Against the Lore

Against the Lore

By Zenia, Flo, Barney and MegHistory
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Against the Lore episodes

  • Celebrity

    In which we play a game of smash or pass on the celebrities of antiquity...from actors to priests to kings to politicians, there's a whole range of ancient celebs on whom we dish the dirt...

    35 min
  • Natural Disasters
    In which we welcome Jerry Toner to talk about natural disasters in the ancient world! Jerry goes against the lore to tell us that the Romans weren't actually that fussed about Vesuvius; Meg and Barney both share flood myths from Greek and Mesopotamian traditions; Flo wonders whether Pliny was the original storm chaser...
    32 min
  • Buildings

    In which we welcome Professor Michael Scott, who has co-presented several series of the BBC's Invisible Cities, to talk to us about buildings! We each present our favourite buildings from the ancient world: Michael votes for the Parthenon, Zenia proposes Hadrian's Wall, Barney shares his admiration for the pyramids and Meg of course likes the building named after her (not really but sort of). 

    32 min
  • Poetry

    In which we welcome Dr Valerie Smitherman to talk about the connections between ancient and modern poetry. Valerie tells us about her research on Bedouin poetic traditions and the modern-day X-factor style TV poetry contest in the UAE. Barney, Zenia and Meg each share their favourite poems from the ancient world.

    34 min
  • Pet Peeves

    In which we try to purge our January blues by getting all our pet peeves out in one go. Zenia objects to the objectification of Cleopatra; Meg goes against the lore on some assumptions about Homer, and Barney points a finger at orientalist attitudes to the Ancient Near East. 

    34 min
  • Alcohol

    In which we celebrate the festive season with drinks from each of our periods in history. Barney chugs beer, Zenia sips white wine, while Meg glugs Greek grog. 

    39 min
  • Tattoos & Piercings

    In which we welcome Iszi Lawrence to talk about the Scythians and their love of tattoos! Barney shares that the ancient Mesopotamians were very into piercings but across the ancient world, there were negative associations with tattoos, which were seen as a mark of punishment or ownership. Zenia reveals the etymology of the word 'stigma', and the whole Against the Lore team share what tattoos they would get...

    34 min
  • Alphabet

    In which we dive into history to find out the origins of how we write the way we do! The origins of the word 'alphabet' lie in Meg's territory, but she tag teams across to Barney to find out where the letters themselves came from. Meanwhile, Zenia reveals an unusual root to the Latin alphabet. 

    33 min
  • Remembrance - Remembrance Sunday Special
    In which we welcome Rebecca Bradshaw to tell us about how the Ancient Near East commemorated conflict, and how the communities from that same area today value, preserve or even destroy ancient heritage. Meg shares stories about how the ancient Greeks remembered their war dead, while Zenia tells us that the Romans did their best to ignore theirs...
    35 min
  • BONUS EPISODE - Music Part 3

    In which Meg chats to Bettina Joy de Guzman, classicist and multi-instrumentalist, about ancient instruments. Bettina plays us several beautiful lyres - deep ones, small ones, some in the shape of triangles - as well as the aulos and a selection of drums. Find out more about Bettina's work on bettinajoydeguzman.com

    27 min

About Against the Lore

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to Against the Lore, the myth-busting ancient history podcast! Each episode, we fact check popular misconceptions around the ancient world. We take a general topic, look at how it worked in…