The Oldest Story: What Homer’s The Iliad Teaches Us About Modern War

The Scuttlebutt: Understanding Military Culture

For the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, the Veterans Breakfast Club goes deep with Marine Corps veteran and classical scholar Dr. Josh Cannon about the ancient truths of war.

Join this conversation with an Iraq veteran, anthropologist, and author, whose new book Fatal Second Helen: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad bridges the 2,600-year-old world of Homer’s Iliad with the modern battlefield of Iraq.

Cannon served as an Arabic cryptologic linguist with the Marine Corps from 2000 to 2005, deploying twice to Iraq—first with the invasion in 2003 and again in 2004. After his service, he pursued graduate studies in linguistics and archaeology at the University of Chicago, earning a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Now a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, Cannon brings both the scholar’s lens and the veteran’s heart to Homer’s tale of rage, loss, and honor.

In Fatal Second Helen, Cannon retells Homer’s epic in clear, vivid prose, weaving in his own combat experiences and reflections on the warrior’s life. It’s a book that asks timeless questions: What draws people to war? What do they bring back from it? And what can ancient heroes like Achilles teach modern warriors about grief, pride, and the search for meaning?

As Cannon writes in his essay “Glorious But Dead—Was It Worth It?”, he has lived the same paradox Homer captured 26 centuries ago: the beauty and the tragedy of battle, the brotherhood and the loss, the impossible attempt to make sense of it all.

This conversation promises to be part literary journey, part war story, and part meditation on how veterans across millennia have wrestled with the same enduring human truths.

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!