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This week's podcast looks at the figure of Hermaphroditus, son of Hermes (Mercury) and Aphrodite (Venus), and his encounter with the aggressive nymph Salmacis, her prayer turning them into a single being that is both male and female and neither at the same time. While Salmacis is often viewed as an aggressive woman attacking an innocent boy, an inscription at Salmacis' pool in Halicarnassus suggests a very different view of the myth. We explore the idea of the Hermaphrodite as representing the bonds of marriage and ideas about marriage, as well as its connection to Plato's myth of the proto-human in the Symposium. 

The articles referenced in the podcast were:

Kelly, Peter. "Intersex and Intertext: Ovid's Hermaphroditus and the Early Universe," Exploring Gender Diversity in the Ancient World, Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer, eds. Edinburgh University Press, 2020. 

Romano, Allen T. "The Invention of Marriage: Hermaphroditus and Salmacis at Halicarnassus and in Ovid," The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Dec. 2009), pp. 543-561.

This week's episode looks at the legendary woman known as Helen of Troy, "the face that launched a thousand ships." The daughter of either Zeus and Leda or Zeus and Nemesis, the desire to possess Helen, dubbed the most beautiful woman in the world, launched the Trojan War. We discuss her abductions by Theseus and Paris, the oath of Tyndareus, and the question of whether or not Helen went with Paris willingly or against her will--and whether Paris seduced the "real" Helen at all.

This week we look at the Greek daimon Atë, the personification of deception and ruin. Atë is a prominent figure in Homer’s Iliad, and often appears in Greek tragedy as a figure associated with justice, along with Nemesis and the Erinyes. We look at Atë as an irrational force, and how the understanding of her as a daughter of Zeus in the Iliad tells us something about the pitfalls of the rational mind.

This week's podcast looks at Pandora, the first woman described by Hesiod, though her story likely predates his writings. Pandora is a gift to Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus, as an act of revenge after Prometheus steals fire from Heaven and gives it to mortals. She carries a pithos (jar) that she is told to never open, but when curiosity strikes, she releases all sorts of ills into the world of humans. We examine the different aspects of this story, including the idea that the coming of woman is an evil, the question of what was actually in Pandora's jar (changed to a box in later translations), her connection to the Earth Mother, and her connection to Psyche, the personified soul.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon/com/chthonia


This week we look at Eris, goddess of strife and discord. Hesiod declares that there are 2 Erises, one that is beneficial to humans and one that isn't. There is also the 3rd Eris of the modern "religion" of Discordianism, which highlights to problem of excluding discord from our lives.

Here is the re-released Frau Perchta and Gryla episode from December 2019. Both figures are part of the folklore of winter hags or "Christmas witches", who often represent the dangers of being unprepared for the winter season.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/c/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org 

This week's podcast looks at Enodia, a Thessalian goddess who has attributes of Hecate, Persephone, and Artemis, whose name means "of the street" or "in the road". Part of the dodekatheon (Cult of the 12 Olympians) local to Thessaly, she seems to clearly have a function related to protecting the household, and her own epithets suggest that she is a deity connected to cities rather than rural dwellings. We look at her relationship to the other goddesses she is connected with and visit the question of why protective deities like Enodia seemed to suddenly gain popularity in the late 6th to 5th century BCE.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/c/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

This week's podcast looks at Nemesis, a daimon goddess said to come from Nyx (Night) alone by Hesiod, and associated with the distribution of fairness as well as envy and revenge. We look at the origin stories of Nemesis, the story of her as the mother of Helen of Troy, and her connection via Helen to the Trojan War. We look at other stories of her retribution, and the necessity of her influence in human affairs. Lastly, we touch on the recent revival of discussions of "Planet X", which according to one hypothesis began as a companion star to the Sun, and referred to as "Nemesis" in the original theory.

This remastered episode looks at the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon, Artemis. In particular we examine the dangerous aspects of Artemis, including the threat she posed to young women about to enter adulthood, and as a plague bringer along with her brother Apollo.

Website: https://chthonia.net
Patreon: https://patreon.com/chthonia
Merch: https://chthoniapodcast.creator-spring.com/
School: https://instituteforfemininemyth.org

This week's podcast takes a deep dive into the figure of Lua, sometimes called Lua Mater, other times called Lua Saturni. Victorious Roman soldiers sacrificed the weapons of their conquered enemies to Lua, which is the only thing known about her as a cult figure. However she has many connections--to both Saturn and Mars, to the goddess Ops and her consort Consus, to the goddess Angerona, and a little known Roman deity called Robigus. We look at these connections, the idea of Saturn as the "Black Sun" and the "Star of the Sun", and the Electric Universe Theory.