Johanna Hanink

Yes, it's about hubris, the classical concept, which no one ever translates kind of directly.

But the reviewer here, who is Johanna Hanink, has gone for something like insolent pride indulged at someone else's expense.

And she gives us some kind of modern equivalence, including a narcissistic propensity to see one's world primarily as an arena in which to exercise power and glory.

and

[ on-hold music] Welcome to Leske, a podcast on new ideas in ancient Greek studies.

I'm your host, Johanna Hanink, and I'm a classicist at Brown University.

There's no question that Odyssey Book 11 is a fan favorite.

It certainly contains some of the most memorable scenes of the poem: the appearance of the shade of Odysseus' unburied comrade Elpenor, the prophecy of Teiresias, Odysseus' encounter with his dead mother, and his conversations with the fallen heroes from Troy, or in Ajax's case, a poignant deployment of the silent treatment.

I mean, the only thing I, I would add to that about what Johanna, the, the lack of typicality, I think one aspect of it is, is the extraordinary variety of the book itself.

I mean, the book, you ...

I mean, there is a, there's actually really very remarkable tension in, in the Homeric portrayal of the underworld in el- in 11 between this is a kind of nothing world where it's a, an eternal never-ending nothingness where there are apparently the, the ghosts have no intelligence, understand nothing, and remember nothing, except for Tiresias, unless they're given blood to drink, or some of them.

There's a tension between that, the, the setup of the underworld, the fact that clearly that is a, an image or an idea which is not fully carried through if even if o- you know, even if through just through the, the little detail that apparently some of the ghosts don't need blood to drink to, you know, suddenly to be talking and remembering and so forth.