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Journey Through The Odyssey with Mary & Charlotte

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Instant Classics

Vespucci

Join world-renowned classicist Mary Beard and Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins for Instant Classics — the weekly podcast that proves ancient history is still relevant. Ancient stories, modern twists… and no degree in Classics required. Become a Member of the Instant Classics Book Club here: https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/

  1. Cleopatra: Last Egyptian Pharaoh

    -2 J

    Cleopatra: Last Egyptian Pharaoh

    In the first episode of a five-part series, Mary and Charlotte tell the story of Queen Cleopatra’s early years. Forget, for the time being, Elizabeth Taylor rolling out of a rug, poisonous asps and baths of asses’ milk. Focus instead on inbreeding and incest, because Cleopatra, child of Ptolemy the Flute-Player, married her brother, Ptolemy 13th. When he died in suspicious circumstances, she married another brother, Ptolemy 14th.  Mary and Charlotte discuss why the Ptolemy dynasty of Egypt was so fixed on keeping it in the family. In the second half of the episode, they explore the controversial issue of race in Cleopatra studies. On one hand, she was born into a dynasty from Greece which prided itself on inbreeding. On the other, it seems likely that beneath the official accounts, a great deal of cavorting went on beyond the royal household. The main reason it is so hard to reach any definitive conclusion is that ancient writers were uninterested in race as we understand it. They seemed not to fixate or even be interested in skin colour.  The episode ends with Cleopatra primed to meet Julius Caesar.  Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: There is a whole series of reliable modern biographies of Cleopatra (as well as many more unreliable accounts). This is a short selection of the trustworthy: D. Roller: Cleopatra: a biography (Oxford UP, pb, 2011) S. Schiff, Cleopatra: a life (Virgin books, pb, 2011) J. Tyldesley, Cleopatra: last queen of Egypt (ProfileBooks, pb, 2009) For the wider history of the dynasty: Alan Bowman: Egypt after the Pharaohs (British Museum Press, pb, 1996) L. Llewellyn-Jones, The Cleopatras (Wildfire, pb, 2025) For Alexandria and its culture: E. Richardson, Alexandria: the quest for the lost city (Bloomsbury, pb, 2022) Islam Issa, Alexandria: the city that changed the world (Sceptre, pb, 2024) For Cleopatra and race: In addition to the biographies cited, you can get an idea of the debates, here: https://theamericanscholar.org/black-cleopatra/ https://pressbooks.claremont.edu/clas112pomonavalentine/chapter/haley-shelley-1993-black-feminist-thought-and-classics-re-membering-re-claiming-re-empowering-in-feminist-theory-and-the-classics-edited-by-nancy-rabinowitz-and-amy-richlin-2/ @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    59 min
  2. The Odyssey#18: Emily Wilson on Translating the Odyssey

    -5 J • ABONNÉS UNIQUEMENT

    The Odyssey#18: Emily Wilson on Translating the Odyssey

    Mary and Charlotte talk to Emily Wilson, whose acclaimed 2017 translation of The Odyssey we have followed through all our episodes so far. Emily talks about why translating from Ancient Greek to modern English is so difficult, the choices she had to make from the outset and the challenges she encountered once underway. In a surprise revelation, Emily confesses that she enjoyed the process so much she has decided to do it all over again and will ultimately publish a SECOND translation of The Odyssey - which is the equivalent of Odysseus spending ten years getting home only to decide he enjoyed the experience so much he’s going to repeat the whole trip. It also raises the tantalising prospect of Instant Classics Book Club one day embarking on another 30 hour deep dive into Homer’s masterpiece. But, for now, we’ll just keep focused on the task in hand. Further reading: One of Mary’s favourite ancient “reflections” on the story of Odysseus (inc the Laestrygonians) is the so-called “Odyssey landscapes” found in Rome, an ancient depiction of this part of the Odyssey story: https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/sala-delle-nozze-aldobrandine/ciclo-con-scene-dell-odissea-da-via-graziosa.html Please have your say in the Book Club channel on our discourse site Or send your thoughts to instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole DOP - Ben Warburton Video Editor: Tom Green Theme music: Casey Gibson

    48 min
  3. Classic Chats: Grayson Perry on why he hates classical civilisation

    23 AVR.

    Classic Chats: Grayson Perry on why he hates classical civilisation

    Mary and Charlotte talk to artist Grayson Perry about why he hates classical civilisation. Grayson is one of Britain’s most famous artists - he won the Turner Prize in 2003, has been exhibited in major exhibitions across the globe, published books and presented television programmes.  Earlier this year, Grayson delivered the Rumble Fund Lecture 2026 at King’s College London, entitled ‘Why I hate classical civilisation’. Needless to say, Mary and Charlotte want to know why - and also see if they can encourage him to think more positively about his relationship with the ancient world.  Grayson talks about the tedium of learning Latin at school, his irritation at the endless classical imitations in British architecture and asks why bad people - names are mentioned - hold up the classics as the peak of civilisation.  Mary and Charlotte hit back. Just as many radicals and revolutionaries have been inspired by the classics as dictators or would-be dictators. Mary wishes she’d had the chance to teach Latin to Grayson. There’s a thought…  Content warning: This episode features bad words beginning with the letter ‘f’.  Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, a book accompanying Perry’s British Museum exhibition, was published by the British Museum Press, 2011. An image from Perry’s The Rap of the Sabine Women (1981) can be seen on the Stedelijk Museum website. @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    50 min
  4. Talking Classics with Mary Beard

    16 AVR.

    Talking Classics with Mary Beard

    In this episode, Mary and Charlotte’s special guest is… Mary Beard! On the day of publication of her new book, Talking Classics, Mary does just that - talks classics with Charlotte.  Talking Classics is a summation of Mary’s 50 years study of the ancient world. In this intimate conversation, Mary talks about discovering a fascination with history as a child and her teenage delight in joining the local dig (and, more importantly, apres-dig) in Shropshire. She also discusses the value she finds in studying the classical world - the way we’re forced to acknowledge kinship and difference with other cultures, develop empathy, tolerate difference and reflect upon our own values.  In the second half, Mary and Charlotte look at how the classical world has been adopted by different causes throughout history. Some we might approve of - like resistance to tyranny and gay rights - others which are more uncomfortable, like fascism and imperialism. And we hear the fascinating story of Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, a left-wing classicist in Italy, who had to show Hitler and Mussolini around the sites of Ancient Rome.  Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: This isn’t meant to be an advert (!), but the new book is Talking Classics (Profilebooks). By the way, this is Charlotte writing, I highly recommend it! The story of Hitler’s visit to Rome is told by Bianchi Bandinelli, not available in English, sadly. The Italian version is Hitler e Mussolini, 1938 (E/O pb, 1995) but it has been translated into French and German. There is a collection of photos of the visit here: https://www.europeana.eu/en/collections/person/165124-ranuccio-bianchi-bandinelli A documentary film has also been made of which there is a short trailer online, with 1930s footage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3WdVcSybG4)  On Classics and the proto-gay movement of the the 19th century, there is a chapter by Philip E Smith in Powell and Raby (eds), Oscar Wilde in Context (Cambridge UP, 2013) and a book by Linda Dowling, Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford (Cornell UP, 1994) The appropriation of classics by far right and misogynist “causes” is the theme of Donna Zuckerberg, Not All Dead White Men (Harvard UP, 2018), and Curtis Dozier, The White Pedestal (Yale UP, 2026) Mary writes of the ambiguities of Roman Britain in the story of the British Empire, in “Officers and Gentlemen?”, in A Swenson and P Mandler (eds), From Plunder to Preservation (British Academy, 2013) @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    57 min

  5. 13 AVR. • ABONNÉS UNIQUEMENT

    The Odyssey#17: The Island of Circe

    Odysseus is still recounting his tale to the Phaeacians. Mary and Charlotte ended the last episode with Odysseus ordering some of his men to investigate a plume of smoke on the island of Aeaea. They discover a beautiful woman called Circe, who invites them to dine then turns them into pigs. Odysseus goes to investigate. On the way, the god Hermes appears from nowhere and gives him a special herb called moly which makes him immune to Circe’s witchcraft. Circe is so stunned by his immunity, she invites him into her bed (admittedly, a bit of a non-sequitor). Odysseus convinced Circe to turn the pigs back into men - a rare case of him actually saving lives rather than losing them - and they all celebrate with a year of feasting. Finally, it is time to go. Circe tells Odysseus that in order to get home, he needs to go to the land of the dead and consult a prophet called Tiresias. We leave Odysseus on the brink of this daunting task. Further reading: Ben Haller offer a good overview of the Circe episode in J Christensen (ed), The Oxford Critical Guide to Homer’s Odyssey (Oxford UP, pb, 2025), with further detailed bibliography A very popular modern reworking of the story of Circe (from Circe’s point of view) is Madeline Miller, Circe (from 2018 in many editions) Carol Ann Duffy also voices Circe in a hilarious poem in her collection The World’s Wife (Faber, 1998) Thom Gunn’s wonderful poem Moly can be read at the Poetry Foundation website and is also in his Selected Poems (Faber, 2021). There is a useful collection online of ancient and modern versions (texts and images) here: https://womeninantiquity.wordpress.com/2023/03/28/depictions-of-circe-throughout-the-ages/ Please have your say in the Book Club channel on our discourse site Or send your thoughts to instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole DOP - Ben Warburton Video Editor: Tom Green Theme music: Casey Gibson

    36 min
  6. Perpetua: A Martyr in Her Own Words

    9 AVR.

    Perpetua: A Martyr in Her Own Words

    Mary and Charlotte explore the story of Perpetua, a young Christian woman tortured and murdered in the Roman arena in Carthage (modern day Tunisia) for her faith in the 3rd Century CE. Astonishingly, Perpetua kept a diary during her last days - right up until the point she was led into the arena - recording her life, dreams and fearless conviction that death was better than renouncing God. Even more astonishingly, this diary survives, incorporated into a longer account of her martyrdom narrated by another hand..  Perpetua describes the attempts by both her father and the presiding Roman official to convince her to just say the words that will save her life. She describes her inability to do this, even though it means depriving her baby of its mother. She also describes several of her dreams in the days before her death. The narrator takes over to recount what happened next. Perpetua was mauled by animals and finally despatched by a gladiator.  Perpetua’s account is so remarkable, many have questioned its authenticity. The current scholarly verdict is that it is real, providing a rare insight not only into female experience in the Roman Empire - but a woman living through extreme circumstances.  Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: You can find an online translation of Perpetua’s diary here: https://www.ssfp.org/pdf/The_Martyrdom_of_Saints_Perpetua_and_Felicitas.pdf Barbara Gold, Perpetua: Athlete of God (Oxford UP, pb, 2021) and Sarah Ruden, Perpetua: the woman, the martyr (Yale UP, 2025) are accessible introductions to Perpetua (both including translations of the whole or parts of the text) More specialist studies include;  Jan N. Bremmer and Marco Formisano (eds), Perpetua’s Passions (Oxford UP, 2012) Thomas J. Heffernan, The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas (Oxford UP, 2012) @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    53 min
  7. Antigone: Girl vs Tyrant

    2 AVR.

    Antigone: Girl vs Tyrant

    Antigone is one of the most regularly staged Greek tragedies with great actors lining up to play the part. Juliette Binoche, Juliet Stevenson and Gillian Anderson have all had a crack in recent years. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte look at why Antigone is such an enduringly interesting role. She is sometimes framed as a female Hamlet caught between family loyalties and the needs of the state.  Antigone was written by Sophocles in the mid-5th Century BCE. It tells the story of King Creon’s attempts to restore order to the city of Thebes following a civil war. He orders that the body of the defeated rebel Polynices should lie unburied as punishment. Antigone, sister of Polynices, disobeys this order and gives her brother proper burial rites (as the gods demand). Creon sentences her to death for betrayal.  Antigone is often portrayed as a proto-feminist icon - the brave woman standing up to the patriarchy. But is this really what Sophocles intended? King Creon has far more lines and is, like Antigone, caught in an impossible situation. There’s even one way of viewing the play as a parable on what happens when women meddle in the affairs of the state.  It is, of course, precisely these ambiguities that make Antigone so popular. It raises questions that can never be answered and its relevance shifts from generation to generation.  Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: There is a big book by George Steiner on the history of Antigone: Antigones (Oxford UP, pb, 1986), including Hegel and much more. More approachable are sections of Helen Morales, Antigone Rising: the subversive power of Greek myth (Wildfire, pb, 2021) and the video lecture by Simon Goldhill, https://www.cambridgegreekplay.com/talk-wheres-the-tragedy-in-antigone-by-prof-simon-goldhill Nelson Mandela mentions the performance on Robben Island in his Long Walk to Freedom (Back Bay Books, pb, 1995). Mary describes her own changing views of the play in Talking Classics (Profile books, 2026) @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    52 min
  8. The Odyssey#16: Aeolus, Master of Winds

    30 MARS • ABONNÉS UNIQUEMENT

    The Odyssey#16: Aeolus, Master of Winds

    No, it’s not a fart joke. Odysseus and his dwindling crew really do stay with an island King who can control the wind. Mary and Charlotte look at what happens after Odysseus escapes the island of the Cyclops. A happy month of much-needed R&R takes place on Aeolia. King Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag of winds to speed his journey home. With Ithaca in sight, Odysseus falls asleep and his men open the bag and whoosh - they’re as far away as ever before. Odysseus is so distraught he considers ending his life. The next stop is Laestrygonia, which turns out to be occupied by man-eating giants. The crew beat a fast retreat, but are pelted with huge boulders. More men die at this moment than in any other encounter. Finally, the bedraggled survivors arrive at Aeaea. This is an island without any consonants and apparently people too. But then Odysseus sees a plume of smoke in the distance. Despite everything experience tells him about investigating smoke, he sends some of his men to investigate. Further reading: One of Mary’s favourite ancient “reflections” on the story of Odysseus (inc the Laestrygonians) is the so-called “Odyssey landscapes” found in Rome, an ancient depiction of this part of the Odyssey story: https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/sala-delle-nozze-aldobrandine/ciclo-con-scene-dell-odissea-da-via-graziosa.html Please have your say in the Book Club channel on our discourse site Or send your thoughts to instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole DOP - Ben Warburton Video Editor: Tom Green Theme music: Casey Gibson

    23 min
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À propos

Join world-renowned classicist Mary Beard and Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins for Instant Classics — the weekly podcast that proves ancient history is still relevant. Ancient stories, modern twists… and no degree in Classics required. Become a Member of the Instant Classics Book Club here: https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/

Informations

  • Création
    Vespucci
  • Années d’activité
    2025 - 2026
  • Épisodes
    58
  • Classification
    Contenu explicite
  • Fournisseur
    Vespucci

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