The Ancients Podcast Stories (Greek Gods), 2022–2024

Sing Muses, sing to me a story of Olympus and the deathless gods who govern earth, sea and sky…

Between November 2022 and August 2024, our producer, Andrew Hulse, contributed oral storytelling scripts to the HistoryHit original podcast The Ancients and their miniseries on the Greek gods (as well as a few other classical myths).

Each podcast in the miniseries begins with a performance of oral storytelling – a myth related to the god in question – followed by an interview with a subject specialist.

The Ancients, hosted by historian Tristan Hughes, is dedicated to discussing our distant past. Historians and archaeologists join Tristan to discuss specific themes from antiquity, from Neolithic Britain to the Fall of Rome. You can find the full podcast – and its amazing breadth of content – here.

Check out each of the storytelling scripts below as well as a link to the full episode.

The Achilles episode was awarded Silver and Listener’s Choice at the 2023 Signal Awards in the category of Individual Episodes: History.


Zeus: King of the Gods

The myth of Zeus’s parentage, beginning with Uranus and Gaia.

13 November 2022


Hera: Queen of the Gods

The myth of Kleobis and Biton, the sons of Hera’s chief priestess.

11 December 2022


Hephaestus: God of Fire

The myth of Hephaestus’s birth and his marriage to Aphrodite.

8 January 2023


Aphrodite: Goddess of Love

The myth of the judgement of Paris.

5 February 2023


Ares: God of War

The myth of Ares’s daughter Alcippe and the first homicide.

12 March 2023


Athena: Goddess of Wisdom

The myth of Athena’s contest with Poseidon to claim patronage of Athens.

9 April 2023


King Midas

The myth of King Midas’s golden touch.

4 May 2023


Achilles

The myth of Achilles and Patroclus.

25 June 2023


Poseidon: God of the Sea

The myth of Odysseus and the cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon.

27 July 2023


Medusa

The myth of Medusa and her gaze of stone.

7 September 2023


Hades: King of the Underworld

The myth of Orpheus’s attempt to retrieve his deceased wife, Eurydice, from Hades’s halls.

15 October 2023


Persephone: Queen of the Underworld

The myth of how Persephone became queen of the underworld.

11 November 2023


Origins of Sparta: Return of the Heracleidae

The myth of Heracles’s sons, the Heracleidae, who were fated to claim Sparta and all the Peloponnese.

2 December 2023


Demeter: Goddess of the Harvest

The myth of Demeter’s wrath against King Erysichthon.

7 December 2023


Hermes: Messenger of the Gods

The myth of Hermes’s stealing Io from under the gaze of Argus the giant.

28 January 2024


Origins of Carthage: Dido

The myth of Dido’s flight from Phoenicia and her founding of Carthage.

22 February 2024


Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt

The myth of Artemis’s revenge upon the House of Atreus.

16 March 2024


Apollo: God of the Sun

The myth of Niobe and Apollo’s retribution.

21 April 2024


Dionysus: God of Wine

The myth of Pentheus and his blasphemy against Dionysus.

19 May 2024


Heracles

The myth of Heracles’s first labour: killing the Nemean lion.

22 June 2024


Hestia: Goddess of Hearth & Home

The myth of Hestia’s origins as first and last of the Olympians.

1 August 2024