Ancient History Fangirl

Latest Episodes:

Assassin's Creed Odyssey (With Liv Albert from Myths Baby!) Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

Liv Albert from Let's Talk About Myths Baby! has an obsession, and the name of that obsession is Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

This game immerses you immediately in Ancient Greece--and provides loads of historically accurate settings from the world we've been exploring this season: the symposia of Athens, the pleasures of Corinth, the Peloponnesian War and exactly who's responsible, and the mysteries of Crete and other Greek islands.

Come join us on a tour of Ancient Greece as Assassin's Creed Odyssey sees it. You may even meet some old friends. Warning: Spoilers abound.

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Werewolves of Wolf Mountain: Terrors of Ancient Greece Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

The werewolf myth as we know it today generally involves getting bitten by a werewolf, transforming during the full moon, and being very susceptible to silver bullets. But werewolves in ancient Greece and Rome were a little different.

Join us for a spooky-season deep dive into ancient werewolf mythology from thousands of years ago. We'll take a look at the pre-Christian origins of the werewolf myth and its connections to death, starvation, cannibalism, and transformation.

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Three Ghost Stories from Ancient Greece (with Liv Albert from Myths Baby!) Oct 14, 2021

Show notes

Dads who devour their children. Disembodied baby heads. Corpses that stand up on the battlefield to prophesy doom. Women who return from the grave to carry on steamy affairs.

The Ancient Greeks did ghost stories...a little differently. This week, we team up with Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! to bring you three ghostly tales from ancient Greece that will send a shiver down your spine.

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Women of the Wolf Den: Sex Workers of Pompeii (With Elodie Harper) Sep 30, 2021

Show notes

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 heartbreaks, and the tightly-knit community they built for themselves.

Today, we’ve invited Elodie on the show to talk about the realities of sex workers’ lives in the Wolf Den—and how sex work was practiced in Pompeii near the time of the Vesuvius eruption.

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Aspasia x Pericles: Love in the Time of Plague Sep 23, 2021

Show notes

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 Athenian statesman, darling of the philosophical set, survivor of the plague of Athens—she threw her own parties, and they were the best parties ever thrown within a hundred-mile radius of Athens. No one has done better since. Her name was Aspasia.

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Hustlers, Harlots, Heroines: The Elite Courtesans Who Ruled Classical Athens Sep 16, 2021

Show notes

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 Greek world could dream of. But that freedom came at a price.

Now, we’re going to tell you about the lives of some of ancient Greece’s most famous Hetaerae.

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Dangers of the Symposium Sep 09, 2021

Show notes

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 fast set of Ancient Athens. We’re going to hang out with the hetaerae, drink our faces off, flirt outrageously with everyone in range, and debate with the philosophers until the sun comes up.

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Rules of the Game: Sex Workers of Ancient Greece Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

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. That’s actually a drastic oversimplification.

This is the beginning of a journey into the world of sex workers in ancient Greece. Join us as we explore what life was like for sex workers at every level of the profession—including those who didn't fit easily into these categories.

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RE-RELEASE: The Ancient-World Stark Family Part 1: Germanicus the Manicus Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

We're on hiatus until September 2. Until then, please enjoy some of our favorite episodes from the back catalog.

Close your eyes and imagine a loving family. Devoted parents and six children: three happy brothers and three happy sisters. The father, Germanicus, is a war hero—beloved by the people, and next in line for the throne. Life is good. Life is perfect.

But nothing good can ever stay. It begins with a cough—a funny turn—and suddenly the family of Germanicus is torn apart, caught in the political riptides of Imperial Rome.

This dynasty would give rise to two of Rome’s most infamous emperors and some of its most legendary women—before it ends in tragedy.

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RE-RELEASE: Cocktails & Caligula (With Queens Podcast) Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

We're on hiatus until September 2. Until then, please enjoy some of our favorite episodes from the back catalog.

Our only explanation for this episode is that it was Jenny's birthday and she wanted to have some friends over. So we invited Katy and Nathan from Queens Podcast to come on our podcast and drink us under the table.

Join us on a drunken ramble through the Julio-Claudian dynasty, where we go on and ON about our favorite topics: Agrippina (Elder and Younger), Cleopatra, badass women in history, and whether Caligula and Henry VIII were in fact the same person.

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