Fatal Second Helen with Josh Cannon

n this special episode we’re joined by Josh Cannon who holds a PhD in near eastern languages and civilizations from the University of Chicago. Prior to this, Josh was a member of the US Marine Corps and served in two tours of Iraq as an Arabic cryptologic linguist. We sat down with Josh to chat about his book Fatal Second Helen: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad which brings together his lived experience of military service with the ideas that emerge from Homer’s epic poem.

Things to listen out for

• Modern versus ancient conceptions of glory
• The power of translation to inspire
• Connections between near eastern mythology and Homer’s Iliad
• The shared stories of the Hittites and the Ionian Greeks
• The way the consequences of modern warfare can help us understand the depictions of warfare in the ancient world better

Books and scholars mentioned in this interview

Epic of Gilgamesh - There are many translations of this epic, one of the most recent is that of Simon Armitage

Translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

Robert Fagles - The Iliad (1998)

Robert Fagles - The Odyssey (1996)

Richard Lattimore - The Iliad

Stanley Lombardo - The Iliad (1997)

Emily Wilson - The Odyssey (2017)

Emily Wilson - The Iliad (2023)

Spartan poet Tyrtaeus

Bachvarova, M. R., From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic (2016, Cambridge University Press)

Carolina López-Ruiz, When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East (Harvard University Press, 2010)

Patrick Shaw-Stewart’s untitled poem “I saw a man this morning”

Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: combat trauma and the undoing of character (2004, Scribner)

Martin West, The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth (1999, Oxford University Press)

For our full show notes and edited transcripts, head on over to https://partialhistorians.com/

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