A Humorous Take on Wealth From a Great Satire of Antiquity

December 02, 2021 00:07:25
A Humorous Take on Wealth From a Great Satire of Antiquity
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A Humorous Take on Wealth From a Great Satire of Antiquity

Dec 02 2021 | 00:07:25

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Show Notes

In my previous post I discussed the radical views of Cynic philosophy – to be happy you must give up everything that can be lost, including all your possessions and your attachments to them. That was a set-up for what I really wanted to discuss, a “Journey to the Afterlife” (technical term: Katabasis) found in the writings of Lucian of Samosata, one of the great writers of Satire in the Roman world, writing in the second century CE. Here I introduce Lucian and begin to talk about his very funny dialogue, The Downward Journey. (Again, this is taken from a draft of my book Journeys to Heaven and Hell, to come out from Yale University Press in April) Read by Petra Ortiz

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