Originally published on August 19, 2026 (Episode 471)
Introduction
Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the house of death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion feasts
for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.
Those were of course the opening lines of the Illiad, written by someone who we might as well call Homer. And since in this summer of 2027 it seems that very few people are without an opinion of Homer, or the Odyssey, or how Christopher Nolan may have violated his copyrights, I thought it a good time to talk with Barry Strauss, for among his many books is The Trojan War: A New History.
About the Guest
Barry Strauss is Corliss Page Dean Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies Emeritus at Cornell University. He is the author most recently of Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World’s Mightiest Empire, which he and I discussed in Episode 421. This is his sixth appearance on Historically Thinking.
For Further Investigation
Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: A New History (Simon and Schuster, 2006)
—, Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World’s Mightiest Empire (Simon and Schuster, 2025)
Related Episodes: A Concert of Strauss
The Death of Caesar: Barry Strauss guides us through the foreign country of the late Roman Republic
The View from Thucydides’ Tower: Barry Strauss on History’s second father
The War That Made the Roman Empire: Barry Strauss on Actium, Augustus, and the remaking of Rome
Jews vs Rome: Barry Strauss on the revolts that remade peoples, religions, and ancient geopolitics
