The Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher Cicero includes in his Tusculan Disputations an anecdote borrowed from earlier Greek historians about Dionysius II, tyrant of the Sicilian city of Syracuse (r. 367-344 BCE). Earlier in Greek history, the term tyrant simply denoted an autocratic ruler who took power unconstitutionally, but by the fourth century the political […]
Of the canonical Seven Wonders of the ancient world, three are clustered around the western coast of Asia Minor, a rich area of heavy Greek colonization and intermingling with the various native Anatolian cultures. One of these three wonders is a testament to this exchange, the massive, Ionic order temple at Ephesus of the Greek […]
The American heavy metal band The Lord Weird Slough Feg have recently released their latest album New Organon. Masterminded as always by guitarist, vocalist, and philosophy professor Mike Scalzi, “New Organon” is largely a series of meditations on various philosophical figures, texts, and ideas from throughout history. This includes tracks on Greek philosophers such as […]
In the popular imagination, the epic showdown between the rival superpowers of the rising Roman Republic and the maritime empire of Carthage evokes images of elephants crossing the icebound Alps led by Hannibal, or of Cato the Elder demanding that “Carthage must be destroyed,” whose eventual fulfillment saw the ancient Phoenician city sacked and razed, […]
The Italian heavy metal band Vultures Vengeance recently dropped their debut LP The Knightlore. Be sure to check it out, but today we look back a year at a song from their 2018 EP Lyrids: Warning from the Reign of the Untold. While the gods and generals of myth and history dominate metal’s classical reception, […]
This black metal project from Rhode Island USA is releasing their debut full-length later this summer via Nuclear War Now. Titled The Underworld, the LP explores several elements of the Greek afterlife. Some preview tracks are available here: https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/…/the-underwo… But for now, let’s focus on some earlier material (for which we have lyrics available). It’s clear […]
Among the myriad femmes fatales of Greek mythology, the Sirens of Homer’s Odyssey are among the most popular as the subject of heavy metal lyrics. This comes as little surprise given that their method of deadly temptation is through the allure of music. Some sources say the Sirens were daughters of one of the Muses […]
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is duly famous both as a classic ‘katabasis’ (heroic descent into the underworld) and as a cautionary tale whose moral is that there cannot be love without trust. Son of Calliope, one of the 9 Muses, Orpheus was naturally a master poet and musician, and also a fitting husband […]
Day 6 of 6(66) Days of Nero. We wrap up our series on Nero with this final number from the 2018 album Pawn and Prophecy by Mike LePond’s Silent Assassins, another anthology of the tyrannical emperor’s infamies. The focus of this song is on Nero’s predilection for murder, be it of his own family members, […]
Day 5 of 6(66) Days of Nero. The Swedish speed/thrash metal band Immaculate open their 2010 album Atheist Crusade with this track, which combines much of the events of Nero’s reign we’ve seen previously treated by metal bands: matricide, depraved tyranny, arson, and anti-Christian persecution. The phrase “Cross of Nero” itself may refer either to […]
Heavy Metal Classicist 