Books of Titans Podcast

Love the eternal books that express eternal truths. ~ A.G. Sertillanges Have you found yourself lost in mid-life? Not sure what direction to take? No focus or purpose? This is a book about continuing intellectual curiosity throughout life, of lifelong learning. It’s a book with practical advice on how to pursue the life of the mind. I wish I had read this book in my teens. The author, A.G. Sertill...

Each year, I stack all of the books from the previous year’s reading list next to me and reminisce over the reading year. It’s one of my favorite yearly podcast episodes and it’s a great way for you to hear about some books to add to your reading list. 2024 was My Big Fat Greek Reading List. I’m reading through The Great Books The Immortal Books in chronological order over the next 15 years, and t...

I used to think that great art had to have come from a great-souled artist with an honorable life. How else would you be able to forge David out of a slab of marble or compose an entire opera in your head? A minimum of a pure mind combined with superhuman abilities must have been required, right? Actually, art is oftentimes forged through intense suffering in the life of the artist. It’s suffering...

This book was suggested by a friend of mine named William Leachman. He’s a bonafide teacher, as in he has students and teaches them in a building that says school on the outside of it. He told me I should read this book and he told me that I’m a teacher. I bristled at that. I’m not a professional. I don’t teach eager students at the local high school. But after reading this book, I hesitantly ackn...

“And after this, not many days later…” Xenophon begins his history with these words. The “after this…” refers to the writings of Thucydides, which abruptly end in the midst of the Peloponnesian War in 411BC. Xenophon takes up the mantle and takes us first to the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404BC and then on to 362BC. Xenophon’s work takes us through the decline of the Athenian empire into the...

Theo of Golden is a man “fully invested in the art of living.” He’s a character you want to emulate. A good man whose kindness is made up of “little, nameless, unremembered acts.” As the reader, we get to see how these small, daily acts weave throughout a small, fictional, Georgia town. This book was gifted to me by a publisher well acquainted with the written word. It’s her job to quickly work th...

Prior to reading Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War , I envisioned a sort of Braveheart-like battle with lines of Athenians rushing towards lines of Spartans. That’s not even close to what happened. Most battles were proxy battles far from either Athens or Sparta and many battles were fought by sea. The Peloponnesian War took place between 431 - 404BC. This work covers years 431 - 411BC, abruptly ends...

If you were to rank the individual suffering of those in Greek Literature, Andromache would easily rise to the top of that list. She lost her father, 7 brothers, and husband Hector to one man, Achilles. Her son was thrown from the walls of Troy. To top off the suffering cake, she was then forced to marry the son of her husband’s murderer, Neoptolemus. This tragedy begins with Andromache grasping t...

This tragedy by Euripides was written in 420BC, 10 years after Children of Heracles . Historically, this is in the midst of the Peloponnesian War. Mythologically, it’s at the point of Heracles’ life where he is completing his 12th and final labor. While away, his family is in danger. He returns, neutralizes the danger, but becomes danger himself in the form of madness brought on by the gods. In th...

Euripides wrote this tragedy in 430BC, a fateful year that saw the beginnings of the Peloponnesian War. It’s interesting to read this play in light of the historical atmosphere. Athens was entering a war with Sparta. The Spartans traced their descent from Heracles, and in this tragedy, the children of Heracles are near Athens (in Marathon) seeking refuge. Will Athens hold to her ideals and protect...

You, Aphrodite, lead captive the stubborn hearts of gods and of mortals. Aphrodite conquers all. Or nearly all. Zeus is under her spell and only a few, Athena and Artemis among them, have resisted her. Love is so powerful a force that it can even cause a step-mother to lust after her step-son. That at least is the premise for this tragedy and so the battle of Aphrodite (love, desire) is fought aga...

In Book 2 of The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, the Athenian general Pericles gives two extraordinary speeches. One is a eulogy and the other a response to an angry and devastated populace in the midst of war and pestilence. These speeches create a beautiful blend of history and exploration. Thucydides presents the historical facts of war—the size of armies, the results of certain battles, and n...

I just finished leading a 9-week, in-person reading group covering the Iliad . It was such a good experience. I’ve also participated in a number of groups over the years and wanted to use this podcast episode to share what I’ve learned and to hopefully encourage you to start your own reading group. Myths: * You don’t need to have all of the answers. * You don’t need to have an advanced degree. How...

“Sing, O Muse, a new song about Ilium, a funeral dirge accompanied by tears.” The glory of the Iliad is over. The Muses are being summoned to sing a funeral dirge, a new song of mourning for the city of Troy. This tragedy takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Trojan War. The Greeks have gotten past the famous Trojan walls, not by force but by trickery. They’ve entered the city, killed the...

In one of the most tragic stories of Greek Mythology, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in order to secure favorable winds from Artemis so that the Greek Army can sail to Troy and retrieve Helen. That sacrifice sets off a series of events that curse a family line and destroy Agamemnon himself. It’d be fun to imagine an alternate ending. One that doesn’t involve the utterly tragic dea...

Admetus can escape Hades if he can find someone to die in his place. His wife Alcestis agrees to die for him in the ultimate sacrifice. Is she in the right? Should she have been the person to take his place? Where does that leave him if she dies? These tragic elements are balanced with comedic release in the arrival of Heracles amidst this tremendous household grief. It turns this play about Neces...

Hecabe has to be one of the most tragic figures in the canon. Wife and Queen of King Priam, she’s lost close to 50 sons and 50 daughters by the start of this tragedy play. Not only that, she’s lost her husband, Hector, Paris, and Troy where she was queen. This play starts with one of her only surviving sons, Polydorus, appearing as a ghost and telling of his demise. Hecabe doesn’t know he’s dead y...

Medea kicks off right at the end of Jason and the Golden Fleece by Apollonius of Rhodes. Medea has just assisted Jason in subduing the dragon so that he can take the Golden Fleece. As thanks, Jason promises to marry Medea but then takes a second wife (the King’s daughter) to try to smooth things over in their new home. Unsurprisingly, Medea doesn’t take kindly to being scorned and she plots her re...

I’m the business manager at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN. Our owner recently purchased this book for all staff members so that we could read and discuss it. I’m so glad he did. I loved this book and it reignited a deep love and passion for bookstores. It also provided a number of ideas that I highlight in this episode. I share three things that stuck out to me and got me thinking and then...

I read an illustrated edition of Aesop’s Fables earlier this year and came away quite disappointed. I knew Aesop lived in the 7th century BC, but the book of fables contained elements from much later during the Roman period. I came away confused and wanting to know more. Someone suggested I pick up the Loeb Classical Library version of Babrius and Phaedrus to dig deeper. I’m so glad I did. We don’...

This is my favorite tragedy play by Sophocles. It’s absolutely stunning and shows the brilliance of the playwright in ways his other tragedies don’t. This is a story about means vs ends. Odysseus believes the adage “by any means necessary.” Deception is a legitimate means to reach a desired end. However, deception is not in the nature of Neoptolemus, whom Odysseus needs to fulfill a role. How will...

This tragedy covers themes like justice, freedom, and fate. The play culminates in the question of “whose justice?” Who has the right to exact justice? And who is in the right in exacting justice? Does justice exist beyond one’s individual conception or is there a higher law? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.b...

Sophocles may have written 130 plays during his lifetime. Only seven survive. This podcast episode covers a book a fragments of the 100+ other tragedy and satyr plays of Sophocles. Fragments are phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs of content that were mostly referenced by other writers like Aristotle, Athenaeus, and Plutarch. They were aware of these plays that have since been lost to us and so...

This tragedy concludes with a question - what law do you obey? Do you obey a father asking you to do terrible things from his deathbed? Or is there a higher law? Further, where does law come from? Is it divine? Is it dictated by those closest to you? The Women of Trachis follows a set of characters as “Fate is on the march.” It’s a fascinating case of one of the women, Deianeira, the wife of Herac...

In this podcast episode, I cover a pair of memoirs - one with a focus on a mother and the other with a focus on a father. Rick Bragg tells of his childhood in Alabama with an alcoholic father and a self-sacrificing mother, his pathway in journalism, and his attempt to pay back his mother. Debra King tells of her childhood in Wisconsin with an entrepreneurial father who was both a farmer and a grav...