Myths and Muses: A Mythik Camps Podcast

Since this episode is dropping just before Mother’s Day in the US, it seemed like the perfect time to talk about Echidna, the Mother of All Monsters. Or… at least an awful lot of the Greek ones. We'll also look at some other monstrous mothers in Mesopotamian, Norse, and Germanic mythology!

Visit the World of Mythik website to learn more and to contribute your theories to our board!

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This episode features that enigma wrapped in a mystery, the Sphinx. We'll discuss her famous riddle and examine how the Greek Sphinx is different from the one you see in Egyptian statues. We'll also look at some of her feline relations across not just Greece but also Persia, Assyria, medieval Europe, and China.

Visit the World of Mythik website to learn more and to contribute your theories to our board!

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This episode explores one of the cleverest monsters on our list: the Nine-Tailed Fox of East Asian mythology! But how do you tell a kitsune from a huli jing from a gumiho? We'll try to sort it all out! The fox's reputation as a trickster is world-wide, though, so we'll also look at foxes in Aesop's Fables, medieval stories from France, and the folklore of Eastern Europe.

Visit the World of Mythik website to learn more and to contri...

In this episode, we talk about monstrous and mythical forms a much-maligned animal: the wolf. We’ll begin with the biggest and most dangerous of them all: the Great Wolf Fenrir from Norse mythology, prophesied to destroy the world by swallowing the sun. We also look at fairy tale wolves, the raijū of Japanese folklore, and the crucial role that wolves play in many stories of indigenous North American cultures.

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Welcome to Season 3 of Myths & Muses! This season, we're focusing on monsters -- and, for better or worse, we've had some help in targeting which monsters to focus on from... Medusa. Because she's invited a bunch of them to our camps for our "Misunderstood Monsters" theme. You can see her first letter to us and the "tour poster" for the monsters on the World of Mythik theory board.

We're starting with Polyphemus, the one-eyed m...

Season 3: Misunderstood Monsters starts on March 13th!

Medusa has thrown down a challenge: The Gauntlet of the Gorgon. She's invited twelve different monsters to visit Mythik Camps this summer! The Muses are super-excited about the potential for mayhem and the great stories that will come out of it. Since Medusa's given us a hint about which monsters will be coming, each episode of Season 3 will focus on one of them! ...And we're a...

In this episode of Myths & Muses, in honor of the holiday season, we explore monsters who prowl the snow and ice from the Himalayas to Austria, from the Great Lakes to Japan. From chilling terrors to mischievous troublemakers, we’ll tell you what to watch out for this winter!

Plus: Find out what has the Muses a little too excited about next summer’s potential adventures…

Visit the World of Mythik website to learn more!

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In this final episode, we’re going to look at a few stories about recovering from – and remembering – loss. Then, we’ll look back over this Comeback Kids season and think about what it really means for a hero to find their way home – and how that’s not always as easy as it might seem. We start with Achilles, greatest of the Greek heroes, then explore some myths from civilizations around the Arctic Circle.

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In this episode, we explore gods who have made sacrifices -- some of them on purpose, for the sake of wisdom or another advantage, and some of them less-intentionally. We'll explore three stories showing just how far Odin will go for wisdom, then we'll find out why Tyr, the Norse god of law and justice, and Nuada, a leader of the Celtic Tuatha Dé Danann, lost their hands. Then we'll finish with a coda to the story of Osiris, Horus,...

It’s time to finish up our “come back from the Underworld” mini-series! In this episode, we’ll be covering stories of some mythological figures whose trips to the Underworld were… unintentional. And not of natural causes. But they all manage to come back! Just usually with a little outside help. You'll hear two major stories from Egyptian and Norse mythology, and then a couple of lesser-known tales from Japan and Finland.

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Our Underworld mini-series continues! This time, we’ll meet some mythological figures who make that harrowing trip maybe to learn something, maybe to make a point, or, in one case, to make sure the sun still rises. It’s never an easy trip, and they have to face down some serious dangers along the way. We'll follow a Sumerian goddess there and back, chart a recurring trip in Egypt, and see how a famous Greek hero made a really terri...

Stories of coming back from the Underworld are some of the biggest, most dramatic comebacks of all! And there are so many of them that they won't all fit in one episode! In this one, we’re exploring stories of heroes who went to the underworld and back for the sake of love. We already talked about the most famous story of this kind, Orpheus and Eurydice, back in Season 1 -- but he’s definitely not the only one! You'll meet a beauti...

In this episode, we've got stories about heroes who got lost. Really lost. Lost-for-years-or-even-centuries lost. We'll hear about Odysseus's prolonged detour, some Celtic heroes who wandered into the fairy realm, and some creatures of West African forests who you might not mind running into if you get lost in the woods.

Visit the World of Mythik website to learn more and to contribute your theories to our board!

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In this episode, we're exploring stories of gods who, for one reason or another, withdrew themselves and their gifts from the mortal world -- but who eventually either came back or at least made sure someone else picked up the slack in their absence. We'll hear about an Egyptian rain goddess who ran away, a Greek agricultural goddess in mourning, a Japanese sun goddess who hid in a cave, and a Yoruba Orisha creator god who is reall...

In this episode, we're exploring stories of heroes who lost themselves in some way and had to find themselves again. We'll see how Heracles's Twelve Labors -- the things that made him one of the most famous demigods of all time -- only happened because of something he did while under a terrible curse. We'll also see how going into a frenzy makes some Norse warriors much more fearsome, and some Arthurian knights very much the opposi...

In this episode, the Muses have decreed that we’ll be looking at stories of heroes who were exiled from their homes and had to fight to regain what they had lost. There are a lot of epic tales that feature this theme, and it provides a great opportunity to send the hero on some sort of journey, where they can encounter monsters and challenges and all the exciting conflicts that make a story! We'll start with Sundiata Keita, a hero ...

Season Two of Myths & Muses kicks off with the tale of a hero who lost it all and had to start again somewhere new! Aeneas rises from the ashes almost literally, leaving the destruction of Troy behind and setting off on an adventure that takes him all over the Mediterranean and even to the Underworld. Driving him all the way is his looming destiny: to found a nation whose legacy will last for millennia.

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Season 2: The Comeback Kid starts on April 25th!

Hello, demigods! I’m Cass, host of the Myths & Muses podcast and daughter of Clio, the muse of history, here to announce that Season 2 will be launching soon!

The Muses have pointed me in a really interesting direction for this season. They sent me on a bunch of research trips over the winter, and then I got home to discover that they’re all a-flutter over … an Egg. But this is n...