Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
In his first lecture at Ralston College, Dr Spencer Klavan offers a reading of Aeschylus’ Oresteia that seeks to make sense of the American political landscape. The Furies exemplify the impersonal arithmetic of blood and counter-blood, while the younger gods introduce personal claims, partiality, and the integrity of the individual. When these powers collide with a single human being, we enter into a tragic cycle that demands a payment that only deepens the debt. Resolution is brought about by the goddess Athena and the city that bears her name. Deliberative justice creates a forum in which opposing claims can be weighed without the need for more bloodshed. Vengeance and wrath are transmuted into law that enables the city to live with its past, rather than being ruled by it. Klavan reminds us that scapegoating increases when deliberation is foregone, leaving us prone to ritual violence.
Learn more about or MA in the Humanities and apply before our deadline of 27 February at www.ralston.ac/apply
Subscribe for updates at: www.ralston.ac/subscribe
Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode:
Plato’s Euthyphro
Homer’s Iliad
Aeschylus’ Oresteia
The Code of Hammurabi
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Herodotus
Aristotle’s Poetics
The Book of Exodus
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Abraham Lincoln
Ken Burns’s The Civil War
Palace of Knossos
The Acropolis and Parthenon of Athens
The Theatre of Dionysus
Barbara Fields
Eddie Izzard
Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman
– Chapters —
00:00:21 - Introduction from Stephen Blackwood
00:05:38 - Lecture Begins
00:08:00 - What Survives Crisis?
00:16:30 - The Tragic Nature of Life
00:21:10 - Draconian Punishment
00:24:56 - The Shadows Unearthed by Tragedy
00:33:50 - Retribution: Pinning Down Moral Culpability
00:37:30 - The Problem with Social Justice
00:44:50 - The Problem of Divine Favor: Anarchy in Heaven
00:50:55 - Between the Old Gods and the New
00:55:11 - The Ideal of Deliberative Government
01:02:05 - Closing Remarks
In his first lecture at Ralston College, Dr Spencer Klavan offers a reading of Aeschylus’ Oresteia that seeks to make sense of the American political landscape. The Furies exemplify the impersonal arithmetic of blood and counter-blood, while the younger gods introduce personal claims, partiality, and the integrity of the individual. When these powers collide with a single human being, we enter into a tragic cycle that demands a payment that only deepens the debt. Resolution is brought about by the goddess Athena and the city that bears her name. Deliberative justice creates a forum in which opposing claims can be weighed without the need for more bloodshed. Vengeance and wrath are transmuted into law that enables the city to live with its past, rather than being ruled by it. Klavan reminds us that scapegoating increases when deliberation is foregone, leaving us prone to ritual violence.
Learn more about or MA in the Humanities and apply before our deadline of 27 February at www.ralston.ac/apply
Subscribe for updates at: www.ralston.ac/subscribe
Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode:
Plato’s Euthyphro
Homer’s Iliad
Aeschylus’ Oresteia
The Code of Hammurabi
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Herodotus
Aristotle’s Poetics
The Book of Exodus
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Abraham Lincoln
Ken Burns’s The Civil War
Palace of Knossos
The Acropolis and Parthenon of Athens
The Theatre of Dionysus
Barbara Fields
Eddie Izzard
Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman
– Chapters —
00:00:21 - Introduction from Stephen Blackwood
00:05:38 - Lecture Begins
00:08:00 - What Survives Crisis?
00:16:30 - The Tragic Nature of Life
00:21:10 - Draconian Punishment
00:24:56 - The Shadows Unearthed by Tragedy
00:33:50 - Retribution: Pinning Down Moral Culpability
00:37:30 - The Problem with Social Justice
00:44:50 - The Problem of Divine Favor: Anarchy in Heaven
00:50:55 - Between the Old Gods and the New
00:55:11 - The Ideal of Deliberative Government
01:02:05 - Closing Remarks
