What makes us human? Greek and Roman thinkers were preoccupied with this question. And some of their observations of animals foreshadowed recent findings in the behavioural sciences.
An ancient Greek relief depicting a baby with its mother and grandmother.
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Sometimes books have such a pervasive cultural presence that it is always necessary to read them to have an idea about what they have to say.
Increasingly, Americans seem to have irreconcilable differences over the pandemic, the economy – even the result of the 2020 election.
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Homer and Aeschylus turned to the divine to write their happy endings. But no gods are conspiring above the US, ready to swoop down and save humankind from itself.
A scene from a 1911 staging of the ancient Greek classic ‘Oedipus Rex.’
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Greek epics remind audiences that leaders need to be able to plan for the future based on what has happened in the past. They need to understand cause and effect.
Achilles mourning the death of his nephew Patroclus.
George Dawe (1803)