Pillar
History
Historical reading, turning points, and case studies that sharpen judgement about the present.
The Machine at the Edge of Gilgamesh
AI now helps at several points between broken clay and a readable epic: reading signs, matching fragments, drafting rough translations. Deciding what a damaged line actually means is still a human job.
Read the essayHeroic Greatness and the Corruption of the Soul: Beowulf and Gilgamesh
Beowulf begins as an admirable warrior and Gilgamesh as an oppressive king, yet both epics arrive at the same question: what happens when a society's highest virtues become insufficient for the world that society must preserve.
Read the essayThe Rod of Asclepius: From Divine Attribute to Medical Emblem
The single-serpent staff is the most historically authentic emblem of medicine, but not because of any one founding myth. Its survival rests on Roman institutional transmission, and the two-snake caduceus so often confused with it entered medicine only through nineteenth-century publishing and a 1902 US Army decision.
Read the essay