As the Halloween season hits, Mary and Charlotte turn to the wealth of ghost stories from the ancient world to ask: did the Greeks and Romans really believe in ghosts and why are their stories so similar to ours when many of our beliefs are so different?
Mary and Charlotte recount a ghost story recounted by Pliny the Younger about a haunted house in Athens ... Show More
Sep 17
How Homer’s Odyssey Conquered the English-speaking World
Last episode, Mary and Charlotte looked at how Homer’s Odyssey was reinterpreted in the Ancient World by writers like Euripides, Virgil and Ovid. In this episode, they show how it shaped English fiction - from Shakespeare through to Madeline Miller. They are joined by Jonty Clayp ... Show More
59m 32s
Sep 10
How Homer's Odyssey Conquered the Ancient World
Ever since the Odyssey was composed, people have retold the story, played with it or used it as a departure point for similar or related stories. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte look at what happened next. How the Odyssey inspired other writers long before Christopher Nolan t ... Show More
53m 7s
Dec 2021
Episode CLXXVIII - Witches in Roman Literature
Romans had the reality of witches, those who made the brews and prepared the curses, but also the witches of fiction. In their poems and stories, a witch took on a horrific persona, one that skews much more closely to the modern idea of a witch. Guest: Associate Professor Rhianno ... Show More
43m 45s
Oct 2020
The Lycanthropic Tale of Lycaon & Other Ghosts & Werewolves
It's officially Spooky Season! Ancient werewolves, ghosts, and haunted houses... CW/TW: this episode contains less mythological references to sexual assault and may be more triggering than typical episodes, there is a warning in the episode prior to that story and can easily be a ... Show More
27m 10s