Liv Reads Statius: The Thebaid (Part 1)
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from high tech to low culture and everywhere in between. Join us. Listen to Tech Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, hi, hello there, and welcome. This is Let's Talk About Myths, baby. And I am that host of yours, she who loves to read aloud and hasn't really...

to do it in quite a while now. Liv. So it's been a minute since we've had a new reading episode. I finished The Fall of Troy back in August and I just haven't had the chance to start up a new series until now. It's getting a little tricky, honestly, to find the perfect sources to read, let alone, you know, ones that have these readable and copyright-free public domain translations. So I wasn't able to give you guys options this time. Instead, I have just made the choice for you. But it is a good one.

Today, we're beginning the epic poem The Thebiad by the Roman author Statius. Like The Fall of Troy, The Thebiad tells a story that has its roots in the oldest of Greek myths, but was written during the Roman period. In this case, by a Roman author named Statius. So obviously, there's a lot going on there in terms of Roman culture and politics being placed into this Greek mythological world.

This epic, it tells the story of, as you might have guessed, Thebes. It's the Seven Against Thebes, kind of the tragic ending to the story of Oedipus, Jocasta, their children, Antigone, Ismene, Polyneices, and Ateocles.

And then as far as I understand it, there's a ton of other stuff that goes on. It's going to be particularly interesting reading this, not only because, as usual, I have not read it yet myself, but also because this is a story with, again, its roots in Greek myth, which in a particular Greek myth, which defined so much of the broad mythology that we know today, but

which was written by a good six or so centuries later in the Roman world and with the influence of Roman religion and Roman culture and Roman imperialism and everything about the wider Mediterranean at that time. This is The Thebiad of Statius, translated by J. H. Mosley, book one.

my spirit is touched by pyrrhean fire to recount the strife of brethren and the battle of the alternate reign fought out with impious hatred and all the guilty tale of thebes

Where, O goddesses, would you bid me to begin? Shall I sing the origins of the dreadful race, the Sidonian rape, and the inexorable terms of Aginor's law, and Cadmus' searching over the main? Far backward runs the story.

should i tell of the anxious husbandsmen of hidden war sowing battles in the unhallowed soil and searching to the utmost relate with what song amphion bade the tyrian mountains move to form a city's walls whence came bacchus grievous wrath against his kindred towers

What deed fierce Juno wrought against whom unhappy Athamas caught up his bow, and why with Palimon in her arms his mother quailed not to leap into the vast Ionian sea?

"'No, rather here and now I will suffer the sorrows and the joys of Cadmus to have gone by. "'Let the troubled house of Oedipus set a limit to my song, "'since not yet may I venture to utter the theme of the standards of Italy "'and the triumphs of the North, "'or Rhine twice brought beneath our yoke and Istre twice subject to our law "'and the Dacians hurled down from their conspiring mount.'

or how in those days of scarce approaching manhood for forfeited attack and of thee o glory added to the latian name whom succeeding early to your father's latest exploits rome belongs to be her for ever

Yes, though a closer bound confine the stars and the shining quarter of the sky that knows not of Pleiades or Boreas or rending thunderbolt tempt you, though he who curbs the fiery-footed steeds set with his own hand upon your locks the exalted radiance of his diadem,

Or Jupiter, yield you an equal portion of the great heaven, abide contented with the governance of men, you lord of earth and sea, and give constellations to the sky. A time will come when emboldened by Pyrrhi and Phrenzy I shall recount your deeds. Now do I pitch my harp but to the singing of Ionian arms and the scepter fatal to both tyrants.

of their madness unchecked by death and the strife of flames in the dissension of the funeral pyre, of kings' bodies lacking burial and cities drained by mutual slaughter, when the dark blue waters of Dirke blushed red with Lernian gore, and Thetis stood aghast at Ismeneus, once wont to graze arid banks flowing down with mighty heaps of slain.

Which hero first do you make my theme, O Cleo? Tydeus, uncontrolled in wrath, the sudden chasm that gaped for the laurel-crowned prophet? Distraught Hippomedon, too, repelling his river foe with corpses, demands my song, and I must lament the gallant Arcadian in his wars, and sing with a yet fiercer thrill the fate of Copenius.

Already had Oedipus, with avenging hand, probed deep his sinning eyes, and sunk his guilty shame in eternal night, abiding in a long and living death.

But while he hugs his darkness and the uttermost seclusion of his dwelling, and keeps his secret chamber, which the sun's rays and heaven behold not, yet with unwearied wings the fierce daylight of the mind hovers around him, and the avenging furies of his crimes assail his heart.

then he displays to heaven those empty orbs the cruel pitiful punishment of his life and with blood-stained hands beats upon the hollow earth and in dire accents utters this prayer

gods who hold sway over guilty souls and over tartarus crowded with the damned and you o styx whom i behold ghastly in your shadowy depths and you tisiphone so often the object of my prayer be favourable now and further my unnatural wish

If in aught I have found favour, if you did cherish me in your bosom when I fell from my mother's womb, and did heal the wounds of my pierced feet, if I sought the lake of Kira, where it winds between the two summits of the rain,

when I could have lived contented with the false Polybus and in the Phocian strait where three ways meet grappled with the aged king and cleft the visage of the trembling dotard. Searching for my true father, if by wit of the foreshadowing I solved the riddles of the cruel Sphinx,

"'If I knew exulting the sweet ecstasy and fatal union of my mother's bed, and passed many an unhallowed night, and begot sons for you, as well you know, yet soon, greedy for punishment, did violence to myself with tearing fingers, and left my eyes upon my wretched mother.'

Hear me to the end, if my prayer be worthy and such as you would inspire my ranging heart withal.

"'Sightless though I was, and driven from my throne, "'my sons, on whatever couch begotten, "'attempted not to give me guidance or consolation in my grief, "'no, haughtily, ah, the maddening sting, "'and raised to royalty with my long dead, "'they mock my blindness and abhor their father's groans. "'Do these two hold me accursed? "'And the Father of Gods beholds it, and does not?'

Do you, at least my due defender, come here and begin a work of vengeance that will blast their seed forever? Set on your head the gore-drenched circlet that my bloody nails tore off, and inspired by their father's curses, go you between the brethren, and with the sword sunder the binding ties of kinship.

grant me you queen of tartarus's abyss grant me to see the evil that my soul desires nor will the spirit of the youths be slow to follow come you but worthy of yourself you shall know them to be true sons of mine

"'So,' prayed he, and the cruel goddess turned her grim visage to hearken. "'By chance she sat beside dismal Cocytus "'and had loosed the snakes from her head "'and suffered them to lap the sulphurous waters. "'Straightway, faster than fire of Jove or falling stars, "'she leapt up from the gloomy bank. "'The crowd of phantoms gave way before her, fearing to meet their queen.'

Then, journeying through the shadows and the fields dark with trooping ghosts, she hastens to the gate of Tynarus, whose threshold none may cross and again return. Day felt her presence, night interposed her pitchy cloud and startled his shining steeds. Far off towering, Atlas shuddered and shifted the weight of heaven upon his trembling shoulders.

forthwith rising aloft from malia's vale she hies her on the well-known way to thebes for on no errand is she swifter to go and to return not kindred tartarus itself pleases her so well

A hundred horned snakes erect, shaded her face. The thronging terror of her awful head, deep within her sunken eyes there glows a light of iron hue. As when Atreation spells make laboring Phoebe redden through the clouds, suffused with venom, her skin distends and swells with corruption.

A fiery vapor issues from her evil mouth, bringing upon mankind thirst unquenchable and sickness and famine and universal death.

From her shoulders falls a stark and grisly robe, whose dark fastenings meet upon her breast. Atropos and Proserpine herself fashion her this garb anew. Then both her hands are shaken in wrath, the one gleaming with a funeral torch, the other lashing the air with a live water-snake.

she halted where the sheer heights of vast kitharon rise to meet the sky and sent forth from her green locks fierce repeated hisses a signal to the land whereupon the whole shore of the achaean gulf and the realm of pelops echoed far and wide

Parnassus also in midheaven heard it, and turbulent Eurotas, with the din Ety rocked and staggered, and Ithma scarce withstood the waves on either side. With her own hand his mother snatched Palimon from the curved back of his straying dolphin steed and pressed him to her bosom.

Then the fury, swooping headlong upon the Cadmian towers, straightway cast upon the house its wanted gloom.

Troubled dismay seized the brothers' hearts, and the madness of their race inspired them. And envy that repines in others' happiness, and hate engendering fear, and then fierce love of power, and breach of mutual covenant, and ambition that brooks not second place, the dearer joy of soul supremacy, and discord that attends on partnered rule—

Even so would a farmer fair unite under the plough, yoke, two picked bullocks of the savage herd, but they indignant, for not yet has the frequent coulter bowed these arching necks to the sinewy shoulders, pull contrawise, and with strength well matched break harness and confound the furrows with divers' tracks.'

not otherwise does furious discord enrage the proud brothers it was agreed to change rule for exile by the ordinance of the alternate year by a grudging law they bade their fortunes change so that a new claimant should ever embitter the monarch's fast-expiring term no other bond united the brethren this was their sole stay from arms nor destined to endure to a second reign

Yet then no ceilings glittered with thick plates of yellow gold, no did quarried Grecian pillars bear aloft vast halls that could freely spread the serried mass of clients, no spears kept guard over a monarch's troubled slumbers, no sentinels groaned at the recurring duty of the watch. They thought not to entrust precious stones to the wine cup, nor to soil gold with food. It was for naked power.

"'The brethren armed, a starveling realm was their cause of battle, "'and while they dispute which of the two shall plough scant Dirke's squalid fields "'or boast himself on the Tyrian exile's lowly throne, "'the laws of gods and men are broken, "'righteousness perishes, and honour both in life and death.'

Alas, unhappy ones, what limits set you to your wrath? What if it were the sky's farthest bounds you dared so impiously? Whereon the sun looks when he issues from the eastern gate and when he sinks into his Iberian haven, or the lands he touches from afar with slanting devious rays, lands that the north wind freezes or the moist south warms with fiery breath,

no even though the wealth of phrygia and tyre were gathered as the prize a land of horror and a city god accursed sufficed to rouse your hatred and hell's madness was the price of sitting in the seat of oedipus

and now by the losing of the hazard paulinikez saw his reign deferred how proud a day for you fierce tyrant when alone and unchallenged in your palace you did look and behold all power yours all other men your subjects and never a head but bowed beneath the sway

yet already murmurs are creeping around the iconian folk the people is a silent variance with its prince and as is the want of a crowd it is the claimant that they love and one among them whose chief thought it was to hurt by mean and venomous speech and never to bear the yoke of rulers with submissive neck said is this the lot that the hard fates have appointed for our argogian land

So often to change those whom we must fear and to give uncertain allegiance to an alternate sway. From hand to hand they tossed the destinies of peoples and of their own accord make fortune fickle. Am I always to serve princes that take their turn of exile? Is this your will and purpose for your kindred realm, great lord of heaven and earth?

Does the ancient augury still have power for Thebes, since Cadmus, bid in search in vain for the Carpathian Sea, for the winsome burden of the Sidonian bull, found an exile's home in the Hyantean fields, and in the gaping of the pregnant earth bequeathed the warfare of brethren as an omen to his posterity forever?

see how the tyrant rid of his colleague rises erect more fiercely threatening under cruel brows what terror in his look how overbearing his pride will this man ever stoop to subject rank but the other was gentle to our prayers affable of speech and more patient of the right

What wonder! He was not alone. A worthless crowd indeed are we, ready for every chance, at the bidding of every lord, whosoever he be. As the sails yield to the cold north wind on this side and to the cloudy east wind on that, and the vessel's fate hangs wavering, alas for the cruel, intolerable lot of peoples, racked by doubt and fear, so now one commands and the other threatens.

2025 is bound to be a fascinating year. It's going to be filled with money challenges and opportunities. I'm Joel. Oh, and I am Matt. And we're the hosts of How To Money. We want to be with you every step of the way in your financial journey this year, offering the information and insights you need to thrive financially. Yeah, whether you find yourself up to your eyeballs in student loan debt or you've got a sky-high credit card balance because you went a little overboard with the holiday spending,

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On Tech Stuff, we travel all the way from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars to the dark corners of TikTok to ask and attempt to answer burning questions about technology. One of the kind of tricks for surviving Mars is to live there long enough so that people evolve into Martians. Like data is a very rough proxy for a complex reality. How is it possible that

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Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarcki. And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season, we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them. We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's right.

That's a fact. We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective. And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom-made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories.

There's one for every story we tell. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. But now, by Jove's command, the High Court and Chosen Council of the Gods had assembled in the spacious halls of the revolving sphere, in heavens in most depths.

Equally removed from hence is the whole world's extent, the abodes of east and west and earth and sea outspread beneath the infinite sky. Loftily through their midst moves the king himself, making all tremble, yet with countenance serene, and takes his seat on the starry throne. Nor dare they sit, the heavenly ones, until the father himself with tranquil hand permit them.

Next, a crowd of wandering demigods and rivers, of one kin with the high clouds and winds, their clamors hushed by fear, throng the golden halls. The arching vaults of heaven are all agleam with majesty, the heights glow with the fuller radiance, and a light that is not of earth blooms upon the portals.

when quiet was commanded and heaven's orb fell silent he began from his lofty throne the sacred words have authority and power immutable and destiny waits upon his voice

Of earth's transgressions I complain, and of man's mind that no avenging powers can satiate. Am I ever to be spent in punishing the wicked? I am weary of venting my anger with the flashing brand. Long since are the busy arms of the Cyclops failing, and the fires droop that serving Aeolian anvils.

yes i had suffered the sun's steeds to run free of their false driver and heaven to be burned with their straying wheels and earth to be foul with the ashes that once were faithon

yet not availed it nor that you brother did with your strong spear send the sea flooding wide over the forbidden land now am i descending in punishment on two houses whereof i am myself progenitor the one branches from the stem of persian argos the other flows from its source to aeonian thebes

"'In all the implanted character abides, "'who knows not Cadmus's bloodshed "'and the array of warring furies "'so often summoned from the depths of hell, "'the mother's unhallowed joys "'and frenzies ranging of the forests, "'and the reproaches of gods "'that must be veiled in silence. "'Scarce would the period of day or passing night "'avail me to recount the impious doings of the race.'

"'No, this unnatural air has ever ventured to climb his father's couch "'and defile the womb of his innocent mother. "'Returning, oh, horror, to his own life's origin, "'yet he has made atonement everlasting to the gods above, "'casting forth from himself the light of day, "'nor any more feeds upon the air of heaven. "'But his sons, a deed unspeakable, trampled on his eyes as they fell.'

Now, now are their prayers fulfilled, terrible old man. Deserving are you, yes, deserving in your blindness to hope for Jove as your avenger.

"'New strife will I send upon the guilty realm "'and uproot the whole stock of the deadly race. "'Let the gift of Adrastus's daughter "'and her ill-omened nuptials furnish me with the seeds of war. "'This race, too, I am resolved to scourge with punishment, "'for never hath the deceit of Tantalus "'nor the crime of the pitiless banquet "'been forgotten in the secret counsels of my heart.'

so spoke the almighty sire but wounded by his words and nursing sudden wrath in a heart aflame juno thus makes answer

it is i then just of the gods i whom you bid to engage in war for you know how i ever give aid of men and might to the cyclopean towers and the far-famed sceptre of great pharaonius although there you did ruthlessly cast on sleep and slay the guardian of the pharian heifer

yes and do enter barred turrets in a shower of gold concealed armors i pardon you that city i hate where you go undisguised where you did sound the thunders that proclaim our high union and wield the lightnings that are mine

"'Let Thebes atone her crimes. Why do you choose Argos as her foe? No, if such discord has seized our holy marriage-chamber, go, raise Sparta to the ground, bring war's destruction on Samos and old Mycenae. Why anywhere is the altar of your spouse made warm by sacrificial blood, or fragrant with heaps of eastern incense?'

"'Sweeter is the smoke that rises from the votive shrines of Mariotic Coptos "'or from the wailing crowds and brazen gongs of River Nile.'

But if it is evil deed of former men that mankind now does expiate, and this resolve has come so late to minister to your wrath, to cast back your gaze through days of old, at what far stage of time does it suffice to drive away earth's madness and purge the backward-reaching ages?

choose straightway that spot for your beginning where alpheus followed afar the track of his sicanian love glides by the sea with wandering wave

Here on accursed ground the Arcadians set you a shrine, yet it shames you not. Here is Oenomius's chariot of war, and the steeds more fitly stalled beneath Gettic Haimus. Nay, even yet the severed heads and mangled corpses of the suitors lie stark and unburied. Yet have you here the welcome honors of a temple, yes, and guilty Ida, please you, and Crete that tells falsely of your death?

why did you grudge me then to abide in my tantalian land turn hence the tumult of war and have compassion on your own blood many a wide and wicked realm have you that can better suffer the crimes of offending sons juno had finished her mingled entreaty and reproach but he made reply not in hard words though cruel was its purport

In truth I deemed not that you would bear with favouring mind at all that I might devise, albeit justly against your Argos, nor does it escape me that, did occasion grant, Bacchus and Dion would dare to make long pleading on Thebes' behalf. But reverence for my authority forbids, for by those awful waters, my brother's Stygian stream, I swear, an oath abiding and irrevocable,

that naught will make me waver from my word.

Wherefore, my Kallinian, in winged speed outstrip the winds that bear you, and gliding through the limpid air down to the dusky realms, tell this message to your uncle. Let old Laius betake himself to the world above, Laius, whom his sons blow bereft of life, and whom by the law of Erebus profound the further bank of Lethe has not received. Let

"'Let him bear my commands to his hateful grandson, "'his brother to whom exile has brought confidence "'and his Argive friendship boastful pride. "'Let him in despite of kin keep far from his walls, "'as already he does well desire, "'and deny him the alternate honour of the crown. "'So will angry deeds be begotten, "'and the rest will I lead on in order due.'

OBEDIENT TO HIS FATHER'S WORD, THE GRANDSON OF ATLAS STRAIGHTWAY FASTENS ON HIS ANCLES THE WINGED SANDALS, AND WITH WIDE HAT VEILS HIS LOCKS AND TEMPERS THE BRILLIANCE OF THE STARS. THEN HE TOOK IN HIS RIGHT HAND THE WAND WHEREWITH HE WAS WANT TO DISPEL OR CALL AGAIN SWEET SLUMBER, WHEREWITH TO ENTER THE GATES OF GLOOMY TARTARUS OR SUMMON BACK DEAD SOULS TO LIFE.

then down he leapt and shuddered as the frail air received him delaying not he wings his speedy flight through the void on high and draws a mighty curve upon the clouds

meanwhile the son of oedipus long time a wandering outlaw from his father's lands traverses by stealth the waste places of ionia already he broods on the lost realm that was his due and cries that the long year stands motionless in its tardy constellations

one thought recurring night and day holds him could he ever but behold his kinsman degraded from the throne and himself master of thebes in all its power a lifetime would be bargained for that day

now he complains that his exile is but time consumed in idleness but soon the gust of princely pride swells high and he fancies his brother already cast down and himself seated proudly in his place

Fretful hope keeps his mind busy, and in far-reaching prayers he tastes all his heart's desire. Then he resolves to journey undismayed to the Enochian cities, and Danyan lands into Mycenae, dark with the sun's withdrawal.

Whether it were the fury piloting his steps, or the chance direction of the road, or the summoning of resistless fate, he leaves the Ogigian-like glades that resound with frenzied howlings, and the hills that drink deep of bacchic gore, then passes the region where long Cithaeron settles gently to the plain and stoops his weary height to the sea.

Thereafter, with dizzy climb along a rocky path, he puts behind him Scearon's infamous cliffs and Scylla's country, where the purple monarch ruled, and kindly Corinth, and in the midmost plain, hears two shores resound.

but now through the wide domains which phoebus his day's work ended had left bare rose the titanian queen borne upward through a silent world and with her dewy chariot cooled and rarefied the air

Now birds and beasts are hushed, and sleep steals over the greedy cares of men, and stoops and beckons from the sky, shrouding a toilsome life once more in sweet oblivion. Yet no reddening clouds gave promise of the light's return, nor as the shadows lessened did the twilight gleam with long shafts of sun reflecting radiance.

"'Black night, blacker to earthward and shot by never a ray, "'veiled all the pole. "'And now the rocky prisons of Aeolia are smitten and grown "'and the coming storm threatens with hoarse bellowing, "'the winds loud clamoring meet in conflicting currents "'and fling loose heaven's vault from its fastened hinges "'while each strives for mastery of the sky.'

but auster most violent thickens gloom on gloom with whirling eddies of darkness and pours down rain which keen boreas with his freezing breath hardens into hail quivering lightnings gleam and from the colliding air bursts sudden fire

Already Nemea and the high peaks of Arcadia that border the forests of Tynaron are drenched. Anakis flows in mighty spate, and Erasinus swelling high into icy billows.

Streams that before were dusty road tracks now defy all stay of confining bank. Lerna surges up from her deepest depths and foams with her ancient poison. Shattered are the forests, aged boughs are swept out upon the storm, and the shady summer haunts of Lycaeus, unbeheld before by any suns, are now stripped bare to view.

yet he now marvelling at the rocks down hurled from the cloven mountains now listening in terror to the cloud-born torrents dashing from the hills and the raging flood whirling away home of shepherd and stall of beast slackens not his pace

though distraught and uncertain of his way but through the dark silences devours the lonely stretches of his road and on every side fear and the thought of his brother assail his heart

and just as a sailor caught in the tempest on the deep to whom neither lazy wain nor moon with friendly beam show bearings stands beggared of resource in mid tumult of sky and sea and even now expects the treacherous reef submerged beneath the waves or waits to see foaming jagged rocks fling themselves at his prow and heave it high in air

so the cadmian hero threads the darkness of the forest with hastening step while with huge shield he braves the lairs of fearsome beasts and forward stooping thrusts through the brushwood thickets

terror's sombre influence adds spurs to his resolved till from above the town of anacus conquering the gloom with beam of light downpoured upon the shelving walls shone forth the larissian height

there sped by every hope he hies him fast with juno's temple of prosimna high on his left hand and yonder the black marsh of lerna's water branded by herculean fire

and at length the gates are opened and he enters straightway he spies the royal portals there he flings down his limbs stiffened with rain and wind and leaning against the unknown palace doors woos gently slumber to his hard couch

there king adrastus verging now toward old age from life's midcourse ruled his folk in tranquil governance rich in the wealth of ancestry and on either side tracing his line to jove issue lacked he of the stronger sex but was prosperous in female offspring

Two daughters gave him pledge of love and service, to him at Phoebus at fate's bidding told that sons-in-law drew nigh. A deadly horror to tell. Yet soon was the truth made manifest in the shapes of bristly swine and tawny lion. Nought comprehends the father therein for all his ponderings, nor you, wise Amphiarius, for your master Apollo forbids.

only the father's heart sickens ever deep-felt anxiety but lo olenian tydeus leaving ancient calydon by fate's decree

the guilty terror of a brother's blood drives him forth treads beneath night's slumberous veil the same wild ways bewailing likewise wind and rain and with ice sheeted back and face and hair streaming with the storm comes to the selfsame shelter whereof the former stranger stretched on the cold earth had part

thereat so chanced it that both were seized with bloody rage and suffered not a shared roof to ward off the night for a while they tarry with the exchange of threatening words then when flung taunts had swelled their anger to the pitch each uprose set free his shoulders and challenged to naked combat

Taller the Theban, with long stride, and towering limbs, and in life's prime, yet was Tydeus in strength and spirit, no whit the less, and though his frame was smaller, greater in valour, and every part held sway. Then, closing fiercely, they deal many a blow on face and temple, like showers of darts or ripaian hail, and with bent knee belabor hollow loins.

Even as when the fifth year brings back his festival to the Piscean thunderer, and all is dust and heat and the crude sweat of men, while yonder the rival favors the crowd urge on the youthful striplings, and mothers, excluded from the scene, await the prizes of their sons. So these, with but hate to spur them, and inflamed by no lust of praise, fall on, and the sharp nails probe far into their faces,

and forced their way into the yielding eyes perchance so hot their anger they had bared the sword's girt to their sides and you had slain o theban youth the victim of a foeman's arms far better so and earned a brother's meed of tears had not the king marvelling at the knight's unwonted show of clamour and the fierce panting groans deep heaved bent his steps thither

age and the burden of grave cares held him now in broken fitful slumber and when proceeding through the high halls with attendant train of torches he beheld the bars undone upon the fronting threshold a sight terrible to tell faces torn and cheeks disfigured with smearing blood

whence this fury stranger youths he cried for no citizen of mine would dare such violence as this when this implacable desire to let your hate disturb the tranquil silence of the night has the day so little room or is it grievous to suffer even for a while sleep and peace of mind

but now come tell me from where are you sprung where do you fare and what may be your quarrel mean of soul you cannot be such anger proves it even through bloodshed the noble signs of proud race show clear

scarce had he spoken when with mingled clamour and sidelong glance together they begin achaean prince most gracious monarch what need of words you see yourself this face all bloody their words are lost in the confused sound of bitter accents then tydeus taking first place of speech thus recounts his tale

Desiring solace for my unhappy lot I left the wealth of Caledon, nurse of monsters, and the Achilloian fields, and low in your boundaries deepest night overtakes me. Who was he to forbid me shelter from the sky, or was it because he won his way first to this threshold?"

but twi form centaurs stall with each other so it is said and cyclops have pieced together beneath etna nay even to wild monsters nature has given laws and their own rule of right and for us to share a lodging on the ground

But why waste words? Either you, whosoever you are, shall today depart rejoicing in my spoils, or, if rising pain dulls not my blood, you shall know me to be of mighty Aeneas' stock, and no degenerate scion of my forefather Mars. Nor, like I, spirit or race, returns the other. But conscious in his heart of ruthless fate, he hesitates to name his father. Then, kindly Adrastus—

now come now cease the threatening words which night or sudden wrath or valour prompted and pass beneath my palace roof now let your hands be joined to pledge your hearts these doings have not been vain nor without the sanctions of the powers above perchance even these angry quarrels do but foreshadow a friendship to come so that you may have pleasure in remembrance

nor were the old man's words an empty presage for they say that from their comradeship in wounds grew such loyalty as theseus showed when he shared extremest peril with wanton pirithous or pylades when he rescued distraught orestes from the fury of megira so then yielding their savage hearts to the king's soothing words

even as waters that winds have made their battle-grounds sink to rest and yet on the drooping sails one surviving breath is long in dying even so submissive they entered the palace here first he has leisure to let his glance pass over the hero's dress and mighty weapons

on polyneices back he spies a lion flayed all wrought with uncombed mane like to that one which in the tumesian glades amphitryon's son laid low in his boyish years and clothed himself withal before the battle with the monster of cleoni

tydeus broad shoulders the proud spoils of calydon grim with bristles and curved fangs strive to enfold aghast and motionless stands the old king at so dire an omen calling to mind the divine oracles of phoebus and the warning uttered from the inspired cell

His countenance is fixed in frozen silence, while through his limbs ran a thrill of joy. He felt that they had come, led by heaven's clear prompting, whom prophetic Apollo in riddling obscurities had foreshown to be his destined sons-in-law, under the feigned guise of beasts.

then stretching forth his hands to the stars o night he cries who casteth your mantle over toiling earth and heaven and sends the fiery stars on their divers roaming course gracious refresher of the mind till the next sun-shed blithe upspringing upon faint mortality

you kindly knight do bring me of your bounty assurance long sought in perplexity and doubt and do reveal the ancient purposes of fate aid now my work and certify the omens you have given

ever shall this house throughout the circling periods of the year hold you high in honour and in worship black bulls of chosen beauty shall pay your sacrifice o goddess and vulcan's fire shall eat the lustral entrails wherever the new milk streams

Hail, ancient truth of mystic tripod! Hail, secret grotto! I have found, O fortune, that the gods are gods indeed!

2025 is bound to be a fascinating year. It's going to be filled with money challenges and opportunities. I'm Joel. Oh, and I am Matt. And we're the hosts of How To Money. We want to be with you every step of the way in your financial journey this year, offering the information and insights you need to thrive financially. Yeah, whether you find yourself up to your eyeballs in student loan debt or you've got a sky-high credit card balance because you went a little overboard with the holiday spending,

Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life?

I'm Oz Veloshian, one of the new hosts of the long-running podcast Tech Stuff. I'm slightly skeptical, but obsessively intrigued. And I'm Cara Price, the other new host. And I'm ready to adopt early and often.

On Tech Stuff, we travel all the way from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars to the dark corners of TikTok to ask and attempt to answer burning questions about technology. One of the kind of tricks for surviving Mars is to live there long enough so that people evolve into Martians. Like data is a very rough proxy for a complex reality. How is it possible that

The world's new energy revolution can be based in this place where there's no electricity at night. Oz and I will cut through the noise to bring you the best conversations and deep dives that will help you understand how tech is changing our world and what you need to know to survive the singularity. So join us. Listen to Tech Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Jon Stewart is back at The Daily Show, and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition Podcast. Dive into Jon's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors. And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else.

Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarcki. And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season, we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them. We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's right.

That's a fact. We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective. And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom-made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories.

There's one for every story we tell. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So saying and joining arms with both, he goes forward to the inner chamber of his dwelling.

even yet the fires slumbered on the gray ashes of the altars and the poured offerings of the sacrifice were yet warm he bids the flames again be roused and the late banquet renewed his henchmen obey his words in emulous haste manifold tumult echoes throughout the palace

Some array the couches with delicate purple and rustling embroidery of gold, and pile the cushions high. Some polish smooth and place in order the tables. Others again set about to banish the darkness of gloomy night by stretching chains for gilded lanterns. These have the task of roasting on a spit's point the bloodless flesh of slain beasts.

"'those of crushing gain on a stone and heaping the bread in baskets. "'Adrastus rejoices to see his house aglow with obedient service. "'And now he himself, raised high on the proud cushions and ivory throne, "'shone resplendent. "'Elsewhere the youths reclined, their wounds healed with cleansing water, "'and beholding each other's scarred visages bear mutual forgiveness.'

then the aged king bids acaste be summoned his daughter's nurse and trusty guardian chosen to keep ward on maiden modesty consecrated to lawful wedlock and murmurs in her silent ear she stayed not upon his bidding but straightway both maidens came forth from their secret bower in countenance marvellous to tell like to quiver bearing diana and warrior pallas yet without their terror

they spy the new faces of the heroes and are shamed pallor at once and blushes made havoc of their bright cheeks and their timorous eyes resought their reverend sire when in the banquet's course hunger was quelled the son of iasis as his custom was bade his thralls bring a goblet fair wrought with figures and shining with gold

wherefrom both Danaeus and Elder Phoronius were wont to pour libations to the gods. Thereon was embossed work of images, all golden, a winged youth holds the snake-tressed gorgon's severed head, and even upon the moment, so it seems, leaps up into the wandering breeze. She almost moves her heavy eyes and drooping head and ever-

and even grows pale in the living gold here the phrygian hunter is borne aloft on tawny wings gargara's range sinks downwards as he rises and troy grows dim beneath him

sadly stand his comrades in vain the hounds weary their throats with barking and pursue his shadow or bay at the clouds from this he pours the streaming wine and in order due calls on all denizens of heaven

Phoebus, before the rest, Phoebus's presence, all invoke with praise, garlanded with reverent myrtle, friend and thrall alike, about his altar, for in his honor they make holiday, and the altars, refreshed by lavish incense, glow through wreaths of smoke.

perchance you may inquire o youths thus says the monarch what means this sacrifice and for what reason we pay phoebus signal honor urged by no ignorant fear but under stress of dire calamity the argive folk aforetime made this offering

Lend me your hearing and I will recount the tale when that the god had smitten the dark and sinuous coiling monster, the earth-born Pytho, who cast about Delphi his seven-fold grisly circles and with his scales ground the ancient oaks to powder. Even while sprawling by Castalia's fountain, he gaped with three-tongued mouth athirst to feed his deadly venom.

when having spent his shafts on numberless wounds he left him scarce fully stretched in death over a hundred acres of kyrenean soil then seeking fresh expiation of the dead he came to the humble dwelling of our king

A daughter, in the first years of tender maidenhood and wondrous fare, kept this pious home a virgin chaste. How happy had she never kept secret tryst with the Delian, or shared a stolen love with Phoebus, for she suffered the violence of the god by Nemeus' stream, and when Cynthia had twice five times gathered her circle's visage to the full, she brought forth a child.

latona's grandson bright as a star then fearing punishment for her father would never have pardoned a forced wedlock she chose the pathless wilds and stealthily among the sheep pens gave her child to a mountain wandering guardian of the flock for nurture

no cradle worthy of a birth so noble hapless infant did your grassy bed afford you or your woven home of oaken twigs enclosed in the fibre of our beauteous bark your limbs are warm and a hollow pipe coaxes you to gentle slumbers while the flock shares your sleeping ground but not even such a home did the fates permit for as he lay careless and drinking in the day with open mouth

Fierce, ravening dogs mangled the babe and took their fill with bloody jaws. But when the tidings reached the mother's horror-struck ears, father and shame and fear were all forgot. Herself, straightway she fills the house with wild lamentation, all distraught, and, bearing her breast, meets her father with her tale of grief.

Nor is he moved, but bids her, oh, horrible, even as she desires, suffer grim death. Too late remembering your union, oh Phoebus, you do devise a solace for her miserable fate. A monster conceived beneath lowest Asheron in the Furies' unhallowed lair. A maiden's face and bosom has she from her head, an ever hissing snake rises erect.

Parting into her livid brow Then that foul pest Gliding at night with unseen movement Into the chambers Tore from the breasts that suckled them Lives newly born And with blood-stained fangs Gorged and fattened On the country's grief

but quoribus foremost in prowess of arms and high courage brooked it not and with chosen youths unsurpassed in valour and ready at life's hazard to enlarge their fame went forth a willing champion

from dwellings newly ravaged she was going wherein the gateway two roads meet the corpses of two little ones hung at her sides and still her hooked talons claw their vitals and the iron nails are warm in their young hearts

thronged by his band of heroes the youth rushed to the attack and buried his broad blade in her cruel breast and with flashing steel probing deep the spirit's lurking place at length restored to nether jove his monstrous offspring

but what joy to go and see at close hand those eyes livid in death the ghastly issue of her womb and her breasts clotted with foul corruption whereby our young lives perished appalled stand the anacian youth and their gladness though great now sorrow is ended even yet is dim and pale

With sharp stakes they mangle the dead limbs, vain solace for their grief, and beat out the jagged grinding teeth from her jaws. They can, yet cannot, glut their ire. Her did you flee, unfed, you birds, wheeling round with nocturnal clamour and ravening dogs, they say, and wolves in terror upon her, dry-mouthed.

But against the unhappy youths the Delian rises up, fierce at the doom of his slain avengeress, and seated on the shady top of twin-peaked Parnassus, with relentless bow he cruelly scatters shafts that bring pestilence, and withers beneath a misty shroud the fields and dwellings of the Cyclops.

Pleasant lives droop and fail, death with his sword cuts through the sisters' threads and hurries the stricken city to the shades. Our leader then inquiring what the cause may be, what is this baleful fire from heaven, why Sirius reigns throughout the whole year, the word of the same god pain brings command.

to sacrifice to the blood-stained monster those youths that caused her death oh valour heaven-blessed oh worth that will merit a long age of fame no base craven you to hide your devoted deed or shun in fear a certain death unabashed he stood on the threshold of kira's temple and with these words gives fierce utterance to his sacred rage

Not sent by any nor suppliant O Thimbrian do I approach your shrine. Duly and consciousness of right have turned my steps this way. I am he, O Phoebus, who lay low your deadly scourge. I am he whom you, ruthless one, do seek out by poison cloud, and the light of day defiled, and the black corruption of a baleful heaven.

"'But even if raging monsters be so dear to the gods above, "'and the destruction of men a cheaper loss to the world, "'and heaven be so stern and pitiless, "'in what have the Argives sinned? "'My life, my life alone most righteous of the gods "'should be offered to the fates. "'Or is it more soothing to your heart "'that you see homesteads desolate "'and the countryside lit up by the burning roofs of husbandsmen?'

But why, by speaking do I delay the weapons of your might? Our mothers are waiting and the last prayers for me are being uttered. Enough, I have deserved that you should be merciless. Bring then your quiver and stretch your resounding bow and send a noble soul to death. But, even while I die, dispel the gathered mist that form on high hangs, pallid over Enochian Argos.

equity has regard for the deserving awe of slaughter took hold on leto's fiery son and yielding he grants the hero the sad boon of life the deadly clouds fly scattering from our heaven while you your prayer heard depart from marvelling phoebus's door thenceforward do we in solemn banquet yearly renew the appointed sacrifice and placate the shrine of phoebus in recurring festival

of what stock come you whom chance has led to these our altars though if but now my ears did rightly catch your outcry neas of calydon is your sire and your lordship of parthonia's house but you do you reveal who you are that comes thus to argos since now the hour permits of varied discourse

Straightway did the Ismenian hero bend his sad looks to earth, and cast an injured Tydeus a silent sidelong glance. Then after a long pause he spoke, "'Not at these honours paid to heaven is it meet to ask me of my birth or land or ancient descent of blood. Hard is it to confess the truth amid the holy rites, but if your wish is urgent to know my unhappy tale,'

Cadmus was the ancestor of my sires, my land Mavorshen Thebes. My mother is Jocasta.

Then Adrastus moved to friendly compassion, for he recognized him, said, "'Why hide what all have heard? This know we, nor does fame journey so distant from Mycenae. Yes, of that rain and the madness in the eyes that knew shame of their seeing even he has heard, who shivers beneath an arctic sun, and he who drinks of Ganges or sails in to the ocean darkening to the west.'

and they whom the shifting shore-line of the syrtes fails cease to lament or to recount the woes of your fathers in our house also has there been many a fall from duty but past error binds not posterity only do you unlike to them win by fortune's favour this reward to redeem your kindred

And now the frosty wagoner of the hyperborean bear droops languidly with backward slanding pole. Pour your wine upon the altar hearths and chant we our prayer again and yet again, Toledo's son, the savior of our fathers. Phoebus, father, whether the copses of Pitar and Lycia's snowy uplands keep you busy or you delight in to bathe your golden hair in Castalia's pure dew, or

or whether as thimbra's lord you dwell in troy where they say you did willingly bear on thankless shoulders blocks of phrygian stone or whether latonian cynthus pleases you casting his shadow on the aegean wave and delos settled sure in the deep nor needling now your search

yours are the arrows and the bending of bows against the savage enemy afar to you did celestial parents grant the cheek's eternal bloom you are skilled to foreknow fate's cruel handiwork

and the destiny that lies beyond, and high Jove's pleasure, to what people's pestilence comes or wars, what change of scepters comets bring, you make the Phrygian subject to your lyre, and for your mother's honor do stretch the earth-born Titius on the Stygian sands.

you the green python and the theban mother horror-struck beheld triumphant with your quiver to avenge you grim megara holds fast the starving phlegeus who lies ever pressed beneath cavernous rocks and tortures him with the unholy feast but mingled loathing defeats his hunger

Be you present to our succour, mindful of our hospitality, and shed on the fields of Juno the blessings of your love, whether it is right to call you rosy titan in the fashion of the Achaemenian race, or Osiris, bringer of the harvest, or Mithras that beneath the rocky Persean cave strains at the reluctant following horns.

Oh, nerds, as always, thank you so much for listening. I am pumped to have a new reading series to dive into and one that features my favorite ancient city where so many wild and tragic shit happens. It's going to be a wild ride. I'd love to say more, but this is the first time I've recorded an hour straight of talking in ages and my voice is going. So instead, let's talk about Miss Baby is written and produced by me, Liv Albert. Michaela Penguish is the Hermes to my Olympians, the producer. Select Music by Luke

chaos listen on apple podcasts or spotify or wherever you get your podcasts find ad free the new hermes historia series and so much more by subscribing to the oracle edition the let's talk about this baby patreon it's new and exciting it's thrilling find a link in this episode's description and sign up for the show's newsletter which i promise will exist somewhat regularly at mythsbaby.com slash newsletter i am live and i love this shit very much

Do you want to see into the future? Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life? Do you want to experience the frontiers of what makes us human? On Tech Stuff, we travel from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars, from conversations with Nobel Prize winners to the depths of TikTok, to ask births of

burning questions about technology from high tech to low culture and everywhere in between. Join us. Listen to Tech Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Joel, the holidays are a blast, but the financial hangover, that can be a huge bummer. If you are out there and you're dreading the new statement email that reveals the massive balance that you may have racked up, well, you could use our help. That's right. I'm Joel. And I am Matt. And we're from the How To Money Podcast. Our show is all about helping you make sense of your personal finances so you can ditch your pesky credit card debt once and for all, make real progress on other crucial financial goals that you've got, and

and just feel more in control of your money in general. You know it. For money advice without the judgment and jargon, listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Jon Stewart is back at The Daily Show, and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into Jon's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors.

And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarcki. And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season, we explore a new theme from poisoners to art thieves. We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching. And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.

Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ♪