EPISODE 2 “THE TORCH”

TROJAN WAR: THE PODCAST

Jeff Wright

History

4.8 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2016

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

THE STORY: (54 minutes) A queen is visited by a terrifying nightmare. Priests discern what the nightmare means. And a king is faced with a soul-wrenching dilemma: “do I kill my child, or allow my city to burn?” And the king’s decision …? Well, you’ll have to listen in to see how that turns out. THE COMMENTARY: FATE VS. FREE WILL (16 minutes; begins at 54:00) In this episode of post-story commentary I explore the role of “Fate” in the Trojan War epic. I observe that most of us listening to this podcast (in the 21st century) like to believe that we have some sort of control or agency over our lives. We like to believe that we each have, to a large degree, freedom to choose how our lives will transpire – sort of like being the authors of our own “choose your own adventure” lives. I contrast this belief with the understanding of Bronze Age Greek culture (where our epic story takes place). These people did not believe in agency or free will (except in minor day to day questions, like “will I have fish or lamb for dinner this evening?”). But on the big questions of how one’s life – one’s “adventure” if you will – was going to unfold, well, the Bronze Age Greeks did not believe in free will. Rather, each person (and possibly even the Olympian gods too) was subject to an unavoidable fate or destiny. I cite the famous story of Oedipus to illustrate how this inexorable fate would have been understood by the characters in our story. And I conclude by exploring how the people that we are going to meet in this awesome epic still managed to find meaning, dignity and purpose in a universe governed by Fate. I think you will find the conversation educational, but mostly just a lot of FUN! Jeff RELATED IMAGES

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Trojan War, the podcast, history's most awesome epic.
0:33.7	This is episode number two in the series.
0:37.0	Today's episode is titled The Torch.
0:40.3	The Torch. So welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to Trojan War the podcast. This is episode number two in this series.
1:10.2	Today's episode is titled The Torch. Now, right before we get on to the fun of telling the story, a few little pieces of business to clear up, if you are coming to this episode directly from episode number one of Trojan Ward the podcast, an episode titled The Apple of Discord, then, well, welcome
1:29.1	back and you're in for an awful lot more fun as our epic story continues. On the other hand,
1:35.0	if you have somehow well stumbled across this particular podcast episode with no context or prior
1:42.2	experience with Trojan Ward, the podcast, then well, welcome aboard and
1:46.7	let me just tell you what we're doing. I'm intending to set out to tell the entire Trojan War
1:52.1	story epic, a massive story arc, if you will, over a successive series of podcasts. It will take
1:59.1	us some time. It will be an awful lot of fun.
2:05.9	And what you have stepped into really is episode two in the continuing series. Now,
2:09.6	you're more than welcome to stick around. It's a self-contained episode. You'll have a great deal of fun. You'll enjoy yourself. You'll be entertained and informed. But I really would suggest
2:14.1	that you seriously consider actually, well, hitting the pause button in a moment,
2:19.4	running over to my website, Trojan Warpodcast.com, and listening to episode number one in the series
2:26.8	first. It is a serialized story that I'm telling. And if you get in right at the beginning,
2:31.1	well, then you'll have the full benefit of all the plot, the backstory, and the characters as you move along. So on with the fun of telling the story. A quick
2:38.9	recap of the previous episode. If you'll remember in the Apple of Discord episode, Discord had entered
2:45.1	Mount Olympus, the home of the Olympian gods, via a golden apple, a golden apple with an inscription on it. And the apple had said,
2:53.9	for the fairest or for the most beautiful. And the minute that that apple had arrived in the
2:58.0	throne room at Mount Olympus, three Olympian deities, the three most powerful goddesses in all
3:03.1	of creation, had well assumed that that apple was rightly intended for none other than herself.
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