Emily Wilson translated The Odyssey. She also reviewed a new translation of Epictetus, and she wasn’t impressed.
Michael thinks she got him wrong. Not because she doesn’t know the ancient world. She does. Because her criticisms rest on misreadings that a lot of smart, well-read people make.
Caleb and Michael work through three of them. Epictetus ignores collective action. Epictetus wrote therapy for privileged men. Epictetus is good for pain but bad for love.
One of her points lands. The other two don’t.
(00:00) Emily Wilson Reviews Epictetus
(04:00) A Classicist Hostile to Stoicism
(05:30) Argument One: No Room for Collective Action
(09:40) Epictetus as a Make-Your-Own-Bed Philosopher
(14:40) What “Collective Action” Smuggles In
(19:10) Argument Two: Philosophy for Privileged Men
(24:00) Misreading Desire and Prohairesis
(30:00) Stoicism, Martial Arts, and Shifting the Goalposts
(38:20) Argument Three: Good for Pain, Bad for Relationships
(41:40) The Sick Child: Virtue, Not Tranquility
(46:40) The Iliad, Grief, and Collective Mourning
(51:30) Waterfield’s Translation and Final Thoughts
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Thanks to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations:
