Nietzsche, Homer, and Cruelty | Episode LVI

Send us Fan MailWhy was it that the Greeks, the most humane of all peoples, also possessed such a tigerish lust for blood? Why did the Greeks so delight in Homer's depiction of cruelty and death in the Iliad? That is the question animating Friedrich Nietzsche's preface to an unwritten book, "Homer's Contest." Nietzsche turns to the dark Hellenic past, the "womb of Homer" for an explanation, and finds it in Strife, the double-souled goddess lauded by Hesiod.  Friedrich Nietzsche's Homer's Contest: http://www.northamericannietzschesociety.com/uploads/7/3/2/5/73251013/nietzscheana5.pdfLee Fratantuono's Madness Unchained: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780739122426Robin Lane Fox's Homer and His Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781541600447Hesiod's Theogony, Works and Days: https://amzn.to/467Nh3lDan Carlin's Death Throes of the Republic: https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-death-throes-of-the-republic-series/C.S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780062565433Jacob Burkhardt's The Greeks and Greek Civilization: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780312244477René Girard's Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780804722155New Humanists episode on Simone Weil's "The Iliad, or the Poem of Force": https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-iliad-or-the-poem-of-force-episode-xxi/id1570296135?i=1000557727910New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.comSupport the show