Xenia: Odysseus' Blessing and Curse
In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Book 7, Odysseus, who has at this point lost all his men and washes up alone on the Scherian beach, has through his wit and bearing, and with the goddess Athena’s help, been acce...
30 Juli 1h 35min
Beauty is Sus to Us (Clip)
Modern German philosophers like Marx, Nietzsche and Freud have spread the "hermeneutics of suspicion" in our culture. We have a deep suspicion of appearances and, therefore, beautiful things (the bea...
28 Juli 10min
Odysseus Appreciates Nausicaa's Beauty (Clip)
Pornography participates in beauty, but also is consumptive, and especially, unappreciative. This is contrasted to Odysseus' paise of Nausicaa in his speech to her, without the ritual supplication at...
20 Juli 5min
Beauty Herself Greets Odysseus (Clip)
Odysseus, when he sees nubile and beautiful Nausicaa when he washes up on shore at the beginning of Book 6, does not try to capture her in any way. This in a time with raiding parties and the famous ...
13 Juli 8min
Odysseus, Nausicaa, & Beauty’s Education
Man is he who suffers, and Odysseus is the man “of twists and turns,” the builder and destroyer, the journeyer trying to reach his beloved homeland. Here Ian and I discuss what draws this man forward...
4 Juli 1h 29min
Grimm's Fur-of-All-Kinds (Allerleirauh)
A dying queen demands that her husband remarry only someone as beautiful as she. After the mourning period, his advisors scramble around to find a new monarch, but the king’s eye alights on his very ...
3 Juli 1h 19min
Banishing the Lion from Modern Thought (Clip)
Why do we like folktales and myths? I think one reason is that they help us learn to pay attention to instinct. It’s not that I don’t think rationality is important–it is a key to a wise life. But ...
30 Juni 7min
Save the Suffering Animals! Grimm's "The Hut in the Forest" Summary and Discussion
The Virtue of Beauty, the Beauty of Virtue: A king is cursed to live as an old man with his servant– now animal attendants–until they are saved by one with kindness for all life. A poor woodcutter go...
14 Juni 26min
