Today on Young Heretics: a violent and unjust seizure of indigenous land!!! At least, according to Juno and the Furies, goddesses of retribution and blood guilt. Actually, the situation in Rome and in the Aeneid is a lot more complicated than that, which is one reason why the conclusion of the poem is a refreshingly sophisticated antidote to our often-oversimplified conversations about history, territory, colonialism, and the sins of the past. Plus: a mailbag question about Charlie Kirk and Julius Caesar.

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...And also, pizza. Kind of. This might be one of the coolest parts of Virgil ever, and even though I’ve been reading the Aeneid since high school, I feel like I only just figured it out. One of the most famous lines of the poem—forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit, “one day it will be pleasing to remember even these things—finds its answer in Book 7, when Aeneas arrives on shore and has to face the possibility of war with the, erm...indigenous Latinx peoples. So much to discuss, here, and a great mailbag question about how to deal with situations you can’t change.

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Read my essay on why we should read in thea ge of AI: https://www.thefp.com/p/what-happens-if-no-one-reads-culture-education

And now for something completely different. The Odyssey portion of our tour is over, and the Iliad portion will now begin. But wait! Wasn't the Iliad a poem about war? And isn't Aeneas supposed to do battle for Latium? So why is it all sunshine, butterflies, and love goddesses? Today we launch into Part II of the poem with a passage that has bamboozled scholars for centuries, and of course I will deliver the definitive interpretation so that everyone can stop arguing. Plus: a plot summary of what's to come, and advice on reading classic literature if you're having trouble understanding it.

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Listen to my sister's podcast, Storytime for Grownups: https://faithkmoore.com/storytime-for-grownups/

EPIC, the Musical: https://faithkmoore.com/storytime-for-grownups/

Stephen Fry, Odyssey: https://a.co/d/1rIbSBu

Gareth Hinds, The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel: https://a.co/d/2kClqmN

It's time we finally talked about the elephant in the room: does Virgil actually like Augustus? Or is he just pretending? This doesn't seem to have been much of a question in the ancient world--the commentator Servius wrote quite bluntly that "Virgil's intention was to imitate Homer and praise Augustus." But in the wake of the two world wars, scholars in the Anglosphere started to wonder whether there might not be a hint of menace behind Virgil's apparently rosy picture of imperial Rome. This week on Young Heretics: the definitive take on all this, plus recommendations for the best translation of the Odyssey.

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Read my essay on translating Homer: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/homer-without-heroes/

Everyone, everywhere, thinks about the afterlife. If you think you don't, you're wrong: you do. Because what you believe about life after death is an expression of how you think the universe is ordered, and whether you believe there's such a thing as ultimate justice. That in turn affects how you live--and almost no one has had a bigger impact on how we think about this in the West than Virgil. This week, we're going in--down through the Egyptian Book of the Dead, past the churning waters of the Babylonian afterlife, into the carefully mapped-out world of the Greco-Roman afterlife. Plus: one final, heartbreaking meeting with one of the poem's truly unforgettable characters.

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One of the West's great recurring characters, the Sibyl of Cumae, takes center stage today. Deranged, holy, prophetic, and apparently totally jacked, she guided Rome throughout its history and now teaches Aeneas what he must do to become the man who can found Rome. She may have been one of the pagan visionaires who prophesied the coming of Christ. Plus she's part of a crazy history that goes back to the invention of the alphabet and all the way to the creation of Star Wars. Then: another figure of speech you'll see everywhere once you learn it.

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If, like me, you're still sore about what they did to the Gladiator franchise, let this episode be part of your healing journey. It's certainly part of Aeneas': with the fleet grounded back in Sicily, the crew realizes it's been one year since the death of his father Anchises. This is the occasion for a good old fashioned fight night, with funeral games in honor of the great patriarch. It's a connection between Rome's gladiatorial entertainments and the heroic passtimes of yore, a way for Aeneas to seek closure after his year of grief, and a pause between the emotional tryst with Dido and the biggest challenge yet: the descent into the underworld.

More on ancient sports: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/young-heretics/id1513602173?i=1000661793645

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There are some indelible scenes inscribed forever into the psyche of the West, and the death of Dido is one of them. When William Congreve wrote that "Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd," he surely had in mind this archetype of all scorned women, the tragic heroine who stands in for every abandoned lover and for an entire civilization. Aeneas--and Rome--must leave her ruthlessly in the dust. But no one knows how to guilt trip you like your ex, and no one knows how to remonstrate with Rome like Carthage. All the same, in the end...destiny awaits.

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Judith Hallett, "Can Love Alleviate the Unseen Wounds of War?" https://www.openstarts.units.it/server/api/core/bitstreams/307c3466-87d4-4018-9cb0-598fa21d7200/content

"I'm Not Sorry for Loving You," from EPiC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M3gzo-hSCo

Readings in Western Civilization from the University of Chicago Press: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/series/RWC.html

Major Doron Spielman has dedicated much of his life to excavating the City of David, the ancient archaeological site just outside modern Jerusalem which confirms much of the Jewish history recorded in the Bible. It's an astonishing tale of theological warfare, cutting-edge scholarship, and contemporary politics that shows just how dramatically ancient and modern history sometimes converge. Major Spielman's NYT-bestselling book, When the Stones Speak, is rich with fascinating details about the impressive and ongoing effort to uncover the mysteries of ancient Jerusalem.

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I'm not saying that the catastrophe in Carthage could have been avoided. I'm just saying, everyone--the two main characters especially--behaved very badly. Now the deed is done, the nymphs are ululating, the "wedding"(?) announcements are out, and the gods are on the move to put a stop to all this. Which means Aeneas has some hard conversations he has to have and he...punts. Not his proudest moment. But instructive for us and as always, beautiful, timeless poetry. Enjoy!

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