An Odyssey without an Ithaca
Young Heretics
Spencer Klavan
4.9 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Virgil, master of the setup, is now laying the groundwork for some of the Aeneid's major setpieces: the love affair with Dido, the voyage into the underworld. But first Aeneas has to pass a different milestone, one that people sometimes miss: he has to say goodbye to his father. It's one of the most human moments of the poem--something every single one of us has to go through--elevated to magisterial significance in the hero's journey. Follow along with us to the end of Book III as Aeneas enters a new stage in his adventure. Plus: a firsthand update from the Ivies after my trip to Ithaca to give a speech at Cornell.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I am back, baby. I'm very pleased, honored, proud to announce that I, your friendly neighborhood book bro, Spencer Claven, have set a world historic record. I am the first ever classicist in all of history to go to Ithaca and back in less than 20 years. I'd like to thank the Academy and of course my mom. |
| 0:27.6 | All right, welcome back to Young Heretics, our series on Virgil's Aeneid. |
| 0:35.6 | If you follow me on some social media platform or other |
| 0:40.0 | you may have noticed that I was in Cornell, the university which is in Ithaca, New York. |
| 0:47.2 | Not actually the Ithaca famous legendary home of Odysseus, but it was pretty funny because |
| 0:53.7 | I got asked out there to give a speech. |
| 0:56.5 | And when you see Ithaca on your plane ticket, I'd actually never been out to Cornell. |
| 1:01.7 | So this is my first time going to Ithaca. |
| 1:03.2 | And when you see Ithaca on your plane ticket and if you spend your life thinking about ancient |
| 1:07.7 | Greek literature, it is impossible not to get a little nervous. It's like, |
| 1:12.9 | oh, isn't this the place that you have to fight sea monsters to get to? Am I going to get marooned |
| 1:18.5 | on some kind of island somewhere and have to appease an angry witch goddess? There's a famous poem |
| 1:25.4 | by Kovafi, who was a Greek poet, modern era Greek poet, and he wrote probably his most famous poem was when you travel, may your voyage to Ithaca be long. |
| 1:36.5 | And I was thinking, man, I've been doing so much travel lately. Could my voyage to Ithaca be short, please? |
| 1:41.5 | I would prefer not to be on a plane for 20 years like Odysseus was when he was |
| 1:46.6 | trying to get back to his home in Ithaca. And in fact, it turned out my journey there was really |
| 1:51.1 | easy. It was kind of ironic. And I mentioned this when I gave him my speech. Like, when you |
| 1:56.0 | teleclasses this, he's going to Ithaca, he budgets at least 10 years. So imagine my surprise |
| 2:00.8 | when I got there 30 minutes |
| 2:02.1 | early into the airport. And it was very funny because my host didn't recognize me with my mustache. |
| 2:07.1 | He knew me from my headshot and my media appearances pre-mustache. And so I thought, oh, no, I've gotten here early. |
| 2:14.7 | And now I'll never find my way. I'll be lost in Ithaca forever. |
... |
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