Why are today's writers so obsessed with the literature of ancient Greece – and in particular with a single epic poem? As a flurry of new riffs on Homer's Iliad hits the shops, Charlotte Higgins talks to Oxford classics professor Tim Whitmarsh and the writer Tom Holland about the highs and lows of a love affair that spans centuries. We also listen in to the award-winning poet, Alice Oswald, reading from her new book-length poem based on The Iliad, Memorial.
Then we turn to that other great classical subject – rhetoric – with Sam Leith, whose new book on the subject travels all the way from Aristotle to Homer Simpson. He looks at some of the great orators through the ages and poses some tricky questions, such as, why are nearly all of them male?
Reading list
Memorial by Alice Oswald (Faber)
You Talkin' to Me by Sam Leith (Profile)
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury)
The Odyssey translated by Stephen Mitchell (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)
