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Among the Ancients II

by London Review of Books

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Latest episodes

  • Apuleius

    November 24, 2024 · 11 min

    Apuleius’ ‘Metamorphoses’, better known as ‘The Golden Ass’, is the only ancient Roman novel to have survived in its entirety. Following the story of Lucius, forced to suffer as a donkey until the goddess Isis intervenes, the novel…

  • Juvenal

    October 24, 2024 · 14 min

    In this episode, we tackle Juvenal, whose sixteen satires influenced libertines, neoclassicists and early Christian moralists alike. Conservative to a fault, Juvenal’s Satires rails against the rapid expansion and transformation of Roman…

  • Tacitus

    September 24, 2024 · 13 min

    The Annals, Tacitus’ study of the emperors from Tiberius to Nero, covers some of the most vivid and ruthless episodes in Roman history. A masterclass in political intrigue (and how not to do it), the Annals features mutiny, senatorial…

  • Lucan

    August 24, 2024 · 13 min

    In his prodigious, prolific and very short career, Lucan was at turns championed, disavowed and finally forced into suicide at 25 by the emperor Nero. His only surviving work is Civil War, an account of the bloody and chaotic power…

  • Plautus and Terence

    July 24, 2024 · 14 min

    In episode seven, we turn to some of the earliest surviving examples of Roman literature: the raucous, bawdy and sometimes bewildering world of Roman comedy. Plautus and Terence, who would go on to set the tone for centuries of playwrights…

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  • Lucian

    June 24, 2024 · 14 min

    The broad theme of this series, truth and lies, was a favourite subject of Lucian of Samosata, the last of our Greek-language authors. A cosmopolitan and highly cultured Syrian subject of the Roman Empire in the second century CE, Lucian…

  • Plato's 'Symposium'

    May 24, 2024 · 12 min

    Plato’s 'Symposium', his philosophical dialogue on love, or eros, was probably written around 380 BCE, but it’s set in 416, during the uneasy truce between Athens and Sparta in the middle of the Peloponnesian War. A symposium was a…

  • Pindar and Bacchylides

    April 24, 2024 · 11 min

    In the fifth episode of Among the Ancients II we turn to Greek lyric, focusing on Pindar’s victory odes, considered a benchmark for the sublime since antiquity, and the vivid, narrative-driven dithyrambs of Bacchylides. Through close…

  • Herodotus

    March 24, 2024 · 11 min

    Some of the most compelling stories of the Classical world come from Herodotus‘ 'Histories', an account of the Persian Wars and a thousand things besides. Emily and Tom chart a course through Herodotus‘ history-as-epic, discussing how best…

  • Aesop

    February 24, 2024 · 10 min

    Supposedly an enslaved man from sixth-century Samos, Aesop might not have ever really existed, but the fables attributed to him remain some of the most widely read examples of classical literature. A fascinating window into the…

  • Hesiod

    January 24, 2024 · 55 min

    Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones kick off their second season of Among the Ancients with a return to the eighth century BCE, exploring the poems of Homer’s near contemporary, Hesiod, the first western writer to craft a poetic persona. In…

  • Introducing Among the Ancients II

    January 1, 2024 · 11 min

    Emily Wilson, celebrated classicist and translator of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, is back to take on another twelve vital works of Greek and Roman literature with the LRB’s Thomas Jones, loosely themed around truth and lies – from from…

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About the show

Emily Wilson, celebrated classicist and translator of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, is back to take on another twelve vital works of Greek and Roman literature with the LRB’s Thomas Jones, loosely themed around truth and lies – from from Aesop’s Fables to Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. Among the Ancients is part of the Close Readings podcasts from the London Review of Books. To listen to all the series in full, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts at the top of this podcast; For Spotify and other podcast apps here: https://lrb.supportingcast.fm/close-readings