Go offline with the Player FM app!
Thaao Penghlis on Memory & Greek Mythology | ArtiFact 62: Alex Sheremet, Thaao Penghlis
Manage episode 422156568 series 2945303
Thaao Penghlis is a legendary actor who appeared on "Days Of Our Lives", "General Hospital", "Mission Impossible", and more. Yet he is also an intellectually curious person, and put together a mini-series on the archaeology of Homer's Greece.
In ArtiFact 62, writer and filmmaker Alex Sheremet speaks with Thaao about Homer's "Iliad", the nature of cultural memory, and controversies surrounding Greek archaeology.
You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnNGWHmNrBg
Listen to Thaao Penghlis's "Lost Treasures" on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thaao-penghliss-the-lost-treasures/id1705933001
If you found this video useful, support us on Patreon and get patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
Learn about and contribute to our first film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3wLpqEV
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3dSQXxJ
Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/2SVJIxB
Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo
iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L
Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com
Read Alex Sheremet’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
1:24 – introducing Thaao Penghlis’s “Lost Treasures” podcast; Thaao’s boyish desire to be an archaeologist; cultures which “don’t steal”; the spoken word & pre-literate cultures; human memory & the Trojan War; Heinrich Schliemann
8:28 – how time levels what is least important; the longevity of Homer, the Iliad, and the Odyssey; why Thaao Penghlis was drawn to Homer & Homeric archaeology; Thaao: a country without a culture dies; when Thaao found ancient treasure in a tomb; Homer as the beating heart of Greek culture; the Greek respect for what’s ancient
15:48 – Alex: Homer was probably a writer, not illiterate; Thaao: Homer delivered a point of view; the nature of theater & theatrics; Ithaca as metaphor; the relevance of Homer’s blindness; Thaao’s on Barack Obama’s oratory; superficial distractions; why Thaao Penghlis stopped doing Days of Our Lives
23:38 – Alex: Greek mythology has been simplified for a pop audience; why Aphrodite is not the goddess of love; the Iliad does not give one much backstory; Helen was stolen by Paris as well as by her former husband, Menelaus; the amorality of ancient Greece; Hector’s wife, Andromache, describes ancient ethics; the child-like depiction of Achilles; the startling lack of heroes & heroics in Homer’s Iliad
32:27 – Homer’s indirect storytelling; Thaao: the Greeks did not go to war over a woman, but the development of steel; America’s War in Iraq vs. the Trojan War; intellect in Odysseus; why women as property might still explain war in an anarchic system
38:27 – Achilles and the death of his male lover, Patroclus; Athens vs. Mycenaean Greece; Heinrich Schliemann & the Mycenaean tombs
42:30 – Thaao Penghlis: when I touched Schliemann’s documents and palace, it finally felt real; Homer’s Greece and the Italian Renaissance
47:55 – was Heinrich Schliemann merely an impressive conman; Schliemann’s romantic entanglements; Schliemann as Pygmalion; Thaao: every rich businessperson (and politician) deals with fraud; Schliemann’s Orientalism in neglecting Turkish history in favor of “Greek” relics; Germans stole Greek relics, then Russians stole them back
56:00 – how Russia and Iran take war booty; why transitioning away from Putin won’t help Russia; Alex’s thoughts on Thaao’s podcast; taking the difficult path in the arts and art education; Hollywood’s bastardization of Greek mythos; Thaao on superficiality in the showbiz world; “Lawrence of Arabia” is “too slow” for the young; how Woody Allen taught Alex about avoiding relationship mistakes
Tags: #tv #literature #greece #poetry #ancient #epic
62 episodes
Manage episode 422156568 series 2945303
Thaao Penghlis is a legendary actor who appeared on "Days Of Our Lives", "General Hospital", "Mission Impossible", and more. Yet he is also an intellectually curious person, and put together a mini-series on the archaeology of Homer's Greece.
In ArtiFact 62, writer and filmmaker Alex Sheremet speaks with Thaao about Homer's "Iliad", the nature of cultural memory, and controversies surrounding Greek archaeology.
You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnNGWHmNrBg
Listen to Thaao Penghlis's "Lost Treasures" on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thaao-penghliss-the-lost-treasures/id1705933001
If you found this video useful, support us on Patreon and get patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
Learn about and contribute to our first film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3wLpqEV
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3dSQXxJ
Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/2SVJIxB
Podbean: https://bit.ly/3yzLuUo
iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L
Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com
Read Alex Sheremet’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
1:24 – introducing Thaao Penghlis’s “Lost Treasures” podcast; Thaao’s boyish desire to be an archaeologist; cultures which “don’t steal”; the spoken word & pre-literate cultures; human memory & the Trojan War; Heinrich Schliemann
8:28 – how time levels what is least important; the longevity of Homer, the Iliad, and the Odyssey; why Thaao Penghlis was drawn to Homer & Homeric archaeology; Thaao: a country without a culture dies; when Thaao found ancient treasure in a tomb; Homer as the beating heart of Greek culture; the Greek respect for what’s ancient
15:48 – Alex: Homer was probably a writer, not illiterate; Thaao: Homer delivered a point of view; the nature of theater & theatrics; Ithaca as metaphor; the relevance of Homer’s blindness; Thaao’s on Barack Obama’s oratory; superficial distractions; why Thaao Penghlis stopped doing Days of Our Lives
23:38 – Alex: Greek mythology has been simplified for a pop audience; why Aphrodite is not the goddess of love; the Iliad does not give one much backstory; Helen was stolen by Paris as well as by her former husband, Menelaus; the amorality of ancient Greece; Hector’s wife, Andromache, describes ancient ethics; the child-like depiction of Achilles; the startling lack of heroes & heroics in Homer’s Iliad
32:27 – Homer’s indirect storytelling; Thaao: the Greeks did not go to war over a woman, but the development of steel; America’s War in Iraq vs. the Trojan War; intellect in Odysseus; why women as property might still explain war in an anarchic system
38:27 – Achilles and the death of his male lover, Patroclus; Athens vs. Mycenaean Greece; Heinrich Schliemann & the Mycenaean tombs
42:30 – Thaao Penghlis: when I touched Schliemann’s documents and palace, it finally felt real; Homer’s Greece and the Italian Renaissance
47:55 – was Heinrich Schliemann merely an impressive conman; Schliemann’s romantic entanglements; Schliemann as Pygmalion; Thaao: every rich businessperson (and politician) deals with fraud; Schliemann’s Orientalism in neglecting Turkish history in favor of “Greek” relics; Germans stole Greek relics, then Russians stole them back
56:00 – how Russia and Iran take war booty; why transitioning away from Putin won’t help Russia; Alex’s thoughts on Thaao’s podcast; taking the difficult path in the arts and art education; Hollywood’s bastardization of Greek mythos; Thaao on superficiality in the showbiz world; “Lawrence of Arabia” is “too slow” for the young; how Woody Allen taught Alex about avoiding relationship mistakes
Tags: #tv #literature #greece #poetry #ancient #epic
62 episodes
All episodes
×Welcome to Player FM!
Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.