Ancient History Fangirl

Latest Episodes:

RE-RELEASE: Janus: God of the New Year Jan 04, 2024

Show notes

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 doorways and gates, and the god of change, both concrete and abstract. He’s constantly in motion; he’s the god who’s always just passing through.

Janus may not be very well-known. But in his time, he was considered one of the most important gods—perhaps more important than Jupiter himself. Today, we’re going to tell you all about him.

Sponsors and Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

End of Season 11 Announcement Dec 28, 2023

Show notes

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 & Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

RE-RELEASE: Frau Holle: Wicked Woman of Yule Dec 26, 2023

Show notes

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 Grimms brothers, golden showers, child cannibalism, ZOMBIES – are any of these putting you in the Yuletide spirit? They should. Because we’re about to share with you the story of a very Frau Holle Christmas.

Sponsors and Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

St. Nicholas and the Christmas Cannibals Dec 21, 2023

Show notes

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 folklore: Père Fouettard and Hans Trapp. Because it turns out that child cannibalism really is the reason for the season—and perhaps Santa Claus is the biggest cannibal of all.

What is Santa hiding under those jolly cheeks and that big white beard? Strap in, pour yourself your favorite holiday beverage, and get ready for a wild ride into the dark side of Christmas.

Sponsors & Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

RE-RELEASE: You Don't Know Yule Dec 19, 2023

Show notes

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 version that's come down through history is strongly associated with Christmas--and heavily sanitized.

When we scratched the surface, however, we found that the origins of Yule were older and darker and weirder than we ever imagined.

Sponsors and Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Baiae Breathes: Sunken City of Sin (With Julius Caesar) Dec 14, 2023

Show notes

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 most hedonistic and murderous urges. That place was Baiae.

Baiae was the playground of Rome’s rich and infamous, whose baths alone were the size of palaces. It had many secrets—but perhaps the most deadly was that the entire city was built on a supervolcano. Long before Baiae was built, the ancients called this region “the Burning Fields.”

The caldera breathes out, and worlds end in fire. It breathes in, and an entire city sinks beneath the waves. This week, Julius Caesar (THAT Julius Caesar) joins us to walk the drowned streets of Baiae—and pull back the curtain on a secret world of sin.

Sponsors and Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

RE-RELEASE: Saturnalia: So Much More than Roman Christmas Dec 12, 2023

Show notes

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 the returning sun? Don’t we all??? Welcome to Saturnalia.

Sponsors and Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Psyche x Eros: A New Look at an Ancient Love Story (With Luna McNamara) Dec 07, 2023

Show notes

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 the lengths these two will go to in order to be together.

But the lone source we have for this myth is The Golden Ass by Apuleius—a satirical novel about a man who gets turned into a donkey. What can we learn about this myth by looking at its original source? What was the author of The Golden Ass trying to tell us about love and women’s role in it (if anything)? Today we team up with Luna McNamara, bestselling author of Psyche & Eros, to try to get to the bottom of it.

Sponsors and Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

RE-RELEASE: Krampus: The Goat Knows What You Did Dec 05, 2023

Show notes

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 might be saying: wait a minute, Krampus isn’t ancient; he’s modern. Also, everyone knows about Krampus, the festive demon of Christmas. Why are you covering this well-trodden topic?

Wait until you hear the wild things we uncovered about him and his history, and then make your judgements about how old and well-trodden this topic is.

Sponsors and Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warrior Queens of Nubia Nov 30, 2023

Show notes

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 sophisticated—and it wasn’t Egypt. It was Nubia.

The Nubians built temples, cities, and pyramids to rival those of the Egyptians. And they had a fascinating history of strong female leaders, including warriors, generals and queens. And after Cleopatra lost to Rome, her fellow queen to the south—a one-eyed warrior queen of Nubia—successfully fought off the Roman Army, held a knife to its throat and wrung a peace treaty out of Octavian that kept her kingdom free.

This is the story of Nubia.

Sponsors and Advertising

This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected