Chthonia

This week's podcast looks at the Nordic deity Ran, a wrathful sea goddess that causes shipwrecks and drags fishermen down to the watery depths with her net. With her husband Aegir and her nine children of the waves, she represents the terrors of the sea--both physically and psychologically. We look at the attributes of Ran, water mythology, and flood mythology.

In honor of Lughnasadh (August 1), this week's podcast is about the Irish god Lugh. Lugh very likely originates from the Celtic deity Lugus, who Julius Caesar equated with the Roman Mercury. He is noted for his many talents, and his ability to play many roles won him entrance to the court of the Tuatha De Danann. He led the group in battle against the oppressive Fomorians at the second battle of Maige Tuired (Moytura), after slaying his grandfather Balor. We talk about Lugh's story as a heroic succession myth, his connection to the Morrigan and sovereignty, and how Lugh differs from the traditional idea of the god-king.

This week's podcast looks at Hermes, the messenger of the Greek gods, known as Mercury in Roman myth. We mainly focus on the story of Hermes' birth in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, in which he manages to astonish and anger the god Apollo. Hermes is a liminal figure often connected with the Puer (Boy) archetype, representing youthful energy and enthusiasm. We discuss this archetype in a bit of detail, and its contrast with the Senex (Wise Old Man) archetype, as well as a bit about the alchemical Mercurius.

Join us at the Institute for the Study of Feminine Myth--$10 "Thinker's Tavern" sessions on Thursdays in July!

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This week's podcast is about Libitina, Roman goddess of funerals, corpses, and burials. We discuss the debated etymology of her name--is she connected to Venus and to voluptuous pleasure, or is that an error? Varro connects Libitina to "libido", and we also need to consider the ancient Etruscan goddess Alpanu, who is said to be Libitina's forerunner. What we may find is a different attitude toward the connection between life and death.

Join us for Thinker's Tavern on Thursdays 6:30 EST; details at  https://instituteforfemininemyth.org/thinkers-tavern

This week's episode looks at Semiramis, the legendary Queen of the Assyrian Empire who is said to have taken over as regent when her husband died, and until her son came of age. Semiramis is the Greek name of the queen Shammuramat, and her history is controversial. Roman historians and geographers credit her with many architectural achievements, conquest of the Armenians, and stabilizing a crumbling empire after a civil war. Not surprisingly, other stories portray her as a lustful, power-hungry seductress. We look at what is written about Semiramis, and discuss the "threat" of the powerful, competent woman in patriarchal narratives.

This is a re-edit and re-upload of the Chthonia episode on Circe, or Kirke, from 2019. Circe is best known for her encounter with Odysseus and his men in the Odyssey, where she turns the men into pigs, and Odysseus defeats her magic with the moly plant. While Circe is a central Anima figure in this story, she also appears in others as Medea's aunt and the daughter of the sun god Helios.

Join us for the new Thinker's Tavern series at the ISFM:

 https://www.instituteforfemininemyth.org/thinkers-tavern

This week's episode looks at La Loba, the Wolf Woman, sometimes also called the Bone Woman. She gathers the bones of animals, usually wolves, and when she has a complete skeleton she chooses the song to sing to bring the animal back to life. This story becomes a framework for discussing the psychological and mythological meaning of "bones", as well as the forces represented by the wolf.

* Check out the new Thinker's Tavern discussion series at
https://www.instituteforfemininemyth.org/thinkers-tavern  *

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.