Episode 261: Poseidon
/This episode is as wild and stormy as the god we talk about; there’s talking horses, there’s hot wives who love sea monsters, and he’s got a lot of great titles. What more could you want out of a god?
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of sexual assault/rape, drowning, natural disasters/earthquakes, incest, cults, child endagerment/abandonment, violence against women, murder, cannibalism, and animal death.
Housekeeping
- MERCH! Get the Mothman Crewneck at spiritspodcast.com/merch!
- Recommendation: This week, Julia recommends The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Check out The Newest Olympian: Join Mike Schubert, a first-time PJO reader, on his quest to find out if Percy Jackson is the YA series we should’ve been reading all along! Search for The Newest Olympian in your podcast app or go to thenewestolympian.com to start listening!
Sponsors
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Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia.
AMANDA: And this is Episode 261: Poseidon.
JULIA: It's back at it again with the Greeks. Here we go.
AMANDA: Man, nothing like just going through a bunch of Poseidon myths to start your Wednesday, you know what I mean?
JULIA: It's kind of aspirational, but also at the same time, it shouldn't be.
AMANDA: Yeah. No, we... it's really probably, like, kind of a balanced meal, Julia. I feel like you really hit every corner of that problematic food pyramid. Like, I... I feel... I feel fully sated after this episode.
JULIA: If anything, Poseidon is at the top of the problematic food pyramid.
AMANDA: Absolutely. But someone that I could have 7 to 9 servings of per day. I don't know how I... I like that particular transition, but we're gonna stick with it. It's our new patrons: Sydneyfox, Slytherslor, Calypso, and Little Bit Libra.
JULIA: I'm also a little bit Libra.
AMANDA: I love that. And thank you to our Supporting-producer level patrons who support, sustains us, and lets us do this for our job: Uhleeseeuh, Hannah, Jack Marie, Jane, Jessica Kinser, Jessica Stewart, Kneazlekins, Megan Moon, Phil Fresh, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, Scott, and Zazi. And of course, the Legend-level patrons: Audra, Bex, Clara, Drew, Jaybaybay, Lexus, Mary, Morgan, Morgan H., Mother of Vikings, Sarah, Taylor, & Bea Me Up Scotty.
JULIA: All of you, I just believe would have your own place in the Greek Pantheon. Right on top of Olympus where you belong.
AMANDA: Yeah. And you definitely have, like, a better room or chair or whatever than Poseidon does.
JULIA: He has a, like, Golden Palace underneath the sea, so that is saying something.
AMANDA: And Julia, remind me what have you been reading, watching, or listening to recently?
JULIA: I just got back from vacation. And I was, you know, hanging out by the ocean, maybe a little bit. And I found the perfect book to read while I was doing that, which was The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. And it's all about basically a caseworker who goes to investigate a school for, like, magic folks. And it's adorable, and just extremely gay and I highly recommend it.
AMANDA: That's some Julia shit. I love it.
JULIA: It is. It truly is.
AMANDA: And as always, spiritspodcast.com/books is where you can both see lists of books by authors we've had on the show, books we've recommended, and buy them from bookshop.org which redistributes the money to indie bookstores, which is great. And if you are out of things to listen to; if you catch up on Spirits, and you're like, "Oh god, I've listened to Spirits already twice. What else should I listen to?" Julia, what do you recommend folks check out from the rest of the Multitude collective this week?
JULIA: Well, I mean, given that our episode is all about Poseidon, Amanda, I think today's the perfect time to tell folks to listen to The Newest Olympian. Our friend Mike Schubert has a podcast about reading for the first time the Percy Jackson and The Olympians YA series, which I unfortunately kind of missed out on. I feel like that was a book that I was aware of during my childhood, but didn't actually end up picking up and I don't know why and I regret it to this day. But I've been listening to Mike read them for the first time with a bunch of guests who have read them before and their childhood favorites, and it's a delight.
AMANDA: It is absolutely delightful. And whether you are reading along for the first time or you are a super fan of Percy Jackson and The Olympians, you gotta check it out. Search for The Newest Olympian in your podcast app or go to thenewestolympian.com.
JULIA: I feel like you guys are gonna like it.
AMANDA: Well, Julia, I know this episode is jam packed of good stuff, so I won't keep you any longer folks. Please, without further ado, enjoy Spirits Podcast Episode 261: Poseidon. Julia, I know that you had a cold, a bit recently. How is your voice feeling?
JULIA: It's a little foggy as most of our listeners probably would be able to hear but it's doing better. I might cough but Eric will cut those out in the edit.
AMANDA: Have you tried -- the thing that my mom always instructed me to do when I had a sore throat, which is to gargle salt water?
JULIA: You know what, I haven't but yes, I do remember that being, like, a thing that people tell you to do. And I think there is, like, some truth to that. Something about, like, saline in the water does kind of soothe your throat, which is legit.
AMANDA: Absolutely. Do you know who else lives in saltwater? It's Poseidon. Come on, you got to see that one coming.
JULIA: No, I did. I did. I just wanted to know how you were gonna get there once you were on that path.
AMANDA: Yeah. It's a real... a real situation where I thought of the premise for the joke but not a punchline. So, here we are.
JULIA: Well, it was... it was a good punch line regardless I... I love and appreciate you.
AMANDA: Thank you.
JULIA: In my mind, Poseidon is, like, you know, when you're at the beach with your family. Or like, if you're not near a beach, like, when you're just, like, hanging out maybe, like, a backyard barbecue with your family. And you got that one uncle who just, like, got real-drunk on beer and is just having the time of his life and is making jokes that basically anyone in a mile radius can hear?
AMANDA: Yep.
JULIA: That's the vibe that Poseidon kind of gives off for me.
AMANDA: Stunning. Oh, I can't wait to learn more.
JULIA: Yeah. What do you think when I say Poseidon, Amanda?
AMANDA: This is probably influenced largely by Disney's The Little Mermaid but I have a very kind of, like, noble kingly vibe, which is not the vibe I get from literally any other Greek god. Like, Poseidon feels kind of older or more established or, I don't know, maybe, like, more of on par with uh Zeus or Hades versus, like, on Apollo and Athena. And so, maybe that's not, like, a meaningful taxonomy but he kind of feels like an uncle like you described and not like a cousin.
JULIA: That makes a lot of sense. You're totally on point there, given the fact that Hades and Poseidon and Zeus were basically the first generation of Olympians and then someone like Apollo came later because he is the son of those three.
AMANDA: Yeah. Well, he... he feels like it. So, that's really all I have. There's a trident of course, you know, he's the sea man, some seaweed in there. That's what I got so far.
JULIA: I also think that you probably think of him too as a little bit more, like, older and regal because I feel like Poseidon or, like, versions of Poseidon or Neptune or something like that tend to be reflected in public art a lot more. Like, a lot of fountains use the image of Poseidon and Neptune as opposed to Zeus, who isn't in a lot of public art.
AMANDA: That's very true. But Julia, here's a question that just occurred to me. If there was a statue of you that involved a water feature, where would you want the water to come out of?
JULIA: My titties.
AMANDA: Your titties?
JULIA: I said what I said.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah. Okay, all right. I was picturing more of, like, pouring a jug because I like the idea of little... little birds flocking over, but you can also have a real, like a little spider man situation. Like coming out of... of my pinkies. That'd be pretty fun.
JULIA: It's true. I also want to clarify not, like, out of my nipples. I want, like, my boobs to be removed and it's just, like, fountain coming out of those.
AMANDA: That's great.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: I like that.
JULIA: I like that. I like that a lot.
AMANDA: I like that too.
JULIA: Like one of those smooth water ones where they're designed, so it, like, comes out not bubbly. Just, like, very smooth.
AMANDA: Yeah. Yeah. I know what you mean.
JULIA: Okay, great. So, let's talk about Poseidon.
AMANDA: Let's do it.
JULIA: So, Poseidon was the ruler of the sea having drawn lots with his brothers: Hades and Zeus. Zeus had gotten to choose first. He chose the sky, so Poseidon naturally went with the ocean leaving Hades with the underworld because if your options are the ocean or the underworld, obviously, you're going to go for the ocean.
AMANDA: Yeah, but Hades got gems down there, so that's good.
JULIA: That's true. But also, he has to basically be the bureaucrat of the dead, which is not fun.
AMANDA: Not fun. No one wants to be there.
JULIA: Poseidon as ruler of the sea was perhaps held in most high regard after Zeus of the Olympian gods. Because after all, the Greeks were seafarers, and many spent their time on the sea, so worshipping the ruler of the sea obviously makes a lot of sense. It was said that he had a beautiful palace built for himself under the sea, but that he spent most of his time on Olympus rather than beneath the waves.
AMANDA: Oh, really? It seemed to me -- maybe because of the whole Persephone thing -- that Hades was kind of, like, cursed to live underground.
JULIA: Mhmm.
AMANDA: And so, like, did Hades all this time have the ability to just come to Olympus if he wanted to? Or was it ,like, estrangement or fighting or I don't want to cede ground by visiting you situation?
JULIA: I think probably the latter. I think, though, it's kind of, like, you know, when you have a friend who works a really, really, really, like, time consuming job. Like, they work in finance, but they work nights or something like that, so you never see them.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: That's probably what it was like for Hades where it's like, "I just can't get away from the office."
AMANDA: Fair. Okay, fair enough. So, I was gonna say Poseidon, it seems like a pretty good lot then to get the Ocean and, like, that's your whole thing. And you're, like, "You're welcome for fish."
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And then be able to hang out poolside when you want to.
JULIA: Yeah. Honestly, it seems, like, really chill for him. And like, he seems like the kind of person who enjoys, like, holding court for lack of a better word.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Which might be hard to do under the sea, because yeah, the gods can travel under there, but you're probably the only one that really likes the under the sea vibe. The rest of them are probably, like, "Mmmh, this guy's nice." I want to note that Poseidon is the ruler of the sea specifically, which for the Greeks was the Mediterranean and what the Greeks also called the Friendly Sea, which we now called the Black Sea.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Additionally, Poseidon also had dominion over underground rivers, so I feel like he probably had to deal with Hades every once in a while, from that sense.
AMANDA: Yeah, the jurisdictions cross.
JULIA: Yes. But if you're thinking of something like the ocean, the Greeks imagined the ocean to be basically a great river that encircled the world. And that was ruled by the Titan Ocean, or Oceanus.
AMANDA: Mmh.
JULIA: So, he was the father of the oceanids, who were the nymphs of the ocean. And also, he was the father of the gods of the rivers. Basically, every water had kind of a different god in charge of it. And Poseidon was just specifically the ones that the Greek spent the most time on.
AMANDA: Interesting. I keep comparing him and Hades. Maybe they compare them to each other, but it seems like, you know, Hades gets the whole the... whole under there. And Poseidon is... is just the one... the one sea.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah, that's true. I think the Greeks probably were just like, "There's not a lot going down underneath there. Except for, like, gems and stuff."
AMANDA: That's fair.
JULIA: There was also Nereus, who was basically called the Old Man of the Sea, who sired the Nereides, who were the nymphs of the sea.
AMANDA: Yeah, I know about them.
JULIA: Yeah. So, it wasn't that Poseidon had dominion over all the water in the world, just his kind of specific, albeit important to the Greek's seas. He would be the one who kind of, like, decided whether or not the waves were calm, or if they were like, wracked with storms. And when it stormed, he could, like, basically bring back the calm waters by riding his golden chariot over the waves, and they would sink into stillness, and tranquil peace would follow his smooth rolling wheels. Thank you, Edith Hamilton, for that beautiful poetry, but yeah...
AMANDA: That's awesome. I love that idea.
JULIA: Yes. He also on top of that real good golden chariot, he would wield the Trident, like you said, which was his signature weapon. And it was said that when he struck the ground with the Trident, it would cause earthquakes, which is a great transition into Poseidon’s various names and epithets.
AMANDA: Let's do it. Yeah.
JULIA: All right. So, his true name -- Poseidon -- could be translated as both Earthshaker and Master of waters, so kind of both.
AMANDA: Okay. Julia, that's sick as fuck. That's pretty sick. That's great.
JULIA: So, in that same vein as Earthshaker, he was also sometimes called Enosichthon, but because he was known to cause these earthquakes, he was also prayed to, in order to basically, like, hold up foundations under the name Themeliouchos or upholding the foundations, like, that was literally one of his titles.
AMANDA: That's pretty awesome.
JULIA: He was also known as the securer and protector with the name Asphaleios.
AMANDA: That's pretty great. And especially knowing the underground river portion, I feel like I might have been confused otherwise, but you're right. Like, listen, water is just stuff on top of ground when you think about it and foundation is just, like, what you hit when you reach the end of the water. So, like, these things... These things can live together in my mind.
JULIA: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know what, there should be kind of, like, a merger of the brothers in your mind because they are brothers at the end of the day.
AMANDA: More of a Venn diagram than, like, three pillars.
JULIA: Exactly. Exactly. So, Homer referred to Poseidon as Kyanochaites or dark-haired, dark blue of the sea, which I think is my favorite of all the translations personally.
AMANDA: Ooh.
JULIA: He was also known as Aegeus of the high sea, Eutriaina, which is with the goodly Trident, and Phykios or god of seaweeds.
AMANDA: Stunning. I also feel like the god of seaweeds when I swim in the Atlantic Ocean in August.
JULIA: Yes, true, true. You just like, "I put my arms into the water and now it's all stuck to me. Yay!"
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And then most importantly, in my book, and what will lead to our first Poseidon story, he was also known as Hippios of the horses.
AMANDA: Horse guy.
JULIA: Horse guy.
AMANDA: Give me that horse guy.
JULIA: Specifically, Amanda, this is the story about how Poseidon created the first horse.
AMANDA: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
JULIA: Poseidon, like many of the Greek gods was a horny motherfucker and pursued a lot of women both in consensual relationships and also sexual assaults, just something that we kind of have to deal with when we're talking about Greek mythology. He sired a lot of children, which we'll talk a little bit more about later. But in this story, the woman that caught Poseidon's eye in the moment was his sister, the goddess Demeter.
AMANDA: It's not incest, it's fine.
JULIA: Yes, as a reminder, there is a lot of incest in Greek mythology. And in the context of myths, it's not really, like, seen as a bad thing. I know that context is important for visiting these stories, I just want to provide our listeners with that context. So, Demeter is also someone that we will talk about later in the It's All Greek to Me Series, but the basics that you need to know is that she's the goddess of agriculture law, and harvest. And also, she had zero interest in Poseidon in this moment.
AMANDA: Demeter is really the god that I think I relate the most to.
JULIA: She just wants to, like, grow some plants and chill the fuck out and --
AMANDA: I know.
JULIA: -- everyone keeps bothering her or making her go through serious tragedies.
AMANDA: Yea. She's like, "Hey, read your contracts. Do you have enough grain for winter? Look at my greenhouse," and I have never related harder to anyone in my life.
JULIA: Also, sorry for causing winter. My bad.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, sorry about that. Sorry about that.
JULIA: So, Demeter was extremely irritated by his increasing attempts to woo her to the point where she just would not spend any time near the shore so that if Poseidon wanted to pursue her, his powers would be greatly diminished. Eventually, Poseidon really truly is eventually, eventually Poseidon noticed that his usual tactics just weren't working here, honestly, and decided to change gears and approach with a gift. But for Demeter, he knew that he would have to make a gift of a land animal, which is not his forte at all.
AMANDA: Okay, so what's his relationship to sea animals and fishes and stuff?
JULIA: He's made a couple at this point. Also, his wife, who we'll talk a little bit about later, is said to be the mother of certain sea mammals like dolphins and seals.
AMANDA: Okay. He has some experience in the animal department.
JULIA: Yes. So, he... he has made animals before. It's just he'd never made a land animal before.
AMANDA: Okay. Oh, great. Oh, I'm so excited.
JULIA: So, he started with four legs, and then kind of figured things out from there. But first, he created an animal that was too lumpy and the back of which was kind of, like, deformed. I'm gonna have you guess each of the animals he created in order to make the horse. So, what's the first guess there?
AMANDA: Okay, well, this has to be a camel.
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: Okay. Also have some water in the hump, so great, good idea.
JULIA: Exactly. Next, he created something that was, like, too wide and too large and was better suited for the water.
AMANDA: I mean, a manatee?
JULIA: No, it's got legs.
AMANDA: It's got legs. Oh, like a... like a rhino or crocodile or something like that, or hippo.
JULIA: It's a hippo. Hippo.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: You got it.
AMANDA: Hippo, that's what I meant.
JULIA: Then there was one that had too long of a neck.
AMANDA: Giraffe.
JULIA: Yes. And then, the closest to his goal, but not really regal enough.
AMANDA: Like, a donkey or a mule?
JULIA: Exactly. A donkey.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: And then, something that was perhaps a little too striking.
AMANDA: A zebra.
JULIA: Amanda, you're crushing these.
AMANDA: Julia, what I'm picturing is what the ancient Greeks pictured, which is somebody visited North Africa and was like, “Whoa!”
JULIA: That's some weird animal to you.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
JULIA: That's extremely good. Thank you for that.
AMANDA: You're welcome. There's also a new season of my favorite show: The Zoo on Animal Planet, so just a reminder about that one.
JULIA: So finally, finally, after making all of these other animals, he's able to create the regal horse, which he then gifts to Demeter. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, because horses are great. Demeter loves that gift.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And her opinion, at least for the moment, changes on Poseidon and they start what would eventually become kind of like an on again, off again, relationship.
AMANDA: I mean, listen, Julia, we've all been there, where maybe you go on a first date. Or maybe you're just looking on your apps, and you're like, "Oh, man, I'm not sure." But then, like, there's a joke that's just really good. Here's a photo that's really cute. Maybe they've got a dog and you're like, "I do in fact want to meet the dog," or you go on a date and you're like, "I'm not really sure how to feel about the date, but you know, the place was really fun." Like, you can kind of overcome a first idea if the gift is that good. And if someone gave me a horse on a date, I'd be like, "I feel really weird about this, but um, I certainly feel indebted to you now."
JULIA: Truly, that is worse than someone bringing flowers on a date is getting a --
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -- horse at the beginning of a date and being like, "What do -- We were supposed to go to a movie. What am I gonna do with my horse?"
AMANDA: Where do we put her?
JULIA: Where does she go? So, from this on again, off again relationship that Poseidon and Demeter have one of my favorite of their offspring that is a result of their relationship is Arion. So, Arion was born when Demeter had kind of taken the form of a mare and hid in a herd of horses from Poseidon, but Poseidon himself transformed into a stallion, managed to find her. And Arion is born of this sexual encounter. And he's just, Amanda, a horse that's capable of human speech.
AMANDA: Oh. Oh, boy. I was thinking, "Ah, yes, the mighty and noble Centaur. Finally!"
JULIA: Nope.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: Nope. It's just a horse that can speak human language.
AMANDA: I mean, the inner horse girl in me loves it, the adult: terrified.
JULIA: Yes. Horrifying as an adult, but if you met that Horse at 12, you would be like, "I'm the chosen one."
AMANDA: I am the chosen one. This is my best friend. Yeah. Like, let's forsake my human family. This is my destiny.
JULIA: Our souls are bonded together forever.
AMANDA: Exactly.
JULIA: Thank you Arion. Poseidon and Demeter also had another child, which was the goddess Despoina, who, despite being born at the same time as talking Horse, thankfully, was not talking horse.
AMANDA: Really amazing how the Greeks thought that. I'm sure that, like, if any of them were to read, like, Mendel, and, like, the pea plant studies, they'd be like, "No, I'm pretty sure that if a white pea plant and a green pea plant crossbred, that you would get one fish and one horse out of that."
JULIA: Obviously. What else? The offspring would bloom and then a fish would come out of there, clearly.
AMANDA: Exactly. You get one tiny man-baby and one giant baby-man.
JULIA: God it's so [15:54]. All right, so Despoina was the goddess of mysteries. She was worshipped by the Arcadians and she was central to the Eleusinian Mysteries where her true name was only revealed to those who are initiated into her cult, which is very cool.
AMANDA: That is really... I mean, listen, a lot of things will get me to join a cult. I'm not gonna lie to you. All of us think we're smarter than cult discourse, it's meant to be persuasive. And I am a persuadable person. That would definitely persuade me.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah. These mysteries were specifically the, like, initiations into the cult of Demeter and Persephone and are considered by scholars to be, like, one of the most famous of the secret religious rites of the ancient Greeks, which is she seems just really cool, like cooler than Poseidon, probably, her dad. And it kind of blows that we've lost a lot of information on her due to just the passage of time and the secrecy of her cult. But you know, maybe we'll talk a little bit about her and the mysteries in our Demeter episode, who can say?
AMANDA: Who can say? We will finally fulfill the promise of Spirits Podcast.
JULIA: Well, you know what, I would love to tell you about some other shit that Poseidon got himself into Amanda, but how about we get a refill first?
AMANDA: Let's do it. Julia, we've been doing podcasting for a long time. We've been doing a lot of ads in our life. And what I always appreciate is today’s sponsor: Calm suggests that during this ad break, we just give people a few moments just to think about how they're feeling, how they're doing, what's going on in their brain. So, I'm gonna... I'm gonna take a few seconds, okay? What's going on up there? What are you holding on to? Let go of the To-Do lists, the pending projects, just focus on your breath and we all need a few moments in our day when we can do them. We can take a little break, check in on ourselves, see how things are doing. And that is what I personally use the Calm app for. They are the number one mental wellness app, and they try to give you tools that improve the way you feel. You can use a guided daily meditation, you can improve your focus with their curated music tracks, and you can of course drift off to sleep with their sleep stories. You know the trains are my favorite.
JULIA: Mhmm.
AMANDA: And for listeners of the show, Calm is offering a special limited time promotion of 40% off a Calm premium subscription at calm.com/spirits. That's ca l m .c o m/spirits for 40% off unlimited access to Calm's entire library. Go there today. That's calm.com/spirits.
JULIA: Amanda, I was doing a lot of traveling recently and there's nothing better than finding a new story for my ears when I'm driving, or if I'm on a plane. And I downloaded recently the Black Friday podcast from Realm. Here's the pitch, Amanda. Here's the pitch.
AMANDA: I'm ready. I'm ready..
JULIA: Living corpses have taken over Mark Club the night before Black Friday, but if Bob forgets to bring home milk, he'll be dead meat.
AMANDA: Oh, it's amazing. And if you were forced to work on a holiday or have had a corporate job that you didn't like, this is a real kind of horror comedy situation. I got real like Shaun of the Dead vibes. Bro, like, if you're a fan of office space, it is really fun and particularly things that kind of poke fun and take place at the holidays I think are really welcome this time of year because sometimes it may feel like you're in the middle of an apocalypse. Or you kind of wish zombies would come and interrupt your Aunt Ethel from telling you for the 5th time about how you should really grow out your hair. I might be speaking from experience here, then, you know, you can kind of lose yourself in the world of Black Friday, this new show from Realm.
JULIA: Also Fred Armisen, is in it. You know, from Saturday Night Live.
AMANDA: I know that name.
JULIA: That's the guy. I like him. So, you can learn more about Black Friday at realm.fm and be sure to listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
AMANDA: That's realm.fm or search for Black Friday in your podcast app.
JULIA: Amanda, we've talked about uncomfortable conversations that you have during the holidays and you don't have to be uncomfortable during the holidays. You shouldn't have to be uncomfortable during the holidays. And if there's one place that you can find comfort in this holiday season, it's your bra.
AMANDA: It's your bra.
JULIA: It should be your bra.
AMANDA: You shouldn't be uncomfortable in your bra. They should just... they should just hold your girls up and, you know, let you call it your day.
JULIA: Exactly. And we get our bras from Third Love. I love my Third Love bra. I'm wearing one right now because I'm going to go get a tattoo later and it's a racerback and it shows off my shoulder so it's perfect.
AMANDA: I love that. I'm wearing a Third Love bralette right now because who has time for underwire after the pandemic? Not me.
JULIA: No one. No one. Just.. exactly. It's all about the Comfort, Amanda. You got it in one. And the great thing about Third Love is they're committed to both comfort, quality, and the right fit. So, not only do they bring comfort in your bras, they also bring comfort in stuff like their sleep-wear, they're Lux washable silk and bras that you just don't want to even take off when you get home, which is saying something. And they have stuff in exclusive half cups, which I wear a half cup, and I really really like it. It's like the first time that I felt like my boobs weren't either falling out or swimming-ish.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Yeah. Swimming in the bra that they were in, so I really, really love that. And they have their fitting room quiz which is, like, super easy. It focuses on size, breast shape, current fit issues, and your personal style to find a bra and underwear that is perfect for you.
AMANDA: But listen, you won't believe until you feel it because feeling is believing. Upgrade to everyday pieces that love your body as much as you do. And right now, you can get 20% off your first order at thirdlove.com/spirits. That's 20% off at thirdlove.com/spirits. And now let's get back to the show.
JULIA: Okay, so naturally, because we're doing Poseidon this week, we're breaking out the Blue Curaçao and we're making an ocean blue drink obviously. My personal favorite is the Ocean Mist, which is Blue Curaçao, tequila, a little bit of apricot brandy and then some lemon juice. And you can actually add like a little bit of sea salt to it to give it that kind of salty sea flavor. And also, I want to come out in favor of Blue Curaçao. I know a lot of people turn up their nose at it because it's, like, either girly or not fancy to have, like, a bright blue drink but, like, anytime you're putting something like Triple sec or Cointreau or really anything orange flavored liquor into your cocktail. You could be having more fun and making it blue by adding Blue Curaçao.
AMANDA: Listen, put it in your vintage Old Spaghetti Factory/spaghetti warehouse glassware. Use a curly straw. Have some fucking fun.
JULIA: Live most, bitches. Live most. Put a little bit more fun in your life. That's all I'm saying.
AMANDA: I know. Come on, life's too short. Drink a blue drink.
JULIA: Exactly. All right, let's talk about Poseidon's wife because she's fun.
AMANDA: Yeah. We’d invite her to happy hour. We cheer a Blue Curacao drink.
JULIA: We absolutely would. She seems great. You'll see why. As I mentioned before, the nymphs of the seas were the children of the Old Man of the Sea Nereus, and they were known as the Nereids. One of those Nereids was Amphitrite, who was said to be the personification of the salt water of the sea.
AMANDA: Oh, damn!
JULIA: So, she's cool. Homer refers to her as Halosydne or sea-nourished which I think is kind of beautiful and is a title that she shares with her sister Thetis who is the mother of Achilles
AMANDA: I don't know if this is canon, but I'm picturing a thick lady. I'm picturing a big lady and I love that.
JULIA: You know what, the Greeks don't really describe shapes of people that often in --
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: -- Greek mythology but, like, I'm here for it.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: I'm down with it.
AMANDA: She's sea-nourished? Getting a lot of protein? Come on.
JULIA: Exactly. Yeah. I just feel like she's very, like, sun-kissed but also, like, salt crusted, you know what I mean?
AMANDA: Yeah, no, I'm very into it. If you're, like, not getting enough nutrition from all the fruit you're eating, you just, like, have a little lick at your... at your own arm.
JULIA: Lick, lick. Like a little deer licking a salt block.
AMANDA: Oh my god, I just pictured myself with, like, salt encrusted limbs going into that island in Japan with all the deer and them just lick-lick-licking me.
JULIA: Oh my God, I want it so bad.
AMANDA: It would be so cute. That'd feel like a nymph.
JULIA: It's like one of the places in the world I was like, "I would be so happy there."
AMANDA: I know.
JULIA: We love Amphitrite. She's great. It was said that Poseidon had come to Nereus to pick his bride and Nereus had invited him to the Island of Naxos where his daughters were. There he had all 50 of those daughter dance for the god of the sea and Poseidon chose Amphitrite. However, she refused his hand in marriage and fled to the Titan Atlas but Poseidon kind of like didn't know where she went, so he sent his dolphins out into the sea to go look for her.
AMANDA: Relatable.
JULIA: And like, scour the various islands through the Greek Isles. And so, the one that found her with Atlas found her, like, you know, kind of did a little dolphin dance up to the edge of the water and spoke on behalf of Poseidon and basically managed to convince her to return and accept the marriage offer.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: He's like, "Let me tell you about my guy, Poseidon. He's great." So, Poseidon also was so impressed by the, just, persuasive dolphin that he honored it by placing it among the stars as the constellation Delphinus.
AMANDA: Adorable. I hope that he got to, like, be in the wedding party. That's a real wingman move.
JULIA: You know what, if the dolphin wasn't the ring bearer, I don't know what you're doing Poseidon. I just don't. In some stories however, like I mentioned before, Amphitrite was actually considered to be the mother of dolphins and other sea mammals like seals, which I kind of love. It is also said that she bred to see monsters and that when waves would crack upon the land that was Amphitrite's wrath, which I think is really cool. I love that so much.
AMANDA: Incredible. I'm pretty sure I've seen this image in real life but I also can picture you Julia standing at the edge being like, "Ah, yes, my sister have, like, a stormy sea just looking out."
JULIA: I truly do believe that we would get along.
AMANDA: Yeah, sure.
JULIA: She breed sea monsters, but she also loves dolphins and seals. Like, we would be best friends.
AMANDA: Yeah. What's not to love?
JULIA: I would be like, "Ooh, tell me about that Kraken that you've made. And also, let me pet your seals."
AMANDA: I know and you could go out to happy hour and be like, "What if?" And then the next day she'd be like, "Okay, so about last night, I did in fact breed, you know, whatever. Like, Kraken, Loch Ness Monster combo.
JULIA: Oh my god. That would be really cute. What if it was a kraken but all of the tentacles were the necks of the Loch Ness monster.
AMANDA: I know. A little floppies.
JULIA: It would be very cute. Anyway, so the Greeks all agree that Poseidon and Amphitrite had two children together. A daughter that was named Rhodos, who was said to be the personification of the island of Rhodes and also married the sun god -- Helios. And then, they also had a son named Triton, who many people tend to conflate with Poseidon himself. Triton was a merman, like, literally the first Merman. He had that human body to the waist, and then a fishtail beyond that. A really classic merman look. And he was said to live in the palace beneath the sea with his mother and father and often was depicted holding a conch shell that he would blow like a trumpet, which would either calm or raise the waves, which is very cool. I like that imagery quite a bit. I think a lot of people kind of picture him with the Trident, just because of what his name is.
AMANDA: I definitely conflate that imagery. And now that you pointed out I'm just like, "Ah, yes. I definitely have pictured Poseidon as a merman before," but it's not.
JULIA: You know what, and it's not an uncommon thing, so it's not... it's not just you Amanda. It's not another narwhals-are-fake situation.
AMANDA: Yeah. The real 50 cent Nickelback situation.
JULIA: It was also said that with his conch, he would be the trumpeter for Poseidon in battle who basically, like, announced in battle or, like, tell the armies of Poseidon, "Okay, here we go. Everyone go. Go fight."
AMANDA: Trumpeters are kind of like the ring bearers of battle, you know?
JULIA: Mhmm. Mhmm. That's true. Ovid referred to him as being sea huge in appearance, which I think is really interesting because I'm like, "Is that, like, a blue green? Is that a gray? Tell me more." And later describes him as "His shoulder, barnacled with seashells," which is also very cool. I love that for him.
AMANDA: Adorable, sexy, rugged, love it.
JULIA: But imagine also, if it's like mussel shells, and it's, like, black, but also pearlescent that would be really pretty.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah. I'm fully on board with this image.
JULIA: Cool. Love it. We love you, Triton. Awesome, great for you. But of course, as we mentioned with Demeter earlier, Poseidon was not always faithful to Amphitrite. Not even close. As is the case with most of the Greek gods, some of the people that Poseidon pursued were into it. There were also plenty of others that he violated and assaulted. Again, this is just a fact that we kind of have to face when we talk about Greek mythology. One example of this was Caeneus who was born Caenis, so she was originally a woman who was raped by Poseidon. But after, she demanded justice for herself and Poseidon offered to grant her a wish. So, she demanded that she be transformed into a man and Poseidon did such for her as well as giving him impenetrable skin. So, Caeneus would later become part of the Calydonian boar hunt, which we know is kind of, like, very important.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: All the heroes kind of showed up for that situation. And would also father the hero Coronus who would become one of the Argonauts as in Jason and the Argonauts.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: And in some tales, it was said that he was an Argonaut himself, which is very cool.
AMANDA: Wow. That is --
JULIA: Yes. And he was very hard to kill because he had impenetrable skin. Nice.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: There was also Tyro who was a Thessalian Princess who was married to her uncle, but was in love with this river god, Enipeus. But Enipeus refused her advances, which is a real Greek mythology twist.
AMANDA: I know, right?
JULIA: Because it's very rare for a god to be like, "I don't think I want to sleep with you."
AMANDA: Listen, they sometimes surprise us and I love that.
JULIA: Yeah, that's true. Unfortunately, one day, Poseidon spotted her and was just filled with lust, so he disguised himself as the river god, had sex with her, and Tyro gave birth to the twins, Pelias and Neleus, and not wanting her infidelity to be discovered, she kind of just left them on a mountainside to die, which was, you know.
AMANDA: Not great.
JULIA: Not a common practice, but it was a practice, unfortunately. But the twins were found by a shepherd who raised them as his own. And eventually, when they were old enough, they sought out their mother, didn't really hold it against her given that, like, she probably would have been killed, to be quite honest, if she gave birth to them.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: They found out that the mother was being mistreated, and they killed her stepmother after she fled into the temple of Hera. As we learned from our Athena episode, you don't kill people or violate them or take them from the sanctuary of anyone's temple. That's not cool.
AMANDA: Yeah. I mean, don't do it. But also, don't do it in a temple. Like, you're literally asking for the wrath of a god.
JULIA: Right. I mean, they can do it because I think the Greeks would have seen it as a just-killing, but because they did it in the temple of a god, that's why it was bad. Like, it broke basically, hospitality laws, more or less. So, Pelias, the one who killed her, incurred the wrath of Hera because of that. And this eventually, would lead to Hera's support of Jason and the Argonauts in finding the Golden Fleece as it was meant that Jason would be able to usurp Pelias who was his uncle and who had just gone mad with power as the current king. So, in Hera's mind, revenge is absolutely a dish best served cold. She waited, like, two generations to really fuck this guy.
AMANDA: Be like, "Ah, you thought you got away with it. Did not."
JULIA: Nope. Sorry, bud. So, like many of the Greek gods, sexuality is pretty fluid when it comes to them. And so, there were at least two men that Poseidon showed attraction to and eventually, like, fell in love with. So, there was Nerites -- who was the first -- who is the son of Nereus, and the brother of Amphitrite, and the other nereids. So, he was mentioned often in kind of the worship of mariners, and sometimes they referred to him as the demigod of shellfish, which we'll get to why later.
AMANDA: Stunning.
JULIA: But I just love that journey for him. What a great title to have.
AMANDA: Very good.
JULIA: So, it was said that Poseidon loved him and that he answered his feelings and that their union was actually the origin of the god of requited and mutual love, which is Anteros.
AMANDA: Whoa!
JULIA: Which I think is really beautiful.
AMANDA: One for the gays. I love us.
JULIA: Yeah, so Poseidon also gave him kind of that coveted position of being his charioteer, that golden chariot --
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -- that he would ride across the waves. It was said that he would ride like the wind across the seas, which is beautiful.
AMANDA: Adorable.
JULIA: But unfortunately, it was said that Helios, similar to that story that we told in the Apollo episode, was jealous that Poseidon had received his attention rather than Helios and thus, turned him into a shellfish.
AMANDA: Pissed.
JULIA: Pissed. They don't specify what kind of shellfish, so I'm trying to think, maybe a langoustine.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Like a small Mediterranean lobster.
AMANDA: That'd be pretty cute. I was picturing, like, a mussel, because that seems like the least fun life to have.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: At least if you're an oyster, you can work on a pearl. If you're anything with legs, you can go out and about, sorry to any mussel biologists out there or whatever. But like, it seems like they just mostly cling.
JULIA: Yeah, I was trying to think of, like, shellfish was more agency.
AMANDA: I would like to think that, right.
JULIA: And like, the idea of, like, a little crab would have been funny, but not. I don't know. I don't know.
AMANDA: If I had to choose a shellfish to be turned into I would definitely choose a langoustine. They seem adorable and less at risk of getting eat up by humans than a lobster.
JULIA: That's true. That's true. Langoustines is very, like, French high class cooking.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Which is very funny.
AMANDA: Also, it just feels like it's a... you got all the tools of a big old lobster but all the agility of a small one.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah. The agility of a lobster.
AMANDA: I think it's scary, man.
JULIA: They just, yeah, they get on the floor of the ocean. They just go. So, another man that Poseidon loved was Pelops who was the son of Tantalus, who is where we get the word "tantalizing" from.
AMANDA: Ooh!
JULIA: Pelops was originally cut into pieces by his father and made into a stew that was then served to the gods, which is why Tantalus, like, was punished so severely in the underworld.
AMANDA: Hate that for anyone who uses the word tantalizing. I feel like I keep learning and then making myself unlearn this fact because it's horrifying.
JULIA: So, we get the word tantalizing from the fact that Tantalus in the underworld was basically -- he's forced to stand in a river underneath a fruit tree. And despite how hungry and thirsty he is, every time he goes to drink from the river, it lowers out of his reach.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And then, every time he's hungry, he reaches for the fruit, but it just raises out of his reach as well so...
AMANDA: Terrible.
JULIA: It's all tantalizing to him.
AMANDA: Oh no.
JULIA: Pelops, his son, after the trickery was revealed was put back together by the gods and brought back to life and the one piece of him that was eaten by Demeter, who was, like, too in her grief because of Persephone's abduction and, like, didn't notice anything was wrong, took a bite of his shoulder. And so, it was replaced by one that was made of ivory, which was made by Hephaestus.
AMANDA: That sounds like a great trade off.
JULIA: Honestly, yeah. Like, we stan a disabled king, and that is Pelops.
AMANDA: Yeah, no. Any... anyone with artificial, you know, limbs, cybernetic limbs augmented by human technology, you know, I think that's awesome. I think you're awesome.
JULIA: Hell yeah. So, once Pelops is revived Poseidon brought him to Olympus and then made him his apprentice. Zeus later kicked him off of Olympus because apparently, like, someone had been stealing food from the gods, and he suspected Pelops. So, he was just, like, "You're off of here." And so, he later on decided that he was going to start courting his future wife. And so, he turned to Poseidon for help reminding him of, "The times that they shared Aphrodite's sweet gifts."
AMANDA: Oh!
JULIA: Which, like, Poseidon was like, "Oh, yes, I remember that. Very good. And so, those are fun times. Here's a chariot drawn by winged horses. Go get your girl, my guy."
AMANDA: Oh my god, it's so queer to, like, assist in the proposal of your ex to their new partner.
JULIA: It's a real, like, "Yes, you can still be friends with your exes moment."
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Which I really appreciate because Poseidon was like, "Yeah, good times. Here, man. Go get that girl."
AMANDA: I love that!
JULIA: No biphobia in Poseidon whatsoever.
AMANDA: It's not often, Julia, that we get to point at the Greek gods and say, "There's a good lesson for us." But here's one.
JULIA: Here's one. That's it. Just one.
AMANDA: It's possible. Yeah, just the one.
JULIA: There were a few more children of Poseidon that we should mention, because a lot of them do play a fairly big role in Greek mythology. Bellerophon, who we mentioned before in It's All Greek to Me was the son of Poseidon and a mortal woman named Eurynome. She was married to the Corinthian King Glaucus at the time when he was conceived, but because Glaucus was the son of Sisyphus, who the gods were punishing to never have any progeny. In order to basically conceive a child, Eurynome slept with Poseidon. And so, that's how we got Bellerophon.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: Yeah. I mean, like, it's a good workaround, I guess. As long as Glaucus was cool with it, I don't know.
AMANDA: Yeah. Again, potentially useful example. I'm glad it worked for you guys.
JULIA: Yeah. Whatever works. It's like using a sperm donor, but it's --
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -- Poseidon.
AMANDA: Families... families have all kinds of origins.
JULIA: Exactly. We also talked about Otis and Ephialtes in our Artemis episode. They were the giant twins of Poseidon and the princess Iphimedia who were the ones who kind of decided to challenge The Olympians and kidnap Artemis, but at the end, they ended up slaughtering each other because of the trickery from Artemis.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Good times. Good times.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: There was, of course, Polyphemus who was the giant Cyclops who was famously blinded by Odysseus during the Odyssey.
AMANDA: Still bullshit. Still mad.
JULIA: Yeah. I mean, Poseidon was also still mad about that. But Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon and Thoosa, who's a sea nymph. And like I just said, the blinding was the reason that Poseidon was so furious and turned against Odysseus and refused to let him go home after the Trojan War despite having sided with the Greeks during the war. There was also Proteus who some called the eldest son of Poseidon, who was born of the princess Phoenice. And Proteus was said to have, like, prophetic sight and was sought out by a lot of different people. But the most famous was Menelaus during the Odyssey, in order to kind of basically find out what gods did I piss off and how can I make it right?
AMANDA: If only all of us had that opportunity to be like, "Hey, so who have I pissed off? How can I make it right?"
JULIA: Yes. Honestly, that would be great. I need to find a prophet. Menelaus did have a little bit of a challenge getting it out of Proteus because he basically had to capture him to get that information. And Proteus, like, shifted forms into various animals during that fight. He turned into a lion, a serpent, a leopard, a pig, even into, like, water and a tree but Menelaus was able to hold on to him. And eventually, Proteus revealed to him not only, like, how to make things right, but also what happened to all of his compatriots after they were separated by the storm leaving Troy.
AMANDA: Sometimes knowledge is a curse, but sometimes it's a gift. And I think this is really straddling the line, tbh.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah. Menelaus had a lot of problems during the Trojan War, to be quite honest.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Now, we already told one of Poseidon's other famous stories in the Athena episode; about the naming of the city of Athens and the contest between the two. But another also important story for Poseidon that we haven't talked about is the fact that Poseidon and Apollo were tasked with building the impenetrable walls of Troy.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Mostly that was because Hera, at one point, had led a rebellion of the other gods against Zeus. Mostly backed by Poseidon and Apollo, because, I mean, I don't blame her. I just don't.
AMANDA: You can't. You really can't.
JULIA: Obviously, it failed, but Zeus as punishment set the task for Poseidon and Apollo to basically have to serve the king of Troy at the time. And the king of Troy was like, "Okay, yes, I would like you to build these walls. I know that's a menial task for the gods, so as a reward for finishing, I'm going to give you some of my immortal horses." Which we know how much Poseidon loves a fucking horse.
AMANDA: [42:47] He's like, "One of my guys. one of mine." Yes, yes.
JULIA: Love that for you. But when the work was finished and the walls were built, the King refused to hand over what was promised, so Poseidon -- obviously enraged, because he really wanted those horses -- and this was, like, before the Trojan War was even like a whisper on the wind. So, he sent the sea monster to attack Troy, but like, he also did a really good job on those walls with Apollo. So, the sea monster wasn't able to really get in. It just kind of laid siege on Troy, but eventually was slain by the hero, Heracles.
AMANDA: You right, Julia. I was here thinking, "Wow, an immortal horse. A companion for life who will never die." And then I realized, "Oh, that's right. War. Yeah, I guess that'd be useful."
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah, that would be. Awesome but, like, Poseidon can make a horse at any time. Why couldn't he --
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -- just make himself an immortal horse? Probably needs, like, monster blood or something. I don't know.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: His wife's out there breeding a bunch of monsters.
AMANDA: I know! This should be their thing.
JULIA: They're just not communicating, you know? They need to go to couples counseling and, like, really talking about --
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -- this. Talk about their needs.
AMANDA: I'm... I'm really... I'm really picturing a Gift in the Magi situation here where, like, she gives up making monsters and he makes her a monster. And then, he gives up making horses and she makes him a, like, a monstrous horse. I can't fully get there in this moment, but I'm gonna work on that.
JULIA: Oh, that brings up a great story that I didn't include. After Poseidon gave Demeter the Horse as a gift he's like, "Man, these things are cool as fuck. I love this. I want one."
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So, he made himself, like, a literal Greek seahorse, which is called a Hippocampus. And he just, like, his chariots were pulled around by these beautiful seahorses, which was, like, horse front. Like, if you bisected a Horse through the stomach, it would be horse front and then fishtail.
AMANDA: Incredible!
JULIA: Yes, they're very cool. I also love to end these things with the ways that the Greeks would celebrate and worship Poseidon. Very quickly we'll mention that they used to drown horses as sacrifice to Poseidon and then we'll move quickly away from that because it's too sad.
AMANDA: Thank you.
JULIA: But Poseidon had at least three festivals in which that he was celebrated each year. First, was the Isthmian Games, which was one of the four great games. We've talked about that a little before in It's all Greek to Me, but it was basically a athletic and musical set of competitions in honor of Poseidon. And it was said to have either been started by Sisyphus or Theseus. Also, Theseus might have been a child of Poseidon. Sources aren't sure. Sometimes they claim that he had a mortal father, sometimes they claimed that he had Poseidon as a father. It really all depends.
AMANDA: I'm just really here for rumors of godly parentage. It's like you can't disprove it. Like, it's a great rumor.
JULIA: You can't say I'm not a demigod.
AMANDA: Yeah!
JULIA: You're not sure.
AMANDA: Exactly. Try me, bro.
JULIA: So, I feel like you'll appreciate this. Originally, the winners of these games were crowned in a wreath that was made of dried wild celery.
AMANDA: Oh damn!
JULIA: I love that so much.
AMANDA: Listen, celery seed, vastly underutilized spice.
JULIA: Truly!
AMANDA: Get yourself some celery salts. Good shit.
JULIA: I know a lot of, like, Jewish cooking uses celery seed in a lot of other seasonings. Is that correct?
AMANDA: It is correct. And for this non-Allium eating lad over here, celery salt is a great way to give yourself a little bit of extra flavor in there when you'd otherwise use, like, a garlic or an onion powder.
JULIA: There you go. There you go. You know, I'm glad there is an alternative for you because I know that that's, like, a very hard thing to replace so...
AMANDA: It's hard. Yeah. As the potato powder is, like, a thing that's present in some Indian cooking but a little bit harder to get a hold of. But anyway, this has been Non-Allium Corner with Amanda.
JULIA: Yes. So, used to be dried wild celery, which is buck-wild. I love that imagery so much because now I'm just picturing it as, like, the celery that you forgot was in the back of your crisper drawer and then your'e, like, weave it into a crown. Here you go.
AMANDA: Enjoy. They got all soft. That's what you wanted, right?
JULIA: But once the Romans kind of took over these games, because that's what the Romans did. They turned the wreaths into a pine wreath because they associated that as being sacred with Neptune.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: The winter solstice was also a celebration for Poseidon despite the fact that that was, like, the time that the Greek mariners were least on the sea. Maybe they were like, "All right. Well, next time we're on the ocean, Poseidon. We're honoring you, so do us right." So, specifically, they had a month that is now like our December/January-ish and was named for Poseidon. They also had a celebration during that month called Posidea, which was 16 days of the month and it was just, like, feasting and celebration on the island of Aegina, which eventually became so popularized that it spread to the rest of Greece.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: The month Poseidon also featured the festival of Haloea, which was mainly focused on Demeter and Dionysus, but also had rights to Poseidon as well. Mostly because it was held during his month. But this was exclusively a festival for women where men had a legal and moral duty to finance their wives debauchery during these times. And women would not be allowed to eat meat or pomegranates, but we're fed cakes that were shaped like sexual organs.
AMANDA: Yep, this sounds like a great time.
JULIA: Yes. I honestly probably up there for me with Bean Soup festival for Apollo. Sounds really good.
AMANDA: This mini-series is really giving us a lot of very good ideas.
JULIA: A lot of good holidays that we should be celebrating in the future. I feel like I'm gonna have to make a calendar now with all of these and be like, "Amanda just, like, prepare to come to my house next August the 15th because that's when Bean Soup festival is.
AMANDA: Listen, no notes. No notes, Ancient Greece. No notes.
JULIA: I love it. I love it so much. If we ever have any children and their daughters we're going to do the Little Bear Little girl festival which I --
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: -- obsess with.
AMANDA: Now is the time to be a little... a little girl bear. Yeah.
JULIA: Yes. That's Poseidon who is as wild and as stormy as the seas that he's ruled over, and was revered and feared by the Greeks. What do you think, Amanda?
AMANDA: Stunning, Julia. Much more interesting than the sort of, like, sea uncle that I thought him to be. Loving the horse thing. Poseidon is just really, like, an uncle to horse girls everywhere. And I feel like I... I know him and his very interested intricate family so much better.
JULIA: Yeah. It really does kind of help frame the dynamic with the rest of the gods. I feel like knowing more about Poseidon and also knowing what we know about Zeus, you're like, "Yeah, it makes sense that a lot of you turned out the way that you did."
AMANDA: Yep, it does indeed. It does indeed.
JULIA: But I am really glad that we talked about Poseidon. I feel like he provides a lot of context for a lot of the Greek stories that we tell and I think that he, despite being kind of a terrible person, does have a lot of fun and interesting things going on with him.
AMANDA: I agree. Julia, thank you again and next time you see a horse remember.
JULIA: Stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool. Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Alison Wakeman.
JULIA: Keep up with all things creepy and cool by following us @spiritspodcast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. We also have all of our episode transcripts, guest appearances, and merch on our website. As well as a forum to send us in your urban legends, and your advice from folklore questions at spiritspodcast.com.
AMANDA: Join our member community on Patreon, patreon.com/spiritspodcast for all kinds of behind-the-scenes goodies. Just $1 gets you access to audio extras with so much more like recipe cards with alcoholic and non-alcoholic for every single episode, director's commentaries, real physical gifts, and more.
JULIA: We are a founding member of Multitude, an independent podcast collective, and production studio. If you like Spirits, you will love the other shows that live on our website at multitude.productions.
AMANDA: Above all else, if you liked what you heard today, please text one friend about us. That's the very best way to help keep us growing.
JULIA: Thanks for listening to Spirits. We'll see you next week.
AMANDA: Bye
JULIA: Did that horse just talk to us? Oh no!
AMANDA: Stay cool. I tried to neigh but it sounded like a ghost.
JULIA: It's not a talking horse? Oh no.
AMANDA: Oh no! Bye.
Transcribed by: John Matthew Sarong
Edited by: Krizia Marrie Casil