In this episode, the Dead Language Ladies dissect arguably the most famous Latin epic, the Aeneid, written by Vergil in the 1st century BCE. Walking the line between propaganda and political critique, this poem tackles the complex themes of mortality in a tale of historical (fan)fiction, in which Vergil draws explicitly upon Homer's two major poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad, as well as Roman mythology, history, and their contemporary political landscape to weave together one of the greatest tapestries of storytelling that we still talk about today.

In this episode, the Dead Language Ladies continue the conversation of last episode and dive into Sophocles' complicated and compelling play Antigone, which, as its name suggests, centers around the daring, snarky heroine, Antigone, daughter of the recently disgraced and exiled Oedipus. We discuss everything from the role of women in tragedy, the purpose of the half-removed, often strange choral odes, and the even more perverse relationships between Creon, Ismene, Antigone, and Haemon unraveling in the wake of Oedipus' tragic downfall, whose ripples are still wreaking havoc in the lives of his incestuously-born children.

In this episode, the Dead Language Ladies take a closer look at Sophocles' most well-known trilogy, centered around the tragic, infamous hero Oedipus, who is destined to kill his father and sleep with his mother. In Part 1 of this episode, we discuss Oedipus Rex, breaking down the most important themes and moments, like the roles that blindness and fate play in both larger and smaller ways, or the act of Oedipus gauging out his eyes with his wife/mother's brooches. Tune in to dissect the perverse but perennial fascination that has so closely clung to this tragedy and the reasons why we still talk about it today.