Episode 98: The Monster Episode of Monsters

Weird Sisters Blood & Hand Punch

Redbubble store

This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

The Endless Knot RSS

Episode 73: Things Get Weird

Aven McMaster August 13, 2019

The Fates have decreed that it’s time for us to talk about the word “Weird”! We discuss its etymology, the concept of fate in the ancient and medieval world, whether mythical women really do usually appear in threes, and Shakespeare.

Twist of Fate cocktail

Shakespeare Not Stirred book

“Weird” video

“Does English have a future tense?” video

“Arrow” video

“As We Like It Podcast” – Macbeth episode

Chart of ‘strange’ vs ‘weird’ usage

Chart of ‘weird’, ‘uncanny’, ‘eerie’, & ‘unearthly’

More information about the Moirai

Hesiod passage about the Fates

Catullus 64

Theoi site for Greek mythology

Articles about WEIRD linguistics and WEIRD psychology

Professor Elemental “Everybody’s Weird”

This episode on YouTube

This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

The Endless Knot RSS

Episode 66: Writing Myth with Amalia Dillin

Aven McMaster January 18, 2019

Carosella-Daughter_of_a_Thousand_Years-21813-CV-FT-v4 (666x999).jpg

Amalia Dillin is an author of mythic fantasy and historical fiction set in the ancient and Viking worlds. Among other books, she’s written the Fate of the Gods trilogy, about Eve and Adam (and Thor and Athena and more!), and the Orc Saga, beginning with Honor among Orcs. She also writes, as Amalia Carosella, about Bronze Age Greece (Helen of Sparta & sequels, about the love between Helen & Theseus) and the Viking Age (Daughter of a Thousand Years, about Freydis, daughter of Erik the Red, and also a modern women wrestling with her newly found pagan faith).

We spoke to Amalia before the holidays about her love of mythology, the complexities of writing historical fiction, and goats!

And hey, the Kindle of Daughter of a Thousand Years is on sale for $0.99, and the paperback is also on sale!

Amalia’s website with links to her blog and all of her books.

This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

The Endless Knot RSS

Episode 48: Talking Teaching with Mythtake!

Aven McMaster December 6, 2017

Alison & Darrin from MythTake Podcast dropped by Sudbury -- and sat down with us for a chat about teaching myth, literature, and more. Make sure you check out their podcast for great discussions about myth and Greek literature.

Show Notes

Mythtake Podcast

Bakkhai at Stratford

Introduction to Mythology from Oxford UP

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

Episode 43: Hercules the Much-Filmed

Mark Sundaram September 27, 2017

Time to talk about the greatest hero of them all! Why are there so many movies about Hercules? Why do they all have lions and snakes in them, but no journeys to the underworld, and only a sprinkling of family murder? Who's the most Herculean Hercules, and how did Mr. Universe do in the role? And, most importantly, how much virtue is in every part of the mighty Hercules???

Show Notes

The Atlas Cocktail

Movies discussed:
Hercules, 1957, Steve Reeves
Hercules in New York, 1969, Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Adventures of Hercules, 1985, Lou Ferrigno
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, 1995-1999, Kevin Sorbo
Hercules, 1997, Disney, Animated
Hercules, 2005, Paul Telfer
Hercules, 2014, Dwayne Johnson
The Legend of Hercules, 2014, Kellan Lutz

Wyke, Maria. “Herculean Muscle!: The Classicizing Rhetoric of Bodybuilding.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, vol. 4, no. 3, 1997, pp. 51–79. JSTOR

Episode 39: From Fossil Hunters to Mammoth Cheese

Aven McMaster July 19, 2017

We talk about the early history of paleontology and geology, the first fossil hunters, the Bone Wars, and the possible ties between fossils and Greek myth. Also, a bonus poem about a mammoth cheese!

Show Notes

"Fossil" video

"Canuck" video

The Recipes Project

“Ancient Fossil Discoveries and Interpretations”, Adrienne Mayor, The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life, Edited by Gordon Lindsay Campbell

Mayor, A. (2011), The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (2nd revised edition of The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (2000)), Princeton, Princeton University Press.

The Feast Podcast: A Victorian Dinosaur Dinner & Thomas Jefferson & the Mammoth Cheese of Cheshire

See the end of this blog post for the "Ode to a Mammoth Cheese" poem.

MythTake episode 21: Theseus

Episode 32: Ariadne's Clue

Aven McMaster April 13, 2017

We've joined forces with the MythTake podcast for a pair of episodes about the myth of Theseus, the Minotaur, and Ariadne. In our episode we talk about the story of Theseus & Ariadne, and the development of the word 'Clue' from Chaucer's version of the tale, as well as Catullus and Ovid's depictions of Ariadne's abandonment, and the connections to fingerprints, detective fiction, and Agatha Christie's life. Meanwhile, Alison & Darrin in their episode talk about two poems by Bacchylides, and the Greek sources for the life of Theseus and his heroic exploits, as well as a few more English words derived from his adventures.

Show Notes

"Clue" video

Catullus 64

Amalia Carosella's books about Helen

"Paddle Your Own Canoe" video

"Create: Myth, Mealtimes, & Matinées" video

Episode 31: #CreateICG

Aven McMaster March 22, 2017

It's #CreateICG Week! A bunch of internet creators are putting out videos, podcasts, blogs, & more, all on the theme of CREATE – with all sorts of different approaches and interpretations. The event is centred around the Internet Creators Guild, a non-profit organization with a mission to support, represent, and connect creators whose primary platform is online. If you’d like to find out more about them, you can go to internetcreatorsguild.com – and to find more amazing creations by ICG members, search #CreateICG on your social media of choice, check our show notes for links, or go to createicg.wordpress.com for lists of creators and their works.

In this episode we talk about the etymology of CREATE, the origin of breakfast, how mealtimes moved around the day, the history of theatrical and artificial lighting, and Greek and Norse creation myths -- including the story of the body-fluid-filled mead of inspiration!

Show Notes

#CreateICG

#CreateICG YouTube Playlist

Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology

Episode 24: Talking Turkey

Aven McMaster November 20, 2016

The origin of the turkey's name leads to discussion of the origin of Thanksgiving, the role of myths in constructing ideology, and some Horace, Homer, & Ovid. Also featuring some spicy cocktails.

The Story Behind Podcast @storybehindpod, #podernfamily

Show Notes

@HumCommCasters & @HumCommVids

James Burke Connections app kickstarter

Quirks & Quarks interview with Dan Everett about Arrival

An etymological Christmas card

Bushwick's Spice Trade Cocktails

Dan Jurafsky's blog about the language of food

Horace Odes1.11, "Carpe Diem"

Ovid Metamorphoses 8, death of Meleager

Episode 9: The Force Awakens

Aven McMaster January 14, 2016

We talk about the ways Star Wars: The Force Awakens connects to Classical epic, myth, and Norse sagas, and literary and theoretical aspects of the movie, while we drink some starry cocktails. Spoilers!

(Also, I say "Empire" but mean "Jedi" at least once. Sorry. Please don't hate me. -- Aven)