Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Secret History #16: The Big Bang of Greek Civilization

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Secret History #16: The Big Bang of Greek Civilization

Good morning. So today we do Greek civilization. We are focusing on Homer, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. A couple years ago I taught the great books. So we read the Bible, Dante, Paradise Lost, the Iliad, and the Odyssey. And believe it or not, the students' favorite book was the Iliad. And this was written maybe 3,000 years ago by this Greek man living in a different time, in different culture. Even today, Chinese teenagers think he's wonderful. So Homer is, I believe, the big bang of Greek civilization.

So let us summarize where we are. Let's review where we are. Okay? So remember that in the beginning, you have this city emerge in a major trade route. And it occupies a major river. And over time, what will happen is that as the city expands, it will create colonies along the river. And this will create warfare among the city-states because they're trying to control trade.

And this leads to what we call open cooperative competition. And as I keep on saying, this is a system that will lead to tremendous innovation. This is what happened in China, in Mesopotamia, and in Egypt. But then over time, what happened is that an empire will emerge, and this will create a bureaucracy. Now, bureaucracy has three major characteristics. The first is centralization. Because of centralization, you have now a monopoly. And so you have a decrease in competition, which means that this society is no more innovative.

Second is you have censorship. meaning that people are no longer free to express what they want. All information is centralized. The third is writing as propaganda. So writing is a system of control as opposed to a system of knowledge creation or self-expression. So these are the three characteristics. of an empire. And this is true for all empires. This is true for Mycenaean Greece. So my Mycenian Greece is the empire that ruled the Aegeancy during the Bronze Age.

What's interesting though is when the Bronze Age collapsed, this system allowed for massive innovation. which gave us the Greeks. Okay, so let me explain why. First of all, you know have centralization. What you now have something called the Polis. So you basically have a return to the system of open warfare. The Polis means city-state in Greek. And it gives us the word politics.

Why? Because these polices war with each other always. And because every, citizen had to risk his life in a war, every citizen had the right to speak. Okay? So before every decision was made, all the citizens could debate. And so as a citizen, you were required to speak in front of others. And as a result, you, even though you could be a farmer, you had to educate yourself you have to gain knowledge you have to learn the art of speaking what we call rhetoric and this allowed for massive education in innovation in Greece

the polis because everyone had to learn they had to change the writing system from one of propaganda to one of knowledge seeking so they changed the writing system so during the my sitting in age the writing system is called called linear B. And linear B is a hard system to learn, but that's the point. They want the writing system to be hard to learn because then only the elite can learn it. And that's what differentiates the elite from the people, right? But now that everyone has to learn, you need, you need a more efficient writing system, and so they incorporated, they created a new system called the alphabet which is the same system we use today because it's so effective okay so

me explain what the alphabet is all right so in the beginning when we first start to write we had pictograms okay so this is the sun this is the moon okay sun and moon as you can see these are just pictures of words okay that's a first step but then people realize you know what we're we actually don't have to write down, we actually don't have to draw out the pictures, we can just use symbols, okay? So now you use symbols, like maybe an O and this, okay? This now becomes a sun, moon.

And then people realize, you know what? There are actually a lot of words we cannot draw out. But if we make the symbol representing a sound as opposed to an idea, that'd be a lot more efficient right and so now you can create new words this is the word now for monsoon because all you're doing is you're adding two sounds together okay and this is what I call a syllabary okay so linear B was a syllabary and the Chinese system is what I call an ideogram

so it's it's not representing sounds it's representing ideas All right? And then people will realize, you know what? For it to be most efficient, to be most flexible, to be most versatile, we can just have the symbol represent a part of a sound. Okay? So rather than the complete sound, just a part of a sound. So now this becomes M, this becomes S.

Okay? And so you now get the word sum. This is where we get alphabet from. What they did was they added vowels to the system. And this is the most efficient writing system in the world. It's really easy to learn, as you know, for Mingus class, as opposed to Chinese, which is very hard to learn. So now you have the alphabet, which increases literacy and learning throughout the Greek world. For entertainment, what they did was they invited barth, poets, poets, to come and give recitals.

to talk about the legends of the past. And this gave rise the most famous poet of that time named Homer. And we will discuss Homer today. Okay? And so in a centralized system, Homer could not have arisen because Homer would have been a propagandist. But now in this decentralized system where everyone is looking for entertainment,

for knowledge, Homer can arise. and Homer will be the greatest poet of Greek civilization and he's considered to be the father of Greek civilization. So we will discuss Homer today. And Homer is famous because he wrote two books, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Actually he didn't write the books. He recited the poetry and then his students wrote it down because he himself was illiterate. And we also think he was blind. Okay. So the Iliad and the Odyssey are about the Trojan War. Okay, so let me explain to you what the Trojan War is. Okay, so from last class, you know that Troy was the center of the world.

It was the heart and center of global trade, and that's why pirates kept on raiding Troy. Okay? Now, as you also know, facts become stories, and stories become exaggerated over time. And that's what gave us the legend of the Trojan War, okay? So let's go over the, um, basic outline. So there are the gods up in Mount Olympus. The king god of course is Zeus. And the three goddesses are Hera, who is the queen god. They are Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, who is the goddess of love. Okay, Hera is the queen, the mother, Athena and Aphrodite are the daughter of Zeus. So it's one big family. One day, they discover a golden apple

on Mount Olympus and the golden apple says to the most beautiful in the world so of course all three believe it must be mine and so they fight

and they fight and they fight and they fight and Zeus is going crazy because they won't stop fighting so Zeus has an idea he will have a contest and this contest the golden apple will be awarded to one with three, okay?

But now he needs to find someone stupid enough to be the judge. And he finds this person named Paris. And Paris is a prince of Troy. And so Paris meets the three goddesses, and of course, each goddess is trying to bribe Paris. So Paris says, Paris, if you pick me, I will give you a kingdom. I will make you a king.

And Paris, like, that's a really attractive offer, okay? Then Athena says, hey, if you pick me, I will give you all the wisdom in the world. You will be the wisest man in the world. And Paris is like, okay, that sounds cool, sure. And then Aphrodite says, I'm going to give you the hottest girl in the world. And Paris is like, yes, that's what I want, man, okay? So he marries Helen. This may sound strange to you.

Like why would you give up power and wisdom for, you know, sex? And so I'll talk my wife about this because I didn't understand Paris's choice, right? And she said, of course you pick Helen. Because what matters to guys is status, face, right? You're a king, but there are lots of other kings. You have wisdom, but like, who knows you have wisdom, right? hey you're walking around the world with like the hottest girl in the world you feel good about yourself okay so of course you pick Helen so there you go

my wife knows more than I do all right but anyway so now this is a problem because now Hera and Athena are pissed off and they want revenge in fact they're so pissed off they decide they're gonna destroy not just Paris but the entire Trojan people okay they're gonna wipe out Troy from the face of the earth. They want revenge. Another problem is, at this time, Helen is married to Menelaus, who is the king of Sparta.

And his brother is Agamannon, who is the king of Argos. And Spartan Argos are the two most powerful places in Greece. So Agamonon is the king of kings. He is the king of Meissenin, Greece. And so they organize this huge army. to attack Troy, to retrieve Helen. And this will go on for 10 years, this battle in Troy. And this will give rise to many legends that Homer will use

to entertain the Greek people after the fall of the Mycenaean Empire. Two of the most famous heroes of this time, and they're like hundreds, okay, are Achilles and Odysseus. Odysseus is known for being the wisest of the Greeks, the greatest strategist. Achilles is known for being the bravest warrior. Odysseus will come up with the idea of the Trojan horse, which is what ends the war.

Because as you know, what will happen is the Greeks will sneak inside a horse, a wooden horse, pretend that it's a gift to the Trojans. We'll take the horse inside the city. The Greeks will sneak out at night and kill everyone. Okay? All right, so that's the story of the Trojan War. What Homer will do is he will take this epic, okay, this legend,

and turning it into a great story. He does not tell the whole story. He only tells us a part of the story. He tells the story of the battle between Achilles and the story. Achilles and Agamannan. Okay? So let's go over the plot of the Iliad. The Eliad. All right, so the story begins like this. Egan Menon has arrived in Troy with his entire army. But Troy is a war-old city, and these guys are pirates, so they cannot destroy Troy. So what they do is, well, they're pirates.

So they go and they go and raid other islands that are allies of Troy and what they do is to capture booty which includes beautiful young girls okay and they have these girls as sex slaves now the custom of war is that if a girl belongs to a powerful family that family can choose to ransom her back and you have to give her back okay now it turns out that Agamaranon likes his girl but she's she's the daughter of a powerful priest and the priest says give me back my girl and I'll give you a lot of money and Agamon says no I like her and I'm lonely, so screw off.

So this priest gets angry and prays to Apollo, and Apollo unleashed a plague on the Greeks, and everyone's dying, okay? And so Achilles discovers what's happened and he confront Agamennon in a war council. And he says, Agamon, you have to give the girl back or else we're all gonna die here.

And Agamon says, fine, I will give her back, but only in the condition that I take your girl, And of course Achilles is pissed off. He's like, that's not fair. And then he reminds like, too bad, I'm king. And so Achilles says, fine. But I will never fight for you ever again. I'm going to let the Trojans destroy you here.

I'm going to this war in the world. I'm going to sit back and I'm going to let the Trojans destroy you. Okay? So after that meeting, Achilles goes to his mother, who's a goddess. Her name is fetus. and she's a river goddess and and akini says to phaedias listen mother could you help me out could you tell Zeus to help the trojans the reason why is i want the greeks to lose so that they beg me to save them i came to try to be a hero so let the trojans win and then i'll come and save the greeks and i'll be a great hero

So, let the Trojans win, and then I'll come and save the Greeks, and I'll be a great hero. So that's what Fetus does. And Hector, who is the prince of Troy, he's brother to Paris, he discovers that Achilles is absent from the battlefield. So he leads to Trojans against the Greeks, and they're destroying the Greeks. they're at the point where, sorry, at the point where they've almost reached the Greek ships and they want to burn down the Greek ships because if they do that, the Greek cannot resupply themselves

and they will all die in Troy. And so at this point, Odysseus and the other Greeks say to Agamaranon, you know what? We need Achilles. Please, please get Achilles back into the battlefield. And Agamon says, fine. Tell him this. Tell him, I will give him my daughter in marriage. I will give him all the treasure in the world if he comes and fights for us.

So Odysseus and the Greeks go to Achilles and says, please, please, please help us. And Achilles says, nope. Why? Because Agamount is not here. Where's Agamara? I don't need his daughter. I don't need all this money in the world. I'm going to die anyway in battle. So screw off, okay? Now, Achilles and the Agamemann are stuck because Achilles wants Agamon to apologize, that Agamon doesn't want to lose face. So there's a real threat that the Trojans will destroy the entire Greek army. And they're about to reach the ships and burn down the ships.

And Achilles is watching this, and he's like, why are the Greeks coming and beg me again? He wants the Greeks to constantly beg him so he can say no. And the Greeks are like, we know that, so we're not going to come. So then what happens is Achilles, he's so nervous that he sends Patroclus, who is his lieutenant to go talk to the Greeks and say, hey man, what's going on? Do you need Achilles help? And the Greeks say to him, Patroclus, we know Achilles, he's got this terrible temper. He's not going to come save us.

But maybe you can save us, Patroclus. And Paul, Strachlis, yes, I can be the hero now. So he runs back to Achilles and says, Achilles, you ask. asshole we're all gonna die here let me go fight and Achilles is like fine you can go fight but only in the condition that you just save the ship and you do not push the Trojans back to Troy okay that's my glory do not steal my glory so of course what Patroclus does is he tries to win all the glory for himself he forces a duel between himself and Hector and Hector Hector kills Patroclus now Achilles is

pissed off and Achilles says like screw this I'm gonna go kill Hector okay so now Agamannan and Achilles are best friends because they both want to kill Hector Achilles Dules Hector kills him and he is now the greatest warrior in the world he's proven himself to be the greatest hero in the world he's saved the Greeks he's killed Hector he's an adventurous friend Patroclus he should be the happiest man in the world right and this is a genius Homer he now falls in to a deep depression. He mutilates Hector's body.

He ties Hector's body to his chariot and rides around the city of Troy. And all the Trojans are screaming in horror. The gods are like, this is disgusting, man. The Greeks are like, no, man, this is a war crime. We don't want to get involved, okay? Achilles is going crazy. He can't sleep, he can't eat.

All he can do is mutilate Hector's body. All right? So now the gods are watching this and saying, you know what, we shouldn't allow this because this is a war crime, and Hector was always a good subject. So let's broker a peace between Achilles and Priam, who is the father of Hector. Because in this world, it's important to bury the dead,

only by burying the dead can they find eternal peace. So Pram wants us a body back. So Prime himself cannot sleep and both Achilles and Prime agree to this deal. The God sent Prime into Achilles' tent. And Achilles is busy, okay? Achilles is distracted and Prime is sitting next to him. And at this point, what Prime can do is take a dagger and stab Achilles in the neck and avenge his son, right? What he does instead is he kneels down before Achilles and kisses his hand.

He submits himself before Achilles. And Achilles is so awed by this that he recognizes that Priam is the greater hero. That Prime has more courage than he does. And now Achilles submits to Priam. And the two forgive each other and weep together. And this is how the idiot ends. This is a story that tells us that the real battlefield is not out there in the shores of Troy. The real battle is inside our human heart.

Why does Achilles fall into depression? because he himself knows he's the one guilty for killing of Patroclus. Maybe it was Hector who killed Petrocholus, but it was Achilles who made it possible. Why? Because number one, Achilles didn't have to get into a super fight with a big amount, okay? Number two is, when the Greeks came to beg, Achilles could have said yes. And then number three is Achilles did not have to send Matrocholus into battle. So Achilles know in his heart that he was guilty and as such he could not forgive himself and so he fell into depression and so Priam by forgiving Achilles allow

Achilles to forgive himself okay so it's a problem of forgiveness and this is the hardest problem in human society how do you forgive those who've done wrong to you and how do you forgive yourself for doing wrong unto others? This is a hardest problem in human society. If you can solve this problem, you can now create a great civilization. That's what Homer did, okay? Homer showed us that this is the greatest problem in the human heart.

And when we forgive each other, we make the world anew. We rejuvenate the world. We change the world from one of the destruction into one of vitality. Priam, by sacrificing himself, by having the courage to forgive Achilles, change the destiny of himself and his son, Hector,

because Achilles gave Hector back and told Pryam, not only will I give your son back, but I will make sure that you have enough time to ensure a proper funeral for Hector. Achilles himself will ensure the Greeks will not attack Troy. during the funeral okay and that's the budin power of the iliad it is the most shocking ending ever it's the most beautiful the most poignant the most tragic ending ever even today we cannot match it so the question now is how is it that home when the Greeks had such wisdom and today we

don't and the answer is their minds were different back then than they are today okay so let me explain why okay so you know from psychology that we have two hemispheres in the brain okay a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere the right hemisphere is a creative emotional caring hemisphere the left is the logical analytical eutitarian hemisphere okay so So right does art, maybe left does math. Okay, we know this from simple psychology. Now, there's an American psychologist named Julian Janes.

And he proposes a really interesting theory. His theory is, actually what's happening is the right hemisphere is receiving information from the universe, vibration from the universe. And the left hemisphere is interpreting this information into reality. Okay? All right? So remember, we discuss Kant. What does Emmanuel Kant say?

Emmanuel Kant says that there are two realities. The nomena, the things in themselves, and the phenomena, the things to us. Okay? So what happens is that our brain interacts with the nomena, and then filters their back into the phenomena, okay? And it uses a filter, time and space, in order to perceive things, okay? Geigel says that this nomanae is the geist, okay, the universe.

And as we discuss, the universe are just vibrations, okay? Vibrations. And so, if you apply all this theory, what's happening is, our right brain is receiving these vibrations. And then our left brain is transforming these vibrations into everyday reality. Okay? The question then is, how do we interpret these vibrations? Well, for most of the human history, we can interpret them as just gods and spirits.

Okay? And even though it's not factual, it is truthful in that it allows us to better understand the universe, it allows us to understand ourselves, okay? By embracing this model of the brain, we have access to wisdom. The wisdom of Homer and the Greeks. And that's why back then the Greeks are much more creative and wise than we are today. Does that make sense? Because what we've done today is we've shut off this part by saying,

nope all that matters is science logic and materialism okay so we've shut down the right brain and we only use left brain today that's why we are less creative right so that's the argument i will make to you today all right let's continue all right the great big bang the beginning of greek civilization all right so this is julian james okay and he wrote a book call the or of clutchness in the breakdown of the bicromyal brain. The bicromarable mind is just the left and right hemisphere. And these two work together. The right is the receiver of the universe.

The left is the interpreter of the universe. All right, so he gives an example of this. Why is it that in ancient times, when kings died, we buried them with lots and lots of gifts. We buried them as so they were still alive. And the answer is, from our perspective, they were still alive, okay? The burial of the important dead as if they still live is common to almost all these ancient cultures

whose architecture we have just looked at. This practice has no clear explanation except that their voices were still being heard by the living and were perhaps demanding such accommodation. These dead kings propped up on stones whose voices were hallucinated by the living were the first gods. Does that make sense to you? We lived in the world where we're using both our left and right hemispheres and as such, we saw spirits, diaries, gods all around us. We interacted with them and they gave us both inspiration as well as motivation. And so this is a Viking ship burial where a king is being buried with his ship and his horses,

as though he was still alive. Because from their perspective, he's still alive. He's still able to give us his wisdom. This is the cult of the skull, which is what we found in most Neolithic cultures, okay? The earliest agricultural societies. Why? Because they practice ancestors worship and they believed that these skulls were living. And they could help you access the dead in the spirit world and draw wisdom and inspiration from them. This is the book, The Cautonic Serpent by Jury and Narby, okay?

And he tells us that, listen, if you just do some basic research, This understanding of the universe where our right brain receives spirits and left brain interprets it in reality, it makes a lot of sense, okay? Because all the entire universe is its self-consciousness, okay, it's all mine, and matter is just what we perceive. I began my investigation with the ignimum of plant communication, okay, plants are able to communicate with each other, we know that scientifically. I went to accept the idea that hallucinations

could be a source of verifiable information. Okay? So if you feel as though a spirit is talking to you, maybe the spirit really is talking to you. And I end up with a hypothesis suggesting that a human mind can communicate and defocalize consciousness with the global network of DNA-based life.

All this contradicts principles of Western knowledge. Okay? So all the entire universe is consciousness. Plants have it, animals have it, we have it, and therefore if we open our minds, we're able to communicate with the entire universe and draw insight. All right, and he goes on.

Scientists know this, and our greatest discoveries came from scientists who embraced the consciousness of the universe. Many of science's central ideas seem to come from beyond the limits of rationalism. René Descartes dreams of an angel who explains the basic principles of materialistic rationalism to him.

Albert Einstein daydreams in a tram approaching another and conceives the fear of relativity. James Watson scribbles on a newspaper in a train, then rides his bicycle to reach the conviction that DNA has the form of a double helix. So it's almost as though a spirit is telling the secrets of the universe to the scientists. So, and just ask yourself these questions,

and you will understand that maybe the universe is consciousness, right? So these questions are, Sometimes you think of someone and then boom, that person calls you. Is that strange? Has that ever happened to you? Do you feel as though you're being watched all the time? Do you feel as though you're an actor on a stage?

Do you sometimes feel you're compelled to act as though something has control of your body? Possession. Why do you certain ideas pop in your head all of a sudden? Do you sometimes feel as though something planted an idea into you? What do you have dreams? Where do dreams come from? What do dreams mean?

Do you sometimes feel as though you know, what someone else is thinking okay is it possible you're sitting with a friend and you know exactly what your friend is thinking even though you're not talking do you think sometimes that you're having a conversation with a friend inside your head okay so your friend is not there but you have a conversation with your friend do you feel as though you have a guardian angel okay I'm sure you know you're too shy to say this but I'm sure that you feel as though there is a spirit world right okay these were not mysteries and questions before because

everyone assumed we lived alongside spirits, angels, and demons, okay? Today we asked these questions before. They didn't ask these questions because everyone just assumed that, yeah, of course. We live alongside angels and demons, and that's why we are who we are. Okay, so let's go to the Eliad, okay? And the Eliad shows us how the brain worked at that time, a brain that was both materialistic and spiritual, a brain that understood that we lived in different. dimensions okay and the gods have more control over us and the gods represented our emotions

and the workings of nature okay the idiot now this is translation by Robert fagels so let's at the very beginning of the aliat okay Homer says this rage goddess signal rage of Pileas son Achilles murderers doom that caused Akeans countless losses Hurling down to the house of death so many sturdier souls, great fighter souls, but made their bodies carry in. Feast for the dogs and birds and the will of Zeus was moving towards its end. Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Agamon, Lord of the Man and Burn Achilles. So the first thing that Homer says is, please inspire me, muse, okay? So what he's doing is not creating.

What he's doing is channeling his drawing inspiration from the gods, okay? When he's speaking to people, he's saying, I am here as a messenger of the gods. This information is from the gods themselves. All right. So this is the fatal meeting, sorry, not the fatal meeting, the clash between Agamannon and Achilles, the first meeting that starts off the Iliad. So Agamon says to Achilles, give me your slave girl and get out of here, okay? And Achilles is screw you, I'm not going to fight for you again.

But now Achilles is pissed off. He wants to kill Agamana, okay? Eggemonon broke off and anguish gripped Achilles. The heart in his rugged chest was pounding, torn. Should he draw the long, sharp sword slung at his hip, thrust through the ranks and kill Agamana now, or check his rage and beat his fury down, okay? So he can't control himself. Rage has overtaking him.

He wants to step forward and just kill Agamannon. As his raging spirit veered back and forth, just as he drew his huge blade from his sheave, from the vaulting heaven swept Athena. Athena is here now, okay, before Achilles. The white arm goddess Hera sped her down. Hera loved both men and cared for both alike. Rearing behind him, Pellus ceased his fury here. Only Achilles saw her, none of the other fighters.

Struck with wonder, he spun around. He knew her at once, okay? So Achilles is a hallucinating Athena. No one else can see her. Palace Athena, the terrible blazing of those eyes. and his wing words went flying. Why, why now? Child Zeus, with a shield of thunder, why come now?

To witness the outrage Agamon just committed? I tell you this, and so help me, it's the truth. He'll soon pay for his arrogance with his life. So he really wants to kill Agamana. Her gray eyes clear, the goddess Athena answered, Down from the skies I come to check your rage. If only you will yield, the white-armed goddess hero spread me down. She loves you both.

She cares for you both alike. Stop this fighting now. Don't lay hand to sword. hand to sword, lash him with threats of the price that he will face. And I tell you this, I know it, it is the truth. One day Glitton gifts will lie before you three times over to pay for all his outrage. Hold back now, obey us both. Okay?

So Achilles wants to kill Egemannon, but now he's been possessed by Athena. And Athenian says, stop. So she urged and a swift run to comply that once, I must, when the two of you had down commands, A man submits, though his heart breaks with fury. Better for him by far. If man obeys the gods, they're quick to hear his prayers. And with that, Achilles stayed his burly hand on a silver hilt and slid the huge blade back in his sheaf. He would not fight the orders of Athena.

So again, this is not factual. Athena doesn't really exist, but it's truthful in that it gives us insight into how the human brain and the human emotions work. Okay? Now what I'm going to do now is, I'm going to write this again in modern prose to show you the difference. Okay? Okay, so this is what I wrote myself. It's bad writing.

It's modern prose. But you're able to compare and contrast, okay? I don't need you. Get on my sight, wrote Agamannan. He spat on the ground. Achilles' blood boiled and he reached for the hilt of his sword. He saw all I stare at him and he stayed focused on Agamannan. He counted the seconds and the steps it would take for him to sprint forward and strike him down.

His feet grew heavy and his legs grew wobbly. He could not move. He felt the thumping of his heart. Achilles snapped around and walked out of the room. He saw all eyes focus on him, okay? So this is factual, but it's not truthful. Do you understand? It doesn't give us insight into why this is happening.

So the Eliad is truthful but not factual. Modern prose is factual, but not truthful. So now, as I said, Achilles refused to fight. The Greeks are losing the war. And so the Greeks beg, Achilles to come fight, Achilles says, no. And he sends Protocococlus to figure out what's going on. And Patroclus comes in and says, let me fight Achilles.

And at this point, Achilles should just be like, we'll fight together or don't go if Patroclus is too dangerous. Instead he says this. So he pleaded, lost in his own great innocence, condemned to beg for his own death and brutal doom. He is Patroclus. And move now to his deaths, the famous runner cried, no. know, my Prince Petroclus. What are you saying? Prophecies? None that touch me. None I know of.

No, do my noble mother revealed to me from Zeus. Just this terrible pain that wounds me to look quick. When one man attempts to plunder a man he is equal to commandeer a prize exalting so in his own power. That's a pain that wounds me, suffering such humiliation. That girl, the sons of Akia, picked her as my prize. And I sacked at the walled city, one of my spear. But right from my grasp, he tears her, my egg man on, that son of Atreus. Treating me like some Vagabon, some outcast strip of all my rights. So the Greek army is about to destroy, and Achilles is concerned about his own pride. He's a very selfish person.

Agibon stole his girlfriend, and he's pissed. Enough. Let bygones be bygones now. Done is done. How on earth can a man rage on forever? Still by God, I said I will not relax my anger, not till the cries and carnage reach my own ships. So you, you shut my splendid armor on your back, you lead our butter-hungry meridians into action. And now, in fact, the black cloud of the Trojans blast down on the ships with Fogel force,

our backs to breaking surf, but clinging steel to a cramped strip of land, the Argyves lost. The whole city of Troy comes trampling down on us, daring wild, why? They cannot see the brown my helmet flashed before their eyes. Oh, they soon run for their lives and choke the torn beds of the field with all their corpse, if only the mighty Agamon met me with respect, okay? So the Trojan are attacking them because he's not in the battlefield. But if he were in the battlefield, the Trojans would just run away. Now, as it is, they're fighting around our camp.

No spirit rages now in the hand of Diomedes, keen to save the Argyz from disaster. I can't even hear the battle cry of Egemen on. Break from his hated skull, but his man-killing Hector, calling his Trojans on, his war cries crashing around me. Savage cries of his children sweeping the whole plane. Victors bring the Argyve armies to their knees. Even so, Patroclus, fight disaster off the ships. Fling yourself as Trojans full foot.

force before they gut our holes with leaping fire and tear away the beloved day of our return. But take this command to heart, obey it to the end. You can win great honor, great glory for me, in the eyes of all the Argyve ranks, and they'll send her back my live and lovely girl and top it off with troves of glittering gifts. Once you have whipped the enemy from the fleet, you must come back, Patroclus, even if Zeus, the founding lord of Herod lets you seize your glory, you must not burn for war against these Trojans, madmen lusting for battle. Now about me, you will only make my glory.

much less okay me me me all Achilles cares about is me Patroclus you can go in a battle but don't win too much glory do not outside me okay and because he says is what does Patroclus do he tries to win all the glory from himself he engages in the dual of Hector and he and it costs him his life okay so it's Achilles fault this is happening and he knows it all right so the psychology here is just so insightful so deep So striking. So let's use an analogy

to understand in psychology, okay? Let's pretend John and Jill are boyfriend and girlfriend. But they have a fight like boyfriend and girlfriend do. And they break up, okay? But they long for each other, but they don't want to apologize to each other, okay?

So Jill tells her best friend Jane to talk to John to try to get him to apologize. All right? And then Jane goes, talks to John and says, you know what? I've had it with Jill. I'd much rather date you because you're more beautiful

and you're more, you know, reasonable and then Jason is really excited because Jill is prettier than she is right so she runs back to Jill and says hey John asked me to go on a date maybe I can use the opportunity to convince him to apologize and then Joe says okay go date him but what do you do don't kiss him so what does Jill do right so this is reverse psychology right okay so Jill knows that if she says this James gonna kiss John. And Achilles knows that if he tells Patroclus,

don't win too much glory, Patroclus is gonna win a lot of glory, right? And so what happens, of course, is that Patroclus dies, and now Achilles can now enter the battlefield and win all the glory for himself. And that's what happens, okay? He kills Hector.

He saves the Greeks. But then he goes crazy. What he does is he ties Hector to his chariot, and he starts riding around the walls of Troy. It is a war crime. It's disgusting. It's hideous. The Trojan are going crazy.

But the Greeks are like, we don't want this, man. The gods are like, what the hell is going on? Okay? So this is just shocking. It's just a mutilation. It's torture. All right. So now we move to the end of the Iliad.

And at this point, Priam, the king, cannot sleep because his son, Hector, is being mutilated. by Achilles. Achilles can't sleep because he can have forgive himself for the death of Patroclus. And so he takes it out on Hector. And the gods are watching this and they're kind disgusted. The games were over now. The gala army scattered. Each men to his fast ship and fighters churned their minds of thoughts of food and the sweet, warm grip of sleep. But Achilles keep on grieving for his friend, the memory burning on. And all the opposite doing sleep could not take

him. But not now, he churned and twisted side to side. He longed for Protoculus menhood. his gallant heart what rough campaigns they fought to an end together what hardships they had suffered cleaving their way through wars of men and pounding waves at sea the memories flooded over him live tears flowing and now he lied on his side now flound on his back now face down again at least at last he left to his feet one in anguish ammless along the surf and dawned on dawn he cannot sleep he's depressed okay he is wrapped with self-guilt he cannot forgive himself for what has happened. Flaming over the sea and shore would find him pacing, then he yoke his racing team to the charred harness, last the corpse of Hector behind the car for dragging, and

haul him three times round the dead Protarchus tomb, and then he rests again in his tents and leave the body sprawled face down in the dust. But a wholly pity Hector, dead men though he was, and warded all corruption off from Hector's corpse, and round him head to foot, the great god wrapped the golden shield of storm, so his skin would never rip as a key. dragged him on. And so he kept on raging, shaming noble Hector, but the gods and bliss looked down and pitiate Prime's son. They kept on urging the sharp-eyed giant killer Hermes to go and steal the body, a plan that

pleased them all, but not Hera, Poseidon, or the girl with blazing eyes. They clung to their deathless hate of Sacred Troy, Prime and Prime's people, just as they had at first when Paris and all his madness launched the war. He offended Athena and Hera, both goddesses. The Zeus who marshaled the storm clouds warn his queen. Now, Hera, don't fly into such a rage at fellow gods. These two can never attain the same degree of honor. Still, the immortals love Prince Hector Dierley, best of all the mortals born in Troy.

So I loved him at least. He never sinned with gifts to please my heart. Never once did my altar lack in its share of victims. Winecaps tipped in the deep smoky savior. These are the gifts we claim. These are our rights. But as for sealing courageous Hector's body, we must abandon the idea and not a chance in the world behind Achilles' back.

A fetus is always there, his mother always hovering near him night and day. So, would one of you gods call Thetis to my presence so I can declare to her my solemn sound decree? Achilles must receive a ransom from Queen Pyam. Achilles must give Hector's body back. Does that make sense? So that gods are fighting over what to do. And then Zeus says, you know what? Let's just broker a piece between Achilles and Pliam.

Okay, so Pram agrees to ransom back Hector's body and Achilles agrees. Okay. So again, we can write this in modern prose, and we can eliminate the gods. But what you will see is that it's not as powerful, it's not as intriguing, not as truthful. Prime cannot sleep and toss in his bed. His wife and his children come one by one and console the weeping king, but to no avail. His servants try different sleeping potions, and one by one, they fail. In the middle of the night, he screams at the moon and tears at his graying here.

Prime aches for Hector and feels guilt and remorse for failing his son. Children spies watch Achilles drag Hector's body day and night. They take turns spying and they know that Achilles cannot sleep. They report this news to Priam and this gives him hope. He sends an emissary to the Greek camp and Agamemnon agrees that it is Prime's right to ransom back his son as is a custom of war. When after of the rage of Achilles, Agamannon sends a servant to talk of Achilles, Achilles

does not hear Primus offer, but he nods his head anywhere. So it's less powerful, it's less truthful, it's less interesting. All right, now comes the most powerful part of the Iliath. This is actually when Priam and Achilles meet for the first time. And so what happens is that Prime is snuck into the tent by Hermes, and the magistrate king of Troy slipped past the rest and kneeling down beside Achilles, claps his knees, and kisses hands those terrible men killing hands that had slaughtered Prime's many sons in battle. So the King has the opportunity to kill Achilles but chooses instead to kiss his hand and submit

before Achilles. And this submission destroys the pride of Achilles. It's an emotional battle duel between Prime and Achilles and the Prime has won. Awesome as when a group of madness sees is one who murders of men in his own fatherland and flees abroad to foreign shores to a wealthy noble host and a sense of marvel runs through all who see him so Achilles marvel beholding majestic priam okay that's what prime has done prime is like a fugitive who's wanted for murder he escaped and he should be a slave but somehow he's become wealthy okay so by submitting himself before achilles prime has changed the destiny of the world

his man marvel too training startled glances but prime prays his heart out to Achilles. Remember your own father, great God like Achilles. As old as I am, past a threshold of deadly old age. Now doubt the countryman round about him, plague him now. With no one there to defend him, beat away disaster. No one, but at least he hears you're still alive and his old heart rejoices, hopes rising day by day, to see his beloved son come sending home from Troy. Those words stir within Achilles a deep desire to grieve for his own father, Taking the old man's hand, he gently moved him back, and overpowered by memory, both men gave way to grieve. Prime wept freely for man-killing Hector, fropping encroaching before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept for himself.

This is the first time Achilles can now cry. Okay? He cannot cry before. Now for his father, now for Petrarchus once again, and they're sobbing roles and fell through out the house. They've forgiven each other. Why? Because they love their people, okay? So, Priam saw Hector in the face of Achilles.

Achilles saw his father in the face of Priam. And because of their love for others, they found love for each other. So love is the unifying force of the universe. Love is what allows us to forgive ourselves and forgive others. And this is the tremendous insight of the Iliad. And to demonstrate to you how powerful this insight is, Let's run a scenario, okay? Let's do a thought experiment.

Let's just say you're driving a car with your wife and your child home from a restaurant. Okay? And you've had too much of drink and then you hit a car and your wife and your child died. Okay, that's the first scenario. Second scenario is you're driving home and then a drunk driver hits you, killing your wife and your child. It's not your fault. It's drunk driver's fault, okay?

In the third scenario, you're arguing with your wife and you're not really watching the road, okay? Then a drunk driver hits you and kills your wife. you and kills your wife and your child. These are three different scenarios, right? Let me ask you a question. In which scenario are you less likely to forgive the drunk driver? One, two, or three.

One, it's your fault. Two is, it's his fault. Three is, it's his fault, but it's also your fault. Which one? It's number three, guys. Why? Because you cannot forgive yourself first, right? If you cannot forgive yourself, you can't forgive others.

And guess what, guys? In real life, it's always number three. It's almost never number one or number two. So forgiveness is something that we encounter every day. Every day we make mistakes and because we can forgive ourselves, we can make even more and more mistakes. That's a problem of forgiveness. It's the deepest problem in human society.

And so what the idea tells us is that the real struggle is not for power. real struggle is within our heart the real struggle is between ourselves if we forgive ourselves we can change the world right if we forgive others we make the world a better place because Priam forgave Achilles Achilles it would forgive himself and they made the world a better place okay that's the power of the human heart and this is what gave rise to quick civilization Okay? The Greeks engage in an oral tradition. And in the oral tradition, they were constantly trying to figure out the mysteries of the human heart. All right. So this is Pericles giving

his famous funeral oration. So every day, people are speaking, because that's what a person does, speaks before others. All right? The Greeks were known for their theater. This is the amphitheater in Athens. You can see it seats about 10,000 people and this is what they do for fun. They stage its theater and everyone watches it and the theater plays, plays by Eurbitis, Ischelis, Sofukis are about the human heart, the mysteries of the human heart. So every day people are thinking about what it means to be human and that's why they have the greatest civilization in the world. This is the Aigara, the marketplace, where people come together and just debate, they talk. So Saucades was famous for being in the Agara, the marketplace, and just finding people

the debate. This is the symposia. The symposia is a gathering of wealthy people. What they do is they drink wine and they talk about philosophy, love, death, what's meaning of life, okay? Now the wine is interesting because they'll water down the wine so it's not as strong. Okay, and they'll do this like for like the entire night. This is Socrates engaging in a symposium on love. That's what they do for fun, guys. This is a trial of Socrates. So, um, so, So if you're charged with a crime, you face a trial, and there's 500 people, and you have to convince those 500 jurors why you're guilty

or why you're not guilty, okay? All right, so this is an oral culture where every day people are talking with each other, and that's the source of their creativity. And what they're talking about is the Elia, the Odyssey. They're trying to figure out what Homer meant, what Homer was trying to tell the world in its, poetry. This is Herodotus. So even if you write, the first thing you do is when you

write, you will recite your writings to everyone. So you understand what the reaction is. Okay? Writing comes from community. It comes from understanding the feelings of others. Okay? Today we just write ourselves and that's why our writing is crap. All right, so this is Anna Karina, I need Consider the greatest novel of the modern period. It's written by Leo Toy Story. And it's a really fun novel. I highly recommend it.

It's a great book. And it starts off by saying, happy families are all alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Everything was in confusion in the Oblensky's house. The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with a French girl. So it starts off with an affair.

What happened is, that the husband's sister, Anna Karina, will come from St. Petersburg to try to resolve the issue, but then she'll fall in love with another man, Count Ronski, and they have an affair together. This affair destroys their families. And it ends with Anna Karina's suicide, okay? Because what's happening in,

is that she's the many more and more Kant Ronsky and he can't keep up. He's exhausted by the demands of Anna Karina. So this is what she says before she kills herself. My love keeps growing more passionate and egoistic. While his is waning and waning and that's why we're drifting apart, she went on musing and there's no hope for it. He has everything for me and I want him more and more

to give himself up to me entirely. He wants more and more to get away from me. We walk to meet each other up to the time of our love and then we have been iristibly drifting in different directions. There's no altering that. He tells me I'm insanely jealous and I've told myself that I am insanely jealous, but it's not true. I'm not jealous, but I am unsatisfied.

I don't have any meaning in my life and I want this love to give me meaning, okay? So it's almost like she's looking for God. We've killed God and now she's looking for God in affairs, in sex, in lust. And that's why she can't find it, okay? All right, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this and translate it into homoic prose, okay? Let's see how homer rate this. I'm not homer, okay, but like this is how he might have written it, okay?

Anna Kina went to the train station and sat on the bench waiting for the train to come. Her thoughts are empty and her head low. Where do you plan to go? Someone asked from the corner. That snapped Anna from her trance and to her horse. She saw herself. But it was not herself. she was older with graying hair and drooping eyes and Anna looked as though she had seen a ghost.

Okay? So she's hallucinating herself 20 years from now. All right. Who are you? Anna shouted in horror. What do you want? Where you go? The older Anna asked.

Where's Ronski? Anna shouted. She looked around. The train station was empty. You know where he is, the older Anna said, with a look of pity on her wrinkle face. Anna got up and walked away. She was being followed.

So she knows that. that in time she'll just all be alone. She sees her own future. Anna, where are you going? The older Anna asked. Stop following me, Anna shouted back, picking up the pace. I am going to a place where you can't find me. Don't anything rash, the older Anna said, chasing after her.

Leave me alone, Anna shouted. And she ran and ran, screaming and screaming. She tripped and fell into the tracks right in front of the train. And then she died. Okay? So if you do it this way, it gives you more insight. into the human mind, the human psyche. Right?

And that's what we've forgotten. So what happens when we stop believing in the spiritual? What happens when we disconnect from the right hemisphere of brain? We clutter our brains with insignificant concerns, pursuits, and details on search of significance. When we kill God, anything can be God, okay? So as I said, Anna Karina, with her affair, she's looking for God. She's looking for meaning.

And before, when we hallucinated, when we talked with the gods, we had meaning, we had wisdom, we had significance, and now we've lost it. And the result is what we call modern literature, which is complete another crap, by the way, okay? And we know because this is Virginia Woolf to the lighthouse, okay? It's considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It's not very good. All right. So, this is a woman talking her story.

It's what we call stream of consciousness. There were the eternal problems, suffering, death, the poor, there was always a woman dying of cancer even here, and yet she had said to all these children, you shall go through it. To eight people she had said relentlessly that, and the bill for the greenhouse would be 50 pounds. For that reason, knowing what was before then,

love and ambition and being wretched alone and dreary places, she had often the feeling why must they go up and lose it all? So, reminds wondering and wondering, and she's concerned about the grocery bills, she's concerned about the future, she's concerned about the past. There's no discipline, there's no focus to any of our ideas. Okay, and this is what we call stream of consciousness. And it's the way we think today, okay?

The reality is that we live in a world in which God is dead, in which we are not allowed to imagine a spiritual world in a world in which we only focus on the here and now. And as such, we live meaningless, insignificant lives, and as such our brains are just focused on things that don't matter. Okay. And our brains become schizophrenic. All right. Okay, does that make sense, guys? Yeah? Any questions?

All right. Yeah. I have a question about the concept about forgiveness that you just mentioned, that if you can forgive yourself, you can't forgive others. I think the example of this is China and Japan, because China hates Japan because of the Japan invasion war. And after hearing this cold, I think China hates Japan so much even until now, it is because that China cannot forgive himself because he's too weak and also just like the third

situation that you just show Japan invades and China is too weak to fight back. So China cannot forgive his weakness. So he cannot forgive Japan. Yeah, yeah, that's a great analogy. I can really agree Yeah, because if you're really strong and confident, you just focus on improving yourself. You don't think about other people. Yeah. Okay. Any more questions, guys? But thank you for the comment, okay?

All right. So, last thing I'm going to do is I'm going to read some YouTube comments. So I don't have time to read YouTube comments, but my wife loves reading YouTube comments. And she sends me YouTube comments, and it's basically my homework. Okay? So if my wife sends it to me, I'd respond. All right? So let's look at some of YouTube comments from the last.

video. West in Qatar says, hey man, what about Africa? What about Egypt and African civilization? And, you know, I'm sure that Africa, Egypt, Sudan are really, really interesting. I don't know enough about it to comment on it, okay? So what I want to do is later on, I want to focus more on Africa. Okay, I want to go to Africa and I want to learn more about content so I can comment more about Africa. Like for me, teaching is a learning journey. I teach to learn. So this YouTuber says,

Beth Bentham says, I underrepresent livestock in the economic system. And this is absolutely true, okay? If you look at the steps, the currency is actually livestock. Cattle, sheep are the main currency of the step people. And it's what allows the set people to fight great wars because when they go off in wars, they can bring their livestock with them.

And therefore, they don't have any logistical issues. Okay. So this comment is absolutely right. Question. So capital changes altruistic nature to uterian when hardworking motivation gets saturated. Why are we only going in one direction that's getting saturated? Yeah. So this is interesting.

So we have two natures, an altruistic and utitarian nature. And what we've discovered is that if you break the balance and you become utilitarian, it's almost impossible to move it back. Okay, and that's why society's collapse. How similar is this series to civilization series? Okay, so the comment is that I'm using a lot of content that I used before in civilization. And yeah, that is the fair criticism.

And the reason why is that what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to better understand history. So what I'm doing is I'm trying to analyze history from different angles. So last year when I taught civilization, I was trying to just figure out how civilization work. And this year, what I'm trying to do is trying to apply the idea of secret societies

to the better understanding of civilization. So I know some of the content is repeating itself, but the angle, the slant, the over thesis has changed, okay? And I'm going over a lot of this information in order to build a case of why we have secret societies. All right. How do we manage to produce during these horrible times? Same question I asked myself yesterday, okay? So the question is, what if children, when things are getting worse and worse?

And the answer is because children is what gives us hope. Children is what gives us purpose. When you see that the world has collapsed or when you see the world is in chaos, you have children because children give you the energy, the motivation, inspiration to fight for a better world. Okay? So I am probably the most pessimistic person on planet earth.

I think the entire world is going to hell. I have three kids. I have three young kids. And the reason why is, well, first of all, I love my kids. I love having children, but also my children fill me with hope and energy and power to fight for a better world. I'm only doing this. I'm only teaching this class.

I'm only putting this on YouTube to build a legacy for my children. If it were not for my children, I would honestly not be doing this. It's really hard work. Okay? All right. So that is it for today. Thank you guys. We'll continue next week, okay?