Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean

IT'S FINALLY TIME! Liv talks about writing her Odyssey retelling, reads from it, and answers a listener question about translation and retelling. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Sources: The Odyssey, translations by Emily Wilson, Richard Lattimore, AT Murray, and Ian Johnston.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

This episode originally aired in March 2024. The first recorded author in all of human history was a woman, a high priestess, her name was Enheduanna. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.Sources: The Complete Poems of Enheduanna, the World's First Author by Sophus Helle; Enheduanna.org. Things The Mesopotamians Did First; Very Baseline Ancient Iraq Bits: Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire; Mesopotamia.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

TW! Horrors of Women's/Female Health. Liv speaks with Dr Christie Vogler about the long and storied and utterly infuriating ancient history of women's medicine in the West. Check out Christie's podcast, Movies We Dig, now part of the Memory Collective podcast network! Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!Recommended reading and sources: Cleghorn, Elinor. 2022. Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-made World; Cooper Owens, Deirdre. 2018. Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology; Draycott, Jane. 2021. Roman Domestic Medical Practice in Central Italy: From the Middle Republic to the Early Empire; Joshel, Sandra R. 1992. Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome: A Study of the Occupational Inscriptions; Mulder, Tara. 2016. “The Hippocratic Oath in Roe v. Wade | by Tara Mulder.” EIDOLON; Nutton, Vivian. 2013. Ancient Medicine; Ripat, Pauline. 2016. “Roman Women, Wise Women, and Witches.”; “Roe v. Wade | 410 U.S. 113 (1973).”; Stanley Spaeth, Barbette. 2014. “From Goddess to Hag: The Greek and the Roman Witch in Classical Literature.” In Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in the Ancient World, edited by Kimberly B. Stratton and Dayna S. Kalleres; Upson-Saia, Kristi, Heidi Marx, and Jared Secord. 2023. Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean (500 BCE–600 CE): A Sourcebook; Woods, Robert. 2007. “Ancient and Early Modern Mortality: Experience and Understanding.” The Economic History Review 60.CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

This week Liv and Michaela speak with Dr. Antone Minard about the Gauls and the Gaulish language. Lots of fun linguistic facts to be found inside this one, including the etymology of broccoli. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

This episode originally aired in April 2024 during our series on the Bronze Age Collapse. A brief look at the causes behind the societal collapse of the Bronze Age Mediterranean. Help keep LTAMB going by subscribing to Liv's Patreon for bonus content!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.Sources: The Landmark Thucydides edited by Robert B. Strassler, translated by Richard Crawley; The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean edited by Eric H. Cline; 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

Liv reads Book 3 of Homer's Odyssey, translated by Ian Johnston. This modern translation is used with immense gratitude to translator Ian Johnston and Vancouver Island University. Submit questions and prompts for future Odyssey readings at mythsbaby.com/questions and get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbabyCW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.This is not a standard narrative story episode, it's a reading of an ancient source, audiobook style. For regular episodes look for any that don't have "Liv Reads..." in the title!Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

Just a casual, not at all timely, look at the myth of women taking revenge on their abusers and oppressors. For funsies. Check out the next group trip through Thalassa Journeys. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest! CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Sources: Apollonios of Rhodes' Argonautica; Hyginus' Fabulae; Pseudo-Apollodorus' Library; Statius' Thebaid.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

Liv speaks with expert Katherine Backler about all the lives and lore of the very REAL women of ancient Athens, from the the beautifully mundane to the righteously remembered. Katherine is the author of a new book on the lives of Athenian women, Athena's Sisters. This is the (incredible!) pot mentioned that features all things women weaving. Check out the next group trip through Thalassa Journeys. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

We are finally at the end of book 2 of Herodotus' Histories!! Yaayy!! Go us, it took us a bit, but it was such a fun little journey full of insanity and hippos that are definitly not hippos and perhaps just a horse chillin in the lake but no I need to let this go. It's too much. Thank you all for joining me on another adventure into the world of Herodotus! Can't wait to share more with you when I do.Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Sources: Herodotus The Histories translated by Tom Holland.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.