May 21, 2024 • 37 mins
Back with another fascinating Euripidean woman... Mistaken identities, lost half divine children, and the horrors of Apollo. Help keep LTAMB going by subscribing to Liv's Patreon for bonus content!
CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.
Sources: Euripides' Ion: translation by Cecelia Eaton Luschnig; introduction to Euripides' Orestes and Other Plays by Edith Hall.
Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hi, Hello there. This is Let's talk about miss Baby,
and I am your host, live here with an attempt
to drag myself from this depressive rat that I've been
in by returning to my favorite man of the ancient world, Euripides. Honestly,
it's already working last month. So at last month, I
wrote this piece on Medusa. It's for a collection of
(01:01):
short stories. I've mentioned it before. I will link to
it in the episode's description. My job was to write
almost thirty thousand words on Medusa. God's no I you know,
I leapt at the chance. I'd write about her forever
and be perfectly happy. And I'm really proud of how
the piece turned out, Like I've never dug so deep
into her character and an amounted to just like endless
amounts of inspiration that now I'm just trying to like
(01:22):
wade through and find ways of transitioning some of the
stuff I learned and into an episode or episodes for
the podcast. But I have this great habit of like
overthinking the podcast episodes despite having to do them weekly,
and like having overthinking be quite detrimental to you know,
like actually getting something written once a week, so instead
of of dwelling on all the many things I want
to talk about in the future, but which don't easily
(01:44):
line up into a script, I decided to be inspired
by something very simple, this play by Euripides. So I've
never read the ion. I will admit that now we're
going to dive into it together like we often do
with these plays, you know, with me discovering most of
the plot along with you all, because honestly, I know
(02:04):
very little about the plot of this play, particularly unlike
most others, because it isn't tied to a myth that
we know of, or at least as the mythology around
these characters survive. This story is unique to Euripides and
what I know of it. Though what I know of
this play is intriguing enough to get us all excited,
(02:26):
because the reason I found this inspiration from writing about
this cultural history of Medusa is that it features the
blood of a Gorgan, but not Medusa, not even her
Gorgon sisters. This is a whole other Gorgan, one that
I haven't found elsewhere, one that is not born of
forcis in Cato, like the more famous Gorgans in every
(02:48):
source we have for them, but instead one that is
far more primordial. This gorgan, whose blood means both life
and death, was born of the earth itself. But we've
got a whole lot of play to get through before
we actually learn of this gorgan and heads up. Like
so many stories from Greek myth, this play does feed
(03:08):
assault by a god. It is a pretty heavy plot point,
so take care. The play begins after the assault, but
the trauma is revisited in the play. Take care, but
you know, from an antiquity perspective, actually, this is one
of the rare cases where assault is treated as exactly
that we can trust Euripides to handle the story with care.
(03:30):
And that's why I'm sharing a play in the first place.
I'm using a couple of versions of it, which I
will detail in the end and in the episode's description.
But as the introduction of one of the versions says,
this introduction is written by Edith Hall quote, few rape
victims in Western literature have until recently been offered such
a full hearing, and Creusa's reaction to the assault is
(03:52):
informed by a realistic, malignant anger against her rapist. That's right,
once more, Euripides is bringing us a story of realistic
ancient female rage. I just love him. Before we get there, though,
I want to tell you about some future plans featuring
my beloved playwright, because I'll never let him go. It
(04:15):
will be either August or September. Plans haven't yet been confirmed,
but we will be dedicating an entire month of episodes
to eur because I simply have to as much as
I can manage. This won't be episodes retelling the plot
of any of his plays, but instead about him as
a person or you know, his theater, whatever I can
do outside of just reading the plays. I want to
learn everything there is about him as a real person
(04:38):
who wrote the plays that I am so deeply obsessed with,
and who seemed so interested in women's lived experiences, This
man who sought to tell their stories in ways that
set him so distinctly apart from the other surviving playwrights
and ancient writers generally. I just want to know Euripides
as a person. But until then we will continue learning
(04:59):
about him through this particular work. This is episode two
sixty Beware the Blood of a Gorgon. Euripides is Ion
(05:24):
Part one. Euripides' Ion is one of his alphabet plays.
If you don't remember what that means. It's the thing
(05:45):
I talk about far too often. The reason we have
so many more plays from Euripides than the other two
tragedians because of this dumb random luck. The plays generally
broadly survived because they became school texts or otherwise were
specific works that became famous and well read enough that
manuscripts managed to survive time. This would be because they
(06:06):
were recopied off enough, which is why it was specific
to texts that were revered or used in these particular
ways that had them surviving. That's true of many of
Euripid's plays, just as it's why we have the plays
by Sophocles and Escylists that we do have. But a
collection of other Euripides plays weren't used in schools. They
weren't necessarily considered to be his best work or the
(06:29):
best work of tragedians at all. They weren't like the
other plays that we have. Instead, it was this dumb
random luck. This Byzantine period collector had an alphabetically sordid
collection of Euripides, and one portion of it managed to survive.
It's how we have the helen Ifig and Eye among
the Tatorians, many others, and this Ion. So these are
(06:54):
not his most famous plays from the ancient world, but
if anything to me that makes them more interesting. In
the Helen and if Aganie among Theatorians, we have some
of his weirder plays, like those that are less tragic
and more bizarre in the best ways possible. And I
gather and have every hope that the Ion fits into
this description. And we're off to a good start because
(07:17):
it opens with a speech from a god, Hermes. But
first a little necessary background. This play features a character
named Creusa. This Creusa is the daughter of Erectheus, one
of Athens's earliest and most important mythological kings. She was also,
like so many other women of myth raped by Apollo.
(07:38):
Now this is the plot summary that survives from some
of the earliest surviving forms of this play. Quote. Apollo
raped Creusa, daughter of Erectheus, in Athens and made her pregnant.
She exposed the child that was born under the Acropolis,
making this same place a witness to the crime and
the birthing. Then Hermes lifted up the infant and took
him to Delphi, where the prophetess found him and brought
(08:00):
him up. Creusa was married to Xuthus. After assisting the
Athenians in battle, he received as a reward the kingship
and marriage to the woman in question. No other child
was born to him. On the other hand, the people
of Delphi made the boy who was brought up by
the prophetess a temple keeper. In this way, without being
aware of it, he served his father. The boy is,
(08:23):
as you might have guessed, going to be named Ion,
and the setting of the play Delphi. Enter Hermes. This
(08:46):
play begins with a god on stage that always really
stands out to me, particularly when we're talking about a
play where the mythological backstory is either primarily lost or
was maybe just fully invented by Euripides. Ion as a
character exists beyond the playwright, but the Apollo of it
all may have been his invention, and so enter Hermes.
(09:08):
He addresses the audience, telling them the backstory. As this
kind of prologue. Hermes introduces himself and then he says
where he is Delphi the realm of Apollo. But it
is Apollo, he says, who raped the daughter of Erectheus
Creusa at the base of the acropolis in Athens, at
a place they call the Long rocks the act. He
(09:31):
tells the audience resulted in a child. Creusa hid her
pregnancy from her father. When she gave birth, she brought
the baby to the spot where Apollo had assaulted her,
and there she exposed the child, left him to die
in a wicker basket and with whatever gold riches she
had on her, as her tradition required. Hermes goes on.
(09:52):
He says that Apollo sent him to Athens to save
the child, to take him in his basket, and to
bring him to Delphi, to take him to the oracle
and leave him by the entrance of the temple, and
from there Apollo had instructed he'd handle things. The priestess
at the temple found the baby and fed him, cared
for him, though she didn't know who the parents were,
(10:13):
So there the child grew up, becoming a steward of
the god at the temple in Delphi. Meanwhile, Creusa in
Athens went on to marry Xuthus. For years they were together,
but remained childless. That Hermi says is why they are
now in Delphi seeking an audience with the oracle. But
(10:33):
he says, Apollo will once again take it from here.
He will give the boy who will shortly be named
Ion touke Xuthus when he comes to speak with the Pithia,
and he will be told that the boy is his. Then,
Hermes explains, when the boy reaches Xuthus and Creusa's home,
she will recognize him, and Apollo's assault will remain secret.
(10:58):
Hermes finishes his speech saying quote, well, now I'll move
aside into this grove of Laurel, so I can learn
just what is decided concerning the boy. I see Loxias's
son coming out here to festoon the doors of the
temple with bay branches, and I, first among the gods,
call him Ion, with the name that is going to
(11:20):
be his. Hermes leaves to hide in some bushes and
watch as Ion joins the stage, followed by silent attendants.
He sings of the chariot of the Sun, how Helios
lights the earth and the stars fly off into the night.
He sings of Parnassus, the mountain home of Delphi, and
(11:40):
how it catches the sun's first light. He sings quote,
the smoke of Phoebus's arid Arabian incense wafts to the rooftops.
The woman of Delphi is seated on the sacred tripod,
singing to the Hellenes whatever noises Apollo calls out to her.
(12:01):
He then speaks to the other attendants, sending them off
to the nearby Castalian springs where they can bathe and
then return. He advises them to be silent, to be
aware of those who are there to visit the oracle.
Ion is immediately giving off this really intense piety. He's
taken his role of temple attendant of Delphi very seriously
(12:22):
and speaks of his concern that they all must appear
as they should, speak as they should, and behave as
they should. He speaks of toiling at the same tasks
as he did as a child, keeping the space clean
and fresh, and keeping away birds that might, to put
it colloquially, shit on the temple's sacred offerings. He sings
(12:44):
to the audience of his life, how he has no parents,
but serves the temples and Apollo, how they have been
both mother and father to him over the years. His
speech is very poetic, more than usual. The way he
speaks of Delphi and Apollo is moving. He is utterly
devoted to the space and its tradition, the God and
(13:06):
the overall importance of what he is a part of.
He sings of Apollo, prays for his well being, and
of the glory that he feels it just being an
attendant to the god. Quote, Phoebus is a father to me,
my bagetter, I bless the one who feeds me, and
say the name of Father, so kind to me. Of
(13:28):
Phoebus present in this temple, Ion sings of the birds,
so many birds understood to be these messengers of gods.
He threatens them, sending them off elsewhere where they won't
disturb or defile the sacred sanctuary of Delphi, but he
wouldn't harm them. And all along he sings these prayers
(13:50):
to Apollo and of his love for his life as
an attendant to that god, a god he sees as
his kind of foster father. Because oh does Euripides love
a story of mistaken or mysterious identity and Greek tragedy broadly.
So it is here where Ion stops his song and
(14:12):
continues on his duties of the temple, and the chorus arrives.
They're women, like so many of Euripides, as choruses enslaved
attendance to Creusa, who is there with her husband Xuthus,
just as Harmony's laid out. The chorus sings of art
(14:40):
and beauty. Specifically, they sing of the temples and the
buildings of Delphi. They're from Athens, so they are first
in awe of how fine the sanctuary is, even when
compared to the ones in Athens. They speak of the
art on the temple itself, pointing out the mythological scenes
that were depicted on it, Heracles defeating the Hydra with
(15:02):
the help of Iolaus, Bellerophon defeating the Chimera while riding
atop the winged Pegasus. They sing of the gigantomic e,
how the war between gods and giants is depicted in
the stone walls. They see Athena and her gorgon shield
facing down the giant. In Calidas, they see Zeus fighting
(15:22):
another giant, and Bacchus too, how he wielded the thrsus
as a weapon. Then the chorus spots Ion and they ask, quote, hello, there,
I mean you by the temple. Is it lawful to
enter the sacred hollows on women's feet ah? An unfortunately
reasonable question, to which Ion replies, now, can we ask
(15:44):
you for something? Then Ion agrees, so they ask if
it's true that the temple houses the navel of the earth,
the center of everything. Yes, he tells them, and it's
quote wrapped in bands of wool, with gorgons all around it.
Gorgans are already becoming a em here the navel too.
If you don't remember, is this long standing tradition. Delphy
(16:07):
was understood to be the center of the earth. The
story goes that Zeus set out to find the center,
so he sent two eagles flying in opposite directions, and
where they met, there in Delphi, was it. And so
there they sculpted the navel, the belly button of the earth.
But it was also a physical thing, like a sculpture
(16:28):
that looks a bit like a pine cone, maybe a boob,
misshapen boob, a beehive. Maybe. Now that I've spoken to
that Artemis expert, there's still a replica, in an ancient
original of some kind in Delphi today. It's very cool
and weird. Ion goes on to tell them that if
they've sacrificed a meal offering, they can ask something of
(16:49):
Phoebus Apollo at the altars, but without sacrificing sheep, they
can't enter the temple itself. This is interesting, if only
because it implies that maybe earlier like it wasn't that
they were women that made it unlawful for them to
go in, just that they hadn't made the necessary sacrifices. Regardless,
the chorus is happy to adhere to whatever he said.
(17:09):
They're not looking to anger the God, and what they
can see from the outside is more than enough. When
they reference that they've been granted permission by their master
to visit the temple, Ion asks who that is, to
which they say, and this is fascinating quote. The halls
that raise dark kings share a roof with Pallas's temple.
But here she is you can ask her in person.
(17:31):
It's Creusa entering, and it's her that they're speaking of here.
So they are acknowledging Creusa as their master, not just
that they are her attendants, but that she is their master.
I mean, this strong woman moment is of course cringe
worthy because these choral women are enslaved. It's awful, but
it still implies an importance and independence in Creusa that
is quite unique, especially in Athens, Like there's no mention
(17:55):
of Suthus at all, only Creusa when they are talking
about like who owns them again. It's horrifying to talk
about it in this way. It remains true. And this Creusa,
who has just walked onto the stage, and this chorus
has just called her their master, who has given them
this permission. She is about to meet her long lost child,
(18:17):
even if neither of them will realize it. Ion greets
(18:49):
this woman he doesn't know is his biological mother and
immediately notes that she must be of nobility. It's clear
in her appearance, but he notes that she looks sad
that she startled him with tears in her eyes at
the sight of Apollo's temple quote everybody else on visiting
the god's precinct feels joy, but your face is drenched
(19:11):
with tears. Creusa tells him that he must have been
brought up to be kind if he's so concerned about
her just from the site. She tells him that at
the sight of Apollo's space, an old memory came back
to her that it made her think of home quote.
Women's lives are full of woe. Gods can be so ruthless.
(19:35):
What can be done? Where? How can we recover justice?
If we are ruined by the injustice of those who
rule us? And I don't even know how to begin
unpacking how meaningful that quote is in so many ways.
This is why your epanies is it for me? Because
(19:56):
every time I dive into one of his plays, he
gives me a woman who is a woman like she
is not a woman written by an ancient Athenian who
lived by the status quo and thought nothing of the
lived experiences of the women around him. She was written
by a man who gave us shit, who took stock
of the women of Athens, and how they were oppressed,
how incidents of assault resulted in this quote? How can
(20:19):
we recover justice if we are ruined by the injustice
of those who rule us? Like going beyond the experiences
of women in the ancient world. That line just resonates
in ways that I didn't see coming. It screams of
the Western world right now. How so many of us
(20:41):
see the impending collapse of capitalism and how it ties
with imperialism and the West's obsession with controlling the world.
How we protest and protest, how we show that the
majority is against what our countries are doing, but they're
doing it anyway, because now it doesn't matter what the
people actually want not when the money and the power
of the West is what's at stake. But Creusa, well,
(21:06):
Creusa is talking about herself, the things she experienced when
she was young. Ion asks her what has her so sad,
But she doesn't tell him anything except who she is.
She is Creusa, the daughter of Erectheus, that she comes
from the land of the Athenians. Note she does not
say she is an Athenian. She may be of Athenian nobility,
(21:30):
that she is still a woman. And Ion has heard
stories of Athens and its founding family, so he asks,
quote by the gods, is it true? As the story
goes among mortals, did your father's forefather really burst forth
from the earth? He did, she tells him, But her
own birth did her no good. Ion is still interested
(21:53):
in this forefather Ericthonius together through an instance of this stichomythia. Actually,
this whole thing between these two is this very very
long back and forth, bouncing off each other of dialogue.
They recall the story of Athens, how Erichthonius was born
from the earth, how Athena fostered him even though he
(22:14):
wasn't her child, that just as it's depicted in paintings.
She gave the baby to the daughters of cay Crops
to keep safe, but the daughters opened to the goddess's
chest and so were cursed. They died on the rocks
of the acropolis. Creusa and Ion speak of Creosa's own father, Erectheus.
(22:34):
Ion asks if it's true that he sacrificed his daughters,
her sisters to this, she says, quote, he took it
upon himself to kill the girls for his country. Oh
isn't that just Athens? She survived because she was only
a newborn, Creusa explains, and when Ion asks, she confirms
that her father is buried in a chasm in the earth,
(22:56):
one caused by the strike of Poseidon's trident when he
killed him. Then Ion asks about the place at the
base of the acropolis that they call the long rocks. This,
she tells him, has brought back a memory. He tells
her that quote the Pithia honors it with Pythion flashes
(23:19):
of lightning, to which Creusa replies, quote honors it, honors it.
How I wish I had never seen it. Ion is confused.
How could she hate such a sacred space? She tells him.
Quote something shameful happened in the caves, which just that
(23:40):
hits hard the idea of having to call your trauma
something shameful, And because this is Euripides, this reveal is
immediately followed by Ion asking her who she married. The
most interesting part of all Greek tragedy is the idea
of what the audience knows versus what the characters know.
There is always a disconnect. Rarely is there ever a
(24:03):
big surprise for the audience. You know, they tend to
know the mythological backstory of nearly every play. But instead
it's about how the story is told, how the anticipation
is being built, just what is going to happen to
lead up to the reveal that the audience knows is coming.
So having Creusa mentioned the place of the assault that
led to the conception of the very boy that she's
(24:25):
talking to, even if she hasn't said what happened and
neither know that they are mother and son, you know,
only to have it followed by the question of who
she married your repedies is just he is building that tension.
(24:51):
Creusa tells Ion that she didn't marry an Athenian, but
a man from Achaia, a foreigner Xuthus, She says it
is a descendant of Zeus himself. She explains that she
married this non Athenian because he came to the aid
of her people her family in a battle on the
nearby eyeland of Evia, that he won her as a result,
(25:12):
and when Ion asks, she confirms that he is there
at Delphi with her, but that her husband stopped along
the way, and she continued on. So she is a
woman standing at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo
at Delphi, one of the most sacred and important places
in all of ancient Greece, and she's there alone, like
she is the important one here. We know it from
(25:34):
the plot, but Euripides is making very clear that Xuthus
is not the star of the show. Even Ion isn't
the star of the show, even if it's named for him.
This is about Creusa, the temple attendant, the son she
doesn't know is her son. Asks her what it is
that's brought her and her husband there to Delphi. What
have they come to ask the oracle. They have no children,
(25:57):
she tells him, despite having been married for a long time,
to which Ion says, quote, you have never given birth,
but are childless, and Creusa says only, quote, Phoebus knows
the story of my childlessness. This is her way of
avoiding one part of the question without telling a lie,
and also adding so many jabs at Apollo as not
(26:21):
only her rapist, but also the god of prophecy and
the oracle itself. This is just so much happening. Ion
tells her that he's sorry that she is lucky for
many things, but not her childlessness. It's this very real response,
like real empathy for someone who is struggling. And so
(26:41):
Creusa tells him that she envies his mother and asks
who he is. Ion tells her, quote, I am called
the slave of the god, Lady, That's what I am.
What a reply when we know that not only is
I on her son, but Apollo's too, like he is
a slave to his own father, because Apollo is Apollo.
(27:06):
Creusa asks him how he came to be that way.
Was he sold by some city or a person? But
Ion says he knows only that he belongs to Apollo,
and for this Creosa shows him the same compassion that
he showed her. She asks him if he lives there
in the sanctuary or in a house. Ion sleeps anywhere
(27:27):
it finds him. He tells her he's been there since
he was a child. He says he never knew his
mother or father, and Creusa says, quote, I find in
you a sickness that I share. When Ion tells her
that it's the Pythia herself that he sees as his
mother and that he's been sustained on the food left
(27:48):
at the temple, Creusa says she feels sorry for his mother,
to which he suggests, quote, perhaps I was born because
of a woman's wrongs. Creosa doesn't entertain this. She points
out that for his situation, he seems well off. He's
dressed well, and he has a livelihood. She asks him
(28:09):
if he's ever thought to look into where he came from,
but he has no evidence at all to go off.
He wouldn't know where to start, he says. To this,
Creusa says, quote, ugh, another woman has suffered the same
as your mother, who he asks he'd be happy if
she'd help him in his search. Creusa says, quote, I
(28:32):
have come here for her sake before my husband arrives.
And so again we are reminded that she is this
Athenian woman out on her own seeking answers away from
her husband. Ion offers to help. He can be her
sponsor for the oracle. He says, you know, help her
with what she is seeking, So he asks her what
(28:52):
it is that happened, but Criusa doesn't want to share
the story. She says she's ashamed. Finally, though, she tells
him quote one of my friends says that she lay
with Phoebus, that she bore him a child in secret,
that she isn't lying, dying, isn't covering up for being
wronged by a man, that she suffered, that she birthed
(29:14):
a baby by the god and exposed him. And when
Ion asks if the baby still lives, she tells him
that she doesn't know, and that's why she's here to
ask the Oracle about this lost child. Nerds, I don't
(29:49):
even know how to express how I feel about this
play so far. Every single time I crack into a
new play by Euripides, I'm just blown away. Like I
keep thinking that I've got him figured out, that my
love for him and my appreciation for his characters is
like at its peak, And then I read lines like
the ones that I've quoted to you today, like acknowledgments
that women lived difficult life, that they were ruled by men,
(30:10):
that assault happened by gods, and that it left trauma,
that they were real people. You know, Even when Creusa
says that her friend lay with Apollo like that is
rendered in quotations by this translation, as if she is
saying it in the same way that I say it
on the show. All the time that I wrote so
(30:31):
much of this into the meducipiece that I'm talking about this,
this concept of lay with this amorphous phrase that implies
nothing at all about agency or intent, and yet is
so often used to defend the actions of the gods
Crisa is. I mean, I'm fucking obsessed already with her,
you know, and we're not even four hundred lines in.
(30:52):
As always, I went searching for a translation by a woman,
and she did not disappoint, So I'm using primarily a
translation by Cecilia Lushnig, which is available through Diatoma. I've
linked in the episode's description It's wonderful so far, and
gods like lay with quotations line really sealed it from me.
I've also got an Oxford Classics edition that that so
(31:15):
far I've just used for its wonderful introduction, which is
by Edith Hall. I mentioned some of that at the top. Again,
both are listed in the apps of the description. And
I can't wait for the rest of this play, which
I mean, honestly, it's it's exciting for so many reasons.
This is the first episode that I've written in weeks
and weeks I've been really depressed and anxious, and the
idea of sitting down and writing five thousand words of
fun and interesting insights into the ancient world just it's
(31:38):
really felt really daunting. I figured Ripides would help me
bring back, you bring me back into this world, to
this thing that I do fucking love doing, but I've
had trouble loving lately. And of course, honestly, like he
did fucking Eurippities, he helped more than I could have
ever guessed, because I just the number of lines in
(31:58):
those three point fifty that I've read for today's episode
that are just gonna like stick with me for the
foreseeable future. No one gets me like your Rippandies. So
thank you well so much for listening, thank you for
standing by me as I've gone through just like fucking everything,
as I melt down because the state of the world
in my own life has me drowning and sad. I'm
doing better if yeah, even if the world is doing worse.
(32:22):
I'm just so thankful for how many of you have
reached out or left reviews or just like anything that
you've done. You're awesome. Thank you. And speaking of reviews,
I've gotten quite a few over the past couple of weeks,
which is really fucking lovely and just they're all like
I mean, they're so fucking nice, and they make me
feel so good and they remind me of how much
I do love what I do and how much it
does mean to you all. I really needed them. So
(32:42):
I'm going to read a couple today and more next
week because you're all amazing and I love you. This
first one is short and sweet from a username that
honestly is just like a series of mostly consonants. It's
very clearly just like jamming your hands on a keyboards.
I'm not gonna bother trying to read it, but it
is from the States and it's headlined just I love
this shit. I'm so glad you found a use for
all your studies and continuing the oral tradition of storytelling.
(33:04):
Keep up the good work. Thank you. This next one
I simultaneously wrenched at my heart and then soothed so
much of the mess that is my psyche lately. Like,
I really can't say how badly I needed this next review.
I can't possibly express it. It's from a user called
late in London from the UK. Came for the myths
and stayed for the rants. I came to this show
(33:25):
while researching me in need for work, but it is
the very real and emotional tying in of the myths
and history to current events that has kept me listening.
I feel really grateful for Liv's bravery and talking about
the horrors of this moment in time. I can hear
that she is being so careful to articulate the unspeakable
realities slash nightmares of the past six months especially, and
I totally love her for it. Please keep talking about
(33:46):
the horrific nature of imperialism today. Selfishly, it is helpful
to hear someone else fraying at the edges in disbelief
and sadness, but then also distracting me with stories from
thousands of years ago. Thank you, really, Like sometimes I
need to be told that my own praying at the
edges and the rants that accompany those moments are actually
resonating with people. Like podcasting is amazing, but it's also
(34:11):
so isolating. I know conceptually that tens of thousands of
people listen to me, but for the most part, like
I don't hear much from you all, in in part
because I haven't been able to be active on social
media lately for my own mental health, and I just
it's a mess. And sometimes I just wonder if anyone
is like really hearing me. And this makes it clear
(34:33):
that many of you are, and I really appreciate it,
so thank you, and please everyone, don't let yourselves forget
what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank too.
Our governments don't want us seeing it because if we
don't see it, then they can keep doing it. It's
why they're trying to ban TikTok. I mean, that's the US,
(34:55):
but it's gonna spread save Gaza softly and this killing
of innocent people. Hold them accountable for turning down so
many ceasefire deals that promised the full return of hostages
just so long as they stopped killing all of these people.
Don't let them continue to gaslight us into believing that,
like anything about this is necessary or humane or justifiable
(35:19):
in any way. We cannot. We cannot let them get
away with the amount of propaganda and gaslighting that is
happening in the West right now. We cannot let them
convince us that killing like we're probably at one hundred
thousand people. They killed everyone who counted at forty thousand,
and that was months and months ago. We cannot let
(35:42):
them convince us that killing one hundred thousand innocent people,
mostly children, is justifiable. You can't convince me that children
are terrorists. You can't convince me that a two year
old or a three month old deserve to die because terrorism.
That is absurd and no one should. We should not
(36:04):
let them even keep saying this utter fucking bullshit. Let's
talk about myths. Baby is written and produced by me
Live Albert. MICHAELA. Smith is the hermes to my Olympians.
My assistant producer, Laura Smith is the production assistant and
audio engineer. Select music used in this episode was by
Luke Chaos. The podcast is part of the iHeart podcast Network.
(36:26):
Listen on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
Maybe also while you're there, stream hins Hall on repeat.
Help me continue bringing you the world of Greek mythology
and the ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron, where you'll
get bonus episodes and more. Visit patreon dot com, slash mythsmaby,
or click the link in this episode's description. I am
(36:50):
live and I love this shit.
Hi, Hello there. This is Let's talk about miss Baby,
and I am your host, live here with an attempt
to drag myself from this depressive rat that I've been
in by returning to my favorite man of the ancient world, Euripides. Honestly,
it's already working last month. So at last month, I
wrote this piece on Medusa. It's for a collection of
(01:01):
short stories. I've mentioned it before. I will link to
it in the episode's description. My job was to write
almost thirty thousand words on Medusa. God's no I you know,
I leapt at the chance. I'd write about her forever
and be perfectly happy. And I'm really proud of how
the piece turned out, Like I've never dug so deep
into her character and an amounted to just like endless
amounts of inspiration that now I'm just trying to like
(01:22):
wade through and find ways of transitioning some of the
stuff I learned and into an episode or episodes for
the podcast. But I have this great habit of like
overthinking the podcast episodes despite having to do them weekly,
and like having overthinking be quite detrimental to you know,
like actually getting something written once a week, so instead
of of dwelling on all the many things I want
to talk about in the future, but which don't easily
(01:44):
line up into a script, I decided to be inspired
by something very simple, this play by Euripides. So I've
never read the ion. I will admit that now we're
going to dive into it together like we often do
with these plays, you know, with me discovering most of
the plot along with you all, because honestly, I know
(02:04):
very little about the plot of this play, particularly unlike
most others, because it isn't tied to a myth that
we know of, or at least as the mythology around
these characters survive. This story is unique to Euripides and
what I know of it. Though what I know of
this play is intriguing enough to get us all excited,
(02:26):
because the reason I found this inspiration from writing about
this cultural history of Medusa is that it features the
blood of a Gorgan, but not Medusa, not even her
Gorgon sisters. This is a whole other Gorgan, one that
I haven't found elsewhere, one that is not born of
forcis in Cato, like the more famous Gorgans in every
(02:48):
source we have for them, but instead one that is
far more primordial. This gorgan, whose blood means both life
and death, was born of the earth itself. But we've
got a whole lot of play to get through before
we actually learn of this gorgan and heads up. Like
so many stories from Greek myth, this play does feed
(03:08):
assault by a god. It is a pretty heavy plot point,
so take care. The play begins after the assault, but
the trauma is revisited in the play. Take care, but
you know, from an antiquity perspective, actually, this is one
of the rare cases where assault is treated as exactly
that we can trust Euripides to handle the story with care.
(03:30):
And that's why I'm sharing a play in the first place.
I'm using a couple of versions of it, which I
will detail in the end and in the episode's description.
But as the introduction of one of the versions says,
this introduction is written by Edith Hall quote, few rape
victims in Western literature have until recently been offered such
a full hearing, and Creusa's reaction to the assault is
(03:52):
informed by a realistic, malignant anger against her rapist. That's right,
once more, Euripides is bringing us a story of realistic
ancient female rage. I just love him. Before we get there, though,
I want to tell you about some future plans featuring
my beloved playwright, because I'll never let him go. It
(04:15):
will be either August or September. Plans haven't yet been confirmed,
but we will be dedicating an entire month of episodes
to eur because I simply have to as much as
I can manage. This won't be episodes retelling the plot
of any of his plays, but instead about him as
a person or you know, his theater, whatever I can
do outside of just reading the plays. I want to
learn everything there is about him as a real person
(04:38):
who wrote the plays that I am so deeply obsessed with,
and who seemed so interested in women's lived experiences, This
man who sought to tell their stories in ways that
set him so distinctly apart from the other surviving playwrights
and ancient writers generally. I just want to know Euripides
as a person. But until then we will continue learning
(04:59):
about him through this particular work. This is episode two
sixty Beware the Blood of a Gorgon. Euripides is Ion
(05:24):
Part one. Euripides' Ion is one of his alphabet plays.
If you don't remember what that means. It's the thing
(05:45):
I talk about far too often. The reason we have
so many more plays from Euripides than the other two
tragedians because of this dumb random luck. The plays generally
broadly survived because they became school texts or otherwise were
specific works that became famous and well read enough that
manuscripts managed to survive time. This would be because they
(06:06):
were recopied off enough, which is why it was specific
to texts that were revered or used in these particular
ways that had them surviving. That's true of many of
Euripid's plays, just as it's why we have the plays
by Sophocles and Escylists that we do have. But a
collection of other Euripides plays weren't used in schools. They
weren't necessarily considered to be his best work or the
(06:29):
best work of tragedians at all. They weren't like the
other plays that we have. Instead, it was this dumb
random luck. This Byzantine period collector had an alphabetically sordid
collection of Euripides, and one portion of it managed to survive.
It's how we have the helen Ifig and Eye among
the Tatorians, many others, and this Ion. So these are
(06:54):
not his most famous plays from the ancient world, but
if anything to me that makes them more interesting. In
the Helen and if Aganie among Theatorians, we have some
of his weirder plays, like those that are less tragic
and more bizarre in the best ways possible. And I
gather and have every hope that the Ion fits into
this description. And we're off to a good start because
(07:17):
it opens with a speech from a god, Hermes. But
first a little necessary background. This play features a character
named Creusa. This Creusa is the daughter of Erectheus, one
of Athens's earliest and most important mythological kings. She was also,
like so many other women of myth raped by Apollo.
(07:38):
Now this is the plot summary that survives from some
of the earliest surviving forms of this play. Quote. Apollo
raped Creusa, daughter of Erectheus, in Athens and made her pregnant.
She exposed the child that was born under the Acropolis,
making this same place a witness to the crime and
the birthing. Then Hermes lifted up the infant and took
him to Delphi, where the prophetess found him and brought
(08:00):
him up. Creusa was married to Xuthus. After assisting the
Athenians in battle, he received as a reward the kingship
and marriage to the woman in question. No other child
was born to him. On the other hand, the people
of Delphi made the boy who was brought up by
the prophetess a temple keeper. In this way, without being
aware of it, he served his father. The boy is,
(08:23):
as you might have guessed, going to be named Ion,
and the setting of the play Delphi. Enter Hermes. This
(08:46):
play begins with a god on stage that always really
stands out to me, particularly when we're talking about a
play where the mythological backstory is either primarily lost or
was maybe just fully invented by Euripides. Ion as a
character exists beyond the playwright, but the Apollo of it
all may have been his invention, and so enter Hermes.
(09:08):
He addresses the audience, telling them the backstory. As this
kind of prologue. Hermes introduces himself and then he says
where he is Delphi the realm of Apollo. But it
is Apollo, he says, who raped the daughter of Erectheus
Creusa at the base of the acropolis in Athens, at
a place they call the Long rocks the act. He
(09:31):
tells the audience resulted in a child. Creusa hid her
pregnancy from her father. When she gave birth, she brought
the baby to the spot where Apollo had assaulted her,
and there she exposed the child, left him to die
in a wicker basket and with whatever gold riches she
had on her, as her tradition required. Hermes goes on.
(09:52):
He says that Apollo sent him to Athens to save
the child, to take him in his basket, and to
bring him to Delphi, to take him to the oracle
and leave him by the entrance of the temple, and
from there Apollo had instructed he'd handle things. The priestess
at the temple found the baby and fed him, cared
for him, though she didn't know who the parents were,
(10:13):
So there the child grew up, becoming a steward of
the god at the temple in Delphi. Meanwhile, Creusa in
Athens went on to marry Xuthus. For years they were together,
but remained childless. That Hermi says is why they are
now in Delphi seeking an audience with the oracle. But
(10:33):
he says, Apollo will once again take it from here.
He will give the boy who will shortly be named
Ion touke Xuthus when he comes to speak with the Pithia,
and he will be told that the boy is his. Then,
Hermes explains, when the boy reaches Xuthus and Creusa's home,
she will recognize him, and Apollo's assault will remain secret.
(10:58):
Hermes finishes his speech saying quote, well, now I'll move
aside into this grove of Laurel, so I can learn
just what is decided concerning the boy. I see Loxias's
son coming out here to festoon the doors of the
temple with bay branches, and I, first among the gods,
call him Ion, with the name that is going to
(11:20):
be his. Hermes leaves to hide in some bushes and
watch as Ion joins the stage, followed by silent attendants.
He sings of the chariot of the Sun, how Helios
lights the earth and the stars fly off into the night.
He sings of Parnassus, the mountain home of Delphi, and
(11:40):
how it catches the sun's first light. He sings quote,
the smoke of Phoebus's arid Arabian incense wafts to the rooftops.
The woman of Delphi is seated on the sacred tripod,
singing to the Hellenes whatever noises Apollo calls out to her.
(12:01):
He then speaks to the other attendants, sending them off
to the nearby Castalian springs where they can bathe and
then return. He advises them to be silent, to be
aware of those who are there to visit the oracle.
Ion is immediately giving off this really intense piety. He's
taken his role of temple attendant of Delphi very seriously
(12:22):
and speaks of his concern that they all must appear
as they should, speak as they should, and behave as
they should. He speaks of toiling at the same tasks
as he did as a child, keeping the space clean
and fresh, and keeping away birds that might, to put
it colloquially, shit on the temple's sacred offerings. He sings
(12:44):
to the audience of his life, how he has no parents,
but serves the temples and Apollo, how they have been
both mother and father to him over the years. His
speech is very poetic, more than usual. The way he
speaks of Delphi and Apollo is moving. He is utterly
devoted to the space and its tradition, the God and
(13:06):
the overall importance of what he is a part of.
He sings of Apollo, prays for his well being, and
of the glory that he feels it just being an
attendant to the god. Quote, Phoebus is a father to me,
my bagetter, I bless the one who feeds me, and
say the name of Father, so kind to me. Of
(13:28):
Phoebus present in this temple, Ion sings of the birds,
so many birds understood to be these messengers of gods.
He threatens them, sending them off elsewhere where they won't
disturb or defile the sacred sanctuary of Delphi, but he
wouldn't harm them. And all along he sings these prayers
(13:50):
to Apollo and of his love for his life as
an attendant to that god, a god he sees as
his kind of foster father. Because oh does Euripides love
a story of mistaken or mysterious identity and Greek tragedy broadly.
So it is here where Ion stops his song and
(14:12):
continues on his duties of the temple, and the chorus arrives.
They're women, like so many of Euripides, as choruses enslaved
attendance to Creusa, who is there with her husband Xuthus,
just as Harmony's laid out. The chorus sings of art
(14:40):
and beauty. Specifically, they sing of the temples and the
buildings of Delphi. They're from Athens, so they are first
in awe of how fine the sanctuary is, even when
compared to the ones in Athens. They speak of the
art on the temple itself, pointing out the mythological scenes
that were depicted on it, Heracles defeating the Hydra with
(15:02):
the help of Iolaus, Bellerophon defeating the Chimera while riding
atop the winged Pegasus. They sing of the gigantomic e,
how the war between gods and giants is depicted in
the stone walls. They see Athena and her gorgon shield
facing down the giant. In Calidas, they see Zeus fighting
(15:22):
another giant, and Bacchus too, how he wielded the thrsus
as a weapon. Then the chorus spots Ion and they ask, quote, hello, there,
I mean you by the temple. Is it lawful to
enter the sacred hollows on women's feet ah? An unfortunately
reasonable question, to which Ion replies, now, can we ask
(15:44):
you for something? Then Ion agrees, so they ask if
it's true that the temple houses the navel of the earth,
the center of everything. Yes, he tells them, and it's
quote wrapped in bands of wool, with gorgons all around it.
Gorgans are already becoming a em here the navel too.
If you don't remember, is this long standing tradition. Delphy
(16:07):
was understood to be the center of the earth. The
story goes that Zeus set out to find the center,
so he sent two eagles flying in opposite directions, and
where they met, there in Delphi, was it. And so
there they sculpted the navel, the belly button of the earth.
But it was also a physical thing, like a sculpture
(16:28):
that looks a bit like a pine cone, maybe a boob,
misshapen boob, a beehive. Maybe. Now that I've spoken to
that Artemis expert, there's still a replica, in an ancient
original of some kind in Delphi today. It's very cool
and weird. Ion goes on to tell them that if
they've sacrificed a meal offering, they can ask something of
(16:49):
Phoebus Apollo at the altars, but without sacrificing sheep, they
can't enter the temple itself. This is interesting, if only
because it implies that maybe earlier like it wasn't that
they were women that made it unlawful for them to
go in, just that they hadn't made the necessary sacrifices. Regardless,
the chorus is happy to adhere to whatever he said.
(17:09):
They're not looking to anger the God, and what they
can see from the outside is more than enough. When
they reference that they've been granted permission by their master
to visit the temple, Ion asks who that is, to
which they say, and this is fascinating quote. The halls
that raise dark kings share a roof with Pallas's temple.
But here she is you can ask her in person.
(17:31):
It's Creusa entering, and it's her that they're speaking of here.
So they are acknowledging Creusa as their master, not just
that they are her attendants, but that she is their master.
I mean, this strong woman moment is of course cringe
worthy because these choral women are enslaved. It's awful, but
it still implies an importance and independence in Creusa that
is quite unique, especially in Athens, Like there's no mention
(17:55):
of Suthus at all, only Creusa when they are talking
about like who owns them again. It's horrifying to talk
about it in this way. It remains true. And this Creusa,
who has just walked onto the stage, and this chorus
has just called her their master, who has given them
this permission. She is about to meet her long lost child,
(18:17):
even if neither of them will realize it. Ion greets
(18:49):
this woman he doesn't know is his biological mother and
immediately notes that she must be of nobility. It's clear
in her appearance, but he notes that she looks sad
that she startled him with tears in her eyes at
the sight of Apollo's temple quote everybody else on visiting
the god's precinct feels joy, but your face is drenched
(19:11):
with tears. Creusa tells him that he must have been
brought up to be kind if he's so concerned about
her just from the site. She tells him that at
the sight of Apollo's space, an old memory came back
to her that it made her think of home quote.
Women's lives are full of woe. Gods can be so ruthless.
(19:35):
What can be done? Where? How can we recover justice?
If we are ruined by the injustice of those who
rule us? And I don't even know how to begin
unpacking how meaningful that quote is in so many ways.
This is why your epanies is it for me? Because
(19:56):
every time I dive into one of his plays, he
gives me a woman who is a woman like she
is not a woman written by an ancient Athenian who
lived by the status quo and thought nothing of the
lived experiences of the women around him. She was written
by a man who gave us shit, who took stock
of the women of Athens, and how they were oppressed,
how incidents of assault resulted in this quote? How can
(20:19):
we recover justice if we are ruined by the injustice
of those who rule us? Like going beyond the experiences
of women in the ancient world. That line just resonates
in ways that I didn't see coming. It screams of
the Western world right now. How so many of us
(20:41):
see the impending collapse of capitalism and how it ties
with imperialism and the West's obsession with controlling the world.
How we protest and protest, how we show that the
majority is against what our countries are doing, but they're
doing it anyway, because now it doesn't matter what the
people actually want not when the money and the power
of the West is what's at stake. But Creusa, well,
(21:06):
Creusa is talking about herself, the things she experienced when
she was young. Ion asks her what has her so sad,
But she doesn't tell him anything except who she is.
She is Creusa, the daughter of Erectheus, that she comes
from the land of the Athenians. Note she does not
say she is an Athenian. She may be of Athenian nobility,
(21:30):
that she is still a woman. And Ion has heard
stories of Athens and its founding family, so he asks,
quote by the gods, is it true? As the story
goes among mortals, did your father's forefather really burst forth
from the earth? He did, she tells him, But her
own birth did her no good. Ion is still interested
(21:53):
in this forefather Ericthonius together through an instance of this stichomythia. Actually,
this whole thing between these two is this very very
long back and forth, bouncing off each other of dialogue.
They recall the story of Athens, how Erichthonius was born
from the earth, how Athena fostered him even though he
(22:14):
wasn't her child, that just as it's depicted in paintings.
She gave the baby to the daughters of cay Crops
to keep safe, but the daughters opened to the goddess's
chest and so were cursed. They died on the rocks
of the acropolis. Creusa and Ion speak of Creosa's own father, Erectheus.
(22:34):
Ion asks if it's true that he sacrificed his daughters,
her sisters to this, she says, quote, he took it
upon himself to kill the girls for his country. Oh
isn't that just Athens? She survived because she was only
a newborn, Creusa explains, and when Ion asks, she confirms
that her father is buried in a chasm in the earth,
(22:56):
one caused by the strike of Poseidon's trident when he
killed him. Then Ion asks about the place at the
base of the acropolis that they call the long rocks. This,
she tells him, has brought back a memory. He tells
her that quote the Pithia honors it with Pythion flashes
(23:19):
of lightning, to which Creusa replies, quote honors it, honors it.
How I wish I had never seen it. Ion is confused.
How could she hate such a sacred space? She tells him.
Quote something shameful happened in the caves, which just that
(23:40):
hits hard the idea of having to call your trauma
something shameful, And because this is Euripides, this reveal is
immediately followed by Ion asking her who she married. The
most interesting part of all Greek tragedy is the idea
of what the audience knows versus what the characters know.
There is always a disconnect. Rarely is there ever a
(24:03):
big surprise for the audience. You know, they tend to
know the mythological backstory of nearly every play. But instead
it's about how the story is told, how the anticipation
is being built, just what is going to happen to
lead up to the reveal that the audience knows is coming.
So having Creusa mentioned the place of the assault that
led to the conception of the very boy that she's
(24:25):
talking to, even if she hasn't said what happened and
neither know that they are mother and son, you know,
only to have it followed by the question of who
she married your repedies is just he is building that tension.
(24:51):
Creusa tells Ion that she didn't marry an Athenian, but
a man from Achaia, a foreigner Xuthus, She says it
is a descendant of Zeus himself. She explains that she
married this non Athenian because he came to the aid
of her people her family in a battle on the
nearby eyeland of Evia, that he won her as a result,
(25:12):
and when Ion asks, she confirms that he is there
at Delphi with her, but that her husband stopped along
the way, and she continued on. So she is a
woman standing at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo
at Delphi, one of the most sacred and important places
in all of ancient Greece, and she's there alone, like
she is the important one here. We know it from
(25:34):
the plot, but Euripides is making very clear that Xuthus
is not the star of the show. Even Ion isn't
the star of the show, even if it's named for him.
This is about Creusa, the temple attendant, the son she
doesn't know is her son. Asks her what it is
that's brought her and her husband there to Delphi. What
have they come to ask the oracle. They have no children,
(25:57):
she tells him, despite having been married for a long time,
to which Ion says, quote, you have never given birth,
but are childless, and Creusa says only, quote, Phoebus knows
the story of my childlessness. This is her way of
avoiding one part of the question without telling a lie,
and also adding so many jabs at Apollo as not
(26:21):
only her rapist, but also the god of prophecy and
the oracle itself. This is just so much happening. Ion
tells her that he's sorry that she is lucky for
many things, but not her childlessness. It's this very real response,
like real empathy for someone who is struggling. And so
(26:41):
Creusa tells him that she envies his mother and asks
who he is. Ion tells her, quote, I am called
the slave of the god, Lady, That's what I am.
What a reply when we know that not only is
I on her son, but Apollo's too, like he is
a slave to his own father, because Apollo is Apollo.
(27:06):
Creusa asks him how he came to be that way.
Was he sold by some city or a person? But
Ion says he knows only that he belongs to Apollo,
and for this Creosa shows him the same compassion that
he showed her. She asks him if he lives there
in the sanctuary or in a house. Ion sleeps anywhere
(27:27):
it finds him. He tells her he's been there since
he was a child. He says he never knew his
mother or father, and Creusa says, quote, I find in
you a sickness that I share. When Ion tells her
that it's the Pythia herself that he sees as his
mother and that he's been sustained on the food left
(27:48):
at the temple, Creusa says she feels sorry for his mother,
to which he suggests, quote, perhaps I was born because
of a woman's wrongs. Creosa doesn't entertain this. She points
out that for his situation, he seems well off. He's
dressed well, and he has a livelihood. She asks him
(28:09):
if he's ever thought to look into where he came from,
but he has no evidence at all to go off.
He wouldn't know where to start, he says. To this,
Creusa says, quote, ugh, another woman has suffered the same
as your mother, who he asks he'd be happy if
she'd help him in his search. Creusa says, quote, I
(28:32):
have come here for her sake before my husband arrives.
And so again we are reminded that she is this
Athenian woman out on her own seeking answers away from
her husband. Ion offers to help. He can be her
sponsor for the oracle. He says, you know, help her
with what she is seeking, So he asks her what
(28:52):
it is that happened, but Criusa doesn't want to share
the story. She says she's ashamed. Finally, though, she tells
him quote one of my friends says that she lay
with Phoebus, that she bore him a child in secret,
that she isn't lying, dying, isn't covering up for being
wronged by a man, that she suffered, that she birthed
(29:14):
a baby by the god and exposed him. And when
Ion asks if the baby still lives, she tells him
that she doesn't know, and that's why she's here to
ask the Oracle about this lost child. Nerds, I don't
(29:49):
even know how to express how I feel about this
play so far. Every single time I crack into a
new play by Euripides, I'm just blown away. Like I
keep thinking that I've got him figured out, that my
love for him and my appreciation for his characters is
like at its peak, And then I read lines like
the ones that I've quoted to you today, like acknowledgments
that women lived difficult life, that they were ruled by men,
(30:10):
that assault happened by gods, and that it left trauma,
that they were real people. You know, Even when Creusa
says that her friend lay with Apollo like that is
rendered in quotations by this translation, as if she is
saying it in the same way that I say it
on the show. All the time that I wrote so
(30:31):
much of this into the meducipiece that I'm talking about this,
this concept of lay with this amorphous phrase that implies
nothing at all about agency or intent, and yet is
so often used to defend the actions of the gods
Crisa is. I mean, I'm fucking obsessed already with her,
you know, and we're not even four hundred lines in.
(30:52):
As always, I went searching for a translation by a woman,
and she did not disappoint, So I'm using primarily a
translation by Cecilia Lushnig, which is available through Diatoma. I've
linked in the episode's description It's wonderful so far, and
gods like lay with quotations line really sealed it from me.
I've also got an Oxford Classics edition that that so
(31:15):
far I've just used for its wonderful introduction, which is
by Edith Hall. I mentioned some of that at the top. Again,
both are listed in the apps of the description. And
I can't wait for the rest of this play, which
I mean, honestly, it's it's exciting for so many reasons.
This is the first episode that I've written in weeks
and weeks I've been really depressed and anxious, and the
idea of sitting down and writing five thousand words of
fun and interesting insights into the ancient world just it's
(31:38):
really felt really daunting. I figured Ripides would help me
bring back, you bring me back into this world, to
this thing that I do fucking love doing, but I've
had trouble loving lately. And of course, honestly, like he
did fucking Eurippities, he helped more than I could have
ever guessed, because I just the number of lines in
(31:58):
those three point fifty that I've read for today's episode
that are just gonna like stick with me for the
foreseeable future. No one gets me like your Rippandies. So
thank you well so much for listening, thank you for
standing by me as I've gone through just like fucking everything,
as I melt down because the state of the world
in my own life has me drowning and sad. I'm
doing better if yeah, even if the world is doing worse.
(32:22):
I'm just so thankful for how many of you have
reached out or left reviews or just like anything that
you've done. You're awesome. Thank you. And speaking of reviews,
I've gotten quite a few over the past couple of weeks,
which is really fucking lovely and just they're all like
I mean, they're so fucking nice, and they make me
feel so good and they remind me of how much
I do love what I do and how much it
does mean to you all. I really needed them. So
(32:42):
I'm going to read a couple today and more next
week because you're all amazing and I love you. This
first one is short and sweet from a username that
honestly is just like a series of mostly consonants. It's
very clearly just like jamming your hands on a keyboards.
I'm not gonna bother trying to read it, but it
is from the States and it's headlined just I love
this shit. I'm so glad you found a use for
all your studies and continuing the oral tradition of storytelling.
(33:04):
Keep up the good work. Thank you. This next one
I simultaneously wrenched at my heart and then soothed so
much of the mess that is my psyche lately. Like,
I really can't say how badly I needed this next review.
I can't possibly express it. It's from a user called
late in London from the UK. Came for the myths
and stayed for the rants. I came to this show
(33:25):
while researching me in need for work, but it is
the very real and emotional tying in of the myths
and history to current events that has kept me listening.
I feel really grateful for Liv's bravery and talking about
the horrors of this moment in time. I can hear
that she is being so careful to articulate the unspeakable
realities slash nightmares of the past six months especially, and
I totally love her for it. Please keep talking about
(33:46):
the horrific nature of imperialism today. Selfishly, it is helpful
to hear someone else fraying at the edges in disbelief
and sadness, but then also distracting me with stories from
thousands of years ago. Thank you, really, Like sometimes I
need to be told that my own praying at the
edges and the rants that accompany those moments are actually
resonating with people. Like podcasting is amazing, but it's also
(34:11):
so isolating. I know conceptually that tens of thousands of
people listen to me, but for the most part, like
I don't hear much from you all, in in part
because I haven't been able to be active on social
media lately for my own mental health, and I just
it's a mess. And sometimes I just wonder if anyone
is like really hearing me. And this makes it clear
(34:33):
that many of you are, and I really appreciate it,
so thank you, and please everyone, don't let yourselves forget
what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank too.
Our governments don't want us seeing it because if we
don't see it, then they can keep doing it. It's
why they're trying to ban TikTok. I mean, that's the US,
(34:55):
but it's gonna spread save Gaza softly and this killing
of innocent people. Hold them accountable for turning down so
many ceasefire deals that promised the full return of hostages
just so long as they stopped killing all of these people.
Don't let them continue to gaslight us into believing that,
like anything about this is necessary or humane or justifiable
(35:19):
in any way. We cannot. We cannot let them get
away with the amount of propaganda and gaslighting that is
happening in the West right now. We cannot let them
convince us that killing like we're probably at one hundred
thousand people. They killed everyone who counted at forty thousand,
and that was months and months ago. We cannot let
(35:42):
them convince us that killing one hundred thousand innocent people,
mostly children, is justifiable. You can't convince me that children
are terrorists. You can't convince me that a two year
old or a three month old deserve to die because terrorism.
That is absurd and no one should. We should not
(36:04):
let them even keep saying this utter fucking bullshit. Let's
talk about myths. Baby is written and produced by me
Live Albert. MICHAELA. Smith is the hermes to my Olympians.
My assistant producer, Laura Smith is the production assistant and
audio engineer. Select music used in this episode was by
Luke Chaos. The podcast is part of the iHeart podcast Network.
(36:26):
Listen on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
Maybe also while you're there, stream hins Hall on repeat.
Help me continue bringing you the world of Greek mythology
and the ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron, where you'll
get bonus episodes and more. Visit patreon dot com, slash mythsmaby,
or click the link in this episode's description. I am
(36:50):
live and I love this shit.
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