Speaker 1: Oh Hi, hello there, and welcome. This is let's talk
Speaker 1: about mits baby, and I am that woman who's been
Speaker 1: rambling at you for the past six years. Live god,
Speaker 1: that has been six years. How fucking weird is that?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's probably a lot less weird for you listeners,
Speaker 1: but as the person who's been doing it for this long,
Speaker 1: it's seriously fucking wild, Like it is both flown by
Speaker 1: and seems like I've been doing it forever. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's bananas. I mean it's cool. Obviously, it's more cool
Speaker 1: than wild. It's wildly cool even. And to celebrate six
Speaker 1: years of this podcast, I am here with a special
Speaker 1: Q and a episode that's going to feature not only
Speaker 1: the answers to your questions and some of the fucking
Speaker 1: lovely messages that you all sent in, but also some
Speaker 1: clips from favorite episodes of yours and mine, because why
Speaker 1: the hell not? You know, I also got so many
Speaker 1: amazing questions and comments from you all that we're gonna
Speaker 1: do the same thing on Friday, but with clips from
Speaker 1: conversation episodes and reading episodes peppered in amongst your amazing
Speaker 1: questions and comments. I've had so much fun going through
Speaker 1: everything that you all shared with me and pulling some
Speaker 1: of my own favorite clips along with yours. It's seriously
Speaker 1: fun to look back over these, you know, the last
Speaker 1: six years and see how I've changed and grown and
Speaker 1: all the damned content I've put out because there's so
Speaker 1: much Jesus fucking Christ, holy shit anyway, side thought that
Speaker 1: just came from this, but I really wish I had
Speaker 1: the ability to look up how many times I've used
Speaker 1: the word fuck in the six years of this show,
Speaker 1: like that would bring me so much joy. Thank you
Speaker 1: all well so much for its submitting so many amazing
Speaker 1: questions and comments. Like I said, it was a real
Speaker 1: thrill reading through everything, and I want to get to
Speaker 1: as many as possible. So just to heads up that
Speaker 1: I have shortened some of the entries that I got,
Speaker 1: cut out some things for time, and if you asked
Speaker 1: a few questions in one entry, I may not have
Speaker 1: answered them all, but I did read everything that you
Speaker 1: all submitted, So thank you. It means so much to
Speaker 1: me your fucking kind words about me and the show
Speaker 1: and oh my god, anyway, fuck You're all just super
Speaker 1: cool and nice and it's so fucking weird that this
Speaker 1: is my life. So thanks for contributing to that. Also,
Speaker 1: I have to say that, in a true twist of
Speaker 1: fate of dramatic irony, for the first time in years,
Speaker 1: I would argue years, I managed to record an hour's
Speaker 1: worth of half improvised content, half scripted on the wrong microphone.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I didn't check it. Always check it.
Speaker 1: It's just truly like the irony of it being the
Speaker 1: six year anniversary of me being six years of podcasting
Speaker 1: for a living and I use the wrong microphone. That
Speaker 1: is all to say that there are gonna be portions
Speaker 1: of this episode where the audio is not as good
Speaker 1: because I improvised some stuff that I realize I can't
Speaker 1: improvise again in the same way. So I'm gonna pull
Speaker 1: from the audio that I did. It was recorded with
Speaker 1: my computer's microphone instead of you know, the really professional
Speaker 1: podcasting microphone that I own that I invested in. Anyway,
Speaker 1: just to explain some funnier audio, I'm re recording the
Speaker 1: scripted parts so they sound good, but some of the
Speaker 1: improv is just staying in because it was good and
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it again. Okay, let's dive right in,
Speaker 1: shall we. This is episode two hundred and twenty six
Speaker 1: years of Dangerous Gods and Castration Foam, an anniversary special.
Speaker 1: The bloody castrated bits of Uranos fly across the land
Speaker 1: before falling into the sea. Just off the coast of Cyprus.
Speaker 1: A foam erupts from where the bits plunged into the
Speaker 1: depths of the sea, and from that castration foam was
Speaker 1: born the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite. What a story,
Speaker 1: what an origin, what a queen. We can't have a
Speaker 1: celebration of this podcast without the castration foam. It's simply
Speaker 1: impossib It's one of my claims to fame, my pride
Speaker 1: and joy Castration Foe. Now I'm starting off today's questions
Speaker 1: with one from Emily B. Both because she had a
Speaker 1: fun question to start things off, and because there's a
Speaker 1: bit of a running joke of my Patreon due to
Speaker 1: the volume of Emily's that I've had asking questions on
Speaker 1: my God of the Month episodes over time, and I
Speaker 1: think you're one of them, Emily, So thank you, so
Speaker 1: Emily B. She says, congrats on six years live. If
Speaker 1: you could only see one play, any play, even ones
Speaker 1: that are fragmentary or lost at the City Dionysia, Which
Speaker 1: play would you see? And why? All right? You know,
Speaker 1: I thought about this a lot, and I had a
Speaker 1: few answers originally, but I'm just gonna go with the
Speaker 1: number one, and that is just staying true to myself.
Speaker 1: As much as I would have loved to see back Eye,
Speaker 1: I think for the violence of it all, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pick madea And that is purely because of the crane,
Speaker 1: because of the you know, the the machine that they
Speaker 1: had around to this time period for the plays, and
Speaker 1: that was it was a crane. It hung above the stage.
Speaker 1: It was primarily like ninety percent of the time, it
Speaker 1: was used to bring gods over the stage. For the
Speaker 1: dissex Macinet, right, that's where the words, that's where the
Speaker 1: phrase comes from. God's in the machine, and so it
Speaker 1: was used to pull gods over the stage so they
Speaker 1: looked like a fucking god flying over everybody. And then
Speaker 1: Euripidis when he was like, I'm gonna use it not
Speaker 1: only for a woman in a chariot holding her dead
Speaker 1: children that she's just murdered, but also it's going to
Speaker 1: be drawn by dragons, and he just was like, fuck everything,
Speaker 1: and I just what I wouldn't give to witness the
Speaker 1: shock in the audience when you see a machine that
Speaker 1: is traditionally used for gods used for this with this purpose.
Speaker 1: And I mean the bonus is if, like I could
Speaker 1: actually watch Euripides watching them react, you know, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: my heart, could you fucking imagine? Next is from Freya,
Speaker 1: and they say, if you could be a god or goddess,
Speaker 1: who would you choose to be and why? And who
Speaker 1: would your romantic partners be? Interesting? Interesting? I think I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna go with the absolute easiest, which is just
Speaker 1: that I fucking love Aphrodite. You know. I love that
Speaker 1: she had freedom and she could do what she wanted,
Speaker 1: both in terms of her life and sex. And she's
Speaker 1: like the only one who has that. So definitely Aphrodite,
Speaker 1: no question. And I have a real real thing for
Speaker 1: her romance with aries So easy, peasy, Aphroditian aires here
Speaker 1: for them. And next the letter J, they say, if
Speaker 1: Atlantis isn't considered to be a myth because it's only
Speaker 1: in Plato, is the idea of soulmates as described in
Speaker 1: the symposium, also not considered a myth? Or was it
Speaker 1: largely taken up by people of the time, so as
Speaker 1: I understand it. It is it is all. It is
Speaker 1: very similar to Atlantis, this idea of soulmates. I would
Speaker 1: almost say it's similar to Atlantis in the way that
Speaker 1: like modernity has taken it as a myth, you know,
Speaker 1: But I don't really think that it was much in
Speaker 1: the ancient world, because if you if especially if you
Speaker 1: listen to my newest episode on the Symposium, you know, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how much Plato believes that either, you know,
Speaker 1: in the same way that I don't know if Plato
Speaker 1: believed any of the shit he talked about when it
Speaker 1: came to Atlantis. I think it is similar for the soulmates.
Speaker 1: I think the soulmate story is like adorable and weird
Speaker 1: and lovely, But I don't think that Plato is like
Speaker 1: actually presenting it like an idea. What he's doing is
Speaker 1: just like using it as a device to talk about
Speaker 1: love broadly. But also like most of the Symposium is
Speaker 1: like kind of hinging on the ideas of the Erastes
Speaker 1: Romanos relationships, right, like their relationships between men and ancient Athens.
Speaker 1: And so I think the soulmate bit is just kind
Speaker 1: of like complimentary, as like a notion. But I also think,
Speaker 1: and this is like in a lot of the stuff
Speaker 1: you'll read on it, that it is also just him
Speaker 1: making fun of Arises for like saying dumb shit, right,
Speaker 1: because it's said by Aristophanes, and Aristophanes said a lot
Speaker 1: of dumb shit, as we all know. So like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to lessen the impact of it, because I
Speaker 1: do think it's an important story and it's really like lovely,
Speaker 1: But I also I don't really think Plato took it
Speaker 1: seriously at all, and thus like, yeah, I you know,
Speaker 1: I haven't looked into this too deep, but based on
Speaker 1: my knowledge of it all, I think it's really similar
Speaker 1: to Atlantis. Like I don't really think that it got
Speaker 1: picked up in the ancient world very much at all.
Speaker 1: It was just sort of like this weird ass thing
Speaker 1: that Plato made Aristophanes say. But it's a great question,
Speaker 1: because I'm glad you ask that. Next we have one
Speaker 1: from Harry, who says, you live if you're reading this
Speaker 1: a genuinely warm hello. Firstly, amazing work getting to six years.
Speaker 1: I have no idea how a person with ADHD can
Speaker 1: spend so much time on one project and finish parts
Speaker 1: of it over and over, as I want to be
Speaker 1: author with ADHD. I'm very impressed. What tips do you
Speaker 1: have for making a podcast for so long and for
Speaker 1: balancing your personal life as you go? Okay, I wanted
Speaker 1: to answer this because I think the talking about my
Speaker 1: ad and like because I basically learned that I have ADHD,
Speaker 1: like in the time of this podcast, right, like I
Speaker 1: didn't know I had it, like say, three years ago.
Speaker 1: I had no idea, And so I think that it's
Speaker 1: really helpful to talk about because I'm like a woman
Speaker 1: in her thirties who just figured it out that she
Speaker 1: has fucking ADHD and has had it literally forever. It's
Speaker 1: just that it never really became obvious enough that I
Speaker 1: figured it out. So for me, like, so there's a
Speaker 1: shit ton about this podcast that I don't get done,
Speaker 1: like I I just don't get to do things, and
Speaker 1: and like having Mikayla as my assistant producer, which is
Speaker 1: her new title, by the way, having Mikayla as my
Speaker 1: sister producer has helped mensely because one, she doesn't have ADHD,
Speaker 1: so she kind of sometimes keeps me on track, but
Speaker 1: also that she does all the things that like I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to do but never did because of the ADHD.
Speaker 1: You know, like the YouTube just kind of like sat
Speaker 1: vacant for a long time because I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: And like so many things are just like extra and
Speaker 1: great because I just wasn't doing them before because of
Speaker 1: my ADHD. So like I don't I think I look
Speaker 1: like I have a lot of shit together, but it's
Speaker 1: just because you don't know the stuff that I'm not doing, right,
Speaker 1: Like you no way of knowing. So I assure you
Speaker 1: there's a lot that I just don't get done because
Speaker 1: of ADHD, and my ADHD hinges on deadlines, which I
Speaker 1: know is really common. And so just like I get
Speaker 1: the podcast done because I have to. I have to
Speaker 1: get it done on these days contractually and because like
Speaker 1: I need to in my brain. But like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I wish I could say I had like the answers,
Speaker 1: but I honestly feel like I'm kind of a living
Speaker 1: disaster at most times. I just sort of have made
Speaker 1: it work. But I think that's kind of key to ADHD,
Speaker 1: is you find a way to make for you to
Speaker 1: make it work. But also, like you're talking about authors,
Speaker 1: like I still haven't finished the fucking novel I've been
Speaker 1: talking about for the entire six years of this podcast.
Speaker 1: So don't think I have my shit together. Like that's
Speaker 1: a good example of my ADHD falling apart. I've also
Speaker 1: been working on a proposal for another book for literally ever,
Speaker 1: and it never gets done because everything, all my time
Speaker 1: is taken up by the things that have to get done,
Speaker 1: and so everything else just falls away. Anyway, I don't
Speaker 1: think I have my shit together, is the answer to
Speaker 1: that question. I definitely thought I would have smarter things
Speaker 1: to say, but I think this is hopeful anyway. In
Speaker 1: any case, Harry also said secondly, Greek gods are problematic
Speaker 1: to put twenty first century West sensibilities on it, but
Speaker 1: US millennials or millennial adjacent people seem to get into
Speaker 1: classical mythology via shows and books where the gods are
Speaker 1: humanized and in many cases likable. How do you reconcile
Speaker 1: the horrid historical reality of Greek myths with a personal
Speaker 1: love of the many interpretations and retellings. Do you have
Speaker 1: a favorite or an underappreciated example. This is a good question,
Speaker 1: and so like I also just want to make it clear,
Speaker 1: but like, I don't think that I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think horrid historical reality is being too mean to them.
Speaker 1: And I know that I made you think that way,
Speaker 1: so it's no blame on you. But I do think that,
Speaker 1: like it's just it wasn't that it wasn't bad, you know,
Speaker 1: Like it's just different, And I think it's important to
Speaker 1: talk about how it was back then. Is bad by
Speaker 1: today's standards, and a lot of it was bad by
Speaker 1: standards back then too. But like, in terms of the mythology,
Speaker 1: I don't really think that there's any reason for us to, like,
Speaker 1: you know, judge the myths. I think we can judge
Speaker 1: the things that happen in an entertaining way, and that's
Speaker 1: why I have this show. But like I still love them, right, Like,
Speaker 1: there's nothing about the mythology, no matter how horrifying it is,
Speaker 1: no matter the most horrifying of stories of Greek myths.
Speaker 1: Let's say Brockney and Philamela. That's no question, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the most horrifying story of myth period, And like,
Speaker 1: I still love it because it's interesting and it says
Speaker 1: a lot about what was happening and who was writing
Speaker 1: and why and all these different things, And like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't think we have to dislike anything
Speaker 1: or like be like see it as horrible. It's just
Speaker 1: like we can kind of look at it and then
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's really hard to describe, but all
Speaker 1: to say, like, you know, things weren't that bad. And
Speaker 1: also like a lot of the stuff that I've said,
Speaker 1: and I'm better at it now over the last few years.
Speaker 1: But like in early episodes of the show talking about
Speaker 1: treatment of women and stuff, like most of our knowledge
Speaker 1: on the treatment of women, and this is gonna come
Speaker 1: up later, so I won't say much, but like it's
Speaker 1: based on Athens, right, and in Athens, the women in
Speaker 1: Athens were the most repressed of ancient Greece. But it's
Speaker 1: also where we get all our information from for the
Speaker 1: most part, and so we tend to have this like
Speaker 1: really bad view on women, and myself included, I'm absolutely
Speaker 1: guilty of this, but it's really specific to Athens. We
Speaker 1: don't actually know a lot about how they lived elsewhere,
Speaker 1: and like they could have had a lot more freedoms
Speaker 1: and things could have been a lot better, and so
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's just so much nuance. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: just so much nuance and so much there and like
Speaker 1: I mean, I could talk about this forever, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to pull back. But I do think that, like,
Speaker 1: I guess this is only even half of your question
Speaker 1: because you're talking about shows and books and stuff like
Speaker 1: I do you think that that's sort of it's not
Speaker 1: like bad to have, like say Disney's Hercules is the
Speaker 1: best example, Like it's just different and like I understand
Speaker 1: it for children, and then I kind of I think
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with it, and I like to have
Speaker 1: be the kind of counter person, you know, there to
Speaker 1: be like, hey, Zeus was not a family man. Oops,
Speaker 1: Haro was not Heracles' mother, and oh, oh my god,
Speaker 1: he never wrote Pegasus, you know. But like I think
Speaker 1: we can kind of have everything at once in terms
Speaker 1: of underappreciate. Example, I don't remember anything about the show.
Speaker 1: I will admit. I just know it existed, and I
Speaker 1: know I watched it as a Canadian. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: just say it anyway, and that is young Hercules. I
Speaker 1: want to revisit it. One because it has baby Ryan
Speaker 1: Gosling and he's Canadian. And two because it's Hercules and
Speaker 1: it has baby Ryan Gosling. So I'm gonna say that
Speaker 1: is under appreciated, even though I don't remember anything about
Speaker 1: it except baby Ryan Gosling. Hey remember that time I
Speaker 1: cover the satirical ancient epic that basically reenacts the Trojan War,
Speaker 1: but with tiny frogs and tiny mice and their tiny armor.
Speaker 1: How is the ancient world even real? I love them
Speaker 1: so much. This is a clip from my Batrichomyomachia episodes.
Speaker 1: The mice sent their messengers all around, asking that everyone
Speaker 1: gather in the morning at the house of bread Gnar,
Speaker 1: crumb Snatcher's father, Chouxartos in the Greek. They did exactly this,
Speaker 1: and when all the mice had gathered together in bread
Speaker 1: NAAR's home, he began a speech to the assembled rodents.
Speaker 1: He said that he was the first to be harmed
Speaker 1: in this way by the frogs, with his son killed
Speaker 1: by their king, but that others would be next. They
Speaker 1: would have to do something about it. He spoke of
Speaker 1: his other sons, both had also died tragically, one by
Speaker 1: a weasel who stuck up upon him, and the other
Speaker 1: in a wooden trap. The specification here that its wooden
Speaker 1: may even be an allusion to that other wooden trap
Speaker 1: from Agent epic the Trojan Horse. Once he has told
Speaker 1: his story to the assembled mice, bread Gnar calls upon
Speaker 1: them all to arm themselves, to prepare for a battle
Speaker 1: with the frogs. Bread Gnar's speech rouses the mice to battle.
Speaker 1: They won't stand for this kind of murderous trickery on
Speaker 1: the part of the frogs, and so they prepare themselves
Speaker 1: for that battle. Quote and Aries, Lord of war, armed
Speaker 1: one and all. And then well, I have to quote
Speaker 1: some more because we get an idea of what exactly
Speaker 1: ancient mice might use as as weapons and armor. And
Speaker 1: it is adorable. Quote the Greeves. Upon their shins were
Speaker 1: half a pod of green bean, with its contents neatly nod.
Speaker 1: They'd worked all night on these and skillfully made cuirasses
Speaker 1: from a weasel they had flayed its skin stretched on
Speaker 1: a reed frame. Each would wield the handle of an
Speaker 1: oil lamp for a shield. They brandished needles for long
Speaker 1: shadowing spears. The brazen work of aries. On their ears
Speaker 1: were helms of chickpea shells. All right, next up is
Speaker 1: from Kara or Karra. I don't know, hey, liv, I
Speaker 1: know you only play Assassin's Creed Odyssey, but I was
Speaker 1: wondering if you've ever looked into Slash read the lore
Speaker 1: behind God of War. I've listened to almost every single
Speaker 1: episode and was surprised and never hear it mentioned. I
Speaker 1: think if you were to just read this question I
Speaker 1: needed to hear you talk about it would be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you and your team for all the hard
Speaker 1: work you do. Thank you. I'm reading this to fulfill
Speaker 1: your need. But I've never played it. The only thing
Speaker 1: I know about it is like I think I did
Speaker 1: once mention it in an episode on Minor Gods. I
Speaker 1: think it's called Minor God Madness. It's a very old
Speaker 1: episode and I'm going to forget the name of the
Speaker 1: character who's even in it in God of War. But
Speaker 1: it's some like damon God of just a concept Kratos right,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. I'm not cutting this out. It's Kratos, right.
Speaker 1: I'm asking as if somebody's gonna answer me anyway. I
Speaker 1: did talk about it in that episode because people had
Speaker 1: brought it up to me in the past, But like,
Speaker 1: there's not really any mythos behind it as far as
Speaker 1: I understand it. But I don't know anything about the game.
Speaker 1: But as far I understand it, it has like really no
Speaker 1: grasp in actual Greek mythology. So I don't have a
Speaker 1: great answer, but I read this for you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: And next from Nicole Tony who says, what are your
Speaker 1: favorite sites to see in Athens? I'm going in September
Speaker 1: and need recommendations. Please, thank you, thank you, because people,
Speaker 1: so this is going to lead me to another thing.
Speaker 1: People DM me requesting where to go into Athens and
Speaker 1: Greece all the time, and I have to say I
Speaker 1: never answer, and I'm sorry that is primarily due to
Speaker 1: my own introversion in that, Like I really don't interact
Speaker 1: with a lot of people online because it stresses me
Speaker 1: out and I don't, like I'm just really really bad
Speaker 1: with that stuff. But also I can't. I just I
Speaker 1: get too any questions and like the answer is to broad,
Speaker 1: and like it gets asked why this is by people
Speaker 1: all the time, so I need to just I need
Speaker 1: to answer it here. Obviously most people are not going
Speaker 1: to hear this, and they're still gonna DM me, but
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, anyway, here's your answer. I guess. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's so much to see in Athens, like google all
Speaker 1: the archaeological sites. I would say the number one thing
Speaker 1: to do is get the combined ticket. This is a
Speaker 1: ticket that you can get at any of the these
Speaker 1: like seven archaeological sites in the sort of center of Athens.
Speaker 1: And what it does is it's like it's good for
Speaker 1: I think they said five days. Now I feel like
Speaker 1: they changed it. It's like thirty euro. It's good for
Speaker 1: a bunch of days. And you can see all of
Speaker 1: the sites of these like seven sites for thirty euro.
Speaker 1: You save so much money literally just by going to
Speaker 1: the Acropolis and the Agora. You've paid for it, so
Speaker 1: it's super great. It's a really good ticket. And with
Speaker 1: that you can see let's if I can name the
Speaker 1: seven off the top of my head. You can see
Speaker 1: the Acropolis and the slopes just one side of the Acropolis,
Speaker 1: it's all in one site. You can see the Agora,
Speaker 1: you can wish. The Agora is where the temple of
Speaker 1: a feistis is and that is the best preserved temple
Speaker 1: in Athens. It's beautiful, there are lots of parents there,
Speaker 1: it's cool. And then you can see Hadria's Library, which
Speaker 1: is an incredible ancient site right off of Monasternaki Square,
Speaker 1: and you can see the Roman Agora, and you can
Speaker 1: see Hadrian's Oh, Hadrian's Gate doesn't count because it's actually
Speaker 1: not a site. You can just stand there. Never mind,
Speaker 1: you can see the Temple of Olympian Zeus. I'm at five. Oh,
Speaker 1: you can see Kramco's, which is the Ante Cemetery. It's
Speaker 1: so cool. If you go in September, you might see tortoises.
Speaker 1: Fucking I learned this. It's fucking season. I saw them
Speaker 1: going at it in Caramichaels and the Agora. Yes, I promise,
Speaker 1: I'm in my mid thirties. And oh, what's number seven?
Speaker 1: I think number seven is the Lyceum, And I think
Speaker 1: I have to admit now that I've still never been,
Speaker 1: which is really sad. I've been there like eight times.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm doing anyway, I think it's
Speaker 1: the Lyceum, which is like it's Academy. I'm saying this,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. Anyway, Get the combined ticket, see all
Speaker 1: the sites on the combined ticket, and honestly, then you've won.
Speaker 1: But also, the Acropolis Museum is amazing. It's write down
Speaker 1: by the Acropolis. You should go visit it, just despite
Speaker 1: the British Museum because they've stolen all this stuff and
Speaker 1: they won't give it back. And then you should also
Speaker 1: make sure you see the National Archaeological Museum, which is
Speaker 1: a little farther. It's fucking incredible. It's enormous. You should
Speaker 1: spend a whole day there. It's unbelievable. That's where the
Speaker 1: so called Maskabagamemnon is. It's not actually Maskabgabennon, but it's incredible.
Speaker 1: There's a ton of Bronze Age stuff there. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I fucking love the Natural Archaeological Museum. Or you can
Speaker 1: also see wallpaintings from Aquatiria on Sanchorini, so like wallpaintings
Speaker 1: you know from the site that was preserved by the volcano.
Speaker 1: These are Bronze age wall paintings, so fucking colorful, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: We are talking like almost four thousand year old paintings.
Speaker 1: So anyway, those are all the sites you absolutely have
Speaker 1: to see in Athens. And next from Cole and they said, Hi, Live,
Speaker 1: I've been listening to your podcast a couple of years now,
Speaker 1: and I absolutely love it. I love all your episodes,
Speaker 1: but I really enjoy the play episodes best. They're always great.
Speaker 1: I have two questions, but I don't expect you to
Speaker 1: answer both. All right, let's see, first, you've mentioned having
Speaker 1: ADHD a few times that I was wondering how you
Speaker 1: move past it symptoms like executive dysfunction for to work
Speaker 1: on your content. I want to focus on being a
Speaker 1: creator for a living as well, but some days I
Speaker 1: just can't seem to get out of my own way.
Speaker 1: I already answered some of that in that, like, I'm
Speaker 1: honestly still a mess. But I think you just like
Speaker 1: pick the certain things that are necessary. So for me,
Speaker 1: like the things because I absolutely struggle with executive disfunction.
Speaker 1: That's why I have so much trouble with like replying
Speaker 1: to dms and emails and stuff, because they stress me
Speaker 1: out for no reason. And so for me, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I absolutely have to get the episodes done in a week.
Speaker 1: So I do them because I have to, and some
Speaker 1: days it's a lot harder than others. Next week's episode,
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear one that I did specifically to cure
Speaker 1: my ADHD because I'd gotten back from Greece and I
Speaker 1: have so much trouble getting back into my routines, and
Speaker 1: my routines are vital, Like if I do not wake
Speaker 1: up in the morning, come downstairs, make my coffee and
Speaker 1: sit at my desk immediately, Like my whole day is
Speaker 1: shot and I will not be creative or productive at all.
Speaker 1: I have to do those things. It's also why I
Speaker 1: have trouble working while I'm over in Greece. So then
Speaker 1: I been months preparing extra things for a while I'm there.
Speaker 1: It's a whole mess that I've mastered, but also it's
Speaker 1: a disaster. But like, yeah, you just to like figure
Speaker 1: out those things, your routine, what you need to do.
Speaker 1: But sometimes it's just like sometimes I will literally only
Speaker 1: do the episodes I need to get done because they
Speaker 1: are more difficult, or they're hurting my ADHD, or like
Speaker 1: it's just a bad week. You know, you just never know.
Speaker 1: But sometimes I will pick something that I know is
Speaker 1: super fun. So this week I was like, Okay, I've
Speaker 1: had a lot of trouble with my ADHD. I'm really
Speaker 1: not getting ahead of things. I'm really frustrated with myself,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, I would like, I need
Speaker 1: to do an episode that's going to be just fun
Speaker 1: that I know that I know how to research. I
Speaker 1: know it's not going to you know, mean that I'm
Speaker 1: going to have to read a ton of academic articles
Speaker 1: or all these history books or anything. I just need
Speaker 1: a fun thing that's going to be that's going to like.
Speaker 1: With that level of fun, it's going to help my
Speaker 1: ADHD immensely. So I sat down to redo the lair
Speaker 1: fun and the chimera, and I've never had more fun
Speaker 1: in my life. Next week's episode is unhinged in the
Speaker 1: best possible way. Like I had so much fun and
Speaker 1: it completely re wrote my ADHD. And I've had it
Speaker 1: otherwise really productive week because that like kickstarted it. So
Speaker 1: when you're having a really bad week, I think, just
Speaker 1: find a thing that you know you're going to enjoy,
Speaker 1: because I find it really really helps. And next, my
Speaker 1: second question is more mythological. When I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I remember Poseidon Sun Triton being described as
Speaker 1: having two fish tails as if they were his legs,
Speaker 1: But lately everyone always describes him as have basic merr
Speaker 1: person Merson. They offered, Okay, I like Merson with just
Speaker 1: one tail? Am I misremembering the two tails thing? Have
Speaker 1: I slipped into a parallel universe Mendala effect style? Are
Speaker 1: there sources that describe him with two tails that I'm
Speaker 1: actually semi correct. The world needs to know. It's me.
Speaker 1: I need to know. That was a great question, Thank you.
Speaker 1: There are almost certainly sources or visual representations of him
Speaker 1: with two tails. Don't worry. I don't think that there's
Speaker 1: any kind and dry explanation of what Triton looks like.
Speaker 1: I absolutely think that the two tales is a thing.
Speaker 1: I'm picturing mosaics. I'm thinking some kind of Roman mosaics
Speaker 1: would have him with two tales. Do some googling. You're
Speaker 1: not crazy, I promise now. I don't dive into history
Speaker 1: all that often. Obviously it's been happening more and more lately,
Speaker 1: but one of the first times I did it, in
Speaker 1: one of my favorite episodes ever, is when I dove
Speaker 1: into the very real ancient Greek poetests Sapho. So let's
Speaker 1: listen to a bit of that, shall we. Sapho is
Speaker 1: one of those names that most people have at least
Speaker 1: heard in their lives. You've heard the name Sapho, or
Speaker 1: the word sapphik, or at the absolute least you've heard
Speaker 1: the word lesbian, and all of those come from this
Speaker 1: so called tenth muse. The poetess of Lesbos Sapho. Sapho
Speaker 1: was a poet yes the island of Lesbos, Hence Lesbian
Speaker 1: during the Archaic period, that is, the seventh century. She
Speaker 1: was born around six twelve BCE, making her quite ancient
Speaker 1: in terms of the sources that we know so well.
Speaker 1: Lesbos is far off in the northwest of the Aegean.
Speaker 1: It's remote and nowhere near the Greek mainland, much closer
Speaker 1: to what is now Turkey. As for the timeline and
Speaker 1: where Sapho sits within it, people like Hesiod and the
Speaker 1: possible Homer would have come before her, but she came
Speaker 1: long before the playwrights, the tragedians, and other notable people
Speaker 1: from the world of classical Greece, particularly classical Athens. She
Speaker 1: is also the only woman poet of the Archaic period
Speaker 1: that we have explicit evidence for. There are suggestions of others,
Speaker 1: references here and there, even by Sappho herself, but nothing
Speaker 1: explicit enough to be entirely sure that another woman was
Speaker 1: writing poetry at the same time as Sapho. Still, I
Speaker 1: mean it was likely, Let's be honest, she didn't exist
Speaker 1: in a vacuum. Sappho was certainly the first woman poet
Speaker 1: of ancient Greece in terms of the evidence we have. However,
Speaker 1: as much as she's often called the first woman poet, ever,
Speaker 1: she is in fact not. The claim that she was
Speaker 1: the first woman poet is a Eurocentric myth that leaves
Speaker 1: out a Sumerian woman who came about fifteen hundred years
Speaker 1: before Sappho fifteen hundred years Her name was and Hedwana,
Speaker 1: and one day I will find enough sourcing to talk
Speaker 1: about her too, all right. This next thing is from Katcia,
Speaker 1: who says, so I haven't got a question, per se,
Speaker 1: I just have the highest praise. I've loved your podcast
Speaker 1: from the first second I found it through Ancient History fangirl,
Speaker 1: when you all kept me saying during COVID, I've never
Speaker 1: been interested in ancient Greco Roman history or mythology before
Speaker 1: due to how colonialism and racism have co opted so
Speaker 1: much of the aesthetics. But you guys gave me a
Speaker 1: new way to look at this fascinating field. Small but
Speaker 1: massively important things like that the statues weren't originally meant
Speaker 1: to be white, the existence of LGBTQIA characters in ancient sources,
Speaker 1: the fact that so many of the ancient heroes of
Speaker 1: legend were actually legendary douche canoes. These facts have completely
Speaker 1: changed my view of ancient history and culture. Yay for
Speaker 1: bringing this fascinating field to the masses, specifically those who've
Speaker 1: been previously excluded from it. Yay for reclaiming truly fascinating
Speaker 1: shit that Nazis and other shtheads have tried to put
Speaker 1: their stank on. And I love everything you've done. The
Speaker 1: discussion episodes are amazing. The episodes breaking down plays are fascinating.
Speaker 1: In the series, episodes on Atlantis and Sparta absolutely blew
Speaker 1: my mind. They end their message with love all that
Speaker 1: you do, and I kind of wish I had a question,
Speaker 1: but you'll have to put up with a rant of
Speaker 1: but how brilliant you are? I hope it's not you
Speaker 1: all for to read receiving compliments is weird and I
Speaker 1: love that, and you're right, and reading aloud compliments to
Speaker 1: myself is seriously weird, and I just have to remind
Speaker 1: myself that one. I know you guys, when you submit
Speaker 1: things like you want to hear me read them, and
Speaker 1: that's a lot of the point. It'sually remind myself of that.
Speaker 1: But too, I think it's really like one. It makes
Speaker 1: me feel fucking great, but also like I think it's
Speaker 1: helpful to hear from others what they're taking from the podcast.
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know, And this is me trying
Speaker 1: to justify reading compliments to myself aloud. But I don't.
Speaker 1: I realize I don't need to so generally thank you.
Speaker 1: A lot of these are or a few of these
Speaker 1: are like that, and I think it. I mean, it
Speaker 1: certainly helped me. This is a lot for me too,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna stop, you know, trying to explain myself.
Speaker 1: And Jasper asks, have you covered the pilgrimage of aneas
Speaker 1: in a It's Metamorphoses, have a good day? Thank you?
Speaker 1: This is a very quick answer. Not yet. But we
Speaker 1: are about to hit book ten of obvi It's Metamorphoses
Speaker 1: just next week, and I think it's like book twelve
Speaker 1: or thirteen maybe, so we're getting there. Just another few months,
Speaker 1: I think, and we will have read the wildness that
Speaker 1: is the end of obb It's Metamorphoses next up from Cyrus.
Speaker 1: As someone from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I
Speaker 1: was wondering, what is the one of the most obscure
Speaker 1: topics and or deities that you have come across during
Speaker 1: your research for the podcast. Well, Cyrus, as somebody who
Speaker 1: lives not in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but
Speaker 1: on an island in the Pacific Ocean, I'd love to
Speaker 1: answer your question. And I think my answer is Samothrace
Speaker 1: because I fucking love Samothrace. I think it's fascinating, amazing,
Speaker 1: and the sanctuary of the Great Gods is incredible and
Speaker 1: it's mysterious. Oh I forgot to put this next question. Sorry,
Speaker 1: now I'm reading ahead in my own things. This next
Speaker 1: question is really going to connect, So all I'm going
Speaker 1: to say here the answer is Samothrace. But also I
Speaker 1: realized so on this last Conversation episode, I learned from
Speaker 1: Jerome Ruddick that create had a Goddess of Nets and
Speaker 1: that one really thrilled me too. Something about a goddess
Speaker 1: of nets. Good stuff, and which mystery cults would you
Speaker 1: want to know absolutely everything about if you had to choose,
Speaker 1: And that's where we're gonna go back to Samothrace because
Speaker 1: the answer is samoth Race. The samoth Rasian mystery cult
Speaker 1: is it blows my mind. We don't know almost anything
Speaker 1: about it. It's this huge sprawling temple complex on Samothrace
Speaker 1: that like, I feel like nobody knows about nobody knows
Speaker 1: about the mysteries. They were incredible. I just want to
Speaker 1: know everything at all, and I mean, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 1: I just don't know anything and I want to. And
Speaker 1: next Charda asks how many men slide into your dms
Speaker 1: or take you on social media trying to manxplain mythology
Speaker 1: to you, be honest, h in my dms, almost none,
Speaker 1: which is chill. I have like weirdly fine dms. It's weird.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think something's wrong because people are usually awful
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Every once in a while people will try
Speaker 1: to explain mythology to me and it's very funny, like yeah,
Speaker 1: it does get entertaining. I'll like tweet something about theseus
Speaker 1: being shit and they'll be like, yours the real myth
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I fucking know the myths. I just
Speaker 1: still think he's shit because it's obvious he is. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it happens a lot on Twitter, for sure, Thank you.
Speaker 1: And now I want to pull us back to the
Speaker 1: episodes I did on my favorite epic, My main Man's
Speaker 1: Wild Honesty. But we're not gonna hear about Odysseus, no,
Speaker 1: because I feel like sharing a moment about Telemachus being
Speaker 1: a little dweep and Penelope being seriously awesome, and mostly
Speaker 1: the suitors being obnoxious. As soon as Odysseus didn't return
Speaker 1: home from Troy, the suitors assumed he was dead, and
Speaker 1: they've been here trying to convince my mother to marry
Speaker 1: one of them ever since. Can you imagine, my God,
Speaker 1: that would suck so much, all these strange dudes in
Speaker 1: your house, constantly hitting on you, and when they're not,
Speaker 1: they're just drinking and being noisy assholes. Penelope has the
Speaker 1: patience of a saint, I swear. And now we have
Speaker 1: something from Rachel who said good afternoon, ltamb Pantheon. In
Speaker 1: summer of twenty twenty one, Spotify suggest your conversation episode
Speaker 1: with Emma Polly about dian isis as non binary and
Speaker 1: their interpretation of your apities is back Eye. I've been
Speaker 1: interested in Greek mythology and tragedy since I was a kid,
Speaker 1: so I was fascinated by Polly's perspective, and I loved
Speaker 1: how genuinely interested and excited you were. After listening to
Speaker 1: the whole conversation. I went back and started with episode
Speaker 1: one and I've been listening ever since. I really love
Speaker 1: the different themes you do, like Pride, Spooky Season, and
Speaker 1: the annual deep dives. I also love that you confront
Speaker 1: systemic cruelty and how you use your platform to amplify
Speaker 1: marginalized perspectives. As a queer woman with indigenous roots, your
Speaker 1: solidarity means a lot. I also think it's pretty cool
Speaker 1: that you're from the PNW Love Sharks and have an
Speaker 1: elderly cat because ditto. And then Rachel moves on to questions.
Speaker 1: In the Iliad book three, we see Helen get upset
Speaker 1: about not seeing her brothers when she's talking with the king.
Speaker 1: A little later, Helen gets pissed at Epfordite and basically
Speaker 1: tells her to fuck off for turning Helen's life upside down.
Speaker 1: How likely is it that Helen was addressing Aphrodite as
Speaker 1: an irritating sister rather than an irritating Olympian. They were
Speaker 1: both known to the world as daughters of Zeus, powerful
Speaker 1: and famous in their own rights. Helen seems to be
Speaker 1: up in general, and then her sister pushes her buttons
Speaker 1: the way only a sibling can now. It's so funny
Speaker 1: you mentioned this moment because I actually, like, I didn't
Speaker 1: really remember it all that well, it's been too long
Speaker 1: since I've read the Iliad. I cannot wait for Emily
Speaker 1: Wilson's new translation. Then I will read the Iliod again.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, literally days ago, I record a
Speaker 1: conversation that's going to come out in a month or
Speaker 1: two with Ruby Blondell, and they have just written a
Speaker 1: book called Helen of Troy and Hollywood, and it's all
Speaker 1: about these the representations of Helen and various Hollywood pieces.
Speaker 1: But this moment in the Iliad came up, like I
Speaker 1: asked a question and they replied to my question basically
Speaker 1: with like this as an example. And so what they
Speaker 1: said is that this is really like a good example
Speaker 1: of less so sibling rivalry. I think, like in my opinion,
Speaker 1: the gods tend for the most part, tend not to
Speaker 1: acknowledge sibling relationships other than Artemis and Apollo, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, they like, there's not really a lot of
Speaker 1: representation patis of siblings, you know, doing normal stuff. So
Speaker 1: I take it more and I think this is what
Speaker 1: Ruby was saying as well, that it's more about Helen
Speaker 1: showing her power her like almost like she actually does
Speaker 1: kind of rival aphrodite in a way that no one
Speaker 1: else does, because Helen is like that beautiful, that powerful,
Speaker 1: like she holds all of that within her, you know, beauty.
Speaker 1: Whatever that ends up meaning. Because I had actually mentioned
Speaker 1: how Afrediti never gets like angry at Helen for being
Speaker 1: so beautiful, and that feels like an aphrodite thing to do,
Speaker 1: and Ruby mentioned this is like almost like the opposite too,
Speaker 1: like Helen actually really like stands up to her in
Speaker 1: a way that's really fascinating, but shortly after, like Alfreditta
Speaker 1: does kind of like put her back in her place
Speaker 1: a little bit. I don't know. That's not like an
Speaker 1: actual answer to anything, but I think it's a fascinating
Speaker 1: reference and really well timed on your part. And then
Speaker 1: Rachel says, in general, Afrediti is notorious for doing what
Speaker 1: and who she wants when she wants, despite being married
Speaker 1: to Peistus. As far as we know, Greek women were
Speaker 1: largely required to be faithful and despised for being sexual,
Speaker 1: like today's Madonnas slash Horror Complex, the Goddess of love, desire,
Speaker 1: and sexuality can't also be a model of chastity and obedience.
Speaker 1: The Greeks were also ablest. Their myths were for explaining
Speaker 1: the world, and things had to make some sense. Could
Speaker 1: Aphroditi and Hephistus have been forced to marry so that
Speaker 1: she could be an unfaithful wife without real retribution and
Speaker 1: he could be constantly humiliated by her infidelity without it
Speaker 1: actually breaking social norms. I can't imagine Aphrodite would be
Speaker 1: able to embody feminine sexuality if she were married to
Speaker 1: someone respected by the laws and customs, not even if
Speaker 1: it was Ari's. Obviously he had a special emotional bond
Speaker 1: with Aphrodite and they were happy together. But I can't
Speaker 1: see the guy being okay with his wife getting hurt
Speaker 1: Dolmatis stuffed elsewhere, you know, the dolmadas that really got me,
Speaker 1: thank you. So yeah, I think there's a lot happening here.
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to say with confidence because we
Speaker 1: really can't know these things. But I do think that Hephaistus,
Speaker 1: being the disabled god, you know, it's not irrelevant to
Speaker 1: his relationship with Aphrodite. You know, it all comes about
Speaker 1: where Zeus is like basically mad that Aphrodite does have
Speaker 1: such sexual agency, and so he tries to lock her
Speaker 1: down with this marriage. You know, originally it's just sort
Speaker 1: of a marriage to anyone and ends up being Hephaistis.
Speaker 1: And so I think that that is, Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: irrelevant that she is married to disabled god and that
Speaker 1: she like for all intensive purposes based on what we know,
Speaker 1: they're never together, like sexually or anything. They don't have kids,
Speaker 1: any of that, right, whereas she's with like lots of
Speaker 1: other people, mostly aries, and so like, I don't I
Speaker 1: think that that's definitely connected. But my gut on it
Speaker 1: is that it also has a lot to do with
Speaker 1: what I covered in last week's episode, Afrediti's connections to
Speaker 1: the East. It to me, it feels like a conflict.
Speaker 1: It feels like this sexually free, you know, goddess of
Speaker 1: sex and passion melding with a more traditional and more
Speaker 1: conservative culture that is the ancient Greek world, and it's
Speaker 1: like they tried to like squish the two together, and
Speaker 1: what came out was Aphrodite, you know, because she's got
Speaker 1: these really conflicting kind of concepts within her character. So
Speaker 1: to me, it feels like squishing these things together and
Speaker 1: just kind of trying to make them fit. Now, all
Speaker 1: of that said, like the idea that we have about
Speaker 1: women in ancient Greece, like I said, is really based
Speaker 1: on Athens, So we don't actually know that their sexuality
Speaker 1: was as locked down elsewhere than that it was in Athens.
Speaker 1: We know that it was in Athens, but they could
Speaker 1: have had more freedom elsewhere, so we can't really say
Speaker 1: with certainty. But I still, yeah, I really think that
Speaker 1: that's why Aphrodite is so contradictory in so many fascinating ways.
Speaker 1: That she's just kind of like a bunch of different
Speaker 1: concepts from different cultures tried and then the Greeks fit
Speaker 1: her to their own and sort of made whatever changes
Speaker 1: were necessary. That's what it feels like to me. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I think it's fascinating all around, just to
Speaker 1: like even imagine all of these different ideas about her. Oh. Also,
Speaker 1: Rachel ended by asking me to tell Lupin that he's great,
Speaker 1: and I just want to say that I have done so,
Speaker 1: and to just add as a note, because there's a
Speaker 1: PNW Olympic Mountains or Olympia reference, I can see the
Speaker 1: Olympic Mountains from my apartment so hi, thanks all right.
Speaker 1: Next up from Ash, who says, are there any stories
Speaker 1: or mentions of the goddess Selene. I'm a moonchild, flash
Speaker 1: creature of the night, and I would love to find
Speaker 1: out more. Also, you're a badass and I love you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. So Selene is kind of a mysterious goddess,
Speaker 1: and by mysterious I do just mean she's one of
Speaker 1: those goddesses that is more practical in nature and less
Speaker 1: about her stories. Right, she is the moon, and so
Speaker 1: I don't think that it was really necessary that she
Speaker 1: featured into stories because it was just like, well, the
Speaker 1: Moon's there, you know. All of that said, she does
Speaker 1: have a story with a guy named Endimion. I always
Speaker 1: forget what happens, and I always think that I've covered it,
Speaker 1: and I don't think that I actually have to wed
Speaker 1: one in my brain. But I will cover it one day.
Speaker 1: For now, I just know their names Selene and in Demion.
Speaker 1: But otherwise, yeah, Selene is really a practical goddess. She
Speaker 1: is the moon, and thus, you know it's necessary and
Speaker 1: very closely related. Ella next asked Helios or Apollo, sun
Speaker 1: god default Selene or Artemis too great timing? So this
Speaker 1: is a great question and one that I find totally fascinating,
Speaker 1: because yes, we have these really contradictory ideas. We have
Speaker 1: Helios is the sun god, he is the Sun. Selene
Speaker 1: is the moon goddess, she is the moon, and then
Speaker 1: we have these ideas that Apollo is a sun god
Speaker 1: and that Artemis is a moon goddess. And my general
Speaker 1: understanding and sort of what I've gathered just from all
Speaker 1: of my varied readings, is that it's really a matter
Speaker 1: of cultural evolution, I guess, like anthropological changes within the
Speaker 1: people that are dealing with these mythologies on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: Like Helios and Selene are coming from this older tradition,
Speaker 1: this sort of you know, early archaic period where the
Speaker 1: theogony is kind of coming into existence, and there Greece
Speaker 1: is a much more you know, they're a less advanced
Speaker 1: society than they will become, and so to me, it
Speaker 1: seems like in that time they would have a more
Speaker 1: practical need for these gods that represent such individual concepts
Speaker 1: like Apollo, as an Olympian, can't actually he can't also
Speaker 1: be the sun because he's an Olympian. You know, he's
Speaker 1: got far too much to do Helios has to have
Speaker 1: that be his entire job, and the same applies to
Speaker 1: Selene and Artemis. Whereas time goes on and the Greek
Speaker 1: world culturally evolves and anthropologically evolves, like as human beings
Speaker 1: coming into the world, they find, you know, as they're
Speaker 1: as they evolved with science and things like that too,
Speaker 1: like they would then inherently have a less of a
Speaker 1: need for these really practical deities. You know, once you
Speaker 1: understand more about science and the universe, you don't need
Speaker 1: Helios to be the Sun, and instead you can have
Speaker 1: Apollo be a sun god. He represents the sun, you know,
Speaker 1: he still has these stories connecting with the physical aspect
Speaker 1: of the Sun crossing the sky, but you don't need
Speaker 1: this like exact direct deity for it. I just this
Speaker 1: is all my like sort of my own ideas around it.
Speaker 1: But it seems to me that that's what would happen.
Speaker 1: And like in terms of timeline of when Apollo is
Speaker 1: called a sun god and when Artemis is called a
Speaker 1: moon goddess, it is later. It is much later in
Speaker 1: the general the grand scheme of these mythologies and the
Speaker 1: people you know who are living them on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: And since we had that great couple of questions from
Speaker 1: Rachel earlier, some relating to the Trojan War. I want
Speaker 1: to play one of my favorite moments from covering the
Speaker 1: Trojan War. I was weirdly proud of this when I
Speaker 1: wrote it. It is my recap of everything that happened
Speaker 1: during the war. I think it aired in the lead
Speaker 1: up or at the very beginning to my first Odyssey episode,
Speaker 1: so I could remind everyone what had happened. And I
Speaker 1: just love it, so I'm going to play it. So
Speaker 1: let's just recap the important stuff before we delve right
Speaker 1: in to this magnificent piece of ancient literature, shall we.
Speaker 1: One Airis tossed the apple of discord into the wedding
Speaker 1: celebrations of Pelias and Thetis. Shit went down, Goddess versus
Speaker 1: Goddess Aphrodite was deemed the winner by Paris because she
Speaker 1: was willing to give him a hot woman to have
Speaker 1: sex with. Two two dudes got super mad about this. Medelaeus,
Speaker 1: king of Sparta, because Helen was his wife and now
Speaker 1: she was having sex with Paris, and Agamemnon because he's
Speaker 1: a warmonger. The likes of a great many American presidents whoops,
Speaker 1: did I say that? Three? Basically every other king in
Speaker 1: Greece was forced to go to war against Troy with
Speaker 1: Menelais and Agamemnon because of the hot lady. They'd pledge
Speaker 1: some dumb shit back when every man in Greece wanted
Speaker 1: to marry her. It's a whole thing, and it's pretty silly.
Speaker 1: Four They meet in Alice, but god damn it, if
Speaker 1: there isn't any wind. Agamemnon sacrifices his own daughter to
Speaker 1: fix that, and they all head to war. Five. The
Speaker 1: war is long, long, long long. There's a lot of death,
Speaker 1: a lot of gore, zero romance, no matter what the
Speaker 1: movie Troy leads you to believe, and in the end,
Speaker 1: nothing good comes from it. Seriously, it probably wasn't a
Speaker 1: true story, but what it was with the first parable
Speaker 1: about how stupid war is and how it really just
Speaker 1: ruins everything and no one gets what they want. Six.
Speaker 1: Everyone heads home from war. Some people make it. Some
Speaker 1: people like Agamemnon, return home with another woman after ten
Speaker 1: years and are immediately killed in the bathtub by their
Speaker 1: wives and their wives new lovers. Sucker. Seven. Agamemnon's kids
Speaker 1: don't love this, and they see about killing their mother
Speaker 1: and her new lover, and then getting hounded by furies,
Speaker 1: until finally Apollo comes down and wraps things up in
Speaker 1: a nice little bow by telling everyone to get married.
Speaker 1: And this next question is from Santiago, who says, Hi,
Speaker 1: so have you considered talking about Native American mythology maybe
Speaker 1: comparing them? Also, I love the pov you give to
Speaker 1: each Greek story. Thank you, And no, I mean not
Speaker 1: least because I really prefer to stay in the ancient Mediterranean.
Speaker 1: It's where my passion lies. But most importantly, as a
Speaker 1: person a white a white person from Canada, this is
Speaker 1: North American mythology. But specifically, of course, mythology from where
Speaker 1: I live is not mine. I'm not Greek, obvious, but
Speaker 1: there is an inherent difference between Greek mythology that has
Speaker 1: become so taken over by the Western world that it
Speaker 1: has become like Western mythology and the mythology of a
Speaker 1: people that my country is actively oppressing, right like Canada
Speaker 1: is a mess. So it is a purely Canadian point
Speaker 1: of view that I'm coming from in my answer that
Speaker 1: it is not my place, it should not be my place,
Speaker 1: and I would not ever attempt to even consider it
Speaker 1: to be my place to talk about indigenous mythologies. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously there it's completely different when you get to the South.
Speaker 1: I recognize that I'm talking entirely from a Canadian perspective.
Speaker 1: In that God, that's not my place. I am a
Speaker 1: white colonialist Canadian, you know. I come from the people
Speaker 1: who fucked it all up, and so, like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm hands off all the way. It's a good question,
Speaker 1: and so I want to clarify that my answer is
Speaker 1: purely from a white Canadian perspective. And I've got something
Speaker 1: from Becky and she says, this isn't really a question,
Speaker 1: more a story. In twenty nineteen, my anxiety got really bad,
Speaker 1: to the point where I was off work and had
Speaker 1: to fight through nausea every morning when I did go back.
Speaker 1: One of the only distractions that worked for me was music,
Speaker 1: and eventually I branched out to look for something else
Speaker 1: to fill my ears. And that was when I found
Speaker 1: your podcast. Before I knew it, I could get up
Speaker 1: in the morning, go on bus journeys, and just generally
Speaker 1: be alone as long as I had you in my
Speaker 1: ear telling me tales of mythology. Now my anxiety is
Speaker 1: much better. But I am forever thankful to you for
Speaker 1: bringing these stories to the world live and for keeping
Speaker 1: me company during some of my darkest days. I'm so
Speaker 1: thankful for you. I made a note, uh I was
Speaker 1: collecting these that I would just improvise responses and try
Speaker 1: not to cry. So that's what I'm doing. But honestly,
Speaker 1: like I mean, it means the entire world to me
Speaker 1: that you've told me that. I'm really glad you're doing better,
Speaker 1: and it's really fucking nice that I helped. Okay, thanks, Okay.
Speaker 1: The next one's from Serena and it says, what will
Speaker 1: you be reading after abb It's metamorphoses on the podcast?
Speaker 1: Perhaps Photius is Biblioteca excerpt? Lol, just kidding, Yeah, you're kidding,
Speaker 1: that's right. No, I think that I'm probably gonna go
Speaker 1: to pseudo Apollodorus because it would be fun, frankly and
Speaker 1: silly and like everything happens there and you know, it's
Speaker 1: just a good one. And next Luke says, how long
Speaker 1: do you see your podcast going for? Do you still
Speaker 1: have plenty of tales to tell? Or are the days numbered?
Speaker 1: I hope it does have plenty more life in it.
Speaker 1: I'm a new listener. I've started at the very beginning,
Speaker 1: so I apologize if you've covered this topic in your
Speaker 1: later episodes. That's a great question. It's an important question
Speaker 1: given the content that I do. And while you know,
Speaker 1: I think I can safely say that there aren't a
Speaker 1: lot of myths like physical not physical, but a lot
Speaker 1: of explicit myths. I should say that I haven't covered yet.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, there are so many that
Speaker 1: I covered so early on that there is just like
Speaker 1: literally so much more to say about the stories than
Speaker 1: I was able to stay back then. So I will
Speaker 1: I read you some of those, particularly when like I
Speaker 1: want to, But also there are so many more plays
Speaker 1: to get to, Like honestly, I haven't even scratched the
Speaker 1: surface of the plays, so there's so much there, and
Speaker 1: there's really there's so much still for me to work
Speaker 1: off of. So I got another I got years more.
Speaker 1: Not too worry. And next up from Susannah, who says,
Speaker 1: HI live, long time listener, first time questioner. I've recently
Speaker 1: become obsessed with the Cathonic gods, yes a little bit
Speaker 1: because of Hades, and was trying desperately to find more
Speaker 1: sources of their myths or stories. Do you have any
Speaker 1: good recommendations on where to look. I know you've covered
Speaker 1: some of them, but I find them fascinating and don't
Speaker 1: seem to see them being talked about anywhere. Love your
Speaker 1: podcast so much. Best part of my week is listening
Speaker 1: to you nerd out about myths. That's a great question.
Speaker 1: I think a really easy answer to, like why you
Speaker 1: don't see a lot is that they didn't really like
Speaker 1: talk a lot about what happened in the underworld, both
Speaker 1: because I think that they like didn't feel like they knew,
Speaker 1: but also it's like it's the place of the death
Speaker 1: of the dead and death generally, so like, I just
Speaker 1: don't think it was like a common topic. All of
Speaker 1: that said, I would direct you to many time guests.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna forget whether she's done three or four episodes
Speaker 1: of the podcast, but doctor Ellie mack and Roberts, who
Speaker 1: has written a book called Underworld Gods. I think there's
Speaker 1: a subtitle, but I think if you were to google
Speaker 1: Ellie mack and Roberts and Underworld Gods, you're gonna get it.
Speaker 1: It is like an academic book and it's so helpful
Speaker 1: and so interesting and Ellie is so great, So I
Speaker 1: really highly recommend that you pick that one up. It
Speaker 1: is more expensive because it's an academic book, but I
Speaker 1: got it on like an ebook and it was considerably cheaper,
Speaker 1: definitely more affordable, and I imagine it goes on sale
Speaker 1: now and then either way, highly recommend that one. And
Speaker 1: also like Ellie's just great. And hey, since we're talking
Speaker 1: about the underworld and things that can land you in
Speaker 1: the bad place down there, let's have a listen to
Speaker 1: that damned Curse of Atreus that I love so much.
Speaker 1: Atreus tells his brother that he's been forgiven, So Thiastes
Speaker 1: returns to my sne thinking it's all good. No news
Speaker 1: on whether it's red flag to Thistes at Aeropay has
Speaker 1: been drowned, but all the same, Atreus invites Thiistes to
Speaker 1: a reconciliation celebration feast in honor of these brothers, burying
Speaker 1: the hatchet. How sweet. Right for dinner, Atreus kills Thiistes' sons,
Speaker 1: cuts them up, cooks them, and feeds them to his brother.
Speaker 1: There's a really pleasant theme in this family. Now we
Speaker 1: all remember how the gods feel about cannibalism. Particularly when
Speaker 1: it's a family member. Big big no no. Thankfully unknown
Speaker 1: in most polite societies, but the gods particularly found this
Speaker 1: to be the worst of the worst. We're told that
Speaker 1: the sky darkens as Atreus commits this crime, that the
Speaker 1: sun hides from the site. And next from Lane, and
Speaker 1: he says, I just wanted to say thank you so
Speaker 1: much for all the amazing work you do and have
Speaker 1: done for the past six years. I found Let's Talk
Speaker 1: about Its maybe my senior year of high school, and
Speaker 1: it reignited my love for the myths. Your podcast even
Speaker 1: led me to add a classic Spiner to my college degree,
Speaker 1: which has been one of the highlights of my last
Speaker 1: four years at university. Thank you so much. That's so nice.
Speaker 1: And also it blows my whole mind that somebody could
Speaker 1: have been in high school and then also do four
Speaker 1: years of university all while I've been talking to this microphone,
Speaker 1: and like, objectively, I know that obviously that's the case
Speaker 1: because it's been six years and that's just how time works.
Speaker 1: But once you get to be like full blown adult
Speaker 1: where you don't mark things by school, time gets really weird. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next, we have one from Ala, who says,
Speaker 1: as there are many many versions of basically any myth,
Speaker 1: how do you choose which to tell? Like do you
Speaker 1: tell the one that makes the most sense to you,
Speaker 1: or the one you heard first, the one you like best,
Speaker 1: which is told more often, et cetera. That's a great question,
Speaker 1: I mean, so I think, yeah, it totally depends on
Speaker 1: the story, honestly. Sometimes sources are more detailed, like as
Speaker 1: you guys have often heard, I rely on Avid sometimes
Speaker 1: because he's often the most detailed source that we have
Speaker 1: for something or something like doesn't exist at all except
Speaker 1: in like pseudo Apollodorus, or it's like two sentences elsewhere
Speaker 1: or what have you. So it totally depends on them,
Speaker 1: if what there is. Sometimes it's which one do I
Speaker 1: like better? Or sometimes it's just like which one's most
Speaker 1: entertaining or the oldest, or all these different kind of
Speaker 1: factors that go in. But these days, with the newer
Speaker 1: episodes where I'm really obsessed with ancient sourcing and telling
Speaker 1: you as everything, I'll often explain why I chose something,
Speaker 1: or I'll tell you all the alternatives that I've found
Speaker 1: just because it's fun and I'm really nerdy. And next
Speaker 1: we have one from Mara, who says, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to see how grateful I am for this podcast. As
Speaker 1: I'm writing this, I'm doing an archaeology conservation program in
Speaker 1: corinth and I don't think this would be possible without
Speaker 1: myths Baby, reigniting my passion for mythology and ancient history.
Speaker 1: For reference, I'm an undergrad psychology major. How would you
Speaker 1: describe your experience in classical studies, especially at the graduate level?
Speaker 1: Do you recommend it? So, here's where I have to admit, well,
Speaker 1: and I have said it before, but I don't have
Speaker 1: a graduate degree in classics. I only have a BA,
Speaker 1: so I can't speak to graduate school. But I mean
Speaker 1: my degree was great. Yeah, Like it was fun because
Speaker 1: it's Greek history and mythology and stuff. I mean I
Speaker 1: graduated like over ten years ago now, which is fucking bananas.
Speaker 1: Like I said about time, it's super weird. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I would highly recommend it just because it's
Speaker 1: nerdy and it's fun, So like, why the hell not?
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously there's lots of reasons why not. With
Speaker 1: university it's fucking expensive, but like in terms of the
Speaker 1: actual classics of it all fun. Next, I've got one
Speaker 1: from Martha who says, I'm in high school and have
Speaker 1: an amazing Latin teacher, which is very lucky that it
Speaker 1: is not a private school. I was wondering if you
Speaker 1: ever had any really inspiring professors or teachers. That's so
Speaker 1: cool that you get to do Latin into public school
Speaker 1: and that you have a great teacher, Like, that's fucking awesome.
Speaker 1: That makes me really happy. There was definitely no Latin
Speaker 1: in my public school. But in terms of teachers, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I had the greatest history teacher, just absolutely the best,
Speaker 1: and he definitely definitely inspired my love of history. I
Speaker 1: was into ancient history before, so like he definitely he
Speaker 1: didn't teach a lot of ancient history. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of modern but like just the concept of it alone,
Speaker 1: definitely hugely inspired by him. Having a good teacher is
Speaker 1: so important, and I'm glad you have one, and we
Speaker 1: have one from Tomy, who says a question, you might
Speaker 1: get a lot. But as you really start to get
Speaker 1: through the remaining Greek and Roman myths, while you ever
Speaker 1: venture into other cultures, your Mesopotamia episodes are my absolute
Speaker 1: favorite ones. I really enjoy when you dive into stories
Speaker 1: of surrounding areas is like the Iphics and Ianthe, Dido,
Speaker 1: et cetera. So that is a great question so to
Speaker 1: an extent, so like obviously I dip my toes into
Speaker 1: Rome sometimes and that won't stop other than like depends
Speaker 1: because Rome just can be weird. I like to really
Speaker 1: pick and choose with my Rome, and I really mentioned
Speaker 1: in Mesopotamia and just I mean the whole region. Basically
Speaker 1: the ancient Mediterranean is my jam, right, so I'm staying
Speaker 1: there broadly as far actually like storytelling the other mythologies.
Speaker 1: It is a fine line, you know, because these are
Speaker 1: typically from cultures that are now often treated very poorly
Speaker 1: by the West and by you know, the white of
Speaker 1: the West. And so I really am very conscious of
Speaker 1: what I do and do not do and what is
Speaker 1: and is not my place. So we'll kind of see
Speaker 1: that said, I would love to have guests talk about
Speaker 1: those places and those mythologies, So that is absolutely a
Speaker 1: goal of mine. As for the storytelling, it is a
Speaker 1: little bit different. I also do like my knowledge is
Speaker 1: in how to research Greece and Rome, and I fear
Speaker 1: that I would not do the other culture's justice because
Speaker 1: you have to really know where to look to find
Speaker 1: the right sources, and you have to have the context,
Speaker 1: and I only have the context for Greece, you know,
Speaker 1: so it's really tricky that sort of remains to be seen.
Speaker 1: But guests, fuck, absolutely, yes, absolutely. Next up we have
Speaker 1: one from M who says, oh, what's your favorite episode
Speaker 1: or mini myth series that you have released? My favorite
Speaker 1: to listen to is the Constellation Myths. How fun? Okay,
Speaker 1: So I was thinking about this a lot and a
Speaker 1: lot of times. It's like a play that I wasn't expecting.
Speaker 1: Like the Alcestis blew my mind. I had so much fun.
Speaker 1: Same with the Helen. Both of those were like so
Speaker 1: unexpected and so joyful. But because it is most recent
Speaker 1: in my mind and was truly the biggest joy fuck
Speaker 1: king ever. As I talked about earlier, you know, I
Speaker 1: needed to fix my ADHD. It was really really really
Speaker 1: driving me nuts. So I needed to pick something fun,
Speaker 1: and so I went with Billerophon and the Chimera for
Speaker 1: next week, and I just, oh my god, it was
Speaker 1: so much fun. It was so much fun to write
Speaker 1: the script, it was so much fun to record it.
Speaker 1: I it is a wild episode. It I am so
Speaker 1: entertained by it, and I hope you all are too,
Speaker 1: And so you know, since you asked, and since this
Speaker 1: is on my mind, this is a clip from the
Speaker 1: episode that will come out next week, so you haven't
Speaker 1: even heard it yet, but.
Speaker 2: Here's just a little teaser Bellerophon and the Chimera because fuck,
Speaker 2: I love the camera so much, which means it's now
Speaker 2: my time to shine.
Speaker 1: As if the rest of this episode hasn't been my
Speaker 1: time to regale you with the details on my all
Speaker 1: time favorite Greek mythological monster, she who rules the planes
Speaker 1: of Lycia, causing trouble and fire in her wake, the
Speaker 1: fucking Chimera. Why is the Chimera so magnificent? You ask? God?
Speaker 1: That you even have to ask has me questioning all
Speaker 1: of your virtues. But fine, I'll let me tell you.
Speaker 1: There are so many monsters of Greek myth and sure
Speaker 1: they are all wonderful and weird in their own unique ways,
Speaker 1: But how many of them include fire breathing goat heads? Exactly?
Speaker 1: Just one. Not only does the Chimera appeal to every
Speaker 1: kind of monster that you might want, like big scary
Speaker 1: cat check, angry serpent check, furious fire breathing head of
Speaker 1: an animal that otherwise should be harmless and silly fucking check. Well.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Nerds, thank you so much for listening
Speaker 1: to that. Thank you for listening to some of the
Speaker 1: sections with the bad audio. I'm so annoyed with myself.
Speaker 1: I can't believe I didn't. I've now spent like four
Speaker 1: hours of recording this, and it should have taken me
Speaker 1: an hour because I literally made a mistake that I
Speaker 1: haven't made in years, like the irony of doing it
Speaker 1: on my six year Verse three episode. Thankfully, it's so
Speaker 1: egregious that I've just been laughing about it. But they
Speaker 1: were just there was some good improved bits that I
Speaker 1: just knew I couldn't do again, and also, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to lose my whole mind, So thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to those sections with the less than
Speaker 1: quality audio. But otherwise this was so much fun. I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful for all of your questions. I have so
Speaker 1: many more to get to, so do not worry if
Speaker 1: yours was not answered. I'm gonna answer a ton more
Speaker 1: next week or not next week. On Friday, that's gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot more. There's gonna be some clips from
Speaker 1: conversations and reading episodes that I feel like sharing just
Speaker 1: to celebrate, you know, all the things that this podcast
Speaker 1: has been over the last six years and all the
Speaker 1: things that I like, hope it continues to be, you know,
Speaker 1: so anyway, you're all lovely. I'm so grateful for you
Speaker 1: as listeners. Thank you for being with me, whether you've
Speaker 1: been here the whole six years, in which case, holy
Speaker 1: ship bananas, I love you, or if you are fresh
Speaker 1: and new, generally, thank you. Like the fact that this
Speaker 1: is my job is fucked up in the best possible way.
Speaker 1: I still don't fully understand it. I kind of always
Speaker 1: expect it's gonna blow up in my face, and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to actively not worry about that all the time
Speaker 1: because it's just so cool and nice and your alls
Speaker 1: are cool and nice, and thank you all so much.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stop now, let's talk. I hope. Miss Baby
Speaker 1: is written and produced by me Live Albert MICHAELA. Smith
Speaker 1: is the Hermes to My Olympians and has the new
Speaker 1: title of assistant producer because it turns out that's base
Speaker 1: what she's doing and I'm just figuring it all out
Speaker 1: as we go. The podcast is hosted and montaized by iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: Listen to the podcast on Spotify or wherever you want
Speaker 1: to listen. Help me continue bringing you the world of
Speaker 1: Greek mythology and the ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron,
Speaker 1: where you'll get access to bonus episodes and more, including
Speaker 1: episodes like this. So remember the main thing I do
Speaker 1: on Patreon is monthly what I call God of the Month.
Speaker 1: I pick a topic, or rather I do a poll
Speaker 1: for a topic. It's a god or a concept or
Speaker 1: a place or what have you, and all my patrons
Speaker 1: can ask questions and then I answer like this, So
Speaker 1: it's really like real and natural and it's super fun.
Speaker 1: So you now join me if you want to, and
Speaker 1: generally thank you also fucking much. Holy shit, six years,
Speaker 1: what's happening? I am live and I love this shit
Speaker 1: like so fucking much. It really has not changed in
Speaker 1: six years. What's I argue? I mean, I love it
Speaker 1: so much more now if I really think about it,
Speaker 1: so much more. I've learned so much