The three decades from 508-478BC were possibly the most consequential in all of ancient history. In this episode and the next, we tell the story of the Greco-Persian Wars through the eyes of Themistocles, the Athenian mastermind who guided the Greeks to victory.
Contents of the episode, with timestamps:
[04:50] Themistocles' Childhood and the Athenian Revolution
[10:40] Democracy's Early Challenges
[16:10] The Demagogue
[26:35] The Ionian Revolt
[31:25] Marathon
[43:05] "Rejoice! We Are Victorious!"
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Find out more about the upcoming AGD "Persian Wars" Tour in Greece: greecepodcast.com/tour4
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AGD is going back to Greece this January 3-11 for another epic adventure! This time we'll be exploring the Persian Wars and the profound effect they had on Greek civilization. We will visit all the major focal points of the Greco-Persian showdown (Marathon, the Acropolis, Eretria, Salamis, Thermopylae, Plataea, and Delphi) as well as a wide variety of other fascinating historical sites.
Check out our highlight reel from the first tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g-w7u6aQz0
To reserve your spot, email us at greecepodcast@gmail.com
For the itinerary visit https://greecepodcast.com/tour4
Bret Devereux is a military historian at North Carolina State University and author of the recent viral article "Spartans Were Losers: The US Military's Admiration of a Proto-Fascist City-State is Based on Bad History." He joins us to explain why he thinks that the traditional image of Sparta as an egalitarian society of warrior badasses is a lie. You can find his blog, where he writes extensively on Sparta, here: https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-i-spartan-school/
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This episode is available in video format on the Lantern Jack YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/VngbinpNGIE
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As our world becomes increasingly hi-tech, more and more people have been turning to ancient wisdom traditions in search of meaning. There are two schools of ancient philosophy in particular that have seen a meteoric revival in recent years: Platonism and Stoicism. Cognitive scientist John Vervaeke joins us to explore why this is happening.
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Join the upcoming AGD Tour in Greece: greecepodcast.com/tour
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Or make a one-time donation: paypal.me/greecepodcast
AGD is going back to Greece this fall (Oct. 11-19) for another epic adventure! This time we'll be exploring areas that in ancient times lay in the shadow of – or in direct conflict with – the Athenian hegemony.
Check out our video from the first tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g-w7u6aQz0
To reserve your spot, email us at greecepodcast@gmail.com
For the itinerary visit https://greecepodcast.com/tour
This time we're taking a little break from Greece to explore the broader history of democracy. Was democracy really a Greek invention? Historian David Stasavage, author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy, thinks it was not. And in today's episode he explains why.
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Polybius' theory of anacyclosis is the most sophisticated theory of political (r)evolution to have emerged from ancient Greek and Roman political thought.
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To watch the highlight real from the last AGD tour in Greece, click here.
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To read the passage in Polybius where he discusses anacyclosis click here.
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If you'd like to read more about the theory of anacyclosis, I've written a few blogs on the subject:
Anacyclosis, Act 1: From Monarchy to Tyranny
AGD is going back to Greece this winter (Jan. 3-11) for an epic tour of Greece's northern regions, focusing on mountains and oracles. For more information or to reserve your spot, email us at greecepodcast@gmail.com
Plato argued that the inevitable next step in political evolution after democracy is tyranny. Many political thinkers throughout history agreed with him. Were they right?
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A full transcript of this episode with references can be found on our website at greecepodcast.com
Was Marcus Aurelius really the enlightened ruler that history books and modern movies portray him as? And is his brand of Stoic philosophy applicable to the modern world?
With us to discuss these and other questions is Donald Robertson, a psychotherapist and the author of How to Think Like and Emperor and Verissimus.
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An update on the AGD Tour happening in Greece from August 16-24
For an outline of the itinerary click here.
Thirty three scholars, philosophers, and archaeologists answer the question: If you could time travel to the ancient world, who would you want to meet?
Scholars featured + the timestamps when they appear:
2:10 Edith Hall
3:36 Eric Cline
4:30 Andromache Karanika
5:45 Josiah Ober
6:48 Rush Rehm
7:30 Ian Morris
8:02 Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
9:20 Patrick Hunt
9:46 Raffaella Cribiore
11:04 Mark Adams
12:20 Peter Adamson
13:47 Richard Martin
15:08 M. M. McCabe
16:37 Zina Giannopoulou
18:45 Greg Nagy
19:43 Caroline Winterer
20:04 Melissa Lane
22:28 Alicia Stallings
22:57 Rhiannon Evans
24:04 Barbara Graziosi
24:54 Walter Scheidel
25:12 Matt Simonton
26:30 Emily Greenwood
27:57 Olga Levaniouk
30:00 Steele Brand
32:55 Rachel Barney
33:36 Angie Hobbs
35:31 Adrian Goldsworthy
36:30 Mary Bachvarova
37:42 Jonathan Lear
39:40 Mary Townsend
40:31 Gabriel Richardson Lear
42:14 Ben Morison
Philosophers today often dismiss Plato's Theory of Forms as an outdated and failed attempt by a pre-modern thinker to explain knowledge. However, cognitive scientist John Vervaeke offers a radically different take on Plato's theory and how it ties in with recent debates about the nature of intelligence.
John Vervaeke is a professor at the University of Toronto and the creator of the popular YouTube series Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.
An announcement about the upcoming Ancient Greece Declassified tour in Greece this summer.
The cave analogy, which takes up the majority of book 7 of the Republic, is one of the most famous passages in all of western philosophy.
In this episode, we are joined by Ben Morison, professor of philosophy at Princeton, to dive deep into the allegory and unpack its various levels of meaning.
Plato is at once the most loved and possibly the most hated philosopher of all time. This episode explores five reasons why he drives some people mad.
Contents of the episode, with timestamps:
Reason 1: Who should rule? [7:30]
Reason 2: What political system is best? [12:20]
The Ship of State [15:10]
Reason 3: What is truth? [20:20]
Reason 4: What is knowledge? [30:35]
The Divided Line [40:25]
Reason 5: What is good?
Where does the notion of 'moral duty' come from? In this conversation with Simon E. Drew we dive deep into the history of the concept and discuss my recent book The Invention of Duty.
This episode was originally published on The Walled Garden podcast and is here republished as a crosscast.
Book 6 of the Republic is the work’s core section where Plato lays out his metaphysics. Appealing to his signature Theory of Forms, Plato offers a transcendent vision of the Good as the ultimate source of human knowledge.
Joining us to help us unpack this theory is Gabriel Richardson Lear, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago and author of the book Happy Lives and the Highest Good: An Essay on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
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Was Homer was influenced by the stories of civilizations to the east of Greece? Joining us to discuss the Hittites and their potential (direct and indirect) influences on the Greek epic tradition is Mary Bachvarova, professor of classics at Willamette University and author of From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic
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The most controversial part of Plato's Republic is its fifth book, wherein Socrates argues for the political equality of men and women, the abolition of the nuclear family, a strange eugenics program, and the idea that philosophers kings and philosopher queens should be put in charge of political affairs.
With us to discuss book 5 is Mary Townsend, assistant professor of philosophy at Saint John’s University in Queens and author of the book The Woman Question in Plato’s Republic.
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In book 4 of the Republic, Plato sets forth perhaps the most famous psychological theory from Greco-Roman antiquity: the tripartite model of the human soul. But how good of a model is it? How does it hold up from the perspective of modern psychology?
With us to discuss these questions and more is Jonathan Lear, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago and a practicing psychoanalyst who serves on the faculty of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. His article "Inside and Outside the Republic" remains one of the most important pieces of scholarship on the psychological theory offered in book 4.
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What do Plato's Republic, Sigmund Freud, and the Harry Potter saga have in common? Find out in this episode, which offers an exploration of book 4 of Plato's Republic and its many parallels in modern literature and psychology.
Was Alexander the Great really that *great* on his own? Or did he owe much of his success to the work of his father Philip II of Macedonia? Joining us to discuss the matter is Adrian Goldsworthy, military historian and author of the new book Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors.
A video version of this episode is available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/zZwyvimmX3k
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In the second half of book 3 of the Republic, Plato lays out the controversial theory of mimesis, which states that all art, man-made objects, and cultural products in our environment have profound effects on the health of our souls.
With us to help us unpack, analyze, and evaluate Plato’s arguments is, once again, Angie Hobbs, professor of the public understanding of philosophy at the University of Sheffield, England.
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Following Socrates' claim that the ideal republic should be ruled by a class of "guardians," the question naturally arises: Who or what will keep these guardians in check? How do you prevent the government from becoming an unaccountable and oppressive regime?
Our exploration of Plato's Republic continues, this time with Angie Hobbs, professor of the public understanding of philosophy at the University of Sheffield in England. She has written several books including Plato and the Hero, which touches on a lot of the topics we will be discussing today. Her latest book is a short guide to Plato’s Republic in the Ladybird Expert Series. Stay tuned at the end of this episode for a chance to win a copy of the book.
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