Another instance of a cursed family tree- this time in two stories. The first is one of a man who just wants to find a nice statue and settle down. In the second, a series of cursed events lead to someone Aphrodite can fall in love with! A handy precedent to set as we wind our way towards the Trojan War...

Sources for this episode;

• Bernstein, N. W. (2023), The Complete Works of Claudian: Translated with an Introduction and Notes. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
• Frazer, J. G. (1921), Apollodorus: The Library (Volume II). London: William Heinemann.
• Graves, R. (1981), Greek Myths: Illustrated Edition. London: Cassell Ltd.
• Ovid (1955), Metamorphoses. Translated by M. M. Innes. London: Penguin Books.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Galatea (mythology) (online) (Accessed 13/08/2024).

Quick correction- we call Orthus the father of Cerberus in the episode, but it's actually Typhon! Just swap 'father' for 'brother' and everything still works.

The final and most dangerous task is here, and we've got to go down into the underworld... We've got the whole package: Heracles solving fighting-based problems; Harry Potter connections from Cassie, and Vince going down a rabbit hole about mythological chronologies!

Sources for this episode:

• Frazer, J. G. (1921), Apollodorus: The Library (Volume I). London: William Heinemann.
• Graves, R. (1981), Greek Myths: Illustrated Edition. London: Cassell Ltd.
• Guerber, H. A. (1929), The Myths of Greece & Rome: Their Stories Signification and Origin. London: George G. Harrap & Company Ltd.
• Oldfather, C. H. (1989), Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes. Volume I: Books I and II, 1-34. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, UK: Harvard University Press.

Back in episode 33, we examined what the ancient authors had to say about the phoenix. Well, this time the basilisk is under scrutiny! Also, find out which snake we think it probably sprung from! That and Part II of Harry Potter references...

Sources for this episode:

• Alexander, R. McN. (1963), The Evolution of the Basilisk. Greece & Rome 10(2): 170-181.
• Rackham, H. (1967), Pliny Natural History with an English Translation in Ten Volumes. Volume III: Libri VIII-XI. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.

Originally meant as a wedding gift for either Zeus or Hera, the Golden Apples lie in a garden far in some direction- either north or west, the sources disagree. Look forward to a cameo from a sly Atlas! He may have already become a mountain due to Perseus' shenanigans in episode 17 if you believe Ovid but hey, who's really keeping score... Plus sky giraffes. We can't forget about those.

Sources for this episode:

• Frazer, J. G. (1921), Apollodorus: The Library (Volume I). London: William Heinemann.
• Guerber, H. A. (1929), The Myths of Greece & Rome: Their Stories Signification and Origin. London: George G. Harrap & Company Ltd.
• Oldfather, C. H. (1989), Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes. Volume I: Books I and II, 1-34. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, UK: Harvard University Press.

A heroine in Greek mythology! Her story involves the stories of many other heroes, including Peleus, the fallout from Oedipus and Jason and the Argo. We also see that if you want to get ahead in life, all you need is some divine golden fruit and you'd be... well... golden.

Sources for this episode:

• Aelianus, C. (1665), Various History. Translated by T. Stanley. London: Printed for Thomas Dring.
• Bernstein, N. W. (2023), The Complete Works of Claudian: Translated with an Introduction and Notes. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
• Florio, P. I. (1983), Birth of a Lion x Leopard Hybrid in Italy. International Zoo News 30/2(178): 4-6.
• Frazer, J. G. (1921), Apollodorus: The Library (Volume I). London: William Heinemann.
• Graves, R. (1981), Greek Myths: Illustrated Edition. London: Cassell Ltd.
• Tzetzes, J. (last edited 2018), Chiliades or Book of Histories. Translated by A. Untila, G. Berkowitz, K. Ramiotis and V. Dogani.

If there's one thing Heracles is good at... It's gratuitously killing things. Oh good, here's another chance to do that while fetching some cows from the remnants of Atlantis! That and horrify Cassie by committing crimes against doggos...

Sources for this episode:

• Frazer, J. G. (1921), Apollodorus: The Library (Volume I). London: William Heinemann.
• Guerber, H. A. (1929), The Myths of Greece & Rome: Their Stories Signification and Origin. London: George G. Harrap & Company Ltd.
• Oldfather, C. H. (1989), Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes. Volume I: Books I and II, 1-34. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, UK: Harvard University Press.
• Author unknown, UNRV Roman History (date unknown), The Aventine Hill (online) (Accessed 07/05/2024).

You either die a hero... or you're Jason. Let's watch the wheels come off the wagon off Jason's cart as he angers a powerful sorceress by marrying princess Glauce behind her back. Expect violence, murder and a wild life the hosts were very excited to tell each other about!

Content warning: It's Medea, so we're going to get a lot of violence.

Sources for this episode:

• Aelianus, C. (1665), Various History. Translated by T. Stanley. London: Printed for Thomas Dring.
• Baldauf, S. L. and Palmer, J. D. (1993), Animals and fungi are each other's closest relatives: congruent evidence from multiple proteins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 90(24): 11558-11562.
• Campbell, N. A., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Reece, J. B. (2018), Biology: a global approach, 11th edition (Global Edition), Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.
• de Carli, G. J. and Pereira, T. C. (2017), On human parthenogenesis. Medical Hypotheses 106: 57-60.
• Euripides (1981), Medea and Other Plays. Translated by P. Vellacott. London: The Penguin Classics.
• Frazer, J. G. (1921), Apollodorus: The Library (Volume I). London: William Heinemann.
• Graves, R. (1981), Greek Myths: Illustrated Edition. London: Cassell Ltd.
• Riley, H. T. (1889), The Metamorphoses (Ovid), Literally Translated Into English Prose, With Copious Notes and Explanations. London: George Bell & Sons.
• Smith; W. (ed.) (1867), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. In Three Volumes (Vol. 1-3.). Boston: Little, Brown, And Company.
• Watts, P. C., Buley, K. R., Sanderson, S., Boardman, W., Ciofi, C. and Gibson, R. (2006), Parthenogensis in Komodo dragons. Nature 444: 1021-1022.

Sidenote: The Medea Complex is characterised as a wish of a mother to kill one's children, while the Argo became the constellation Argo Navis. Sources for these tangents:

• Stern, E. S. (1948), The Medea Complex: The Mother's Homicidal Wishes to her Child. Journal of Mental Science 94(395): 321-331.
• Tyminski, R. (2014), The Medea Complex- Myth and Modern Manifestation. Jung Journal 8(1): 28-40.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Argo Navis (online) (Accessed 18/08/2024).