Death & The Odyssey: What Can the Ancient Epics Teach Us About Death?
Classical Wisdom Speaks
What Can Ancient Epics Teach Us About Death? | Homer, Lost Classics & Greek Tragedy
What can the greatest stories of ancient Greece teach us about death, and how to live?
Thousands of years ago, Greek poets and playwrights were exploring questions we still struggle with today.
Is a short life of glory better than a long, ordinary one? What do we owe the dead? And how do we make sense of grief, loss, and mortality?
In this episode of Classical Wisdom Speaks, host Anya Leonard welcomes Classical Wisdom's resident classicist Ben Potter to explore how ancient Greek literature confronted death: from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, to the lost Aethiopis, and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
In the Iliad, death is everywhere. Warriors lie unburied on the battlefield, Achilles is consumed by rage, and the ghost of Patroclus begs for the funeral rites that will allow him to find peace.
Yet the epic's conclusion offers something unexpected: a powerful moment of shared humanity when Priam comes to Achilles to reclaim the body of his son Hector.
The lost Aethiopis, part of the Trojan Epic Cycle, continues the story with the arrival of Memnon and the Amazon queen Penthesilea, whose death at Achilles' hands raises questions about honor, love, and the treatment of fallen enemies.
Meanwhile, in the Odyssey, Odysseus encounters the spirits of the dead. The forgotten sailor Elpenor pleads for burial, while Achilles, who sacrificed a long life for everlasting fame, offers a strikingly different perspective on heroic glory.
Was his sacrifice worth it?
Beyond Homer, the great Greek tragedians returned to these myths to explore conflicts between family, divine law, justice, and death. Works such as Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, and Hippolytus reveal how ancient audiences grappled with questions that remain relevant today.
Anya and Ben also examine the historical world behind the literature, including Bronze Age burial customs, Mycenaean tombs, ritual pollution, and the Greek Underworld.
Are these ancient epics simply tales of heroes and gods, or timeless reflections on what it means to be human?
Key Topics:
What ancient Greek literature teaches us about death
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
Achilles, Patroclus, Hector, and the meaning of honor
The lost Aethiopis, Memnon, and Penthesilea
The Trojan Epic Cycle and lost Greek classics
Odysseus, Elpenor, and the Underworld
Achilles' choice between glory and long life
Death and burial in Greek tragedy
Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus
Antigone, Hippolytus, and Oedipus at Colonus
Ancient Greek funeral rituals and Mycenaean tombs
Hades, Tartarus, and the Elysian Fields
Grief, mortality, and the duty to honor the dead
⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 Introducing Ben Potter
00:46 Death in Homer and tragedy
01:19 Ancient Greek literary history
03:16 The Bronze Age world of Homer
04:12 Greek funeral rituals
06:31 Death and ritual pollution
09:49 Euripides' Hippolytus
11:11 Mycenaean tombs
13:29 Death in the Iliad
16:18 Patroclus' ghost and Achilles
17:45 Hector, Priam, and burial
19:05 The lost Aethiopis
20:42 Penthesilea and Achilles
22:42 Death in the Odyssey
23:46 Elpenor's plea for burial
26:19 Odysseus and the dead
28:19 Achilles and the price of glory
29:11 Hades and the afterlife
32:12 The Greek tragedians
What Do You Think? Which ancient Greek story offers the most powerful lesson about death?
Is it Achilles mourning Patroclus, Priam reclaiming Hector, Odysseus encountering the dead, or Antigone's struggle over burial?
And what can these ancient works still teach us about grief and mortality?
Share your thoughts in the comments!
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GUEST:
Ben Potter is a classical scholar, longtime Classical Wisdom contributor, and creator of the Essential Greeks course. With expertise in Homer and ancient Greek theater, he explores how classical literature continues to illuminate the human experience.