Books of Titans Podcast

Timewise, the Argonautica epic is a mythological prequel to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Jason is selected as the leader of a group of heroes who go on a quest to obtain the Golden Fleece. Many of these heroes are the fathers of those we encounter in the Iliad.
Apollonius of Rhodes wrote this poem over 500 years after Homer. In this episode, I compare verse and prose translations, and discuss the heroes, gods, fate, Eros, and reading guides in this exciting epic.
Books Mentioned in the Episode:
* Jason and the Argonauts - translation by Aaron Poochigian - Penguin Classics
* Jason and the Golden Fleece - translation by Richard Hunter - Oxford World’s Classics
* The Coming of Arthur by Malcolm Guite
* Working on a Song: The Lyrics of HADESTOWN by Anaïs Mitchell
* The Odes by Pindar
* Medea by Euripides - translation by Philip Vellacott - Penguin Classics
Reading companions
Download the PDF documents mentioned in the episode:
* Character List
* Map 1: Voyage of the Argo
* Map 2: Where They Come From


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I’m going to begin covering my monthly reading recaps on the podcast. This way, I can show you the books I’ve been reading and go into more detail. Be sure to watch or listen to this recap in addition to reading the material below:
October 2026 Reading
Voltaire • Plato • Apollonius of Rhodes
I continued on the Plato Project during October and focused mainly on the Euthydemus & Meno dialogues. It was very good. I also read Candide by Voltaire and am in the midst of Jason and the Argonauts. Both of those books were for the Short Great Books reading group I lead at Landmark Booksellers.
November 2026 Reading Plan
One More Month of Plato
November is my final month of the year where I focus on The Great Books (I take winter break in December). I’ll be reading Plato’s Meno and then as many other dialogues as I can get through by the end of the month.
My goal is to read the complete works of Plato, so I’ll need to keep that going in 2027 as I still have a ways to go. Here’s my current status:
* Read - Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Parmenides, Philebus, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades, Second Alcibiades, Hipparchus, Rival Lovers, Theages, Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Ion, Republic, Euthydemus, Meno
* Yet to Read - Protagoras, Gorgias, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias, Menexenus, Clitophon, Timaeus, Critias, Minos, Laws, Epinomis, Letters, Definitions, On Justice, On Virtue, Demodocus, Sisyphus, Halcyon, Eryxias, Axiochus, Epigrams
Recently Acquired
October Book Purchases
I only had one book purchase during October and here it is:
* Timaeus and Critias - I really enjoy Robin Waterfield’s introductions and translations and wanted to be prepared for when I got to these dialogues.
Bookish Adventures
October was full of author events at Landmark Booksellers. The highlight was an event with Gary Sinise with Jack Carr as the moderator. The event was around Gary’s upcoming book Graceful Warrior, a book about his son who recently passed away from cancer. It was a somber but hopeful event. Gary’s work is so deeply meaningful and I share some of what I learned from him in this episode.
Here are some other photos from author events during October:
I set aside one post per month to highlight my reading life. Books of Titans is a reading project aimed at seeking the ancient paths by reading The Great Books by 200 Authors chronologically over the next 40 years. Thank you for following my journey.


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I’ve just started reading Jason and the Argonauts for the monthly Short Great Books reading group that I lead. It got me thinking about Greek Mythology and what the best way to immerse yourself in that world. I offer some thoughts, suggest some books, and give my opinion on where to start.
Here are the books mentioned in this episode:
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
This is the best starting point. Edith Hamilton collected tales from a variety of sources (Hesiod, Homer, Ovid, and others) to present the full stories of many of the gods you’ll come across in your reading. Edith also highlights both the Greek and Roman names of the gods. Here’s my podcast episode about this book:
Theogony by Hesiod
Hesiod was either a contemporary of Homer or was very close in the timeline. His book Theogonycovers the genealogy of the gods. This is very helpful in understanding which god gave birth to which god. This knowledge oftentimes provides insight into character qualities of the gods (for example, memory gave birth to the muses). Here’s my podcast episode about this book:
The Homeric Hymns
This is a collection of 33 hymns to the gods. These hymns contain a variety of stories about those gods. I found this to be a very entertaining way of learning about the Greek pantheon. Here’s my podcast episode about this book:
Greek Epic Fragments
Did you know that Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey are just two works out of eight total that compose the Trojan Epic Cycle? The six other works are lost to us, but many authors (Aeschylus, Pindar, Euripides, and Herodotus among others) referenced these epics, providing fragments we can access. Additionally, a writer named Proclus compiled plot summaries of each of the six lost works in his collection called Chrestomathy. This has left us with general outlines of what these six works contained, and they are presented in this Loeb Classical Library book. Some of the stories are the Judgement of Paris, the kidnapping of Helen, the Trojan Horse, and the death of Odysseus. Here’s my podcast episode about this book:


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Euthydemus is a fun early Socratic dialogue seeking to determine who can best teach virtue: the philosopher or the Sophist. Euthydemus and his brother Dionsydorus represent the Sophists. They claim to teach virtue better and faster than anyone else. Socrates, represents the philosopher, and attempts to distinguish his methods from those of the Sophists. Can the Sophist’s teach virtue through deceitful means or can that only come through seeking truth like the philosopher?
In this episode, I talk about the difference between sophia and philosophy (a love of sophia), means vs ends, and virtue bridging the knowledge and love gap.


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In my recent article, I walked through the Path of Candide by Voltaire. This hilarious satire was written as a response to a particular idea about optimism put forward by Leibniz early in the 1700s. That idea met the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that shook Voltaire’s acceptance of the idea that this was the best of all possible worlds.
Voltaire’s response was to explore optimism through the use of satire. The result is a work considered to be one of the key texts of the enlightenment. In this episode, I consider the path to Candide, talk a bit about the story, and share the one thing that stuck out to me most about this short Great Book.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe