GREEK LITERATURE & CULTURE
Greek Literature and the Tragic Vision
Ian Johnston explores how Greek ideas of justice, divine power, and human freedom shaped the heroic and tragic vision of ancient Greek literature.
Read resource →Classical Reference Library
Lectures
Lectures offering accessible explorations of major works, authors, ideas, and intellectual traditions.
Aeschylus
The Oresteia
Aristophanes
Birds
GREEK COMEDY
On Aristophanes’s The Birds
Ian Johnston examines Aristophanes’s The Birds as a satire of Athenian ambition and imperialism, tracing how Pisthetairos’s search for escape and freedom gradually becomes a pursuit of power, domination, and control.
Read resource →Clouds
GREEK LITERATURE & CULTURE
Greek Literature and the Tragic Vision
Ian Johnston explores how Greek ideas of justice, divine power, and human freedom shaped the heroic and tragic vision of ancient Greek literature.
Read resource →GREEK COMEDY
On Satire in Aristophanes’s Clouds
Ian Johnston examines how Aristophanes uses satire in The Clouds, tracing the play’s shifting targets from Socrates and the Thinkery to Strepsiades and, ultimately, the Athenian audience itself. He explores the social function of laughter, the manipulation of language, and the increasingly troubling implications of the play’s comic attack.
Read resource →Euripides
Bacchae
GREEK LITERATURE & CULTURE
Greek Literature and the Tragic Vision
Ian Johnston explores how Greek ideas of justice, divine power, and human freedom shaped the heroic and tragic vision of ancient Greek literature.
Read resource →Homer
The Iliad
GREEK LITERATURE & CULTURE
Greek Literature and the Tragic Vision
Ian Johnston explores how Greek ideas of justice, divine power, and human freedom shaped the heroic and tragic vision of ancient Greek literature.
Read resource →HOMER & THE EPIC TRADITION
Lecture on the Odyssey
Ian Johnston explores the enduring appeal of Homer’s Odyssey, examining its narrative structure, its celebration of home and family, and the transformation of Odysseus from warrior to returning husband, father, and king.
Read resource →The Odyssey
GREEK LITERATURE & CULTURE
Greek Literature and the Tragic Vision
Ian Johnston explores how Greek ideas of justice, divine power, and human freedom shaped the heroic and tragic vision of ancient Greek literature.
Read resource →HOMER & THE EPIC TRADITION
Lecture on the Odyssey
Ian Johnston explores the enduring appeal of Homer’s Odyssey, examining its narrative structure, its celebration of home and family, and the transformation of Odysseus from warrior to returning husband, father, and king.
Read resource →Lucretius
On the Nature of Things
CRITICAL ESSAY
Some Observations on Lucretius
Ian Johnston examines Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, considering its scientific claims, its Epicurean vision of nature, and its enduring influence on Western thought. He argues that the poem’s greatest importance lies not in its science but in its powerful attempt to reshape how we understand nature and our place within it.
Read resource →Jean Jacques Rousseau
Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts
ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHY
On Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality
Ian Johnston explores Rousseau’s account of human nature and the origins of inequality, examining how civilization, property, social institutions, and amour propre
Read resource →MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT
Why Should I Obey the State?
Ian Johnston examines why citizens should obey the state, comparing the political ideas of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Marx and their competing views of authority, liberty, equality, consent, and justice.
Read resource →Sophocles
Oedipus the King
CRITICAL ESSAY
Fate, Freedom, and the Tragic Hero in Oedipus the King
What makes Oedipus a tragic hero? Ian Johnston examines the tension between fate and free will in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, arguing that the very qualities that make Oedipus great—his intelligence, courage, confidence, and relentless pursuit of truth—also lead him toward catastrophe.
Read resource →GREEK LITERATURE & CULTURE
Greek Literature and the Tragic Vision
Ian Johnston explores how Greek ideas of justice, divine power, and human freedom shaped the heroic and tragic vision of ancient Greek literature.
Read resource →