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Pillar
History
Historical reading, turning points, and case studies that sharpen judgement about the present.
Heroic 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