Dr. David Butterfield
speaker
616 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 22 Jul
Dr. David Butterfield’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
They're odd because they stand as a rejection of everything the Greeks thinks makes a civilization.
When I was last on, we talked about some of the terms that would allow you to define something as a civilization or not.
Well, the Cyclopes on their island are set up as a sort of anti-civilization.
They don't meet one another and talk about politics.
They don't set legal codes.
They don't have any sort of real code of honor among them.
They live as savage individuals, which means they will not respect the one thing that in the Greek world is the most important, xenia,
Xenia means being a good host.
And this still exists in the Greek world.
You know, we've been in Greece together, but if you appear as a stranger at a Greek's home, you will be given food, drink, and it may be even bored.
You may be able to stay the night because that's the right thing to do.
And in ancient Greece, this was so important.
It was a sacred duty that you offer this help to someone even before you find out who they are.
And Xenia, the act of good hospitality, is completely trashed when Odysseus and his crew land on the island of the Cyclopes.
But it's doubly trashed.
It's not just Polyphemus, who abuses his writer's host by eating six of Odysseus' crew, then rolling a big boulder in front of his cave and trapping them forever.
It's also abused in turn by Odysseus.
Odysseus, on arriving in Polyphemus' cave, first thing he does, he says, okay, what can I nick?
And there's loads of wheels of cheese, and the crew are quite into their cheese by this point.
And they steal before they encounter the host.
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