Speaker 1: Oh, well, hello there, this is let's talk about myths baby,
Speaker 1: and I am that host of yours, she whose voice is.
Speaker 2: Slowly returning to normal.
Speaker 1: I honestly can't tell anymore, but thank all the gods,
Speaker 1: it's getting slightly better.
Speaker 2: I am live.
Speaker 1: Hi. Well, well, well, well, this is my first script,
Speaker 1: or the first script that I'm writing since catching COVID
Speaker 1: for the first time, and that means a few things. Firstly,
Speaker 1: thank you all for listening to that little Halloween episode
Speaker 1: that I had to throw together. I featured some of
Speaker 1: my favorite spooky stories, ones that I hadn't already reaired,
Speaker 1: with those bonuses that was not planned, like I mentioned
Speaker 1: in that episode, and this whole plan to do a
Speaker 1: deep dive into the underworld and all of its variations,
Speaker 1: like kind of a tour of sorts. I was so excited,
Speaker 1: but of course COVID caught up to me during my
Speaker 1: favorite time of the year, just the worst time. Fortunately
Speaker 1: that I did have a pretty mild case. Just why
Speaker 1: I'm able to be back with you all today, But
Speaker 1: I am. I'm noticing it just and I literally haven't
Speaker 1: even read the first paragraph of the script, so I'm
Speaker 1: not one hundred percent bear with me on this episode. Please,
Speaker 1: We're gonna do things in a very specific way to
Speaker 1: help my poor COVID brain because also, like those with
Speaker 1: ADHD will know that, in addition to COVID like and
Speaker 1: brain fog, getting back into work mode after weeks without
Speaker 1: work when you have ADHD is like a fucking mess.
Speaker 1: So pairing that with my COVID brain fog and like
Speaker 1: just a lasting feeling of ick and I am having
Speaker 1: a fun time. But I am here, and enough of
Speaker 1: my complaints. Here's where we're at with that Underworld. So
Speaker 1: I had originally intended to just like extend spooky season
Speaker 1: for myself because I really wanted to write that episode.
Speaker 1: But I decided not to do that in the end
Speaker 1: because well, it's already tough enough to find spooky stories
Speaker 1: that I haven't covered on the show already. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna leave that tour of the Underworld for next year.
Speaker 1: Give Future Live something to be excited about. Here's a
Speaker 1: great example of my brain fog. I misspelled my own
Speaker 1: name in that script. We're we're doing great. I also
Speaker 1: honestly want to do a great job of that Underworld episode,
Speaker 1: and I'm not in that space right now, So let's
Speaker 1: make life for future lived just a little bit easier instead.
Speaker 1: For today's episode, I went looking for something with a
Speaker 1: really detailed source for me to not only work off of,
Speaker 1: but read from, just make it a little easier on
Speaker 1: my cod and ADHD brain, and I found something that
Speaker 1: ended up like oddly appropriate. So after I picked this
Speaker 1: story because it's I truly picked it because it just
Speaker 1: it's featured in two of Avid's herodies. You remember the herodies.
Speaker 1: Those are the works presumably by OVID, but that's often
Speaker 1: up for debate, that are written as letters between mythological
Speaker 1: characters that have been kind.
Speaker 2: Of left behind.
Speaker 1: So I've got, you know, these nice, long detailed sources
Speaker 1: to work from and read from. So I was ready.
Speaker 1: You know, it's characters I'd never even heard of. I thought, fun.
Speaker 1: I pulled out all the sources, the sites, you know,
Speaker 1: the whole like two sources, and then I read what
Speaker 1: the stories actually about, and well, like, let's just say
Speaker 1: it's sufficiently fucked up and also truly bizarrely appropriate for
Speaker 1: my first post COVID. I don't even want to say post,
Speaker 1: just still COVID episode. Is that fage enough for you?
Speaker 2: Great?
Speaker 1: We're doing awesome today, guys. This is episode two thirty six,
Speaker 1: giving love sick.
Speaker 2: A whole new meaning.
Speaker 1: A Contius in cuidipe A Coontius was a man from
Speaker 1: Kios modern ka or Atsia, an island just south of
Speaker 1: the Attic mainland. It's beautiful. It's the first Greek island
Speaker 1: I ever really visited. But that is not the point.
Speaker 1: Acontius is the point. And Acontius fell in love with
Speaker 1: a woman named Kidipe. Some say she was Athenian, others
Speaker 1: that she was from the island of Naxos. Their love
Speaker 1: was unconventional, though I suppose not the quite so unconventional
Speaker 1: for grieg myth, and because of how the sourcing on
Speaker 1: this story works, we have very little detail about the earliest.
Speaker 2: Days of their romance, if that's what we're gonna call it.
Speaker 1: Beyond its basics, this is a really odd story to
Speaker 1: retell because it appears in only two main sources. Avid's Herodies,
Speaker 1: though again it makes up two of the double herodies,
Speaker 1: which are often like hotly debated in terms of whether
Speaker 1: or not Abviit actually wrote them. Regardless, these are the sources,
Speaker 1: and in a very very fragmented poem by Colemicus Colemicus's
Speaker 1: poem contains some details that Avid's Herodies does not, but
Speaker 1: it's also ridiculously fragmentary and missing like the plot. So
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna try to use that to our advantage,
Speaker 1: along with readings from Avid's Herodies to add more detail,
Speaker 1: and frankly, we're gonna hope for the best. Honestly, a
Speaker 1: huge part of this is is readings alongside me narrating
Speaker 1: it kind of something new, But if I'm honest with
Speaker 1: you all, I'm really ruggling to function. So this is
Speaker 1: what is working for us in order to make this
Speaker 1: episode exist. See a Contius and cudi Bay. They may
Speaker 1: have been from different islands, but they met on the
Speaker 1: island of Delos. There kidit Ba was worshiping Artemis, and
Speaker 1: that is where a Contius fell in love with her.
Speaker 1: That is, you know, he spotted her from afar, He
Speaker 1: found her attractive, he decided he was in love. This
Speaker 1: is after all a Greek myth. A Contius, though, didn't
Speaker 1: determine to woo kidit Bay traditionally.
Speaker 2: Instead, it seems he just so.
Speaker 1: He found an apple and on it he inscribed an oath.
Speaker 1: It said something like I swear to marry a Kantius.
Speaker 1: He was a clever man, if not particularly romantic. See,
Speaker 1: he took this inscribed apple, which we know is always
Speaker 1: a big old red flag, and he just like tossed
Speaker 1: it at Kidiba's feet I guess where she was, presumably
Speaker 1: kneeling before an altar to Artemis. Kudibe saw the apple,
Speaker 1: but she thought nothing of it, or at least she
Speaker 1: didn't take the oath seriously. She went on with her life.
Speaker 1: Time passed and Kudipe was eventually set to marry another man.
Speaker 1: But before she could go through with this wedding, she
Speaker 1: became sick with a horrible fever and the wedding was
Speaker 1: never able to take place. Now, according to Callimchus, this
Speaker 1: happened three times. Three times Cutibe was set to marry
Speaker 1: a man. We assume she wants to She wants to
Speaker 1: marry this man, but then she becomes sick with a
Speaker 1: fever and it never is able to happen. And this
Speaker 1: is when we can hear from Acontius in Avid's heroities. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, in these letters, Artemis is going to be
Speaker 1: called Diana by her Roman name, and without any source
Speaker 1: that suggests otherwise, I think we can safely understand that
Speaker 1: Acontius hasn't really ever actually spoken to Kudibe. Before you know,
Speaker 1: he just decided he loves her. He threw an apple
Speaker 1: at her, and that was enough in his mind to
Speaker 1: ensure that they are almost certainly engaged, whether she believes
Speaker 1: it or not. So in his letter to Kidibae, this
Speaker 1: letter of Avid, he writes, quote, why do your blushes
Speaker 1: rise before you read? For I suspect, just as in
Speaker 1: the Temple of Diana, your modest cheeks have reddened. It
Speaker 1: is wedlock with you that I ask, and the faith
Speaker 1: you pledged me, not a crime as your destined husband,
Speaker 1: not as a deceiver.
Speaker 2: Do I love?
Speaker 1: You? May recall the words which the fruit I plucked
Speaker 1: from the tree and threw to you brought to your
Speaker 1: chased hands. You will find that in them you promised
Speaker 1: me what I pray that you maiden, rather than the Goddess. Well, remember,
Speaker 1: I am still as fearful as ever, but my fear
Speaker 1: has grown keener than it was. For the flame of
Speaker 1: my love has waxed without being delayed, and taken on strength.
Speaker 1: And the passion that was never slight has now grown
Speaker 1: great fed by long time, and the hope that you
Speaker 1: had given hope, you had given my ardent heart to
Speaker 1: put trust in you. You cannot deny that this was so.
Speaker 1: The Goddess is my witness. She was there and present,
Speaker 1: as she was marked your words, and seemed, by the
Speaker 1: shaking of her locks, to have accepted them. A Kantius
Speaker 1: loves Cudipe desperately, can't she tell?
Speaker 2: Surely?
Speaker 1: She recalls reading some words on an apple, maybe blushing
Speaker 1: a little because it's truly a bizarre thing to come upon.
Speaker 1: But that's love, obviously.
Speaker 2: What's that? Cudipe feels a.
Speaker 1: Little deceived by this apple as engagement promise. A Kantius
Speaker 1: addresses that too, quote, I will give you leave to
Speaker 1: say you were deceived and by wiles of mine, if
Speaker 1: only those wiles my love be counted. Cause what was
Speaker 1: the object of my wiles but the one thing to
Speaker 1: be united with you? The thing you complain of, has
Speaker 1: power to join you to me. Neither by nature nor
Speaker 1: by practice am I so cunning? Believe me made? It
Speaker 1: is you who make me skillful. It was ingenius love
Speaker 1: who bound you to me with words. If I indeed
Speaker 1: have gained aught that I myself drew up in words
Speaker 1: dictated by him. I made our betrothal bond. Love was
Speaker 1: the lawyer that taught me knavery. Let Wiles be the
Speaker 1: name you give my deed, and let me be called crafty,
Speaker 1: if only the wish to possess what one loves be
Speaker 1: craft Acontius wants to convince Cutiepe of his love, even
Speaker 1: if she feels a bit you know, taken advantage of No, no, that's.
Speaker 2: Not what he did. He loves her.
Speaker 1: He merely tricked her into somehow agreeing to marry him,
Speaker 1: except she didn't know she was agreeing to marry him.
Speaker 1: But it's still binding, and it's love. It's not his
Speaker 1: fault either. How could it be the man's fault for
Speaker 1: such a thing. No, No, it was just the way
Speaker 1: things have to be. She's too beautiful, he's too in love.
Speaker 1: There is no getting out of it now. His letter
Speaker 1: goes on quote, if art will not serve, I shall
Speaker 1: resort to arms, and you will be seized and borne
Speaker 1: away in the embrace that longs for you. I am
Speaker 1: not the one to chide Paris for what he did,
Speaker 1: nor anyone who to become a husband has been a man.
Speaker 1: I too, But I say nothing allow that death is
Speaker 1: fit punishment for this theft of you. It will be
Speaker 1: less than not to have possessed you, or you should
Speaker 1: have been less beauty. Would you be wooed by modest means?
Speaker 1: Tis by your charms.
Speaker 2: I am driven to be bold.
Speaker 1: This is your work, your work, and that of your
Speaker 1: eyes brighter than the fiery stars, and the cause of
Speaker 1: my burning love. This is the work of your golden tresses,
Speaker 1: and that ivory throat in the hands which I pray
Speaker 1: to have clasped my neck, and your comely features, modest
Speaker 1: yet not rustic, and feet which fate is his own
Speaker 1: I think could scarcely equal. If I could praise the
Speaker 1: rest of your charms, I should be happier.
Speaker 2: Yet I doubt not.
Speaker 1: But the work is like in all its parts, compelled
Speaker 1: by beauty such as this. It is no cause for
Speaker 1: marvel if I wished to pledge of your word. That's right,
Speaker 1: Acantius is saying in this oh so dramatic and not
Speaker 1: at all horrifying letter, I'm willing to die for you.
Speaker 1: I'm just like Paris falling for Helen. Nothing I do
Speaker 1: to get you to fall in love with me is
Speaker 1: my fault, and death is worth it. All. Oh, and
Speaker 1: obviously it's your fault. Cute it pay that I'm so
Speaker 1: in love with you. It's your beauty, your charms, it's
Speaker 1: your pretty hair and your pretty god everything. This man
Speaker 1: is not at all horrifying, not at all toxic, math, sculinity, incarnate. No, No,
Speaker 1: he's in love gemmitt Acontius goes on to plead further
Speaker 1: with kiddipe. You know in this letter that maybe the
Speaker 1: first and only time he's actually ever spoken to her,
Speaker 1: and it's still only in the form of a letter.
Speaker 1: He goes on to ask why she's allowed to complain
Speaker 1: about being caught ensnared by him.
Speaker 2: In such a way.
Speaker 1: He compares her to Tahitiany, the Trojan woman who was
Speaker 1: taken as a spoil of war when Heracles in telemon
Speaker 1: first sacked Troy, and he compares her to Persaeus, the
Speaker 1: far more famous spoil of war taken by Achilles. Great
Speaker 1: examples of romance. Cantius, you are a stand up fellow.
Speaker 1: He goes on to tell Kidibay that she's allowed to
Speaker 1: be angry with him, like that's fine, He'll wear her
Speaker 1: down quote, but bind me not with shackles nor with chains.
Speaker 1: I shall be kept in bonds by unyielding love for you.
Speaker 1: When your anger shall have had full course and is sated,
Speaker 1: well you will say to yourself, how enduring is his love?
Speaker 1: You will say to yourself, when you have seen me
Speaker 1: bearing all, he who is a slave, so well, let
Speaker 1: him be a slave to me. Now unhappy, I am
Speaker 1: arraigned in my absence, and by cause, though excellent, is
Speaker 1: lost because no one appears for me. Who then, of course,
Speaker 1: Acantius goes on to explain how none of this is
Speaker 1: entirely his fault. No, no, it is not his fault
Speaker 1: that Kidibe is now beholden to marry him. I mean, sure,
Speaker 1: he's the one who wrote on an apple and tossed
Speaker 1: it at her. But it's Artemis who she was worshiping
Speaker 1: at the time, And therefore it is Artemis who, when
Speaker 1: could it be read the words on the apple aloud,
Speaker 1: took them as a sworn oath. Quote this further, however,
Speaker 1: much that writing of mind was wrong to you, it is.
Speaker 2: Not I alone.
Speaker 1: You must know of whom you have caused to complain.
Speaker 1: She of Delos was not deserving of betrayal with me.
Speaker 1: If faith with me, you cannot keep keep faith with
Speaker 1: the Goddess. She was present and saw when you blushed
Speaker 1: at being ensnared and stored away your word in a
Speaker 1: remembering ear. May your omens be groundless. Nothing is more
Speaker 1: violent than she when she sees what I hope will
Speaker 1: not be her Godhead wronged. Do you want to make
Speaker 1: Artemis angry? Is what a Contius is basically saying here,
Speaker 1: and he goes on, I.
Speaker 2: Mean not to be the bearer of bad news, but you've.
Speaker 1: Already made Artemis angry.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: A Contius goes on to explain to kidipe that she's
Speaker 1: already broken her oath to you are tomiss by trying
Speaker 1: to marry other men one or three, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: Just the attempt to get.
Speaker 1: Out of her clear and obvious agreement to marry a
Speaker 1: Contius is enough to curse her. That's why you've been
Speaker 1: so sick, literally on death's door. Yeah, he tells her
Speaker 1: in this romantic and lovely letter. It's your fault. You're sick.
Speaker 1: You've cursed yourself. It is not my fault. And nope,
Speaker 1: quote cutipey, I fear to tell you the truth, lest
Speaker 1: I seem to warn you falsely for the sake of
Speaker 1: my plea.
Speaker 2: Yet tell it. I must.
Speaker 1: This is the reason, believe me, why you are often
Speaker 1: lying ill on the eve of your marriage. It is
Speaker 1: the Goddess herself, looking to your good and striving to
Speaker 1: keep you from a false oath. She wishes you kept
Speaker 1: whole by the keeping of your faith. This is the
Speaker 1: reason why as often as you attempt to break your
Speaker 1: oath she corrects your sin. Cease to invite forth the
Speaker 1: cruel beau.
Speaker 2: Of the spirited virgin.
Speaker 1: She still may be appeased if only you allow cease.
Speaker 2: I entreat to waste.
Speaker 1: With fevers your tender limbs. Preserve those charms of yours
Speaker 1: for me to enjoy. Preserve those features that were born
Speaker 1: to kindle my love, and the gentle blush that rises
Speaker 1: to grace your snowy cheek. May my enemies and any
Speaker 1: who would keep you from my arms so fair as
Speaker 1: I When you are ill, I am alike in torment,
Speaker 1: whether you wed or whether you are ill.
Speaker 2: Nor can I say which I should wish the less.
Speaker 1: At times I waste with grief at thought that I
Speaker 1: may be the cause of pain to you, and my
Speaker 1: wiles the cause of your wounds. May the false swearing
Speaker 1: of my lady come upon my head. I pray mine
Speaker 1: be the penalty and she be thus safe.
Speaker 2: That's that's right.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know which is harder for him to watch
Speaker 1: Cudipay almost marry other men, or her sick with such
Speaker 1: horrible fever that.
Speaker 2: She may not survive. Which is worse.
Speaker 1: Oh no, they're equal, for sure. He feels so bad.
Speaker 1: She should really pity him. Definitely, he is hurting. He's
Speaker 1: so concerned, so worried about Kudipe that really he's just
Speaker 1: trying to help her. The only solution is to finally
Speaker 1: marry me, he tells her. That's all there is. You'll
Speaker 1: be sick forever if you don't. I'm doing you a favor.
Speaker 1: He's saying, it's for the best. And no, no, I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about myself. I'm worried about you. He goes on,
Speaker 1: quote tis not a matter of myself. The care I
Speaker 1: labor with is greater. It is concerned for your life
Speaker 1: that fills my heart. Why but now, when your life
Speaker 1: was in doubt, did your frightened parents weep with fear?
Speaker 1: Whom you keep ignorant of your crime? And why should
Speaker 1: they be ignorant? You could tell your mother all what
Speaker 1: you have done, Cutipe needs no blush.
Speaker 2: See you relate in order.
Speaker 1: How you first became known to me while she was
Speaker 1: herself making sacrifice to the Goddess of the quiver. How
Speaker 1: at sight of you, if perchance you noticed, I straight
Speaker 1: stood still with eyes fixed on your charms. And how
Speaker 1: while I gazed on you, too eagerly, sure mark of
Speaker 1: love's madness, my cloak slipped from my shoulder and fell.
Speaker 1: How after then, in some way came the Rolling Apple,
Speaker 1: with its treacherous words and clever character. And how because
Speaker 1: they were read in Holy Diana's presence, you were bound
Speaker 1: by a pledge with the deity to witness, for fear that,
Speaker 1: after all, she may not know the import of the writing.
Speaker 1: Repeat now again to her the words once read by you, wed,
Speaker 1: I pray she will say him to whom the good
Speaker 1: go odds join you, the one you swore should be.
Speaker 1: Let be my son in law, whoever he is. Let
Speaker 1: him be your choice, since he was Diana's choice before.
Speaker 1: Such will be your mother's word, if only she is
Speaker 1: a mother. That's right, cute, de Bako. Tell your mother
Speaker 1: about what happened between us. Tell her and she'll tell
Speaker 1: you the right thing to do marry me a countius,
Speaker 1: She'll say. It's obvious she'll love the match.
Speaker 2: You should be.
Speaker 1: Aspiring to marry a man like me, even if you
Speaker 1: hadn't already sworn to do it. I am aspirational.
Speaker 2: That's how great I am.
Speaker 1: I mean, how perfect I am for you?
Speaker 2: It's obvious. Can't you say it? Okay?
Speaker 1: I know this story is utterly absurd, but I am
Speaker 1: having a ball. The man is a horror show. He
Speaker 1: is screaming in cell at the top of his lungs.
Speaker 1: And do you want to take a guess how it's
Speaker 1: gonna go. Do you think Cudipe is gonna stand up
Speaker 1: and continue to say no? Do you think she's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to just live happily without this toxic man
Speaker 1: in her life forever? This is a Greek myth, that
Speaker 1: was a Constius's letter. But what about Cuidipase she doesn't
Speaker 1: want to marry him. He tricked her and it was
Speaker 1: weird and nefarious, and his letter was manipulative and gross
Speaker 1: and toxic as hell. So what does she have to
Speaker 1: say in reply? Well, let's see quote all fearful, I
Speaker 1: read what you wrote without so much as a murmur,
Speaker 1: lest my tongue unwinningly mightwear some divinity, and I believe
Speaker 1: you would have tried to snare me a second time?
Speaker 1: Did you not know, as you yourself confess that one
Speaker 1: pledge from me was enough, I should not have read
Speaker 1: it at all. But had I been hard with you,
Speaker 1: the anger of the cruel Goddess might have grown. Though
Speaker 1: I do everything, Though I offer dutious incense to Diana,
Speaker 1: she nonetheless favors you more than your do, and as
Speaker 1: you are eager for me to believe, avenges you with
Speaker 1: unforgetting anger. Scarce was she toward her own hippolytus. Yet
Speaker 1: the maiden Goddess had done better to favor the years
Speaker 1: of a maiden like me, years which I fear she
Speaker 1: wishes for you for me. Yeah, Kudipe is not happy
Speaker 1: about this. It's kind of fucked up, she's basically telling him,
Speaker 1: But she goes on. She talks about how sick she
Speaker 1: has been, how the doctors haven't been able to figure
Speaker 1: out what's wrong with her, how she can barely move,
Speaker 1: She's pale and sickly, and it's just been utterly horrific
Speaker 1: for so long. She is horrified that someone will find
Speaker 1: out that he has written to her, let alone that
Speaker 1: she is replying to him. She's worried about everything now,
Speaker 1: now that she's been tricked in such a way, How
Speaker 1: else might he trick her? Will he have her read
Speaker 1: something else that will tie her to something she doesn't
Speaker 1: even know about?
Speaker 2: For eternity, She's just living.
Speaker 1: In fear of this man and his deception? Quote is
Speaker 1: this the reward that falls to my beauty? Proud in
Speaker 1: your praise? Must I suffer for having pleased? If I
Speaker 1: had seemed misshapen to you, and would I had, you
Speaker 1: would have thought ill of my body, and now it
Speaker 1: would need no help. But I met with praise, and
Speaker 1: now I grown. Now you two, with your life, are
Speaker 1: my despair, and my own beauty itself wounds me. She
Speaker 1: goes on, questioning a contius and what he is capable of.
Speaker 1: Quote tell me now and deceive me, not in your
Speaker 1: wonted way? What will you do from hatred? When you
Speaker 1: harm me? So from love? If you injure one you love,
Speaker 1: it will be the reason to love your.
Speaker 2: Foe to save me.
Speaker 1: I pray you will to wish my doom. Either you
Speaker 1: care no longer for the hoped for maid whom with
Speaker 1: hard heart, you are letting waste away to an unworthy death.
Speaker 1: Or if in vain you beseech for me the cruel goddess.
Speaker 1: Why boast yourself to me. You have no favor with her.
Speaker 1: Choose which case you will. You do not wish to
Speaker 1: play Kate Diana, you have forgotten me. You have no
Speaker 1: power with her. It's she who has forgotten you. She
Speaker 1: goes on to talk about the fateful day, how she
Speaker 1: had traveled to Delo's for the first time, how she
Speaker 1: was so moved by the sacred island, taken by its
Speaker 1: beauty and its divinity, that she was swept up by
Speaker 1: it all. She talks about how it happened, how he
Speaker 1: tied her fate to his quote straightway. Setting forth, we
Speaker 1: greet the deities to whom the isle is, consecrate and
Speaker 1: offer up the golden incense and the wine.
Speaker 2: And while my mother.
Speaker 1: Stains the altars with votive blood and piles the solemn
Speaker 1: entrails on the smoking altar flames, my busy nurse conducts
Speaker 1: me to other temples also, and we stray with wandering
Speaker 1: step about the holy precincts. And now I walk in
Speaker 1: the porticos. Now I look with wonder on the gifts
Speaker 1: of kings, and the statues everywhere. I look with wonder too,
Speaker 1: on the altar built of countless horns, and the tree
Speaker 1: that stayed the goddess in her throes, all things else
Speaker 1: that Delo's holds for memory would not serve nor mood
Speaker 1: allow to tell of all I looked on there, perhaps
Speaker 1: thus gazing. I was gazed upon by you, Acantius, and
Speaker 1: my simple nature seemed an easy prey. I returned to
Speaker 1: Diana's temple, with its lofty approach of steps, ought any
Speaker 1: place to be safer than this. When there is thrown
Speaker 1: before my feet an apple, with this verse that follows
Speaker 1: ah me now again, I almost made oath to you.
Speaker 1: Nurse took it up, looked in amaze, and read it through.
Speaker 1: She said, I read your treacherous verse, O, mighty poet,
Speaker 1: at mention of the name of Wedlock. I was confused
Speaker 1: and shamed, and felt the blushes cover all my face
Speaker 1: and my eyes. I kept upon my bosom, as if
Speaker 1: fastened there those eyes that were made ministers to your intent.
Speaker 1: Gudipy is angry. She recalls how horrified she was having
Speaker 1: read it, how embarrassed to have read such a thing
Speaker 1: out loud. Why if you were so in love with me,
Speaker 1: so interested in marrying me, would you choose to force
Speaker 1: me rather than court me? Why compulsion over romance. I
Speaker 1: didn't swear any oath, she writes to a conteus. I
Speaker 1: may have read some words that sounded like an oath,
Speaker 1: but I did.
Speaker 2: Not swear one.
Speaker 1: But oh, she continues, how sick I am. She speaks
Speaker 1: of her fever, how ill she is, and how she
Speaker 1: has been for so long, how she watches her parents
Speaker 1: cry over her, how they wanted to light her wedding
Speaker 1: torch but instead have to prepare for her death. She
Speaker 1: talks about the man that she was meant to marry,
Speaker 1: how he sits with her, but now he seems to
Speaker 1: suspect her, how his kindness has changed, he's not the same,
Speaker 1: and how she has caused it because now that she
Speaker 1: knows what a Contius did, she can't even look at
Speaker 1: him the same, and so she has to feel guilty too.
Speaker 1: Kidipa's letter continues, You a contius said you want to
Speaker 1: come and see me in my illness, But do you
Speaker 1: really quote you right for leave to come and see
Speaker 1: me in my illness? You are far from me, and
Speaker 1: yet you wrong me. Even from there I marveled. Why
Speaker 1: your name was a contius? It is because you have
Speaker 1: the keen point that deals a wound from afar. At
Speaker 1: any rate, I am not yet well of just such
Speaker 1: a wound, for I was pierced by your letter a
Speaker 1: far thrown dart. Yet why should you come to me,
Speaker 1: surely but a wretched body, you would see the mighty
Speaker 1: trophy of your skill. I have wasted and fallen away.
Speaker 1: My color is bloodless, such as I recall to mind,
Speaker 1: was the hue of that apple of yours. And my
Speaker 1: face is white, with no rising gleam of mingled red.
Speaker 1: Such is wont to be the fairness of fresh marble.
Speaker 1: Such is the color of silver at the banquet table,
Speaker 1: pale with the chill touch of icy water. Should you
Speaker 1: see me now, you will declare you have never seen
Speaker 1: me before, and say, no arts of mine ever sought
Speaker 1: to weed a maid like that. You will remit me
Speaker 1: the keeping of my promise, in fear lest I become yours,
Speaker 1: and will long for a goddess to forget it all.
Speaker 1: She's basically convinced that he's not even gonna like her
Speaker 1: when he sees her. Because of how sick he's made her.
Speaker 1: But fine, she continues, Fine, we've heard from Apollo's oracle.
Speaker 1: He's made it clear that the only solution to my
Speaker 1: long illness, the only way for me to survive. Quote,
Speaker 1: this is what the God says, this his prophet, and
Speaker 1: this the verses I read. Surely the wish of your
Speaker 1: heart lacks no support in prophetic verse. Whence this favor
Speaker 1: to you, unless perhaps you have found some new writing.
Speaker 1: The reading whereof ensnares even the mighty gods. And since
Speaker 1: you hold bound the gods, I myself follow their will
Speaker 1: and gladly yield my vanquished hands in fulfillment of your prayers.
Speaker 1: With eyes full of shame, held fast on the ground,
Speaker 1: I have confessed to my mother the pledge my tongue
Speaker 1: was trapped to give. QTP finishes her letter by asking
Speaker 1: how much it even matters that she's even written this
Speaker 1: letter if she has to finish it by saying that
Speaker 1: she hopes to be united with him soon, there's nothing
Speaker 1: left to say, and that Listeners is considered a love story.
Speaker 1: Women have it so good with men like that, just
Speaker 1: charming the pants off of them. Few oh nerds and stords,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: As always.
Speaker 1: Now, you know, I don't normally rely on quotes like
Speaker 1: that so much to tell the story. I mean, unless
Speaker 1: it's you know, I guess Seneca. But these were extenuating circumstances,
Speaker 1: COVID circumstances that meant that I really, I honestly really
Speaker 1: struggle to write anything coherent, so thankfully I had Avid
Speaker 1: to rely on. Plus this story was fucking bananas, so
Speaker 1: I'm kind of glad I got to read so much
Speaker 1: of those letters do tell the story well, you really
Speaker 1: get to experience the wonder, the romance, the healthy relationship.
Speaker 1: That is a contius and cute it bay it might
Speaker 1: also have resulted in my most sarcastic episode ever. Surely
Speaker 1: that was unavoidable, But for really, I also picked the
Speaker 1: story before reading any of the details, like I said,
Speaker 1: And then I read that the whole thing was like
Speaker 1: about her being sick, and I thought, you know, clearly
Speaker 1: this is the right call. Add the bonus silly detail
Speaker 1: that I spent about a week of my COVID symptoms
Speaker 1: wearing a Naxo's hoodie where she's from, and I just
Speaker 1: think that's truly perfect and frankly I've now talked way
Speaker 1: too long in my head hurts way too much to continue,
Speaker 1: so I will leave you with the credits and the
Speaker 1: hope that I am back to one hundred percent next week.
Speaker 2: But I don't know at this point I having read this.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Fortunately, on Friday, I have an episode with a fan
Speaker 1: favorite and all around lovely human Elitie Harper, to talk
Speaker 1: about the final book in her wolf Deen series, recorded
Speaker 1: long before I caught the plague. Let's talk about Mith's
Speaker 1: Baby is written and produced by me Albert MICHAELA. Smith
Speaker 1: is the Hermes to my Olympians, perhaps more colloquially known
Speaker 1: as my assistant producer. The podcast is hosted and monetized
Speaker 1: by iHeartMedia. Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Help me continue bringing you the world of Greek mythology
Speaker 1: and the ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron, where you'll
Speaker 1: get bonus episodes and more. Visit patreon dot com slash
Speaker 1: miss Baby, or click the link in this episode's description.
Speaker 1: Thank you all, you are the best. I am live
Speaker 1: and I love this shit. I will love it more
Speaker 1: when my brain functions again. I kind of rely on
Speaker 1: it