clay451

One of the most famous events of the ancient world is war between the Greeks and the Trojans, which is told in the epic novel The Iliad, and then finished in The Odyssey.  Funny thing is, we don’t know for sure if this war really happened!   Regardless of whether the battle really happened, the … Read more

Next episode, we’re going to be taking a look at one of the great stories of the ancient world –  the Iliad.  But before we get dive into that, I wanted to step aside for an episode, and discuss the something that’s crucial to our understanding of history:  written languages.  As I’ve said before, it’s … Read more

It’s hard to overstate how important ancient Greece was in terms of influencing the western world.  Art, government and politics, literature, philosophy, athletics, math, architecture, and worldview – all of these were hugely influenced by ancient Greece.  Who is the most influential philosopher of all time?  Well, it’s either Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle.  They were … Read more

While most of the world was living in tents and small towns, scraping out a meager existence, Egypt started building huge cities of brick and stone, with massive monuments and even pyramids.  Did you know that the Great Pyramid at Giza was the tallest building in the world for over 3800 years?  The Seventh Plague … Read more

In this episode we’re going to take a closer look at the creation story that’s found in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.  The story in Genesis is very different from the other creation narratives of the ancient world, in tone, content, and scope.  The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo, which … Read more

The creation narratives of the ancient world, including the biblical book of Genesis, were written in part to explain both of these questions:  Why are we here?  And also, ‘Why is life so hard?’  People in the ancient world had to wake up too, and they probably asked that same question, especially on school days. … Read more

An introduction to the ideas of this podcast, and an overview of where it’s going. Also, I talk a bit about tyranny. Which is a bad thing, generally. I think that if you want to understand the world that we live in today, it actually helps to understand the important events of history.  Are we … Read more