{"id":66386,"date":"2017-09-07T09:37:29","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T14:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=66386"},"modified":"2026-10-08T12:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:44:33","slug":"podcast-337-life-lessons-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/manhood\/podcast-337-life-lessons-odyssey\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #337: What Homer&#8217;s Odyssey Can Teach Us Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I love many of the classic myths and poems of ancient Greece. My favorite, though, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Odyssey-Homer\/dp\/0140268863\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1504838307&amp;sr=1-1-spell&amp;keywords=the+odyssey+faggles&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=artofmanliness03-20&amp;linkId=41e21f71869837c5c0f702d98a1463b9\"><em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<i>Odyssey<\/i><\/a>. While on the surface it seems to just be another epic adventure story, if you dig deeper,&nbsp;<em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<i>Odyssey<\/i>&nbsp;can give you insights on fatherhood, marriage, and surviving in a world that\u2019s in constant flux.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">My guest today recently published a book exploring these themes in <em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<i>Odyssey<\/i>, particularly the theme of fathers and sons searching for each other. His name is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.danielmendelsohn.com\/\">Daniel Mendelsohn<\/a>, and he&#8217;s a classicist, essayist, and book critic. In his latest book,&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B01N1TRD02\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B01N1TRD02&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><span class=\"s3\"><i>An&nbsp;<\/i><\/span><\/a><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B01N1TRD02\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B01N1TRD02&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><i>Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic<\/i><\/a>,&nbsp;Daniel&nbsp;shares the experience of having his 81-year-old father enroll as a student in the undergrad seminar he taught on&nbsp;<em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<i>Odyssey<\/i>&nbsp;and the insights he gleaned about his relationship with his dad by looking at the father-son relationships explored in the epic poem. We begin our conversation with a big picture overview of <em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<i>Odyssey<\/i>&nbsp;and why Daniel\u2019s dad decided to take&nbsp;his&nbsp;seminar on it. Daniel and I then discuss what we can learn about the relationship between sons and fathers from Odysseus&#8217; relationships both with his son Telemachus, and with his father Laertes. We then shift to what we can learn from Odysseus and his wife Penelope on forming a strong marriage, how travel can change us, and why&nbsp;<em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<i>Odyssey<\/i>&nbsp;becomes more relevant to men when they have families of their own.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">This is a fun podcast filled with amazing insights about one of the greatest stories ever told. After you listen to it, you\u2019ll want to&nbsp;dust off your copy of <em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<i>Odyssey<\/i><\/span><span class=\"s1\">&nbsp;itself so you can read it with fresh eyes.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love many of the classic myths and poems of ancient Greece. My favorite, though, is The&nbsp;Odyssey. While on the surface it seems to just be another epic adventure story, if you dig deeper,&nbsp;The&nbsp;Odyssey&nbsp;can give you insights on fatherhood, marriage, and surviving in a world that\u2019s in constant flux.&nbsp; My guest today recently published a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,42387,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-manhood","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/337-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/337-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/337-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/337-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/337-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) 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