretching out the tension right when it seems about to break.
Book 18 of the Odyssey brings Odysseus close to dropping his disguise, the one turn the episode names for this book of the poem.
Book 22 of the Iliad is full of running, which the host says may not add up to a marathon.
Book 23 of the Odyssey has Penelope testing the stranger in her home before any reunion with Odysseus can be trusted.
Book 16 of the Odyssey has Odysseus finally seeing his son again, merging the epic's two separate story threads into one.
Book 2 of the Odyssey has Telemakhos act on Athena's advice, while Penelope works to take control of her own situation.
Book 17 of the Odyssey has Odysseus finally reaching his own palace, still disguised as he steps back into his old home.
Book 5 of the Odyssey finally turns to Odysseus himself, picking up his struggle to get home from Troy.
Book 15 of the Odyssey finally brings the Telemakhy back together with Odysseus's own story line, after chapters spent apart.
Book 12 of the Odyssey revisits the warning against eating the Cattle of the Sun, and asks how many people have to say it.
Book 3 of the Odyssey has Telemakhos meet Nestor, who regales him with tales of the Trojan War and its aftermath.
Book 21 of the Iliad pits Achilles against seemingly the whole world, which is the episode's entire summary of the book.
Book 19 of the Iliad has Achilles and Agamemnon reconciling, friends again, in a poem the episode says is still not quite ready for battle.
Book 22 of the Odyssey delivers the suitors' comeuppance, in what stands as the bloodiest stretch of the whole epic.
Book 14 of the Odyssey has Odysseus quietly visiting his old swineherd, the one visit this book of the poem is given.
Book 7 of the Odyssey has Odysseus meeting the Phaiakians, closer to home now but still with a long way left to go.
Book 23 of the Iliad stages Patroklos's funeral, and the host's verdict is that the ancient Greeks knew how to throw one.
Book 18 of the Iliad has Achilles finally learning of Patroklos's death, while Hektor is still out there wearing his armor.
Book 16 of the Iliad reaches a turning point as the rising action escalates, with events squarely blamed on Achilles.
Before the Iliad read-through begins, this episode lays out background on Homer and his epics, the information the host calls useful for what follows.
Book 13 of the Odyssey brings Odysseus home at last, though only halfway through the epic, with plenty still left to resolve.
Book 17 of the Iliad opens the aftermath of Patroklos's death in Book 16, which the episode calls a turning point in the Iliad.
Book 14 of the Iliad turns to Hera, who, as the episode has it, gears up to make love and leave the war alone.
Book 13 of the Iliad opens the second half of the epic, with Achilles still moping while the fighting continues without him.
Book 3 of the Iliad finally gives Helen a voice, the woman blamed for starting the war, alongside Paris at what the host calls, with a question mark, his best.
Book 9 of the Iliad finally brings Achilles back into view, after Book 1 promised an epic about his anger that had barely shown him since.
Book 8 of the Iliad marks the one-third point of the epic, with the gods still unable to stay out of the fighting.
Book 7 of the Iliad reveals how Big Ajax ends up with Hektor's sword, as the series reads on through the poem.
Book 20 of the Iliad finally puts Achilles on the battlefield, and he fights exactly as brutally as the epic had promised.
The episode asks how the war is going in Book 15 of the Iliad and answers that it goes badly, unless you happen to be a Trojan.
Book 6 of the Iliad follows Hektor walking back into battle at Troy, the host's favorite book of the whole poem.
Book 5 of the Iliad follows the aristeia of Diomedes, tracing the perks that come with being the child of a god.
Book 1 of the Iliad opens on Achilles's anger, and this episode works through why he is already so mad at the story's start.
Book 11 of the Iliad is a battle-heavy stretch of the epic, handing out one aristeia after another with a lot of bloodshed promised.
Book 4 of the Iliad finally reaches the fighting at Troy, after a few rousing speeches set the war story properly in motion.
Book 2 of the Iliad picks up after Agamemnon and Achilles quarrel, as Homer catalogues everyone involved in the war on both sides.
Book 12 of the Iliad marks the epic's halfway point, with the fighting still dragging on without resolution.
Book 10 of the Iliad sends warriors on a night raid, right after Achilles briefly reappeared in Book 9 of the epic.
Greek Life, Thought and the Wider World across the centuries · 111
Medea unfolds as what this episode calls the messiest divorce in Greek mythology, framing the whole tragedy around that breakup.
This chapter introduces the sons of Aeolus, Melampus, Admetus and Pelias, ending on the arrival of Medea and the Argonauts.
Dyskolos represents the last Greek comedy covered in this series, and the title calls Menander's play what remains of the New Comedy.
Euripides's Electra gives his own bloody take on Orestes and Electra's story, after other tragedians had each already covered the same pair.
Book 1 of Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica introduces Jason and his crew as they set off aboard the Argo on their quest.
The Phoenician Women offers Euripides's own version of the Oedipus story, diverging from what earlier tragedians had already established.
Helen turns up alive in Egypt in this version of the story, while everyone else believes she has been in Troy all along.
Ion is another Euripides tragedy that turns out not to be entirely tragic, keeping the tone unpredictable across his plays.
Trojan Women is called pretty grim here, part of a career the episode says keeps getting darker, flagged with a warning for a grisly infanticide within its story.
Iphigenia in Tauris turns out surprisingly light by Euripides's standards, breaking the pattern of his plays growing darker over his career.
The Suppliants follows what becomes of the rest of the seven men from the story of Seven Against Thebes.
The episode on Euripides's Bacchae opens with a single warning about the play's god: whatever you do, do not question Dionysos's divinity.
Euripides's Orestes is presented here as one more variation on the story of Orestes, a story the episode says it is not quite done with.
Oedipus at Colonus closes out Sophocles's plays in this series, showing both the playwright and Oedipus himself as old men.
This chapter wanders from the Pleiades through Hermes, Coronis, Asclepius and Leda before landing on the suitors of Helen.
This chapter covers the Twelve Labors of Heracles, the stretch in which, as the episode puts it, Heracles makes himself famous.
Euripides never finished writing Iphigenia at Aulis before he died, leaving it to a descendant to complete the play.
Andromache gets compared here to Clare Boothe Luce's The Women, a play the episode imagines Euripides could have co-written, ripostes and all.
This chapter continues Theseus's journey toward Athens, picking up right where the previous episode left him still travelling.
Hippolytus is introduced through a line about Aphrodite, on just how good, and how horrid, the goddess can be.
With Plutus the series finishes the last play of Aristophanes, the thirteenth of his comedies to be read here in order.
Antigone gets reviewed here as another Greek tragedy which, as with many Greek tragedies, includes the subject of suicide.
The Cyclops stands as the only surviving Satyr Play from ancient Greece, a third dramatic genre alongside comedy and tragedy.
Heracleidae follows what happens to the children of Heracles in Euripides's take, after an earlier episode on Sophocles's version of the death of Heracles.
This episode introduces Euripides as, comparatively, the cheeriest of the Greek tragedians, through his play about Alcestis.
Oedipus Rex gets discussed here as probably the single most famous Greek tragedy of them all.
This episode opens Hesiod's Theogony, described here as a kind of Book of Genesis for Greek mythology as a whole.
Book 2 of the Argonautica continues the Argonauts' journey, carrying the crew further from anything resembling home.
Heracles pairs Herakles with Megara in a story that ends far less happily than the Disney version of the same names.
Ajax marks the turn to Sophocles in this series, a tragedy flagged with a warning for its treatment of suicide.
This episode covers Aeschylus's The Suppliants, distinct from the later play of the same name that Euripides would go on to write.
This chapter follows Perseus through his own adventures and on to his descendants, ending with Amphitryon and the birth of Heracles.
This episode covers the three Homeric Hymns dedicated to Aphrodite, numbered 5, 6 and 10 in the collection.
This chapter has Heracles killing still more people before finally facing something like comeuppance for it, at least in part.
This chapter turns to the family of Prometheus, tracing Deucalion and the daughters of Aeolus through the same generation.
Book 4 of the Argonautica closes the epic with Medea taking center stage, inviting direct comparisons to Homer's own heroes.
This episode covers Homeric Hymn 3, dedicated to Apollo, touching on a few of his many temples.
The Frogs turns into literary criticism in comic form, with Aristophanes doing the work of judging the tragedians himself.
This episode finishes Hesiod's Theogony, closing out a long run of begats with a couple of actual stories added in.
This chapter covers Cephalus, Oreithyia, Eumolpus and Aegeus, a stretch of the Bibliotheca the episode compares to trouble brewing on Crete.
Book 3 of the Argonautica introduces Medea as a girl falling for Jason, long before the events that make her famous.
This episode covers the two Homeric Hymns to Hermes, numbered 4 and 18, described here as cheeky from the start.
This episode covers Homeric Hymns 2 and 13, both dedicated to Demeter, though the episode notes only one is really worth discussing.
Lysistrata follows the women of Greece going on strike to force an end to the Peloponnesian War, under a stated warning to listeners.
This episode opens Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy with Agamemnon, a king of Mycenae who, in the host's words, had it coming.
This chapter runs through Cecrops, Adonis, Tereus, Procne and Eirchthonius, myths the episode jokes the gods should have outgrown in kindergarten.
This chapter gathers a few stories about Apollo and Artemis, both archers the episode warns are not worth crossing.
Clouds has Aristophanes making fun of Socrates, a shift from his more usual target, the Peloponnesian War.
Prometheus Bound gives Prometheus room to talk at length, and by the host's account he talks a great deal about fire.
Seven Against Thebes is the final play in Aeschylus's Oedipus trilogy, and the title promises that everyone dies, then takes half of that back.
This chapter of the Bibliotheca reaches Peleus and Thetis; beyond the chapter heading the episode offers one line of its own, that there is a Big Bear in the sky.
This chapter moves through Dionysus, Antiope, Amphion, Zethus and Oedipus, covering enough ground that the episode calls it a lot of territory.
This chapter follows the Heraclids, as Heracles's sons and grandsons carry his family line forward after him.
Ecclesiazusae, known variously as Assemblywomen or Women at the Assembly, is the host's favorite, and called incredibly relevant to the current sociopolitical world.
This chapter is billed as covering the War of the Titans in full, though the episode admits that promise only partly holds up.
This chapter opens the Theogony with the birth of Zeus, under a Bibliotheca whose real author, the episode notes, was never actually Apollodorus.
Women of Trachis lays out how Heracles meets his death, telling the story with the ending given away upfront.
Birds gets described here as a genuinely trippy, weird, and funny play, weird twice over in the host's own summing up.
The Eumenides closes out Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy, bringing the whole cycle to its final resolution.
This chapter retells Seven Against Thebes as the Bibliotheca has it, filling in pieces the episode thinks Aeschylus skipped in his own play.
This chapter follows Io and the Danaids, both of them tossed around in the same chapter of the Bibliotheca.
This chapter retells Demeter and Persephone's story, a stretch in which Pseudo-Apollodorus manages, the episode notes, to stay on topic.
Hekabe loses both her power and her children in this play, set in the aftermath of the fall of Troy.
The Shield of Heracles is probably not actually the work of Hesiod, despite the episode title naming him, though it shows a common trope in Greek literature.
The series reviews Aristophanes's Peace, a play the episode calls allegorical and the title flags for its symbolism.
The Wasps draws out what wasps and jurors apparently have in common, which is the whole of what the episode promises.
The Acharnians, read here as the oldest of Old Comedy, has Aristophanes propose what the episode calls an interesting option for ending the Peloponnesian War.
This chapter follows Auge and Atalanta, with Atalanta outsmarting a long line of suitors in her own wedding race.
This chapter covers Oeneus, Meleager and Tydeus, heroes whose whining, the episode notes, mostly takes the form of killing people they disagree with.
Women at the Thesmophoria claims to be about the women of Athens but spends most of its time mocking Euripides instead.
This episode opens a new course on the mythology not found in plays or epics, starting with Hesiod introducing himself in Works and Days.
The Libation Bearers continues Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy, introducing the sister who had been left out entirely of the first play.
This episode covers Aeschylus's The Persians, using an old Robert Potter translation, which the host says listeners may swap for whichever translation is easily available.
This chapter opens Theseus's story in the Bibliotheca, covered here as a notably short beginning to his adventures.
This chapter follows the Epigoni in the Bibliotheca, with a cursed necklace from an earlier generation still making its rounds.
This chapter follows Glaucus, whose death by honey the episode promises will all be all right in the end.
This chapter covers Europa, Minos and Pasiphae, running through a Zeus bull, a Poseidon bull, and finally a man-bull of their own making.
This chapter covers more of the Wars of Heracles, with another round of killing followed by yet another act of atonement.
This chapter has the Bibliotheca's own author working to untangle the Olympian family tree, generation by generation.
This episode covers the Homeric Hymn to Earth, Mother of All, framed as a hymn to where everything originally started.
This chapter reaches the Dioscuri, the famous twins who, despite their fame, get surprisingly little space in the Bibliotheca itself.
This chapter introduces Cadmus, Semele and Actaeon as Dionysus's own family, tracing his side of the family tree.
This chapter traces Catreus and his descendants, a genealogy the episode connects forward to Agamemnon's own father.
This chapter covers the War of the Giants and Typhon, with Heracles teaming up alongside the Olympians to fight them off.
This episode covers the Homeric Hymn to Pan, where the episode says it gets a little wild and wooly.
This episode opens the Homeric Hymns collection with the three poems dedicated to Dionysos, a god the title suggests turns out different than expected.
The Knights has Aristophanes take direct aim at Cleon, in a play the episode calls highly topical for its own moment.
This chapter covers Lycaon and Callisto, another myth the episode ties to how a bear ends up placed among the stars.
This chapter covers Bellerophon, whose adventures the episode notes turn out to be shorter than expected.
This episode covers the Homeric Hymn to Poseidon, in which the episode notes the poet loses his own way a little.
This episode covers Homeric Hymn 20, offering a brief glimpse of Hephaistos and nothing more of him than that glimpse.
This episode covers both of the two separate Homeric Hymns dedicated to the goddess Athena herself.
This episode covers Homeric Hymns 9 and 27, two separate hymns both dedicated to Artemis.
This episode covers a short, weird little Homeric poem about Ares, a god the episode also links to Mars.
This chapter pairs Proteus with the Proetides, running through fighting twins and the mad women of Argos in the same selection.
This episode turns to the Homeric Hymns for Hestia, introduced in the title as the center of the home, the world, and everything else.
This episode covers Homeric Hymns 17 and 33, both dedicated to the Dioskouroi, the twin pair also tied to a zodiac sign.
This episode covers Homeric Hymn 16, another short hymn, this one dedicated to Askelpios.
This episode covers Homeric Hymn 15, dedicated to Herakles, introduced here as the original greatest of all time.
This episode covers the Homeric Hymn to Selene, the actual goddess of the moon, distinguished here from other moon-associated figures.
This episode covers Homeric Hymn 31, dedicated to Helios, introduced here as the hottest of all the gods.
This episode covers Homeric Hymn 14, dedicated to the Mother of the Gods, one more hymn reviewed in order out of the Homeric collection.
Before turning to the plays themselves, this episode covers what to expect from Old Comedy, including elements modern theatre doesn't really share.
Before reading any of the plays, this episode sets expectations for what a Greek tragedy typically delivers, mostly variations on depressing stories.
The closing episode of the Greek Tragedy course, which the host wraps up here under the heading of humanism in Greek tragedy.
This episode closes out the Homeric Hymns with Hymn 34, to Guest Friends, a poem the episode admits barely counts as a hymn.
This episode covers Homeric Hymn 23, which declares Zeus the greatest of the gods, whether out of genuine belief or simple flattery.
This episode gathers what is actually known, and not fully known, about Aristophanes himself before turning to his individual plays.
The closing episode of the Greek Epics course, which the host wraps up here under the heading of humanism in Greek epics.
This short episode covers the single, likewise short, Homeric Hymn dedicated to Hera.
This episode introduces Aeschylus himself, covering basic background on his life and the world he was writing in before turning to his plays.