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A podcast covering Anglophone literature from ancient times to the present.
DOUG'S NEW BOOK - The Odyssey: An Illustrated Guide COLORING BOOK VERSION - The Odyssey Coloring Book Episode 124 Quiz: https://literaturean...
The hadiths are second only to the Qur'an in Islam. Short narratives about the Prophet Muhammad - the things he said and did - hadiths have...
From 750-861, a dynasty of ten caliphs seated in modern-day Iraq ruled one of history's largest empires. The territory they lost and won, th...
The Umayyad Caliphate, from 661-750, became the largest empire the world had ever known, even as it suffered through two civil wars and sign...
The Rashidun caliphate, from 632-661, completely changed the history of the world. Learn the story of the greatest imperial expansion of the...
The Qur'an has deep roots in the Bible and in the unique religious climate of Late Antique Mecca. Learn about its many references to the Bib...
Learn about the foundations of Islamic Law in the Qur'an - the 350 or so verses that tell believers what they're required to do, and what's...
Learn the basics of the Qur'an - its size, structure, how and when it came together, and the book's most important contents. Episode 117 Qui...
During the final years of the Prophet Muhammad's life and the immediate aftermath of his death, the Muslims conquered Mecca, the first calip...
Between 622 and 628, Muhammad and the first Muslims made a home from themselves in Medina, fended off assaults from the Quraysh and others,...
An orphan and caravan trade agent, Muhammad (570-632) lived a fairly ordinary life up until the age of 40. Then, everything changed. New Son...
Antarah ibn Shaddad, a killer, a lover, and an epic hero, was also one of early Arabic literature's most famous poets. Parker's Song: https:...
Prior to the dawn of Islam, the Arabian Peninsula had a great poetic tradition, with many genres, and many poets who are still celebrated an...
Leading up to the birth of the Prophet Muhammad in about 570 CE, the Arabian Peninsula was an increasingly populous and globally interconnec...
In Episode 110, Literature and History host Doug Metzger answers dozens of listener questions about making the show, books, and how and why...
Episode 109 brings our long season on Late Antiquity to a close, reviews the past 24 programs on the beginnings of the Middle Ages, and intr...
One of the great scholars of Late Antiquity, Isidore (c. 560-636) left behind a compendium called the Etymologies , an encyclopedia of his e...
The Merovingian court poet Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530-600), at work in Francia in the late 500s, shows us the world of the Middle Ages blo...
The second half of the History of the Franks (591) is a deep dive into the grime and intrigue of the Merovingian dynasty, written in a style...
Gregory of Tours (c. 539-594) completed The History of the Franks in 591. The long book's account of Clovis and the Merovingian Dynasty has...
Second only to the Tanakh, the 63 Tractates of the Talmud are the main text of Rabbinic Judaism, containing the teachings of thousands of an...
In the twilight of the Western Empire, Boethius (c. 476-523) served as consul, but ended his life imprisoned by the Ostrogothic King Theodor...
Augustine's City of God , Part 2 of 2. The second half of the City of God contains some of Late Antiquity's most influential writings – most...
Augustine's City of God , Part 1 of 2. The first half of the City of God is a broadside against paganism – its culture, religion, and histor...
Augustine's Confessions, Part 2 of 2. The second half of Augustine's Confessions contains some of the most famous theology in Christian hist...
Augustine's Confessions , Part 1 of 2. The first half of Augustine's Confessions tells of his wayward early years, his intellectual journey,...
Polyglot Jerome (347-420) had a gigantic impact on all subsequent Christian history, leaving behind a huge body of works, including the Lati...
The Dionysiaca , Part 2 of 2. The last surviving Greek epic of antiquity draws to a close with Dionysus fighting wars far to the east, in In...
The last epic from Greco-Roman antiquity that survives in full, Nonnus' fifth-century Dionysiaca tells of the wine god Dionysus' journey eas...
In 417 CE, the Roman poet Rutilius Namatianus journeyed from Rome back to his homeland of Gaul, not knowing whether there was a home to retu...
One of the later Latin poets of the Empire, Ausonius' expansive body of work gives us a window into the changing world of fourth-century Rom...
Sulpicius Severus' (c. 363-425) life of St. Martin is one of the great hagiographies – a portrait of a timeless saint, but also of a human b...
Athanasius (c. 297-373) wrote a wildly popular biography of the desert hermit St. Anthony, touting the ideals of asceticism and triumph over...
In Carthage, in 203 CE, a Roman noblewoman and her retinue were butchered in an amphitheater. Learn her story, and the earliest history of C...
Learn the documentary history behind how the Catholic Church was founded and set up as an organization, together with some of the works of t...
Heliodorus of Emesa (3rd/4th century CE) wrote the longest novel to have survived from antiquity, an adventurous romance that reemerged into...
In roughly the 160s CE, the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata wrote A True Story , one of history's earliest surviving novels, with strong t...
The satirist Lucian (c. 125-180) was popular in his own time and during the Renaissance, among other things probably being the first author...
Once pervasively described as a period of fall and decline, today Late Antiquity is often understood as a period of cultural flowering and e...
A primer on Biblical canon formation, retrospective on what we've covered so far, and introduction to the upcoming season. Episode 85 Quiz:...
After 300 CE, Manichaeism spread quickly from its origins in modern day Iraq and Iran. Recent archaeological discoveries have finally allowe...
The Nag Hammadi Library, Codex Tchacos, and Berlin Codex, as they came to light in the twentieth century, radically changed our understandin...
Learn the basic tenets and early history of Zoroastrianism, one of the most important and widespread religions in the ancient world, and pos...
One of the most spectacular pieces of writing in the world's religious texts, Revelation influenced generations of writers and theologians....
The later epistles of the New Testament show early Christian theology expanding and evolving in the ancient Mediterranean. Episode 80 Quiz h...
Possibly the most influential theologian in history, Paul codified and clarified Christianity as it emerged into the diverse world of the Ea...
The story of Christianity's first missionaries is a sweeping , intercontinental narrative, filled with danger, strange encounters, and the h...
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the heart of the New Testament. And today, historians and Biblical scholars know more about them than ever...
The Roman client king Herod (c. 73-4 BCE) ruled Judea for thirty years. Learn about his rule, and the political and religious climate of Jud...
A retrospective on the material we've covered thus far as we head into Early Christianity and Late Antiquity, plus some announcements. Episo...