013. Sons of Heracles

09/06/20 • 46 min

Welcome back to Spartan History Podcast. This is the first episode not based in the bronze/mythic age and takes a look at the Dark age era of Spartan history.
It's an intrinsic period to the city that would one day dominate Greece as it was the time that saw it's foundation. Although anachronistically mentioned by Homer in his works, archaeology has as yet not detected any Mycenaean palace in the region of Sparta. Certainly nothing fit for Menelaus and Helen.
All evidence points to the Spartan's settling on the west bank of the Eurotas river around the middle of the 10th century BCE.
The jury is still out on where they came from previously and in this episode we'll take a look at all the different possibilities, both mythic and factual to parse out what truths we can about origin of this enigmatic people.
I hope you all enjoy and take care.

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Previous Episode

012. Jason and the Golden Fleece. Part 1

EPISODE 12, JASON AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE PART 1.

Welcome back to Spartan History Podcast, it's an honour to be able to present, as promised, the 1st of what will be a 4 part retelling of the Jason and the Golden Fleece myth.

The masterpiece that is Apollonius of Rhodes' work, the Argonautica, starts with the eponymous heroes departure to Colchis to retrieve the fleece. Covering the journey to, the completing of and the returning from 'the quest'. It makes many assumptions of the contemporary audience who would have been well versed in the fundamentals of the tale to begin with.

Over the next 4 parts I'll be making no such assumptions, and will look to embellish and embroider the narrative to give a more high resolution view of the finer details.

I'll start part 1 right at the start! Understanding what on earth a golden fleece is even doing in Colchis. From there we'll eventually catch up to Apollonius' storyline and finish where his book 1 finishes. With the heroes arrival at the Bosphorus .

Hope you all enjoy and take care.

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Next Episode

014. Jason and the Golden Fleece. Part 2

EPISODE 14, JASON AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE PART 2.
Welcome back to the Spartan History Podcast. This time around it's back to the story of Jason and his quest for the fleece.
I begin with a digression into the evolution of the story itself and take a look at possible eastern influences along with a quick look through it's references by pre-Apollonian authors.
Picking up the mythical thread where it was previously left, book 2 of Apollonius's Argonautica covers the Argo's voyage from the southern entry of the Bosporus channel through to the eastern edges of the Black sea.
I follow suit and describe the various stops the Argonauts make along the way and obstacles they faced in detail. We'll learn about the poor hygiene practiced by the Harpies, what made Amazons such good archers and why you should always ask somebody their name before challenging them to fight.
I hope you all enjoy and take care.

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