Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Great Books #7: The Anti-Homer

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Great Books #7: The Anti-Homer

We've read the Iliad and the Odyssey. So Homer becomes the basis for Greek civilization, meaning that all educated Greeks, they memorize the Iliad in the Odyssey. People don't read them right now at this point. They speak and they listen in front of an audience. And so Homer, becomes basically the infrastructure of their mental worldview.

And this leads to the greatest civilization in human history. But eventually, the Romans will conquer the Greeks. The Romans will conquer the entire Mediterranean, and they will create the Roman Empire. The Romans are nothing like the Greeks. The Greeks are very very very, very open very curious they believe in the idea of eritae sorry erite and eudaimonia

erete means excellence to be the best at what you can eudaimonia you can only achieve human happiness if you achieve your erete okay you become your erete so think of Odysseus who is great speaker that is his erete and he uses his speech in order to fulfill his destiny and to save his family okay and that achieves eudaimonia the Romans are very different the Romans believe in the idea of piety okay and piety just means obedience to your fathers to history and to tradition.

And so the Romans are extremely conservative people, but they're very good at fighting wars, and that's why they become the empire. But after the empire is established, what the Romans recognize is that Greek culture is vastly superior, and many well-educated Romans begin to drift towards Greek culture, which in the Roman perspective leads to the corruption of the Roman soul. And so Augustus Caesar, who is really considered the first emperor of Rome, he recognizes that in a long term, even though the Romans have conquered the Greeks physically, spiritually, the Greeks will conquer the Romans.

And the main issue is Homer. So his solution is to destroy Homer. You can't burn books because there are that many books and also people have memorized Homer. So you need to corrupt Homer. And the solution that he devises is called the INIAD. And we can consider the INIAD as the anti-HOMER, okay, or the inversion of Homer. the Indian ideas of Homer and inverting them. So this becomes the Bible of the Roman Empire,

meaning that if you're a schoolboy, you have to memorize the Inniad. And this is the main way that you learn Latin, the official language of the Roman Empire. And so whereas Homer will give us Greek civilization and the birth of Western civilization, The Inniad will create the Dark Ages, about a thousand years when Western creativity ends. And then someone will emerge who will recognize the evil that is the Inniad.

And he will create an adult to the poison that is the Inniad. And this person of course is called Dante. And so what we'll do is we will read the Inniad for the next two weeks. and understand how it poisons and corrupt Homer, and then this will lead us to the divine comedy, which is really the liberation of the human soul from the poison that is the Inniad. Okay, all right.

So some basic background about the Inniat. So the Inniad, what it does is it replicates both the Odyssey and the Iliad. The Inniad is 24 books, the first 12 books models of the Eliad. Odyssey. The last 12 books models of the Iliad. So the story begins when Innius, he is one of the survivors of the fall of Troy. And so he takes his father and his child to go off to the Italian Peninsula because the gods have told him that he is fated, he is destined to found the

Roman Empire. And that's why the gods had to destroy Troy in order to create the Roman Empire. But as he sails to Italian Peninsula, there's a shipwreck and he lands in Carthage. Okay? Carthage. And there he meets the Queen Dill. And the Carthaginians and Ditto are extremely hospitable to NES. And so they have this huge banquet and Innes is telling her about the story of the fall of Troy, how Troy fell. Remember that Homer doesn't actually discuss the fall of Troy, but Innius will discuss the fall of Troy.

And by discussing the fall of Troy, his main purpose is to show how to plitius, manipulative, decept the Greeks are. He's also going to tell us why the values of Homer are evil, why love is evil, why love is evil, love will lead you into tragedy and then by telling the story what will happen is that Innius will seduce Ditto that will fall in love with him not because not only is he brave and handsome but he's also a great poet he's able to tell the story in the beautiful matter and so they fall in love okay all right so this is the beginning of the Inniad and so

What we're going to read first is it is a story of the fall of Troy. It begins when the Greeks pretend to leave the beaches of Troy, and they leave behind a wooden horse. And there's a huge debate among the Trojans as to what to do with this horse. And they decide, basically, you know, we can't take a risk. Let's just destroy this horse, throw it into the sea. And then what happens is that a Greek soldier emerges. And he's a prisoner. He was caught by some shepherd.

And he tells the story of the Trojan horse and why it's really not a threat to the Trojans. In fact, it's a gift from the Greeks to the gods. So because it's a gift to the gods, you cannot destroy it because then you piss off the gods. Okay? And what this is going to show us is that the Greek culture philosophy, theater, rhetoric.

It's all one of deception. The real children horse is Greek culture. You cannot let Greek culture into Rome because then it will corrupt and poison the empire from within. Okay? So again, this is propaganda. So it's very blatant what they're doing.

It's very blatant what Virgil is doing. Okay, something I need to explain is like Virtual is considered the poet who compose this Inniad. But it was actually Augustus Caesar who wrote this. Basically, Augusta Caesar was one who provided Virgil with a framework and then Virtual composed it into Latin poetry. And actually, at the end of his life, Virtual actually wanted to burn this down. burn this. And the reason why is that if you're a poet, what you believe is that your gift comes from the gods. And so you represent the gods. But if you actually work for the empire, if you actually use your gift for the emperor, then maybe the gods will punish you. Right? So Virgil was very

much afraid and wanted to like burn the Inniad. But Augustus Caesar would not let him. And so this became the Bible of the Roman Empire. It is a evil, evil piece of work, okay? And it is the anti-homer. So we're going to study it because it's in a shape of Western civilization throughout the Middle Ages until the coming of Dante. Okay? So, all right. So, Ivory, can you read, please? Yeah. Suddenly, in the thick of it all, a young soldier, hands shackled behind his back, with much shouting, Trojan shepherds were hauling him toward the king. He'd come on a man by chance, a total stranger. He given himself up, with one goal in mind, to open Troy to the Greeks and lay her waist. He trusted to courage, nerve for either end, to weave his lies or face a certain

death. Young Trojan recruits, keen to have a look, came scurrying up from all sides, crowding round, outdoing each other to make a mockery of the captive. Now, hear the treachery of the Greeks and learn from a single crime the nature of the beast. Haggard, Helpless, there in our midst he stood. All eyes rivet on him now, and turning a wary glance at the lines of Trojan troops, he groaned and spoke. Where can I find some refuge?

Where on land, on sea? What's left for me now? A man of so much misery. Nothing among the Greeks, no place at all. And worse, I see my Trojan enemies crying from my blood. His groans convince us, cutting all our show of violence short. Okay, so let's talk in history, and this is about about 30 BCE, Greek theater is very, very popular.

The Romans love Greek theater. And Greek theater is really the very paragon of Greek civilization. And what this is telling us is that, no, Greek theater is evil. It's meant to deceive us. Okay? So this soldier, this Greek soldier, he is trained in theater. He's trained in philosophy. He's trained in rhetoric.

and he's using all his craft, all his skills in order to ultimately deceive the good but naive Trojans. Okay? All right. So he tells the story of how he came to be left behind in Troy. And the story is that he pissed off Odysseus.

And Odysseus plotted against him. So when it came time for the Greeks to leave Troy and sell home, they needed to sacrifice a person. And that person was this guy. But somehow this guy ran off, okay? Okay, can you read? I've read. The day of infamy soon came. The sacred rites were all performed for the victim.

The salted meals strewn. The bands tied around my head. But I broke free of death. I tell you, burst my shackles. Yes, and hit all night in the wreaths of a marshy lake, waiting for them to sail. If only they would sail. Well, no hope now of seeing the land where I was born

or my sweet children. the father I longed for all these years. Maybe they'll rain from them the price for my escape. Avenge my guilt with my loved one's blood, poor things. I beg you, King, by the powers who know the truth, by any trust still uncorrupt in the world of men, pity a man whose torment knows no bounds. Pity me in my pain.

I know in my soul I don't deserve to suffer. He wept and won his life, our pity too. Priam takes command, has him freed from the ropes and chains that bind him fast, and hails him warmly. Whoever you are, from now on, you've lost the Greeks, put them out of your mind and you'll be one of us. But answer my questions, tell me the whole truth. Why did they raise up this giant, monstrous horse? Who conceived it?

What's it for? Its purpose? A gift to the gods? A great engine of battle. Okay, so again, this reminds us of the Eliad. Eliad where Priam the king of the Trojans is known for being a very generous magnificent, benevolent, sorry, benevolent open person but this will lead to the doom of Troy. So remember in the Iliad it is because of Prime's generosity, his ability

to forgive Achilles that leads to the great friendship between Priam and Achilles. Okay, and again, Virgil is trying to reverse this and he's trying to show us that no, you think that generosity will lead to goodness No, generosity will lead to evil. You see how prime is too trusting, too generous and so he believes this Greek soldier and then he will allow the Trojans to bring the horse into Troy and at night the Greek soldiers will escape from the horse and open the gates of Troy and now the Greeks are rushing in to kill everyone okay and Ineus hears this slaughter and he tries to save as many people as he can and his first thought is where is my king how do I save my king okay so as the Greeks are ravaging the city killing as many people as they can

Ineis is rushing to save his king Priam all right all right so can you read ivory Perhaps you wonder how Priam met his end. When he saw his city stormed and seized, his gates wrenched apart, the enemy camped in his palesteads. The old man donned his armor, long unused. He clamps it round his shoulders, shaking with age, and, all for nothing, straps his useless sword to his hip, then makes for the thick of battle, out to meet his death. At the heart of the house, an ample altar stood, naked under disguise, an ancient laurel bending over the shrine, embracing our heart. household gods within its shade. Here, flocking the altar, Hakuba and her daughters huddled, blown headlong down like doves by a black storm, clutching, all for nothing, the figures of

their gods. St. Priam decked in the arms he'd worn as a young man. Are you insane? She cries. Poor husband! What impels you to strap that sword on now? Where are you rushing? Too late for such defend such help, not even for my own, not even my own Hector, if he came to the rescue now. Come to me, Priam, this altar will shield us all or else you'll die with us. With those wars, drawing him towards her there, she made a place for the old man beside the holy shrine. Okay, let's continue. Suddenly, look, a son of Priam, Polities, just escaped from slaughter at Pirus's hands.

Okay, so Pirus is a son of Achilles, okay? So this is a rewriting of the ending of the Iliad where Priam and Achilles have this great emotional battle where they forgive each other. And Pram's love for Hector and Achilles' love for his father unifies their soul. Okay? This is going to be a rewriting of that battle. So Achilles is dead and now his son is seeking to kill Priam. comes racing through spheres through enemy fighters fleeing down the long arcades and deserted hallways badly wounded powers hot on his heels a weapon poised for the kill about to seize him about to run him through and pressing home as polities reaches his parents and collapses

vomiting out his lifeblood before their eyes at that so again this is a rewriting of the iliad where now polites becomes hector right because remember at the gates of Troy and Prime Heguba are on the walls watching this. And then Achilles commits a war crime by basically tying Hector to his chariot and then dragging Hector all around the walls of Troy. So this is a reimagining of that scene. Keep on going. At that, Priam, traps in the grip of death, not holding back, not checking his words. his words, his rage. You, he cries, you and your vicious crimes. If any power on

Heil recoils as such an outrage, let the gods repay you for all your reckless work, grant you the things, the rich reward you've earned. You've made me see my son's death with my own eyes, defile the father's sight with his son's lifeblood. You say you're Achilles' son? You lie. Achilles never treated his enemy pream so. No, he honored a a suppliant is right. He blessed to betray my trust. He restored my Hector's bloodless corpse for burial. Sent me safely home to the land I rule. Okay, so again, he is reminding us of the ending of of the Iliad, where in this great war, peace and love comes to universe when Achilles and Priam are able to become friends. Okay? And he's saying,

Your father, you've destroyed the legacy of your father. You've destroyed the friendship between us. Okay? All right. Keep on reading. With that and with all his might, the old man flings a spear. But too important now to pierce. It merely grazes Pyrus' brazen shield that blocks his way and clings there,

dangling limb from the boss, all for nothing. Paris shouts back. Well then, down you go. A messenger to my father. Pileus' son. Tell him about my vicious work, how Neoptolemus degrades his father's...

Neotleimus is actually another name for pirates, okay? It's the same person. Keep on going? Degrates his father's name, don't you forget. Now die. That said, he drags the old man straight to the altar, quaking, slithering on through slicks of his son's blood,

and twisting Priams his hair in his left hand, his right hand sweeping forth his sword. a flash of steel he buries his hill deep in the king's flank such was the fate of priam his death his law on earth with troy blazing before his eyes her ramparts down the monarch who once had ruled in all his glory the many lands of asia age as many tribes a powerful trunk is lying on the shore the head wrenched from the shoulders a corpse without a name okay so this is difference between the greeks and the roman The Greeks were cultured people.

They enjoy going to a theater and watching a tragedy and crying together to rejuvenate their sense of humanity. That was a Greek culture. The Romans go to the Colosseum and watch gladiative fights, okay? They like blood. They like violence. And so the Iniad is an extremely violent poetry. In fact, you can say it's almost pornographic in the violence that it depicts.

And the Romans just love this because they are a bloodthirsty people. All right. All right, so Priam is dead. And with its death, what it is doing is negating the moral lesson of the Iliac to forgive one's enemy. So the Romans read this and they remember reading the Edelian and say, oh my God, I was wrong to think that Prime was heroic in forgiving Achilles. What I should be really thinking is, what a foolish old man who deserves to die for thinking that his enemy should be forgiven. For figuring that his enemy has a good soul in him. Okay, so again, this is negating the Iliad.

It's actually poisoning and corrupting the Iliad. All right. So, now Innius is talking about his reaction, watching his king die. Okay? Keep my reading, Ivory. Then, for the first time, the full horror came home to me at last. I froze. The thought of my own dear father filled my mind

when I saw the old king gasping out his life with that wrought wound. Both men were the same age, and the thought of my cruza alone abandoned our house plundered, our little Ulius's fate. I look back. What forces still stood by me? None. Totally spent in war they'd all deserted, down from the roofs they'd flown themselves to earth, or hold their broken bodies in the flames. So, at just that moment I was the one man left, and then I saw her, clinging to Vestas's threshold, hiding inside. tucked away, Helen of Argos.

Glare of the fires lit my view as I look down, scanning the city left and right, and there she was. Terrified of the Trojan's hate, now Troy was overpowered, terrified of the Greeks' revenge, her deserted husband's rage. That universal fury, a curse to Troy and her native land, and here she lurked, skulking, a thing of loathing, cowering at the altar. Helen. Out it flared, the fire inside my story,

my rage ablaze to avenge our fallen country. Pay Helen back, crime for crime. Okay, so Innius is watching his entire civilization being destroyed, and he knows that his family will be destroyed as well. And he is taking a back. He's sort of paralyzed by his anger and his hatred and his fear. And then he sees Helen. And he's like, this is her fault.

Okay? This is why we are we are destroyed as civilization because of this whore. Okay? And so this is telling us what this the lesson from this is that love is a source of evil in the world Okay, love is a source of evil in this world When Westchaffirs took flight in 1996 the vibes were a bit different people thought denim on denim was peak fashion in line skates were everywhere and and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96.

Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. Remember the Odyssey, what is the main lesson of the Odyssey? Love is the redemptive force of the world, right? If you are shattered as a person, It is love that will lead you home and heal you as a person.

And what the Indianian is saying instead is that love is what destroys civilization. Love is what corrupts you. Love is what leads you to hell. Okay? All right. So he wants to kill Helen as revenge for the destruction of Troy. But then what happens is that Ines' mother, Venus, okay? So Venus is his mother, steps in, a parish before him says,

no you can't do this you have to go home and save your wife and your child okay so Inis goes home and what he does is he say he takes his family and takes them to the ship to escape Troy but as they are running through the streets of Troy what Innes does is he puts his father on his back okay and he holds his son, his young son, Ilius. And Kreisa, the wife, has to follow them. So that's the Roman priority, okay? The most important person in the family is the patriarch, the father.

Then is the son who inherits. And the wife is just someone who follows. But her job is to serve rather than being equal in the relationship. And this is, again, it's very different from the Odyssey. where in many ways Penelope and auditses are equal to each other. Okay? All right. So what happens is that Ineus gets to the ship and he puts his father and his son on the ship ready to escape.

But he recognizes at the very last minute his wife is missing. So he goes back and tries to save his wife. But his wife is dead. And why is she dead? Because she killed herself. Why did she kill herself? She killed herself because it is her duty not to burden her husband. Because her husband is destined for great things.

He's destined to found an empire. So he must marry into a new lineage, a new royal family. And therefore, she has to kill herself to free him. But not only that, but if she were to become a slave to the Greeks, it would cause him embarrassment for the rest of his life, right? Okay. So that is the woman perception of a wifely duty. Okay?

If you're not useful to your husband, just kill yourself. Okay, can you read? Creusa, nothing, no reply and again, creusa. But then, as I madly rushed from house to house, no one in sight abruptly, right before my eyes, I saw her stricken ghost. My own creusa says his shade. But larger than life, the life I known so well, I froze. My hackles bristled, voice choked in my throat, and my wife spoke out to ease me of my anguish.

My dear husband, why so eager to give yourselves to such mad flights of grief, is not without the will of the gods these things have come to pass. But the gods forbid you to take Priusa with you, bound from Troy together. The king of lofty Olympus won't allow it. A long exile is your fate. The vast plains of the sea are yours to plow when you reach Hisparian land. where Lydia and Tiber flows with a smooth march through rich and loamy fields, a land of hearty people. Their great joy and the kingdom are yours to claim, and the queen to make your wife.

Dispell your tears for Carusa whom you loved. I will never behold the high and mighty pride of their palaces, the Mermodons, the Dolopians, or go as a slave to some Greek matron. No, not I, daughter of Dardanus that I am, the wife of Venus's son. The great mother of God detains me on these shores, and now farewell. Hold you the sun we share. We love together. Again, this is very different from the Odyssey, where the Odyssey is really about a journey of two people, Penelope and Odyssey, is to find each other again.

Because love is the greatest force in the universe. Love is what compels to reunite and to find each other amidst all the chaos surrounding them. In the Iliad, the idea is that love is hell. So what is heaven? Okay? Is love is hell? What is heaven? Heaven is piety. Piety just means obedience to the prophecy of the gods, right? It is the worth of gods that Troy be destroyed so that Rome can be created. It is the prophecy of the gods that Innius will be the one to lead the Trojans to found this Rome and therefore what is good what is divine is obedience to this prophecy okay so a long exile is your fate all right the king of my lofty olympus won't allow Zeus or Jupiter demands this of us

if Jupiter demands us to sacrifice ourselves then we must do so okay and so this reverses the Odyssey right where the God will it that Penelope and Odysseus reunite but here the gods will it that Chrysa and then is separate okay so from our eyes This doesn't sound that influential, but the reality is, remember, this becomes a basis of Roman civilization. And what is civilization, but a set of values,

a set of ideas that guide you in your life. And what this is doing is inverting homer, poignant and corrupting Homer. All right, okay, any questions, guys? So we'll continue this next week, okay? Thank you.