Drs. Masson and Friesen discuss one of the earliest classical literary conceptions of death and the underworld as Odysseus journeys into Hades.

In this episode, Dr. Masson and Dr. Friesen discuss Telemachus, classical notions of coming of age and how this is bound up in the centrality of storytelling to the human experience.

In this episode, Dr. Masson and Dr. Friesen discuss Odysseus' son, Telemachus and the ways that domestic and heroic identity coincide in this epic.

In this episode, Drs. Masson and Friesen discuss a radically different form of heroism than encountered in The Iliad addressed in Homer's Odyssey.

In this episode, Dr. Masson and Dr. Friesen discuss the foundations of epic and nihilistic heroism from the ancient Greek worldview. This episode was recorded earlier, but lost through technical complications, and would have been aired before any of the other podcast. We think it necessary to understanding the texts we are discussing, and have therefore inserted it between a discussion of The Iliad and The Odyssey.

This is the last episode on The Iliad, in which Dr. Masson and Dr. Friesen discuss the motif of death. *Note: this is the first episode with considerably improved audio quality.

Professors Masson and Friesen discuss the power and artistry of rhetoric in the Iliad and how this exerts an influence on later great works of western literature.

A conversation between Dr. Scott Masson and Dr. Bill Friesen, professors of literature, about one of the most important, studied and discussed books in all of western history: The Iliad. Until recently, this was considered one of the few texts that every learned man and woman had to have read and studied in depth in order to be considered cultured. (Apologies beforehand for the sound quality, which will improve greatly on Episode 4).

In this episode, Dr. Scott Masson and Dr. Bill Friesen, professors of literature, discuss a bit about how they came by their love of literature and their reasons for putting together this podcast series on the classics of western literature. They speak about ways of approaching such famous texts  which can begin to unveil to the modern reader why these texts were so valued by 2800 years of readers. (Apologies beforehand for the sound quality, which will improve greatly on Episode 4).