⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We've told you the story of the Ostrogoths, the Amal ruling family, who built an imperial dynasty only to see that rulership dissolve within two generations. But what happened to their cousins, the Visigoths? The Tervingii tribe and the Balthi royal family? Alaric’s Goths?  Turns out they lasted much longer. But they weren’t necessarily the ones who had it most together. Join us for a vast, sweeping tale of constant regicide and usurpation, vast internal religious and cultural divisons, and war on all sides—through which the Visigoths hung on longer than anyone thought they would. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! For a while now, Genn has been hinting at a "Secret Project" in the works--and now it's out in the wild: the Official Lore Olympus Cookbook. Genn was heavily involved in this project, weaving together the history and mythology of Greek cuisine with the world of Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus to create a cookbook that's not only delightful to cook with, but fun and educational to read. Join us as Jenny interviews Genn about the process of co-creating this beautiful cookbook in the world of Lore Olympus. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we took a look at the outside forces driving the engine of the Migration Era: Hunnic migrations and invasions, constant displacement and conflict at the Roman borders. But Goths lived inside Rome too—in the heart of the Italian peninsula, and also in the outer provinces, in territories that were conquered by force. This story isn’t just about Goths that lived outside Rome. It’s also about the Goths that lived inside the Empire—as everything from slaves to soldiers to free citizens. How they were treated within that empire fueled and fed the wheel of the Migration era. Hatred of immigrants played a major role in Migration-Era conflicts--in ways scarily similar to events today.   Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! This file contains the first three episodes of our Spartacus series. You'll learn about the conditions in Italy that gave rise to the Third Servile War; how Spartacus rebelled and the pressures he was under in holding together a disparate crowd of rebels with differing priorities. It's a riveting tale that's sure to keep you hooked. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! This is an episode about the shock troops of Viking Armies—the most violent, the most terrifying, the men who ran out ahead of the army to shatter shield walls and break the minds of the enemy. There are accounts of great acts of heroism and self sacrifice among them in the ancient histories—but they were also on the margins of society, mistrusted and despised even by their own side. Why is that? And what drugs were these guys on, exactly?  What is truth, and what is fiction? What can we uncover about these men (and every once in a while, a woman) who were said to be so terrifyingly transformed? Today’s subject is that most terrifying enigma of the ancient world: Berserkers on the Battlefield. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Most accounts of Caesar's life start later on--such as during his time in Gaul or crossing the Rubicon. But his early life was just as fascinating; maybe even more so. This is the Caesar who stood up to Sulla and refused to divorce his wife. The Caesar who made an early career of prosecuting corrupt governors to cement his cred as a populist--even as it made him powerful enemies. The Caesar who, when kidnapped by pirates, demanded they raise his ransom and spent his time in captivity hanging out on the beach and reading them bad poetry. It's a fun, lighthearted introduction to Caesar's life before it takes its dark turn. We hope you enjoy. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We'll be back October 5. In the meantime please enjoy this episode from our vault about another ancient natural disaster--and the trauma it inflicted on a people. High in the mountains of eastern Crete, there’s a secret that has been kept since the 1200s BC. It’s the secret of the strange and still-unexplained 80+ ancient villages hidden in the Cretan mountains that may have been the last refuges of the Minoan people. The ancient Minoans were master seafarers. But sometime between the 1200s and the 1000s BC, they abandoned their coastal villages, their palaces, their fertile farmlands, their trade routes—and simply withdrew from the world. Today, we’re going to look at where they went—and why. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We'll be back October 5. In the meantime please enjoy this episode from our vault about another ancient plague--the Plague of Athens--and one of its most esteemed survivors. Long-term partner of a leading Athenian statesman, darling of the philosophical set, survivor of the plague of Athens—she threw her own parties, and they were the best parties ever thrown within a hundred-mile radius of Athens. No one has done better since. Her name was Aspasia. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We're taking a very brief hiatus this time--just until October 5. In the meantime, tune in to hear us talk rivers of pus, transformed worlds, and all things volcanoes--as well as our plans for the upcoming season. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! You’ve been transported almost 2,000 years into the past, to the streets of Pompeii. It’s a brisk autumn morning, around, oh…10 AM…and all hell is about to break loose. What's your next move? You could live through it, maybe. If you were lucky. And made all the right choices. At exactly the right time. The actions you take in these first moments could make the difference between life and death. Yes, this is Ancient History Fangirl – could you survive a volcano – Choose Your Own Adventure edition! Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Cultures on every continent have flood myths, and China is no exception. One of China’s founding myths is one about a singular hero, Yu the Great, and his brilliant works of water engineering that tamed a deadly flood—roughly four thousand years ago. But did this great flood really occur? Was there really a Yu, or someone like him? Join us as we delve into the Bronze-age civilizations of ancient China, the history of its legendary rivers, and an ancient flood that could have been The Big One. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Off the coast of Israel there is an underwater megalithic stone circle dating back to the 7000s BC – that is perfectly preserved, keeping its secrets from another time. This is the story of a prehistoric city (well, village) off the coast of Israel. Thousands of years ago, it sank beneath the waves. Its discovery was revolutionary and changed what we thought about the people who lived in this area during the stone age. Today, we’re going to dive into the past, to a time when the Mediterranean rose up and sunk a city – and froze a time, a people, and a way of life in place.  Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian. The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global volcanic eruption of 536 AD. Three eyewitness accounts have survived--and, in the grand tradition of this podcast, we decided to read them to you whilst Yule-level drunk. Buckle up. It is a wild, plague-tastic ride. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! It was the beginning of the Migration Era where the Goths’ history with the Roman Empire begins. The Migration era was a cycle of wars and conflicts lasting hundreds of years. Alaric’s sack of Rome was only a small part of it.    What started it? Nobody knows. But it would have been an extremely chaotic time to be alive, when ordinary people had to leave all that they’d built and flee in the face of invaders—who were also refugees fleeing violence that had wiped out their own homes. There would have been no safety anywhere.   The Migration Era was a vortex of death, where displaced victims, starving refugees, desperate people often wound up enacting the next round of violence on the populations they crashed into. And in this episode, we try to plumb the depths of that vortex. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! What was the worst year to be alive? Some researchers have a very specific answer to this question: 536 AD.  This is a year when the global temperature dropped, and it was winter all year round—for multiple years. The sun disappeared for 18 months as the world was covered in a veil of sulfuric dust. Crops failed. People starved, and fell to eating each other and warring over scarce resources. From China to Mexico, thriving civilizations collapsed. And the culprit? A volcano. Or maybe multiple volcanoes. But which ones are still a mystery. This is a historical mass murder, and it’s still unsolved.   Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Imagine a desert stretching over 1,500 miles along the Peruvian coastline, between the high Andes to the east and the vast Pacific coastline to the west. A place of brilliant colors and contradictions. This is the driest desert in the world. Astronauts use it to simulate conditions on Mars. This is the home of the Nazca Lines: huge, beautifully made 2,000-year-old geoglyphs, visible only from the sky. Some are elaborate images of animals, plants, and people. Others are perfectly straight lines that stretch for miles in the empty desert.  What were they for? What did they mean? Their story–and the story of the people who made them–is so much more than it seems. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Teotihuacan is an ancient pre-Colombian city in central America, founded two thousand years ago. It’s the home of some of the most iconic Mesoamerican monuments in existence, including the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun. The city was abandoned after about 750 years of habitation. When the Aztecs first encountered it, it had stood empty for 600 years. Walking through the empty ruin, they marveled at the towering pyramids, the incredible murals, the enormous palaces—and wondered where the people had gone. They thought these people must have become gods. This city has something for everyone: mysterious skeletons. Volcanoes. An eating of the rich. And so many mysteries, it’s hard to pick just one. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Deep in the western Sahara—in perhaps one of the driest parts of the driest desert in the world—there are cave paintings that depict people swimming. These cave paintings date to 10,000 years ago. Back then, there would have been plenty of water to swim in. It was a time when the Sahara was green. Join us as we pull back the curtain on a tantalizing time when the Sahara was a wetland paradise, with enormous megalakes, vast networks of wild rivers, and people who created stunning rock art, built complex megalithic structures, mummified their dead—and whose beliefs and culture may have formed the foundation of ancient Egyptian civilization. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Crater Lake is a caldera lake in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon—the remnants of an ancient volcanic eruption. It’s the deepest lake in the country and one of the deepest in the world. And this place is steeped in lore: unexplained events, murders and suicides, disappearances and hauntings, and a strange 200-year-old floating log that probably controls the weather. But the history of this lake goes back even farther: to the volcanic eruption that created it 7,700 years ago. People were there to witness that event—and its memory is preserved, both in archaeology and an ancient mythological tradition that describes the eruption with scientific precision. Join us as we plumb the depths of Crater Lake. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Mammoths existed on our planet for roughly five million years, and they were perfectly adapted to the ice age world they inhabited. So perfectly adapted that when the last ice age ended, so did they. No woolly mammoths have walked the earth for the last 10,000 years. Or did they? It turns out that the last mammoths didn’t disappear 10,000 years ago. For thousands of years after their extinction in the rest of the world, a small population still lived on a remote island in the Arctic called Wrangel Island. And in their last days? In the end times? Things got weird. This is a story about a natural disaster that happened—to mammoths. Let’s dig in. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Ten thousand years ago, there was no North Sea. Instead, there was a vast landscape that connected the UK and Ireland to the rest of Europe. Archaeologists call it Doggerland. This was a Mesolithic paradise. A great biodiversity hotspot where we had all the food and raw materials we could ask for within arm’s reach—an immense forest and wetland paradise as big as a second France. It was the beating heart of Mesolithic Europe. But nothing good can ever stay. By some accounts, Doggerland was drowning from the day it was born. But its final end came in a single, cataclysmic day. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! The story of The Ten Plagues of Egypt is important in both Jewish and Christian mythology. It’s a dark, haunting tale that features a capricious God meting out increasingly terrible punishments on the Egyptian people for their Pharaoh’s refusal to release the Israelites from slavery. But that’s not all there is to this story. It’s also a Bronze Age narrative that may be based on an ancient psychic trauma. Just what was that trauma? And could the cruel, unpredictable behavior of the God of the Old Testament be a clue? Join us as we try to get to the bottom of it. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In this episode, we return to the beach at Actium with author, historian, and academic Barry Strauss as our tour guide. His new book, The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium, discusses the infamous sea battle Marc Antony and Cleopatra fought against Octavian and Agrippa for love, for supremacy, for their very survival. Join us as we deconstruct this battle, paint a vivid picture of ancient war at sea, and tackle the one question everyone’s asking: why did Cleopatra flee the battlefield? Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode originally appeared as a Patreon Exclusive episode. Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In the second installment of our Cleopatra x King Herod arc, the slow-motion train wreck continues. Herod makes increasingly ill-advised decisions as schemes and intrigue simmer around him. Meanwhile, Cleopatra influences things from afar, empowering Herod's enemies and relatives (who are frequently one and the same).  Find out how it all went down when their feud reached the boiling point.  Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we delved into the archaeology of the pre-Roman Goths. But what about Gothic culture? What do we know about pre-Roman Gothic culture, before the Goths were Romanized?   To get a real sense of what is authentically Gothic is really difficult. We don’t have much information about the Goths’ daily lives or culture. We know almost nothing about their pre-Christian religious practices and beliefs. What we do have is a lot of military history from a Roman lens, and accounts from chroniclers like Tacitus—which have a lot of issues.   In this episode, we try to peel back the layers and discover what we can about pre-Roman Gothic culture. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode originally appeared as a Patreon Exclusive episode. Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our episode Cleopatra x Marc Antony: Lovers in a Dangerous Time (Part 3), we alluded to a story about King Herod (yes, that King Herod) and Cleopatra—and an epic feud between them. We didn’t have time to go into that story in the bigger arc on Cleopatra and Marc Antony, but we thought it was a perfect topic for a minisode.  Unlike Cleopatra and Marc Antony, Cleopatra and Herod hated each other. And not in a sexy-belligerent-sexual-tension way. They were intractable enemies—and it ultimately led to Cleopatra’s downfall.  This is the first Ancient History Fangirl mini-arc--a two-episode series about two colossal personalities from the ancient world--and what happened when their interests collided. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! After the disaster at Actium, Marc Antony's entire army--100,000 strong--surrendered to Octavian. Marc Antony and Cleopatra fled to Alexandria to negotiate the terms of their defeat. Those were dark, foreboding days. Friends and allies fled the palace. Marc Antony fell into a deep depression, while Cleopatra searched desperately for a way out--one that would keep her kingdom intact and her children alive. But the reckoning was coming. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! As Marc Antony and Cleopatra lived and loved in Alexandria, Octavian whipped up a toxic garbage fire of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia in Rome--and then declared war. Not against Marc Antony, but against Cleopatra. Soon, the lovers would be forced to defend their home, their family, and their life together on the shores of the Ambracian Gulf. Find out how it all went down--at a town called Actium. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're re-releasing this episode in honor of Maya Deane's book Wrath Goddess Sing coming out in paperback. Available wherever books are sold! Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Many of us have preconceived notions about what the Illiad was like. Prepare to have those notions blown away. In this episode, debut author Maya Deane methodically strips away the lenses of the Victorian era, Classical Greece, and the modern day to reveal an Illiad that’s older and darker and weirder than any of us could ever have dreamed. This is the Illiad of your darkest and deepest imaginings, an Illiad like you’ve never seen before—but somehow always knew existed. It’s the Illiad of Wrath Goddess Sing—a novel about transgender Achilles and the love of found family in a Bronze Age world as deadly as it is beguiling. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! After four years of marriage with Octavia, Marc Antony followed Cleopatra to Alexandria—and settled into life there. He oversaw festivals and athletic contests, cheered Cleopatra on as she ruled Egypt, and showered her and their children with honors and territories. For all intents and purposes, he was the consort of Egypt’s beloved Pharaoh, the father of her children—and he was home. But the propaganda war between Antony and Octavian was building to a fever pitch in Rome, even as the Parthians loomed threateningly in the distance. Soon Antony would be called to war—and face the biggest battlefield test of his career. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! When Cleopatra and Marc Antony met by the River Tarsus, Antony was smitten. And when Cleopatra went back to Alexandria, he forgot about invading Parthia and followed her home. The two then spent a magical few months in Alexandria, where they threw each other lavish banquets, made bets and compacts, played ridiculous practical jokes on each other and the public--and fell in love. But nothing good can ever stay. The real world came knocking, and soon Marc Antony was forced to choose between his heart in Alexandria and his future in Rome. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Shakespeare wrote about them. Hollywood glamorized them. For thousands of years, they've come down to us as the ultimate star-crossed lovers: the Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra, and the Roman commander Marc Antony. In the wake of Caesar's death, Cleopatra fled to Egypt--and began picking up the pieces. Meanwhile, Marc Antony defeated Caesar's assassins in battle, and then set his sights on invading Parthia. But to invade Parthia, he needed the money and support of Rome's richest client ruler: Cleopatra. And Cleopatra had an agenda, too: she needed another Roman protector to shore up her power in Egypt. Find out what happened when these two met on the banks of the River Tarsus. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! When Cleopatra met Julius Caesar, sparks flew. The daring Egyptian queen beguiled the conquering Roman general—and then enlisted him to fight her battles. Outnumbered five to one in a city full of ancient wonders, Cleopatra and Caesar spent the next ten months barricaded in a luxurious palace while outside, the enemy howled for their blood--fighting a deadly urban war for Cleopatra's throne and both of their survival. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! When Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt, he walked into a civil war between the country’s new co-rulers: Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra. The romance between Caesar and Cleopatra is one of the most epic of ancient times. But we can’t tell you that story until you understand who Cleopatra was. And to understand Cleopatra, you have to understand the political element in which she swam. In this episode, we take you from the cutthroat intrigue of the Ptolemaic court to the volatile streets of Alexandria—and from Cleopatra’s early life to the events that led her to take an extreme gamble and team up with the man who’d just conquered Rome. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl16 and use code fangirl16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! It's the end of our Women of Myth season, and wow, has it been a whirlwind! We had a blast on this season and we hope you did too. We'll be back July 6 with a brand-new season--one that's all about ancient history and returns to our roots. Listen in to hear some behind the scenes info, and all about our plans for the coming few months and the season beyond. Sponsors & Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl50 and use code fangirl50 for 50% off plus your first box ships free! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! The Roman Empire stood for a thousand years. Many causes have been given for its downfall—but if just one group of people could be said to be culpable, it would be the Goths.   They stormed its borders en masse, scored outsized victories that no one had won before, killed two emperors and raised up their own, sacked the city of Rome after a thousand inviolable years; and built their own kingdoms within the Empire’s decaying corpse. Their name has inspired the names of architecture, literature and fashion into the modern day. Whenever you set the date of the fall of Rome, there’s no question the Goths were instrumental in felling it. So who were these people? Who were the Goths?   In this episode, we’re going to find out. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Feminism in Lord of the Rings: let’s discuss. How were women depicted in the famous trilogy, and how has that depiction changed from the books to the movies and then to the Rings of Power TV show? Join us and Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths Baby! for a very serious, very scholarly contemplation of women and feminism in Lord of the Rings. LOL just kidding. Mainly this episode involves Jenny shrieking about Hot Sauron, Genn getting drunkenly aggressive in Lord of the Rings trivia, and Liv reciting huge swaths of Fellowship from memory. Scholarship is low, ridiculousness is high, and Liv may in fact be the One LOTR Nerd to Rule Them All. You’ve been warned. (Spoilers abound for Rings of Power. Now you’ve been doubly warned.) Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl50 and use code fangirl50 for 50% off plus your first box ships free! Thanks Athletic Greens. Go to athleticgreens.com/fangirl to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We’re joined today by YA romance author and Tiktok star Bea Fitzgerald, who brings Greek mythology to life on her Tiktok channel Chaos on Olympus. In this conversation, we talk about the female goddesses, monsters and heroines of Greek mythology: what makes them tick, which ones are the most fun to skewer in bite-sized video format, and the surprising queer romance hiding in monster mythology. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl50 and use code fangirl50 for 50% off plus your first box ships free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just who are the classics for, anyway? Our guest Jasmine Elmer has been an educator in the classics for decades—through educational charity work, as a TV presenter and through her podcast, Legit Classics. She is passionate about making the classics accessible to all—and the new and important perspectives brought to the field by scholars of diverse nontraditional backgrounds.  This week, we discuss how to make the ancient world more accessible to everyone, of all backgrounds—as well as Jasmine’s own upcoming book on women in world mythology, and what made us all fall in love with the ancient world. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl50 and use code fangirl50 for 50% off plus your first box ships free! Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re taking a deep dive into Welsh mythology from a queer, feminist perspective with the phenomenally talented Welsh artist Mari Catrin Phillips of MythsnTits. Join us as we get acquainted with the women of the Mabinogion. Check out MythsnTits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MariCatrinPhillips Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl60 and use code fangirl60 for 60% off plus free shipping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we delve deeper into the legend of Atalanta, with bestselling author Jennifer Saint as our guide. Join us as we discuss Atalanta’s heroine’s journey, her connection to Artemis and a more ancient concept of the feminine, and what it was really like being stuck on the Argo with all those dudes. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl60 and use code fangirl60 for 60% off plus free shipping! Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Atalanta was an avatar of an older, wilder time, created in the image of an ancient Artemis—goddess of the fields and forests who had a strong association with bears. Perhaps Atalanta represents an older image of that goddess before Classical Athens got its hands on her. Join us as we take a deep dive into the story of Atalanta: a gender rebel and sexually liberated heroine who—maybe—peels back the curtain on what life was like for women on the margins, living pre-agrarian lifestyles outside of the traditional gender roles established by the scholars and writers of Classical Greece. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl60 and use code fangirl60 for 60% off plus free shipping! Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we’re joined by Caribbean feminist Biblical scholar and author Princess O’Nika Auguste to discuss the female monsters and goddesses of Caribbean lore, African diaspora religions, and the Bible. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion where we talk about the most fearsome feminine monsters of Caribbean legend and African diaspora religion, as well as the bad girls of the Bible—including everybody’s favorite patriarchy-smashing rebel of Jewish lore, Lilith. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/fangirl60 and use code fangirl60 for 60% off plus free shipping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Decades after the Spanish conquest, Aztec survivors wrote down their histories and mythology in documents called Codices. Many were written at the behest of Spanish priests, and come to us through a Spanish lens. But some were written in secret, by Aztecs and for Aztecs, with no Spanish involvement at all. Long ignored by historians, these documents provide us with what is perhaps the most authentic history of the Aztec people in their own voice. Today, we’re joined by Camilla Townsend, a leading scholar on the history and translation of these important documents. She is professor of history at Rutgers University specializing in Native American and indigenous history in the United States and Latin America, and author of the award-winning book The Fifth Sun: a New History of the Aztecs. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Morrigan has many names: Badb, the scald-crow. Red-haired Macha. Nevin of the battle-frenzy. Fea; the deathly. Be Neit; the Woman of Battle. But first and foremost, the Morrigan was a goddess of war. And to understand her, you have to understand her battlefield. Join us as we get to know the Morrigan—and explore the bloody waters in which she swam. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Urduja was a celebrated warrior princess who ruled the kingdom of Tawalisi, said to exist in the Philippines. The first recorded mention of her comes from the travelogue of Ibn Battuta, an explorer and scholar who lived in the 1300s AD and who claimed to have met her. Much is mysterious about Urduja--including whether her kingdom ever existed. However, her story has become so compelling over the centuries that today she is considered a national heroine of the Philippines. This week, we're joined by Agas Ramirez of HERstory: Southeast Asia to discuss the history and mythology surrounding this fascinating woman--and the tradition of female rulers and warriors in southeast Asia. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In Enemy of My Dreams, Jenny based her heroine Julia partially on Julia the Elder—rebellious daughter of Augustus who got herself exiled to Pandateria for being, as the ancients say, “too slutty.” Julia the Elder refused, REFUSED to rein it in. And for that, we adore her. But accounts of her life are told by men, sometimes her political enemies. She may have been a victim of slander, or engaged in deeper plotting that her dad wanted to keep secret. And while Julia the Elder was exiled for roughly five years, her daughter, Julia the Younger, was exiled for 20. Join us as we explore the lives of these indomitable women with historical fiction author and classics scholar Tana Rebellis, author of the Exile Duology and expert in Julio-Claudian exile. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The traditional myth about Medusa is that she was the monster—a fearsome snake-haired gorgon who could turn men to stone with a glance—and her killer, Perseus, was the hero of the tale. But give the story a closer look, and it’s not even clear the Greeks always saw it that way. Ancient depictions of this myth don’t always show Perseus as the hero. And there’s evidence that gorgons originally had a protective role in Greek iconography. In this episode, Natalie Haynes—bestselling author of Stone Blind—guides us in retracing the clues the ancients left us to reclaim our Gorgon Girl.  Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we welcome internationally bestselling author Joanne Harris to our podcast. Joanne is the author of over 29 novels and novellas for adults and children, including Chocolat, which was turned into an Oscar winning film, and the fantasy series Runemarks and Runelight; The Gospel of Loki and The Testament of Loki, and many others. Join us for a wild conversation that will break down all your preconceptions about Norse mythology, its ancient roots and hidden goddesses, and women’s place and power in ancient pre-Christian Nordic cultures. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Both Greek and Hindu mythology are populated with fascinating women—goddesses, heroines, and monsters alike. Award-winning and best-selling author and poet Nikita Gill incorporates both into her work, forging a compelling connection between ancient narratives and personal mythologies of place and family. Nikita’s poetry is haunting, fiercely feminist, and filled with insight and heartbreak. Join us for a conversation about the women of Hindu and Greek mythology, the feminist themes in both, and which “monsters” we identify with most.  Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Tell us what you think of the podcast and help us find advertisers who interest you! Fill out our listener survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices