Episode 98: The Monster Episode of Monsters

Two cocktails in coupe glasses, clear yellow with red at the bottom of the glass, with dried rose petals floating on the surface.

“The Beautiful Ugly” cocktail, from Nectar of the Gods

Episode 98: The Monster Episode of Monsters
Mark Sundaram and Aven McMaster

It’s Halloween, and the monsters are out! In this episode we tackle Monster Theory (as formulated by J.J. Cohen) , examine the linguistic and cultural origins of a range of Classical and classic movie monsters, look at how they connect to the history of currency and money, and explore the intersections of monsters and the New Woman. We also sample a beautiful cocktail from the upcoming cocktail book Nectar of the Gods by Liv Albert from “Let’s Talk about Myths, Baby”. Thank you, Liv!

The Monster video

Monster Theory by J.J. Cohen

Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture by Liz Gloyn

Our podcast episode interviewing Dr. Gloyn

Horace Odes 1.37

Hesiod passage about Medusa is Theogony 270ff; more info about Medusa here

Ovid passage about Medusa is Metamorphoses 4.753ff

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This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

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Episode 76: Do You Believe in Magic?

Episode 076: Do You Believe in Magic?
Mark Sundaram & Aven McMaster

Happy Halloween! This year we’re talking about the etymology and origins of “Magic”, the differences between religion and magic, Greek and Roman spells and curses, and some rather bizarre tales about Virgil & Aristotle.

Our “Magic” video

Cocktail: Black Magic

Religion in the Roman Empire, James B Rives, 2007

Arcana Mundi,Georg Luck, 2006

Virgil in his basket

Virgil in his basket

Tomyris with the head of Cyrus the Great

Tomyris with the head of Cyrus the Great

Judith with the head of Holofernes

Judith with the head of Holofernes

Phyllis riding Aristotle

Phyllis riding Aristotle

Episode 62: Etymological Ghosts

Episode 062: Etymological Ghosts
Mark Sundaram & Aven McMaster

Episode 22: Jack o'Lantern

Episode 022: Jack o'Lantern
Mark Sundaram & Aven McMaster

In our Halloween episode we discuss the origins of the holiday, the etymology of Jack o'Lantern, the Canadian connections to trick-or-treating, and the great pumpkin scandal of 2016, and we read a Roman poem about witches scared off by a wooden fertility god.

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Show Notes

@HumCommCasters & @HumCommVids

Snopes.com pumpkin article

Horace Satires 1.8

"Costume" video