TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@veterans_iliad
Short Bio: Josh Cannon, PhD, is the author of Fatal Second Helen: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad. He served in the Marine Corps from 2000-2005, including two tours in Iraq. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago and is now the Director of Research for the University of Pittsburgh’s Frederick Honors College.
Long Bio: Josh Cannon, PhD, joined the Marine Corps after high school, in 2000, and became an Arabic Cryptologic Linguist (MOS 2671). He attended the Defense Language Institute, graduating in 2002 with a diploma in Arabic. He was stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, as part of the 2nd Radio Battalion and deployed to Iraq for the 2003 invasion and again in 2004 with the 24 MEU. Josh left the Marine Corps in 2005 with an honorable discharge and went to the University of Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 2010 with a Bachelors of Philosophy in Anthropology and Linguistics. He was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and took it to the University of Chicago for his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. His dissertation focused on the archaeology of the Hittites. He started work at the University of Pittsburgh Frederick Honors College in 2018 and is now the Director of Research there. He has a wife and three boys and lives in Pittsburgh.
Book Info: ‘Fatal Second Helen: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad‘ presents Homer’s Iliad through Josh Cannon’s perspective as both an Iraq War combat veteran and an archaeologist of ancient Turkey. His book is widely accessible and guides the reader through the Iliad, sharing his thoughts on the book and its themes by comparing them to his own experiences in the US military. Ultimately, Josh articulates his argument that the Iliad is a discussion of how terrible war can be.
Fatal Second Helen: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad, published by Blue Ear Books, 2025. ISBN 979-8991537841, $17.95, available on Amazon.
Fatal Second Helen 