Tag: planet

12. mythological tour of the solar system 9: pluto/hades

On By AlisonIn mythological tour of the solar system, podcast episodesLeave a comment

img_6482

Welcome to episode 12! Our apologies for being more than a little late getting the blog post up, but here it is at last.

This episode, we delve into the mysterious world of Hades. This Greek god of the underworld is also associated with wealth and the Roman god Pluto. There aren’t a lot of myths about Hades but we can learn a lot from his appearance in Homeric Hymn to Demeter.

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/37m94-626e67?from=yiiadmin

Download this episode (right click and save)

Source Passages

Homeric Hymn to Demeter 1-23; 334-385.

Translation Sources

Homeric Hymns. Trans. Susan Shelmerdine. Newburyport MA: Focus Publishing, 1995. Print.

Selected Sources

NASA. “Pluto: King of the Kuiper Belt” http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/pluto

Shout Outs & Notes

We highly recommend listening to The Endless Knot episode on Pluto. Sarah and Mark provide a great discussion of the origin of the god Pluto. You can subscribe to their podcast through iTunes.

Join us on Twitter @InnesAlison and @darrinsunstrum

Subscribe on iTunes so you don’t miss an episode! https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/mythtake/id1103569489?mt=2

Google Play https://goo.gl/app/playmusic?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&isi=691797987&ius=googleplaymusic&link=https://play.google.com/music/m/Iaegzaquhc7lfvc24icrzardzmu?t%3DMythTake

Find our RSS on Podbean http://alisoninnes.podbean.com

This week’s theme music: “Super Hero” by King Louie’s Missing Monuments from the album “Live at WFMU” (2011). Used under Creative Commons license. Music used under Creative Commons license and available from Free Music Archive.

9. mythological tour of the solar system 6: saturn/kronos

On By AlisonIn mythological tour of the solar system, podcast episodes4 Comments

Francisco_de_Goya,_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_(1819-1823)

Saturn Devouring His  Sons. Francisco Goya circa 1819-1823. Image source: Wikipedia.

img_6482As we travel outwards in the solar system, we travel back in mythological time. This week we learn about Jupiter/Zeus’ father, Saturn/Kronos. The Greek and Roman depictions of him are quite different: Roman mythology emphasizes his agricultural connections and associates him with a Golden Age of mankind, whereas the Greek poet Hesiod depicts him as a tyrant.

 

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/8pevt-60d165?from=yiiadmin

Download this episode (right click and save)

Source Passages

Hesiod Theogony 126-138, 158-187, 453-473

Virgil Aeneid 8.415-433

Ovid Metamorphoses 1

Translation Sources

Hesiod. Theogony. Trans. Richard Caldwell & Stephanie Nelson. Newburyport MA: Focus Publishing, 2009.

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. A. D. Melville. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Virgil. Aeneid. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Classics, 1990.

Selected Sources

NASA. “Saturn.” http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn

 

Join us on Twitter @InnesAlison and @darrinsunstrum

Subscribe on iTunes so you don’t miss an episode! https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/mythtake/id1103569489?mt=2

Google Play https://goo.gl/app/playmusic?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&isi=691797987&ius=googleplaymusic&link=https://play.google.com/music/m/Iaegzaquhc7lfvc24icrzardzmu?t%3DMythTake

Find our RSS on Podbean http://alisoninnes.podbean.com

This week’s theme music: “Super Hero” by King Louie’s Missing Monuments from the album “Live at WFMU” (2011). Used under Creative Commons license. Music used under Creative Commons license and available from Free Music Archive.

8. mythological tour of the solar system 5: jupiter/zeus

On By AlisonIn mythological tour of the solar system, podcast episodesLeave a comment

 

jupiter copy.jpg

Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/

 

img_6482Today we visit the first of the Gas Giants, Jupiter. This mysterious planet, covered with swirling, toxic clouds in shades of orange, red, white, and brown, is the largest in our solar system. The “King of the Planets” is named after the Greek and Roman king of the gods, Jupiter (Zeus). We examine passages from Greek and Roman literature to shed some light on how the ancients thought of their god they called “the father of gods and men.”

 
https://www.podbean.com/media/player/mjicm-6085f6?from=yiiadmin

Download this episode (right click and save)

Primary Source Passage

Theogony 71-74
…he was ruling the
sky as king, holding the thunder and fiery lightning-bolt himself,
having the victory from his father Cronus by strength; in right detail
he dealt laws and appointed donors to the immortals.

Theogony 478-491
They sent her [Rhea] to Lyctus, to the rich land of Crete,
when she was about to bear her youngest son,
great Zeus; vast Earth received him from her
in wide Crete to tend and raise.
Carrying him through the swift black night, she came
first to Lyctus; taking him in her arms, she hid him
in a deep cave, down in dark holes of holy each,
on Mount Aegean, dense with woods.
Rhea wrapped a huge stone in a baby’s robe, and fed it
to Sky’s wide-ruling son, lord of the earlier gods;
he took it in his hands and put it down his belly,
the fool; he did not think in his mind that instead
of a stone his own son, undefeated and secure, was left
behind, soon to master him by force and violence and
drive him from his honour, and be lord of the immortals himself.

Theogony 491-500
Swiftly then the strength and noble limbs
of the future lord grew; at the end of a year,
tricked by the clever advice of Earth,
great crooked-minded Cronus threw up his children,
defeated by the craft and force of his own son.
First he vomited out the stone he had swallowed last;
Zeus fixed it firmly in the wide-pathed land
at sacred Python in the vales of Parnassus,
to be a sign thereafter, a wonder to mortal men.
Trans. Richard Caldwell

Ancient Sources

Theogony. Trans. Richard Caldwell & Stephanie Nelson. Newburyport MA: Focus Publishing, 2009.

Selected Sources

NASA. “Jupiter.” http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter

NASA. “Juno: Peering Beneath  Jupiter’s Clouds.” http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/juno

NASA. “NASA’s Juno Spacecraft to Risk Jupiter’s Fireworks for Science.” http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/2016/06/16/nasas-juno-spacecraft-to-risk-jupiters-fireworks-for-science 16 June 2016.

Osborne, Hannah. “Juno Mission: How NASA will manoeuvre 250 000 km/h spacecraft into Jupiter’s orbit.” http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/juno-mission-how-nasa-will-manoeuvre-250000-km-h-spacecraft-into-jupiters-orbit-1563401 International Business Times 3 June 2016.

Shout-Outs

Astronomer Erin Ryan on Twitter @erinleeryan, website http://www.erinleeryan.com

The Juno mission on Twitter: @NASAJuno

Join us on Twitter @InnesAlison and @darrinsunstrum

Subscribe on iTunes so you don’t miss an episode! https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/mythtake/id1103569489?mt=2

Google Play https://goo.gl/app/playmusic?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&isi=691797987&ius=googleplaymusic&link=https://play.google.com/music/m/Iaegzaquhc7lfvc24icrzardzmu?t%3DMythTake

Find our RSS on Podbean http://alisoninnes.podbean.com

This week’s theme music: “Super Hero” by King Louie’s Missing Monuments from the album “Live at WFMU” (2011). Used under Creative Commons license. Music used under Creative Commons license and available from Free Music Archive.

 

6. mythological tour of the solar system 3: venus/aphrodite

On By AlisonIn mythological tour of the solar system, podcast episodesLeave a comment

venus copy

Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/

img_6482The third stop on our Mythological Tour of the Solar System is Venus (Greek goddess Aphrodite). We take a look at the origins of this mysterious goddess of sexuality.

Be advised, this episode includes discussion of sex in mythological contexts.

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/wt5dv-5f98da?from=yiiadmin

Download this episode (right click and save)

 

Hesiod Theogony 188-206

As soon as he cut off the genitals with adamant,
he threw them from land into the turbulent sea;
they were carried over the sea a long time, and white
foam arose from the immortal fresh; within a girl
grew; first she came to holy Cythera, and
next she came to wave-washed Cyprus.
A revered and beautiful goddess emerged, and
grass grew under her supple feet. Aphrodite
[foam-born goddess and well-crowned Clytherea]
gods and men name her, since in foam she grew;
and Cytherea, since she landed at Cypher;
and Cyprogenea, since she was born in wave-beat Cyprus;
and “Philommeides,” since she appeared from the genitals.
Eros accompanied her, and fair Longing followed,
when first she was born and went to join the gods.
She has such honour from the first, and this is her
portion among men and immortal gods:
maidens’ whispers and smiles and deceptions,
sweet pleasure and sexual love and tenderness.
(Trans. Richard Caldwell)

 

Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 53-74
So he cast in her heart sweet longing for Anchises,
who, at that time, like the immortals in build, was tending cattle
on the lofty peaks of MT. Ida rich in springs.
Then indeed, seeing him, laughter-loving Aphrodite
was struck with love, and astounding desire seized her heart.
To Cyprus she went and entered her fragrant temple
at Paphos where her sacred precinct was and her fragrant altar.
There she went inside and shut the gleaming doors.
And the Graces bathed her and pointed her
with ambrosial olive oil, such as is poured over the gods who are forever,
divinely sweet, which was made fragrant for her.
Having clothed herself well in all her beautiful robes
adorned with gold, laughter-loving Aphrodite
hastened to Troy, leaving behind sweet-smelling Cyprus,
swiftly making her way high up among the clouds.
She came to Ida rich in springs, mother of beasts,
and went straight to the shepherd’s hut across the mountain.
And fawning after her leapt grey wolves and flashing-eyed lions,
bears and swift leopards hungry for deer.
Seeing them she rejoiced in her heart
and cast longing in their breasts, and together they all
lay down in pairs in their shadowy lairs.
(Trans. Susan Shelmerdine)

 

Euripides Hippolytus 1-23

I am powerful and not without a name among mortals
and within the heavens. I am called the goddess Cypris.
Of those who dwell within Pontus
and the boundaries of Atlas and see the light of the sun,
I treat well those who revere my power,
but I trip up those who are proud towards me.
For this principle holds among the race of the gods also:
they enjoy being honoured by mortals.
I shall now show you the truth of these words:
Theseus’ son, Hippolytus, the Amazon’s offspring,
reared by pure Pittheus–
he alone of the citizens of this land of Trozen
says that I am by nature the most vile of divinities.
He spurns the bed and doesn’t touch marriage,
but donors Apollo’s sister, Artemis, the daughter of Zeus,
considering her the greatest of divinities.
Always consorting with the virgin through the green wood,
he rids the land of beasts with swift dogs,
having come upon a more than mortal companionship.
I don’t begrudge them these things; why should I?
But I will punish Hippolytus this day
for the wrongs he has done me.
(Trans. Michael Halleran)

 

Selected Sources

Theogony. Trans. Richard Caldwell & Stephanie Nelson. Newburyport MA: Focus Publishing, 2009.

Homeric Hymns. Trans. Susan Shelmerdine. Newburyport MA: Focus Publishing, 1995. Print.

Euripides. Hippolytus. Trans. Michael Halleran. Ed. Stephen Esposito. Newburyport MA: Focus Publishing, 2004.

Nasa.gov “Venus” (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus )

Nasa.gov “Your Weight in Space” (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/kids/index.cfm?Filename=puzzles)

Shout Outs & Notes

Check out The Endless Knot (http://www.alliterative.net) podcast by Mark Sundaram and Aven McMaster.

Gods Behaving Badly (http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/marie-phillips/gods-behaving-badly/9780316067638/) by Marie Phillips, 2008.

 

Join us on Twitter @InnesAlison and @darrinsunstrum

Subscribe on iTunes so you don’t miss an episode! https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/mythtake/id1103569489?mt=2

Google Play https://goo.gl/app/playmusic?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&isi=691797987&ius=googleplaymusic&link=https://play.google.com/music/m/Iaegzaquhc7lfvc24icrzardzmu?t%3DMythTake

Find our RSS on Podbean http://alisoninnes.podbean.com

This week’s theme music: “Super Hero” by King Louie’s Missing Monuments from the album “Live at WFMU” (2011). Used under Creative Commons license. Music used under Creative Commons license and available from Free Music Archive.

5. mythological tour of the solar system 2: Mercury/Hermes

On By AlisonIn mythological tour of the solar system, podcast episodesLeave a comment

The second stop img_6482on our Mythological Tour of the Solar System is Mercury. Meet the Greek god Hermes (Roman= Mercury) in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes as he goes from baby to Olympian god in just two days!

Passage: Homeric Hymn to Hermes 20-42, 163-181

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/cgabj-5f07a2?from=yiiadmin

Download this episode (right click and save)

Tortoise. Athens. ©AlisonInnes
A herme. National Museum of Archaeology, Athens. ©AlisonInnes

Photos: (left) A tortoise munching on grass, Athens; (centre) A herma National Museum of Archaeology, Athens; (right) A headless herma on display on the south slope of the Athenian acropolis. All photos ©AlisonInnes 2009.

Homeric Hymn to Hermes (20-42, 163-181)

And after he leapt up from the immortal limbs of Maia
he did not stay for long lying in his holy cradle,
but sprang up and sought the cattle of Apollo,
walking over the threshold of the high-vaulted cave.
There, finding a tortoise, he won endless joy.
Hermes indeed was the first to make the tortoise a singer,
as she met him at the courtyard gates,
feeding on the rich grass in front of the house,
going lightly on her feet. And the swift son of Zeus
laughed watching her and immediately spoke a word:
:Already, a very useful token for me! I do not scorn it.
Hail, comrade of the feast, lovely in shape, played at the dance,
a welcome sight! Whence did you, a tortoise living in the mountains,
clothes yourself in this beautiful plaything, this gleaming shell?
But I will take and carry you into the house, and you will profit me,
nor will I dishonour you; but first you will help me.
It is better to be at home, since the outdoors is harmful.
For surely you will be a defence against baneful attacks
while alive, but if you die, then you would sing very beautifully.”
So he spoke and at the same time lifting her up in both hands
he went back into the house carrying the lovely plaything.
Then, after swinging her around, he pierced through the life-force
of the mountain-tortoise with a knife of grey iron.
……
But Hermes answered her with crafty words,
“My mother, why do you aim these threats at me as if I were a foolish young child, who knows very few evils in his heart
and cowers, fearful, at his mother’s threats?
But I shall enter into whatever skill is best
to feed myself and you forever. And the two of us
alone among the immortal gods will not continue to stay here
in this place without offerings and without prayers, as you bid.
Better to converse with the immortals all our days,
rich, wealthy, with much land for crops, than to sit
at home in a gloomy cave. And about honour,
I, too, will enter into the cult which Apollo has.
And if my father will not grant this, I will try,
(and I have the power), to be a leader of thieves.
And if the son of glorious Leto searches for me,
I think something else even greater will befall him.
For I will go to Pytho to break into his great house;
from there I will plunder splendid tripods in abundance and cauldrons
and gold, and gleaming iron in abundance
and much clothing. And you will see it is you want.”

(Trans. Susan Shelmerdine)

Selected Sources

Homeric Hymns. Trans. Susan Shelmerdine. Newburyport MA: Focus Publishing, 1995. Print.

Asthma, Aaron J. editor. The Theoi Project; Guide to Greek Mythology. “Olympian Gods of Greek Mythology.” 2007. (http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/olympian-gods.html)

Nasa.gov “Mercury” (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mercury)

Nasa.gov “Your Weight in Space” (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/kids/index.cfm?Filename=puzzles)

International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Planetary Names: Categories for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites.” (http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Categories)

 

Join us on Twitter @InnesAlison and @darrinsunstrum

Subscribe on iTunes so you don’t miss an episode! https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/mythtake/id1103569489?mt=2

Google Play https://goo.gl/app/playmusic?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&isi=691797987&ius=googleplaymusic&link=https://play.google.com/music/m/Iaegzaquhc7lfvc24icrzardzmu?t%3DMythTake

Find our RSS on Podbean http://alisoninnes.podbean.com

This week’s theme music: “Super Hero” by King Louie’s Missing Monuments from the album “Live at WFMU” (2011). Used under Creative Commons license. Music used under Creative Commons license and available from Free Music Archive.