Show Notes

We finish up our colour series (for now!) with a discussion of Purple, Pink, & Brown. From Phoenician shellfish, Virgil's Aeneas,& Propertius's Cynthia, to flowers, beavers, & bears, this episode covers a lot of ground. Let us know what fun colour facts we've missed, and what colourful topics you might like us to cover in the future!

Note: one area of discussion we rather left out is the place of purple in Byzantium/the Eastern Empire... maybe we’ll pick that up in the next episode briefly!

We've joined forces with the MythTake podcast for a pair of episodes about the myth of Theseus, the Minotaur, and Ariadne. In our episode we talk about the story of Theseus & Ariadne, and the development of the word 'Clue' from Chaucer's version of the tale, as well as Catullus and Ovid's depictions of Ariadne's abandonment, and the connections to fingerprints, detective fiction, and Agatha Christie's life. Meanwhile, Alison & Darrin in their episode talk about two poems by Bacchylides, and the Greek sources for the life of Theseus and his heroic exploits, as well as a few more English words derived from his adventures.