What Makes An Ancient Greek Hero? GREGORY NAGY On The REAL Meaning Of Achilles & Patroclus In Myth

What an absolute honour to speak to Professor Gregory Nagy of Harvard University about what it means to be an Ancient Greek hero. More than that - what an exciting moment to be able to give you all this conversation! I hope this spurs you all on to get even more into the idea of heroism on a deeper level and really grapple with these texts in a new, anthropological way.
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[@Ehimaniac]

He was my hero, so to speak, in college. Absolute genius.

[@MoAnInc]

Right!!!

[@LeeKempter]

SUPER amazing!! I have the book already and was just going to start it as my Christmas treat when I hear about the free course at Harvard!!! WOW what a special treat I am definitely going to sign up for that!! What an enjoyable 2 hours (boy, they went by fast !!) so inspiring and thought provoking. Thank you so much to BOTH of you !!

[@MoAnInc]

Thank you so much for watching 🫶🏼🤓

[@jordanwiner8478]

Professor Nagy!! I love that guy!!! he was my teacher at Harvard Extension 30 years ago! What a treat!!

[@MoAnInc]

!!!!!

[@tumblyhomecarolinep7121]

Ohhhh this was amazing! Thank you. I bought the book and signed up for the course. One of the things that I really appreciate is when you, or your interviewers say you don’t understand something … when you are new to this ancient Greek world it can be overwhelming and I certainly feel I know such a tiny amount. But to hear you say you also don’t understand something really helps.. The more I read, the more these people in the books are coming alive to me. Ps I just read Herodotus the Histories… all of that brought the world to life. I know there are doubts about parts of it, but the fact that some stories fired up imaginations then and now is all that matters to me,. Anyway,I love these interviews and I know the work to produce them must be huge,

[@MoAnInc]

Oh believe me, I still feel like I only know such a tiny amount about the ancient world despite it being a part of my life for so long. It’s the main reason I do these interviews - so that I can keep learning, too. I’m so glad you enjoyed the video AND EVEN SIGNED UP FOR THE COURSE!!! How wonderful!!!

[@rodneybrunken7865]

Your enthusiasm for your topic is contagious. It’s beautiful to watch and listen to.

[@MoAnInc]

Oh thank you so much 🥹

[@shriviyasr3848]

@MoAnInc Hi i have enrolled his course on edx (24 hours greek hero), any idea about the pre requesites (books to read before attending the course?) hope you reply, thank you.

[@lukecaruana8871]

I stumbled on this today and I am soo happy to see young, bright minds presenting this in such a cool manner.

[@TheGerbita]

What an honor, Erica!

[@MoAnInc]

I’m still in shock that this conversation even happened!!!! 🥹🥹🥹

[@cinema8564]

Wonderful! And all the more for we, those with decades past, who have so little time left to us, to study and live and re-live these wonderful lives of heroes. Thanks. Mike

[@MoAnInc]

🌻

[@jamesh2659]

Fabulous episode - it just fly by so quickly, would happily have kept watching.

[@MoAnInc]

Thank you!

[@markknowles8498]

Erica, well done on securing this man for an interview, firstly. Second, congrats on the interview! I devoured that: I only wish he'd kept going! And he's right... It's interviews like this that drive and inspire. Amazing stuff

[@MoAnInc]

Thank you so much, Mark! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Professor Nagy (oop I meant Greg*) is absolutely phenomenal and chatting to him was such an honour 🥹 I’m still starstruck!!

[@markknowles8498]

@@MoAnIncHe really is, and comes across as such a lovely guy. I love the fact that he had real respect for you and your understanding of the texts, too.

[@miles5107]

The way I read the Iliad, Paris must kill Achilles because it’s the most poetic manner by which Achilles can die. The thing that sets the Iliad apart, I think, is its ability to have this sort of poetic harmony throughout, and to a degree that I don’t really see in other works. (To me, it’s what makes the Iliad the greater work in comparison with every other work.) Accordingly, Achilles and Paris while not really a fair fight, must be each others’ ending - because they were each other’s beginning. Paris is the one who awarded the apple to Aphrodite. And he does this at the wedding of Achilles’ parents. There’s almost no one else who really could tie together, so poetically (in the sense of poetic justice), the beginning and ending of Achilles like Paris. Great video, and I'll have to look into that course and book. Thanks!

[@MoAnInc]

Thank you! 🙏

[@syntaxterror9479]

Ooooh I'm auditing his class right now! He's so knowledgeable and passionate! Edit: (Now that I've watched the interview -- I got too excited and commented right away when I saw this in my algorithm) This was AMAZING, Erica. I'm so glad you got to speak with him. It's nice to see a more personal side of a professor who is so passionate about the topic he teaches. I'm a little envious you got to speak with him! :D

[@MoAnInc]

Professor Nagy is truly amazing!!!

[@syntaxterror9479]

@@MoAnInc he truly is. This was a great interview! I can't explain how excited I was when I saw this in my KZbin feed. I might have made a mildly undignified noise lol 😆

[@carolinasiqueira752]

Hi Erica, I'm reading this book thanks to you and it is sooo good!

[@MoAnInc]

IM SO GLAD!!!! 🥹

[@KevinArdala01]

This was a fantastic interview, so interesting, so informative. Can't wait to get his book now... In a similar vein, you should interview Mary Bachvarova. Her book, or tome, 'From Hittite to Homer' is brilliant: the suggestion that the Ilad descends from both Greek and Anatolian oral traditions to create the work of genius that is Homer's Ilad just blew my mind, in a similar way that listening to Prof. Nagy just has. ✌️

[@MoAnInc]

I’ll definitely check this out! Thank you so much for watching 🙏

[@MatW1lson]

Thanks and good job! I was able to watch/listen all the way through; in one go. I have binged listened to him and Prof. Muellner and they are my favorites. Are you aware of The Center for Hellenic Studies? There are tons of videos of both professors on their channel. Also… they only have 16k subs.; so I told you this stuff is still niche and why things seem slow on YT. Ancient Greece and Rome are not hyped like other topics are on YT (e.g. finance, tech, and health/diet/fitness).

[@MoAnInc]

I’m so glad you enjoyed this!!!! And I know - I’ve watched all the Center Of Hellenic Studies videos it’s actually quite worrying how obsessed with them I am 🫠🫠🫠 Couldn’t recommend them enough for everyone else!

[@sofia-kf6rh]

This was great. Now I ’m off to the Harvard course!

[@MoAnInc]

You will not regret it!!! 😍

[@carlosalegria4776]

Fantastic.

[@MoAnInc]

:)

[@TheCirclingMowass]

Another set of books you bring to my attention I'll have to dig into in the future! Cool.

[@MoAnInc]

These will definitely consume you for a while 😂 They’re dense in the best of ways, but unbelievably worth it!

[@georginaroffe2137]

Amazing! Sorry, could you give me information about the course you mentioned you did? It is possible to do it from another country? Thank you

[@MoAnInc]

The link to the course is in the description just below the video :) And yes! It’s online so you can take it at your own pace from anywhere in the world!

[@carlscott4180]

Slow start, gets cooking around 20 in, but among several fascinating factual tidbits, don't miss the one at 35 about classical-era Athenians gravitating towards Trojan-character names!

[@MoAnInc]

🫶🏼✨

[@aidanflanagan4953]

You should have said “I’m a Unitarian and have schizophrenia fight me.” I agree with his Pan-Hellenism, however who is to say individual poets were not the orchestrators of it in the poetry? Only a wide-travelled bard(s) would know so much about the varied corpus of the Greek mythos. Ik he’s too old but I can tell he wants to write a book about it.

[@rolandopintos2979]

I love classics, but he’s so smart that I feel stupid listening to him.

[@MoAnInc]

Well that’s not good! I apologise for that - my goal was not to make the content inaccessible and I’m very sorry to hear that you felt it was :(

[@Laocoon283]

Little classics caterpillars 🐛 lol

[@MoAnInc]

We are all varying degrees of Classics Caterpillars 🐛

[@DrSales-zl3kq]

If ur name is Monique why do u call urself erica?

[@MoAnInc]

... my name is not Monique hahaha

[@DrSales-zl3kq]

@@MoAnInc You know you may be of use to me after all if you're as good as you say you are in Homer. I have a challenge for you. If you get the challenge right I have a business proposition to make to you. It's a question only somebody that is A) Bright and B) Thoroughly versed in Homer could have a chance of answering. Of course I know the answer because I discovered it last week in another ancient text. Prior to that it had been a secret for 1953 years. Are you interested?

[@EliasGeorgiou-h7j]

Ανδρών επιφανών πάσα γη ,ταφος