Greeced Lightning

Greeced Lightning supports a permanent end to the violence and genocide in Gaza. We encourage you to take action however you are able.

This episode, we dive back into the wonderful world of Homer’s Odyssey — but this time, in Italian! Join Sara and Sam to learn about the supporting characters of the Odyssey, along with ancient fanfiction, seduction by dairy products, more Kirk Douglas, and questionable audio-dubbing choices.

• Ancient Greek clothing - Everything you ever wanted to know!
• Theocritus Idyll 11 translation - Polyphemus tries to woo Galatea. If you can access the Loeb, that translation is the best, but this one is manageable.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses Bk 14 - At the end of Bk. 13, Scylla spurns Glaucus's love. In Bk. 14, Glaucus goes to Circe for help, and all hell breaks loose.
• Odysseus & the Sirens - Late Archaic painting from the early 5th century, housed in the British Museum.
• Ovid, The Heroides - Penelope to Ulysses (Odysseus) is the first letter in this poetic collection.

Greeced Lightning supports a permanent end to the violence and genocide in Gaza. We encourage you to take action however you are able. 

Join us for the first recording after the birth of the wee-est member of the Greeced Lightning family! Sara and Sam reminisce about their introduction to Mel Brooks, then discuss the wild and violent life of Emperor Nero, including: mediocre arts talent, gay marriage, murdering family members, and more! CW: murders, suicides.

• Cassius Dio, Epitome of Book 62 - A summary of Book 62, the full text of which has been lost. Bks 62-63 cover Nero's reign.
• Suetonius, Life of Nero - A biography of Rome's 5th emperor
• Tacitus, Annals Bk. 14 - Book 14 opens with Agrippina's assassination at the hands of her son, Nero.
• Three types of columns - Illustration of column tops and "weights" in architecture, using the Colosseum as an example.
• Tacitus, Annals Bk. 15 - 15.38ff describes the Great Fire of 64 CE.
• Julio-Claudian Family Tree - For your incestuous information.

Greeced Lightning supports a permanent end to the violence and genocide in Gaza. We encourage you to take action however you are able.

The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. Or maybe it’s the myth of Orpheus. You be the judge! This #MythMonday, special guest Jackie Banigan joins us for the rock star of ancient Greece, 19th century Parisian demimonde, and high school marching band confessions.

• Ovid's Metamorphoses Bk. 10 - Orpheus's loss of Eurydice, establishment of pederasty, and final song.
• Argonautica 4.891 ff. - In which Orpheus saves the Argonauts from the sirens with his song
• Virgil's 4th Georgic - The story of Orpheus and Eurydice begins at line 453.
• Ps.-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.3.2 - A brief biography of Orpheus
• Moulin Rouge was almost an original musical, and more soundtrack secrets

Greeced Lightning supports a permanent end to the violence and genocide in Gaza. We encourage you to take action however you are able.

CW: suicide. After starting this super-sized episode with some good old-fashioned Plato-bashing, Sara and Sam consider Cleopatra’s connections to the Roman civil wars, drunken Richard Burton, and royal bedroom exploits of multiple genders.

• Roman hairstyles
• On the production disasters of Cleopatra
• What to Do When Someone Has a Seizure - Don't do what they do in this movie!
• Portrait of Cleopatra - from Herculaneum. Notice she's a redhead!
• Cleopatra and Caesarion at the Temple of Denderah
• Painting of Cleopatra and Caesarion - Depicted as Venus and Cupid, from Pompeii.
• Suetonius's Divus Julius 52 - The section of Suetonius's biography of Julius Caesar about his relationship with Cleopatra.
• Plutarch's Life of Antony
• Akrotiri, Santorini
• Atlantis Myth - Translations of the passages about Atlantis from Plato's Timaeus and Critias.

Greeced Lightning supports a permanent end to the violence and genocide in Gaza. We encourage you to take action however you are able.

Today Sam and Sara dive into the world of the Amazons, including: misogynistic geographers, Artemis/Diana’s rage, poorly designed armor, chaotic special effects, and crimes against the voice of David Thewlis.

• Ovid's Metamorphoses 3.138-252 - A.S. Kline's translation of the story of Actaeon (including his dog's names)
• Caledonia etymology
• Grave of Female Scythian Warrior Found in Ukraine | Ancient Origins
• Real Scythian warrior women
• Diana of Versailles - 1st-2nd c. CE Roman version of a Greek statue (we think), now in the Louvre.
• Callimachus's Hymn 3 to Artemis
• Riding Amazon - 5th c. amphora depicting a riding Amazon. Note she is wearing pants! This was a peculiarly Persian/“Eastern” thing in the mind of Greeks.
• Homeric Hymn 27 to Artemis
• Heracles v. Amazons - 6th c. BCE vase depicting Heracles fighting the Amazons (note the gendered difference in skin tone)
• Strabo's Geography 11.5 - Strabo's interesting take on the Amazons.
• Herodotus's Histories 4.110 - On Scythia and the Amazons
• Ps.-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca - Heracles's labor among the Amazons is covered in 2.5.9.

I’m Spartacus! You’re Spartacus! Today we’re taking a deep dive on Roman slavery and Spartacus’s revolt. Join us for the brutality of the rich, paganism-Judaism crossovers, ancient grooming practices, and a little objectification of classic film stars.

• Wikimedia Commons - Kylix attributed to Apollodorus showing two women removing pubic hair, from early 5th c. BCE. Housed in the archaeological museum in Tarquinia, Italy
• Eidolon: Emanscapation - On men's pubic hair grooming in antiquity
• Bustle: Pubic Hair Trends Over Time
• Florus's Epitome of Livy - Book 2.8 covers Spartacus's revolt.
• Appian's The Civil Wars - Spartacus's revolt is covered in chapter 14 (labeled as section 116 in this translation)
• Plutarch's Life of Crassus - Information on the war with Spartacus begins in section 8.1.
• Ancient Rome by Thomas R. Martin - A very accessible history of Rome from the founding through the era of Justinian (1000+ years of history!). Includes some information on Roman slavery and Spartacus's uprising.

This #MythMonday, Sara and Sam discuss Theseus, also known as Heracles 2.0 and Ancient Greece’s chief asshole. Sara mangles Greek geography and bemoans the genre of myth soup movies. Sam finds a new model of fatherhood. The hosts drool over Henry Cavill.

• Mask of Agamemnon
• Medea's drakon-pulled chariot - Red-figure krater from late 5th/early 4th c. BCE.
• Daedalus and Icarus - Translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 8 — Daedalus and Icarus begin in section 2.
• Ps.-Apollodorus, The Library - Translation of the Epitome, which briefly describes Theseus's labors
• Catullus 64 - Parallel English and Latin text. The description of a tapestry depicting the Ariadne abandoned by Theseus begins on line 50. (Wikisource)
• Euripides's Medea - English text of the tragedy, translated by George Theodoridis
• Euripides's Hippolytus - English text of the tragedy, translated by George Theodoridis
• Theseus victorious over the Minotaur - Fresco from Pompeii depicting Theseus after his battle with the Minotaur (Wikimedia Commons)
• Plutarch's comparison of Theseus and Romulus - Plutarch paired all his Lives, one Greek with one Roman.
• Plutarch's Life of Theseus

CW: kidnapping, rape, Stockholm syndrome. If that didn’t scare you off, join Sam and Sara for the legend of the Sabine women. Discussion includes: white people dancing, mystery pregnancies, the powerful effect of baby animals on your hosts, and a proposed alternate ending.

• Hephzibah: Wikipedia - Did you already know who Hephzibah was? You're way ahead of us!
• The Sobbin' Women, by Stephen Vincent Benét - Free text of the short story on which Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is based.
• A racist history shows why Oregon is still so white - Oregon Public Radio story on the black exclusion laws during the colonization and settlement of Oregon.
• Plutarch: Life of Romulus - The story of the Sabines begins in section 14.
• Livy: Ab urbe condita - The rape of the Sabine women is told in 1.9-13.

Greeced Lightning is back! We’re kicking off Season 2 with a foreign film and a very special guest. Josh Lindal of Screens of the Stone Age podcast joins us for the story of Romulus and Remus and the movie Il Primo Re: twin drama, swamp settlements, ancient hominids, and how often we think about the Roman Empire.

Find Screens of the Stone Age at:

https://pasc-scpa.ca/sotsa

https://bsky.app/profile/sotsapodcast.bsky.social

https://twitter.com/SotSA_Podcast

https://www.facebook.com/SotSAPodcast/

• Iceman - The 2017 German/Italian/Austrian film of a fictionalized version of the life and death of Ötzi, the 5,000-year-old mummified man discovered in the Ötztal Alps in 1991.
• An Ancient Ballgame Makes A Comeback In Mexico - NPR coverage of the resurgence of ulama, the Mesoamerican ball game.
• Screens of the Stone Age: Skyrim - SotSA podcast checks out the megafauna in the game Skyrim!
• Dionysius' Roman Antiquities Book I - In Roman Antiquities 1.79, Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes contemporary Romans' veneration of the casa Romuli.
• Casa Romuli - Iron Age hut foundations on the Palatine Hill, the traditional site of the hut of Romulus.
• Lupa Capitolina - Originally thought to be an ancient sculpture, this depiction of a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus is most likely medieval, according to radiocarbon dating.
• Plutarch: Life of Romulus - The Loeb translation of Plutarch's Life of Romulus.
• Livy: Ab urbe condita - Translation of Livy's historical work, "From the founding of the city." Use the blue arrows or the navigation bars at the top of the screen to jump to the next section of text.
• Josh's source: Atapuerca - At 1.4 million years old, Atapuerca, Spain is the oldest archaeological site in Western Europe.
• Josh's source: Dmanisi, Georgia - This site is the oldest evidence of humans outside of Africa, at 1.8 million years old!
• Josh's source: Ceprano Man - All about the Ceprano skull from the Middle Pleistocene period, discovered in Italy in 1994.
• Josh's source: Kostenki mammoth bone structures - Josh's source with more info on the practice of using mammoth bones as building material
• Josh's source: Terra Amata Shelter - One of the oldest known structures, identified by post holes

Sara and Sam had the pleasure of joining the fine folks at Screens of the Stone Age for a guest episode, so please enjoy this feed drop of their show!

Today we’re reviewing Attila (2001), a two-part TV miniseries about the infamous king of the Huns, who was a different person from Genghis Khan. We know so little about this period that we needed to invite some guests to help us out: Sara Hales-Brittain and Sam Siegel from the Greeced Lightning podcast join us to talk about trebuchets, armour styles, and how Gerard Butler’s abs defeated the Roman Empire.

Sara’s Sources:

A translation of Priscus's account of his diplomatic visit to Attila's court: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/priscus1.asp

A translation of Jordanes's description of Attila: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/jordanes-attila.asp

A great overview of Roman history, including late antiquity and the "fall" of Rome: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300198317/ancient-rome/

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: [email protected]

In this episode:

Watch Hollywood Action Movies 2016 English - Adventure Movies 2016 Hollywood - New War Movies 2016 for free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nrEXMXgjDE

Catapults vs. trebuchets: https://www.dictionary.com/e/trebuchet-vs-catapult/

Evolution of Roman Armour: https://discover.hubpages.com/education/evolution-of-the-roman-infantry-armor

Attila and Lord of the Rings: https://www.blackgate.com/2012/02/26/tolkien-and-attila/

Gerard Butler’s abs destroyed the Roman Empire (Reddit film review): https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/2h3aui/gerard_butlers_abs_destroyed_the_roman_empire_a/

Viminacium Archaeological Park, Serbia: http://viminacium.org.rs/en/