Great Books #2: Homer and the Invention of the Human
4/30/202637 min
In this Wednesday, January 14, 2026 talk to his Beijing high school students, Professor Jiang explains that to be human is to "hear yourself speak."
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJiang Xueqin· Host0:00
So together we've read the first half of The Iliad, and today I gave you an assignment, right? So I have three questions for you guys about Achilles. The first one I, um, the first question is, um, imagine yourself as Achilles. How are you similar? What experience in your life is very similar to that of Achilles? And you said that, um, Achilles is almost a mirror to you, where, uh, you love playing soccer, but one day you felt humiliated, so you stopped playing soccer, and that tore at your heart. Okay? And, and the, your phrase was pride and vulnerability. And that shows that by reading The Iliad, it gives you tremendous insight into yourself as, as well as the nature of the human heart, where, um, arrogance and insecurity are two sides of the same coin, right? They're bunk- they're, they're bundled together. Okay? Um, another question is, imagine Achilles' childhood, and you said that Achilles, when he was young, he was all-- he was probably very rebellious, very imaginative,