ODYSSEY: THE PODCAST – my 14 episode, 24 hour sequel to Trojan War: The Podcast – is now recorded and waiting for you. Subscribe through your usual podcast provider, or go to odysseythepodcast.com!
THE STORY: (40 minutes) Zeus, King of the Gods, hosts a wedding. An uninvited guest crashes, bringing an unwelcome gift. In mere moments, all Hades breaks loose. And the wheels of Western culture’s most awesome epic – the Trojan War – are set in motion.
THE COMMENTARY: DID THE TROJAN WAR REALLY “HAPPEN”? (9 minutes; begins at 40:00) In this episode of post-story commentary I spend some time talking about how the Trojan War epic, though over three thousand years old, remains deeply embedded in contemporary culture. I note how we are all familiar with the names (Achilles, Helen of Troy, Hector), the images (The Trojan Horse), and the concepts (“the face that launched a thousand ships”; “beware of Greeks bearing gifts”; “his Achilles’ Heel”) that originate in this epic. Then I review the “history” of the story: from a war that may or may not have happened circa 1250 BCE, through five hundred years of post-war “oral tradition”, up to Homer’s written account – The Iliad – in 700 BCE, and on to the contributions of further storytellers, including the Roman poet Virgil in 19 BCE. I confess to how wonderfully liberating it is for a storyteller like me to be free to sort through the myriad sources, stories and texts (many of which contradict each other), and then “glue them together” into one big, cohesive, entertaining plot. I conclude the post-story commentary by definitively answering the burning question of whether the Trojan War ever really happened.
Hope you have fun.
Jeff
RELATED IMAGES
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- BOOK A LIVE TELLING or “EDU-TAINMENT” (click here)
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- THE MARRIAGE OF PELEUS AND THETIS, G. Valchenborch, c-1570 (Now there’s a party I would have liked to have been invited to! Look carefully, and you can see the Golden Apple of Discord)
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- GOLDEN APPLE OF DISCORD, Jacob Jordaens 1633 (look closely: you can see all 3 goddesses demanding the apple; note that Athena was also a warrior goddess, so she’s the woman in full armour; no doubt which one is Aphrodite!)
I love this podcast! Thank you so much for bringing ancient Greece to life.
Thanks Marie! And like all great epic stories, this one keeps getting better and better, the more that you get into it. Episode Two arriving any day now soon. Jeff
Very well done indeed. Have just subscribed and can’t wait for many hours of fun listening to all episodes. Thank you very much
Glad to hear you liked the first episode. And I can promise you, that like all of humanity’s great epics, it only gets better the more that you get into it! If you have the chance (and you are an Itunes person) a positive review of my podcast would really help with promotion (just go to the Itunes site of my podcast,and leave a review). If you are not an Itunes person, then just share your enthusiasm with a friend!
Have an wonderful day; thanks for taking the time to write! Jeff
Thank you soo much for this wonderfull podcast.
I was never into the greek epics, but now I am already at No.: 20 and start to try to get some book with more background.
You make a wonderfull presentation and It is really a pleasure to go on and listen to the next episode.
Thank you very Much
Thomas from Germany
Hi Thomas: thanks for taking the time to write and share your love of the podcast! There is no shortage of material written on the Trojan War Epic. If you want some great “history”, try “The Trojan War: A New History” by Barry Strauss. If you want a fictional account of the war (which differs from my telling, but is great fun) try “The Song of Troy” by Colleen McCullough. Or go directly to Homer’s Iliad (not sure of German translations: in English, I find Stephen Mitchell’s translation the most “readable”). Thomas, if you can take a moment and leave a 5/5 review on the ITunes podcast site, it would help encourage other people to give my podcast a try. Have a wonderful day. Jeff
just a little pedantry, if you’re using Gregorian or Victorian dating, as indicated by use of “BCE”, then “year 0” is nonsense. it went 3 BCE, 2 BCE, 1 BCE, 1 CE, 2 CE, etc, there is no year 0 in this system (which is why so many people argued about whether 2000 was the first year of the 21st century or the last year of the 20th century… hint: it’s the latter).
You are totally right. In fact, I still wince when I listen to that bit of the episode. One of my challenges as a podcaster was attempting to maintain the casual, conversational , non “reading a script” approach to my podcast. But the tradeoff is that we human beings (or at least this human being) sometimes get sloppy in our enthusiastic and “conversational, not-reading-a-scrip” speech. And so a myriad of “bad little things” (like the one you so rightly caught me on) can happen. If you stick with Trojan War: The Podcast, you will no doubt catch many such of my sins in future episodes. (though I do get better at proofreading and editing out errors as the series moves along and I learn the tech. end of podcasting). I hope the overall entertainment and educational value of the podcast will at least atone for some podcaster sins.
Thanks, and have an awesome day.
Jeff
Hold on. The gods don’t age do they? So how could Hera/Juno’s best years be behind her? Am I wrong?
The Olympian Gods (especially as portrayed in Homer’s Iliad) are “anthropomorphic gods”. So though they are, in theory, immortal and ageless, they in all other respects behave (and often think) exactly like human beings. I don’t want to give away too much since you are just in Episode One, but in Post-Story Commentaries later in the series I address this “inconsistent portrayal of the Gods” in detail. But in the meantime: Hera might not physically age, but she clearly struggles mightily, and in VERY human ways, with keeping her husband Zeus “interested” in her. In Book 14 of Iliad Hera is SO desperate to still appeal to Zeus that, after hours fussing over clothing and makeup, she still has to resort to begging an aphrodisiac (from another goddess) before attempting to initiate a sexual encounter with her husband. So: are the gods ageless? Technically: yes. But do the gods behave as if they are ageless? Clearly no. (Note Also: The “immortal goddess” Aphrodite cries, whimpers and generally behaves like a spoiled 5 year old when she receives a minor scratch in battle … hardly the appropriate response of an “immortal” goddess ….). Happy listening. Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I just discovered your podcast and have listened part 1 while driving home from work. You made me miss 4 exits and it took me 20 minutes longer to arrive 😂.
Great, fun, humour, entertaining and informative!
Wow, i can’t wait to get to work again tomorrow.
Will you make more like these ?
Tnx !
Hey Mark: I am thrilled that you enjoyed Episode One of my podcast – though a little anxious that I might be complicit in “distracted driving” :+) The good news for your commute is that you have another 19 full episodes to go (that’s about 25 more hours of epic story). Don’t worry about it now, but if you are still having a blast by Episode 10, you might consider making a small donation to my podcasting efforts (to help me get the ODYSSEY sequel into production), or a 5/5 review on the iTunes store website (just search by title for Trojan War: The Podcast, and leave a short written review).; Both DONATIONS (safe and easy from this website) and REVIEWS matter deeply to me: they help with the significant monthly bills of keeping my podcast up “in the cloud”, and they encourage new listeners to give me a try. Have an awesome day, and happy listening. Jeff
Hi
Love the podcast. Can you tell me where all the background to the Trojan War is found in literature? Is it just passed down stories or is there particular works that have recorded it all?
Thanks
Hi Paul: Glad that you are loving my podcast! Your question is actually pretty complex, but here’s the short answer. The Trojan War Epic story does not exist in any one work of literature. It developed over time (nearly 1000 years) initially via what is generally referred to as “the oral tradition”, and then by various authors/storytellers adding episodes to the overarching story arc. The “big works” where you will find parts of the story include: Homer’s Iliad (which my podcast enters in Episode 11 and exits in following Episode 16); Homer’s Odyssey (which makes references to the war); and Virgil’s Aeneid (which tells the Trojan Horse story in the most detail). Then there are a host of “lost works, fragments of works, commentaries on lost works, etc etc) that make up the balance of the story. Collectively these are know as the Trojan War Epic Cycle (Wikipedia offers a solid overview of this). So, the challenge for me, in creating Trojan War: The Podcast, was to draw together over 1000 years of disparate (and frequently contradictory or chronologically inconsistent sources) and out of the mess, create a clear and engaging story narrative. I address the myriad challenges that I faced in doing so in many of the Post Story Commentaries, so be sure to listen to them. Hope that helps. OH: something you might now consider “doing for me”: an iTunes podcast 5/5 review would REALLY help in podcast promotion (iTunes notices reviews) or a small financial donation, which will help defray my monthly fixed costs of keeping the podcast “up and available” in the cloud. You can donate in 10 seconds at https://trojanwarpodcast.com/757-2/ Have an awesome day. Jeff