Lesche: Ancient Greece, New Ideas
In Greek antiquity, a lesche (λέσχη) was a spot to hang out and chat. On this podcast, Brown University professor Johanna Hanink hosts conversations with fellow Hellenists about their latest work in the field.
Episodes
12 episodes
The Cambridge Greek Lexicon
James Diggle joins me in the Lesche to discuss the 2021 Cambridge Greek Lexicon (2 vols.) of which he was editor-and-chief. We discuss why it was time for this sort of thing (and why it took 24 years to complete), how to use it, and wh...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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53:57
The Longue Durée of the Greek Polis
John Ma joins me in the Lesche to discuss the longue durée of the Greek polis. John is the author of the new, monumental, and much anticipated book Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State from the Early Iron Age to the...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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59:42
SPECIAL: Pasolini's THE RETURN, with Homerist Barbara Graziosi
(Spoiler alert! This episode is jam-packed with plot spoilers for THE RETURN.) Homeric scholar Barbara Graziosi joins me in the Lesche to discuss Umberto Pasolini's THE RETURN, a film dramatization of the second half of the Odyssey
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Season 1
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Episode 102
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46:54
(Imperial) Greek Epic
Emma Greensmith and Tim Whitmarsh join me in the Lesche to discuss how Imperial Greek epic fits into our understanding of Ancient Greek epic as a whole. Emma has just edited the
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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55:19
Translating the Iliad, with Emily Wilson
Emily Wilson, acclaimed translator, joins me in the Lesche to discuss the challenges and pleasures of translating the Iliad. We discuss the Greek of two passages in detail: Book 6 lines 482-502 and Book 22 lines 199-204 (lines ...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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58:10
The Athenian Funeral Oration
David M. Pritchard joins me in the Lesche to discuss what appears to have been, in Nicole Loraux's famous words, a "very Athenian invention": the epitaphios logos, or funeral oration given over the war dead at their public burial. Both...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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1:01:34
Alexander in the East
Rachel Kousser joins me in the Lesche to discuss Alexander III of Macedon's post-Persepolis campaigns in Asia (330-323 BCE), the subject of her recent book Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great....
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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49:43
Athenian Drama in Sicily (Ferdia Lennon, GLORIOUS EXPLOITS)
Ferdia Lennon joins me in the Lesche to discuss his award-winning and bestselling novel, Glorious Exploits (UK Penguin Fig Tree/US Macmillan 2024), which is set in Syracuse in the aftermath of the Athenian invasion of Sicily during the...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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48:43
SPECIAL: Netflix's KAOS, with creator Charlie Covell
Charlie Covell joins me in the Lesche to discuss their hit Netflix show KAOS, a modern dark dramedic take on Ancient Greek mythology. The show, set in something like modern-day Crete (and on Olympus and in Hades), interweaves stories of Prometh...
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Season 1
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Episode 101
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53:50
Subject Communities of the Athenian Empire
Leah Lazar and Christy Constantakopoulou join me in the Lesche to discuss their work on the relationship between Athens and its subject communities (the "allies") during the fifth-century Athenian "empire" (ἀρχή). Leah has a new book out on the...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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59:04