Politics, Poetry, and Religion

Politics and art can have an interesting and sometimes fraught relationship with each other. Poets can participate in presidential inaugurations, as has been seen in recent years in the United States, and their role there has been to celebrate the new president and to potentially challenge him to live up the ideals of America. American songwriters have a history of being more pointed in their critique of political leadership than poets. In ancient Rome and India, sometimes this relationship can be more complicated, especially when it comes to epic poetry. Our guest today, Shubha Pathak, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at American University, explores the religious and political dynamics of Indian and Roman epic love poetry in antiquity. Unlike in modern Western cultures, religion and politics in ancient India and Rome are not separate, so these dynamics can point to the profound effects of ancient literary art on the upper echelons of ancient culture.