Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is a tragic story of love and loss. In this gender-bent version, author and prize-winning poet Elyse John crafts the tale of the warrior-poet Orphia,

RE-RELEASE: The Sacred Band of Thebes: All in One Place

9 days ago 2h 43m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We're re-releasing our epic story about the Sacred Band--all three episodes in one place!The time was the 300s BC. The place was Thebes. And in this place, in this time, there was an

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: Sweaty, Oily, and Judging You

16 days ago 1h 39m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! The Statue of Zeus at Olympia is not well remembered today. But in its time, it seared itself into the minds and memories of all who saw it. An enormous, glowering, formidable statue

The Murderous Magic of Medea (With Rosie Hewlett)

30 days ago 50m 39s

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Perhaps the most infamous bad girl of ancient Greek mythology, Medea is also so much more complex than her end game makes her appear. She’s also a betrayed wife, an isolated immigrant

History of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Mar 14th, 2024 1h 9m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Perhaps the first list of Seven Wonders was written by Herodotus sometime in the 400s BC. But the list didn’t really get popularized until the 200s. Why was that? What did this list m

RE-RELEASE: Could You Survive Pompeii? A Choose Your Own Adventure Episode

Mar 7th, 2024 1h 22m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! You’ve been transported almost 2,000 years into the past, to the streets of Pompeii. It’s a brisk autumn morning, around, oh…10 AM…and all hell is about to break loose. What's your ne

RE-RELEASE: The Pompeii Refugee Crisis (With Elodie Harper)

Feb 29th, 2024 56m 14s

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We’ve covered the deadly day in 79 AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii in a suffocating layer of ash and pumice. But we haven’t covered the aftermath: where did the survivor

RE-RELEASE: The Invisible Thread: Life after Slavery in Pompeii (With Elodie Harper)

Feb 22nd, 2024 1h 5m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! What happened to people in ancient Rome who were freed from slavery? Turns out there were still invisible threads--economic pressures, imbalances of status, and debts owed to wealthy

RE-RELEASE: Women of the Wolf Den: Sex Workers of Pompeii (With Elodie Harper)

Feb 15th, 2024 1h 3m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! The Lupanar, or “Wolf Den,” is the infamous brothel of Pompeii. Elodie Harper’s bestselling novel follows the lives of the sex workers who lived and worked there—their passions, their

RE-RELEASE: The Cult of Aphrodite

Feb 8th, 2024 1h 10m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! If you know anything about Aphrodite, then you know she is the ancient Greek goddess primarily associated with love, beauty, sex, reproduction, and passion. She was also the patron go

RE-RELEASE: Aspasia x Pericles: Love in the Time of Plague

Feb 1st, 2024 51m 19s

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Last week, we told you about the lives of five courtesans in Classical Athens. But we left someone out--perhaps the most elite hetaera of them all.Long-term partner of a leading Athe

RE-RELEASE: Hustlers, Harlots, Heroines: The Elite Courtesans Who Ruled Classical Athens

Jan 25th, 2024 1h 31m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last few episodes on sex workers in ancient Greece, we tried to paint a picture of a group of women, in some cases, with more freedom and independence than most in the ancient

RE-RELEASE: Dangers of the Symposium

Jan 18th, 2024 56m 18s

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! The symposia--all-male drinking parties--were the playground and hunting ground of Athens' elite courtesans. But they had their dangers, too.Join us as we attend a symposium with the

RE-RELEASE: Rules of the Game: Sex Workers of Ancient Greece

Jan 11th, 2024 1h 3m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! The conventional wisdom is that sex workers in ancient Greece were divided into two main categories: pornai who were enslaved in brothels, and hetaerae, who were elite courtesans. Tha

RE-RELEASE: Janus: God of the New Year

Jan 4th, 2024 55m 22s

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Janus is the two-faced god of the Roman pantheon. He was the god of beginnings and endings, of dual natures, of passageways and passage through time. He’s the god of thresholds and do

End of Season 11 Announcement

Dec 28th, 2023 22m 31s

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! It's the end of Season 11--and we had so much fun putting this season together! We've got some big changes in store for Season 12--tune in to find out more!Sponsors & AdvertisingThi

RE-RELEASE: Frau Holle: Wicked Woman of Yule

Dec 26th, 2023 1h 15m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! This year, we’ve found one of the most metal and wild Yuletide goddesses yet – Frau Holle.Human sacrifices, spindles in yer vag, plague, starvation, caves of offerings and bones, the

St. Nicholas and the Christmas Cannibals

Dec 21st, 2023 1h 19m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Ah, Christmas—it's a time of cheer, of gift-giving and generosity; and a time to eat yer babies.This year, we’re focusing on two different cannibalistic monsters from Christmas folkl

RE-RELEASE: You Don't Know Yule

Dec 19th, 2023 1h 25m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! What do you know about Yule? Maybe a lot. The holiday is widely celebrated in Scandinavian countries, and it's an important part of Wiccan and Pagan tradition. But for many of us, the

Baiae Breathes: Sunken City of Sin (With Julius Caesar)

Dec 14th, 2023 1h 33m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! During the ancient Roman Republic and into the Empire, there was a place all the fabulously wealthy went. An escape from the real world. A place where they could unleash all their mos

RE-RELEASE: Saturnalia: So Much More than Roman Christmas

Dec 12th, 2023 1h 1m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Wish you had a holiday all about feasting, drinking, the upending of the social order, blood sacrifices, the harvest, pranks, novelty gifts, honouring a god who devoured his kids, and

Psyche x Eros: A New Look at an Ancient Love Story (With Luna McNamara)

Dec 7th, 2023 1h 7m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Psyche and Eros is an ancient love story that has always had the power to compel. It’s the story of a god of passion who falls in love with the personification of the human soul—and t

RE-RELEASE: Krampus: The Goat Knows What You Did

Dec 5th, 2023 44m 26s

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! This year, we decided that the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a mythological foray into one of the most famous characters of the season: The Krampus.And some of you migh

Warrior Queens of Nubia

Nov 30th, 2023 51m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! When we think of pyramids, hieroglyphs, and Pharaohs, most people think about Egypt. But there was a civilization to the south that was just as fascinating, just as complex, just as s

Lady Poisoners: Dangerous Women of History (With Lisa Perrin)

Nov 23rd, 2023 1h 1m

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Throughout history, there have been a number of women who had—shall we say—a penchant for poison. Women who poisoned for power and influence; to rid themselves of enslavers and abusiv