Before Heracles, There was Alcmene: The Woman Behind the Greatest Hero

Published Sep 12, 2023, 7:00 AM

Before Heracles, there was Alcmene, and there's so much more to her than just "mother of a hero". Help keep LTAMB going by subscribing to Liv's Patreon for bonus content!

CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.

Sources: Theoi.com entries on Hesiod's Shield of Heracles; Pseudo-Apollodorus' Library of Greek Mythology; Early Greek Myths by Timothy Gantz; The Oxford Handbook of Heracles, edited by Daniel Ogden, chapter by Corinne Pache.

Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

Hello there, This is let's talk about myths, baby, and I am live the one who brings you all the mythology all the time, and I mean literally all of the time, like over five thousand words of mythology every week just in these Tuesday episodes.

Sometimes I just think about that, you know, like the actual volume of words that I get to write about Greek mythology, just even during a single month. It is bananas, uh, but it's seriously fucking fun and you all, you know, want it and you help me turn it into a career, so I am not complaining, but it is an interesting thing to look at the volume of words sometimes though, amidst all the deep, you know, nerd level wanderings that I do these days, you know, digging and diving into the depths of obscure sources and unheard of stories or characters. Like sometimes I just love to return to the roots, like the pure, straight like famous myths, but with a twist. Except well, I've been doing this for six years, so you just know that now, even when I want to return to a simpler, famous myth, I'm still gonna tell you every goddamn detail imaginable, Like today, where I thought you know who I mentioned peripherally, like you know all the time, but I rarely really get to dive deep into like fucking Heracles. That guy he had his hand in every pot, but or rather he scared his opponents so badly that they hid in the same pots. But today, you know, I thought, I want to talk about Heracles. I want to dive deeper into his origin story, maybe the labors he's so famous for. You know, it's been like five years since I talked about those, and I want to dive. I want to dive so much deeper. Plus, if I'm being totally honest with you all, last year I spent like over one hundred and fifty dollars on a fucking Heracles book that I have yet to use. But I thought was going to be so helpful. So this is me, This is me forcing myself to get my money's worth. But then when I, you know, when I decided to look at Heracles a little closer, I realized, actually, no, you know who deserves better his fucking mother, al Kameni. She is the mother of the biggest, baddest, best hero of Greek myths, and yet how little everyone talks about her as a real person outside of that motherhood. Gods, no, I prefer talking about women outside of motherhood. So today we're maybe we weren't you reintroducing Heracles, but we're doing it by devoting an episode to the stories of his mother, Alcmeni. This is episode two twenty eight. Before Heracles, there was Alcmeni, the woman behind the greatest hero or like her, who left home and country and came to Thebes following warlike Amphytrion, even Alcmene, the daughter of Electrion, gatherer of the people. She surpassed the tribe of womankind in beauty, and in height, and in wisdom. None vied with her of those who mortal women bear of union with mortal men. Her face and her dark eyes wafted such charm as comes from golden aphrodite, and she so honored her husband in her heart as none of womankind did before her. Alcmenie was born to a very very illustrious family in Argaullis. Her father was Electrion, the son of none other than Perseus and Andromeda, the founding heroes of that region of the Peloponnese. Her mother, you know, we know less about, or rather there's just like a debate as to who exactly Alcmene's mother was, and in all cases she's just kind of a possible name. The point, though, is that Alchimeni was the granddaughter of Perseus and thus great granddaughter of Zeus. Alchemeni was the only daughter of Electrion, king of Myceni, who had a whole collection of sons. It was Alchemeni and her nine brothers, whose names I won't trouble you with because well, they don't live long. Alchemeni was an impressive woman in many ways, even aside from her heroic heritage and status as princess of Myceni. Even Hesiod and the quote that I read up at the top there from this shield of Heracles, concedes that she was not only the most beautiful woman around, but she was also the wisest and well the tallest. Good for her. Still, this is Hesiod, after all, So the most impressive part of Elchemeni to him is how much she honored her husband. But we will get to that husband. I, unlike Hesiod, am far more interested in Alcmeni. When Alcmeni was young, just nearing that age old enough to be married the king of Megara, Peterelaus, tried to come and lay claim to the throne of Myceni. He brought a whole group of men with him, called the Taffians, and they attempted to take control of the kingdom. Electrion's sons defended their city. They fought the Taffians, and only one of the nine sons of Electrion survived the battle, Lecymnius, who was simply too young to have fought at all. So Alcmeni was left with only one sibling when she used to have nine, and this stuck with her. Most of Peterrelaus's sons were killed two but many of the rest of his men, those who had been part of the attack on Myceni and of the killing of electrion sons, survived and fled. But they didn't just flee after their attack on the city. They also stole a bunch of cattle and eventually sold them off to the king of nearby Ellis Polyxenus. Faced with a kingdom that has now been absolutely torn to shreds. Almost all of his sons and heirs have been killed, Electrion decides to sort out a new successor. A man named Amphytrion made a name for himself when he traveled to Ellis and he retrieved Electrion's stolen cattle, returning them to myceni I want to make this a joke, you know, like so much drama and bloodshed relating to stolen cattle. But obviously this would have been like an enormous issue in the ancient world. Cattle are important. They are pricey as hell, and they're a major time investment. If the cattle that you've been raising for however many years, are suddenly stolen, like, you're kind of fucked. So, with his sons dead and his kingdom in major need of sorting out, Electron decides to give his kingdom and his daughter in marriage to the man who retrieved the cattle. And it really makes a lot of sense, And that's what Electron decides. And Fitrion has proven himself to be a good man and thus a good husband for his only daughter, Alcmenie, and a good man to take over the ruling of Mycenie. This is it's decided, and it seems that it's all sorted quite quickly, because the next dramatic plot point comes upon the official return of the cattle. I don't know. Maybe it took a while for them to be brought back to Myceni, because in the meantime, Mfittrion has returned with the news that he is bringing back the cattle, and thus has been granted both the kingdom of Myceni and this marriage to Alcmeni. Everything rhymes. I wish I could avoid it. It sounds like a poem anyway, Electrion, he is one requirement of Mfittrion upon his marriage to Alcmeni. Electriancy is bent on avenging his son's deaths. That's why he's so happy to give up his kingdom to m Vitrion, like it doesn't matter to him any longer. What matters is avenging his sons, the sons who would never be able to take over the kingdom that he had been so prepared to give them. So he told m Vitrion that he could marry Alchameni, but that they were forbidden from consummating the marriage until Electrion has written turned from his avenging journey. He's gonna go out, He's gonna kill the men who killed his sons, and when he comes back, then his daughter can have sex with her new husband. Until then, Alcmene needed to remain a virgin. This, I promise is important and not just weird and gross, because while Electrion he never has the chance to go off and avenge his sons. He only had the chance to have m Fittrion swear this oath before. Shortly after, as as m Fittrion is dealing with the returned cattle, one of them charges at him. Electrion seems to be nearby. Maybe he's, you know, also dealing with the cattle, or he's preparing to head off to avenge these sons. But Mfittrion, without thinking, he throws a club at one of the charging cows, just hoping to stop it from attacking him. But the club rebounded off the cow's horns, and well, it hit Electreon in the head and killed him. This is one of those stories where it's just it's kind of difficult not to make that sound silly, like I get it. This is a tragedy. The poor man was mourning eight dead sons. He had to marry off his daughter so that his kingdom wouldn't be left with nothing, you know, so that she wouldn't be left with nothing, and then he's killed in such a random and well like, not particularly heroic way. Greek myths do love an unexpected death story, and the other Greek myths love an accidental murder that then requires travel and resulting purification. It's a long standing trope in Greek myth. Man accidentally kills another man. He is very sad and sorry. It definitely wasn't his intention, and thus we don't have to think badly of him. But he's then required to travel to another kingdom and seek purification from that king, and then he's okay. Mfitrion's story is no different, but because of the horrible timing the entrusting of Myceni to Mfitrion just before the murder, the kingdom itself is at the mercy of this accidental murder. Senalus, Electrin's brother, took this opportunity. He used Electrion's accidental death as a pretext to banish Emfittrion and Elchmeni and the surviving son her brother, Kimni. They're banished from Myceni and from the whole of our Golis. The very moment Mfittrion is gone. Stenalus seized the kingdom of Myceni and nearby Tyrans too, for himself and for his sons, and according to at least later versions, you know, trying to tie all of the mythological stories together, he entrusted the city of Medea, not Medea. It's difficult. It's an ee to none other than the sons of Pelops, Atreus and Thiastes. But we're not concerned with them now, at least not until next month, when we dive straight into the murderous and cannibalistic play about the very same characters. Today, though, we're concerned with Alcameni because she's been married to m Fittrion. She was banished along with him. It didn't matter whether or not she wanted to join him, even after he'd accidentally killed her father. Sthenalus was quick to action. As soon as he had the opportunity to rid my scene of his competition, he did it. He banished m Fytrion, and because of that he could banish Alcmeni and even her surviving brother Lacymnius. He knew exactly which threats to get rid of, basically anyone with a rightful claim to the throne that he has just seized for himself. So Alcmeni goes off with Mfytrion and her brother and she makes the best out of her situation. She's a strong woman. She's just dealt with the deaths of eight of her brothers and then her father, like she has been through it all, and she comes out stronger and not willing to let anyone dictate her life. They land in Thebes, and frankly, I wish there was some kind of like backstory for why they would travel so far. I imagine it would be. You know that the most of the Peloponnese and certainly all of the Argolid would have fallen to Sthenelus's stolen throne, but it's notable how far they traveled. It also becomes a vitally important to later mythos surrounding Heracles, including what I spoke about during my series on Sparta earlier this year. Like this, this banishment, this forced migration of Alcmeni and Emfittrion is then Heracles's later tie to the Peloponnese and the reason why the Heracleide have claim to it when they wage the war of the mythological Dorian Invasion. The whole spartan origin story. But I'm getting ahead of myself because Heracles mythology is just it's so fascinating and so deeply tied to historical beliefs at the time too. The point, though, is Alchmeni and Mfittrion reached Thebes where they're purified by the king Creon. Yes, I think that Creon of Oedipus fame there. Alchemeni's brother Lacymnius marries Creon's sister Paramede, and after Imfittrion agrees to handle I mean a lady fox, a vixen who's been causing trouble in the region. After that, Creon agrees to help him do the one thing Alcmeni has asked of him, avenge the deaths of her brothers. Alchemedie is the one in control of things here, in control of her own marriage. She knows that she holds the cards like her new husband accidentally killed her father and he got them banished, and he had her family's kingdom stolen out from under them. So if Mfittrion wants to have an even remotely happy marriage, he has got some groveling to do. But Alchimedie doesn't want his apologies. She wants bloodshed, and Fitrion does everything his wife asks of him. But frankly, I have told this story before and I went into details of what he did then. So if you're curious about that deadly vixen the Lady Fox, have a listen to past to Heracles episodes, because again today is about Alcmeni and Alcmenie. She had another requirement of her husband. She was not to sleep with him until he divenged her brothers. Basically, it was just a continuation of what he had already agreed to Electrion. It's a necessary plot point, but it's also just like so real, you know, like this woman has been through it. Her life has been destroyed completely, and she's doing all that she can to keep herself together. She doesn't want to fuck a man that she's known for like a hot minute, let alone the one who was the cause of her father's death and her exile. Like nah, he is going to have to earn access to her. So that's the deal. You want a happy wife, you want to have sex. Wage war on the people who killed Alchimeni's brothers. Take them all out, make them pay, then return to Thebes, and Alcmeni will consider making their marriage official, and Pittrion again does everything that's asked of him. I gather that it wasn't so much you know about the sex either, but like an actual human desire to atone for what he's done for all we know. But I'm Vitrion and his marriage to Alchemeni for that matter. He seems to actually have been, like maybe maybe a good guy. His crimes were accidental and he's doing everything he can to make up for them. The bar is low. It's just that also, well, you know, things have been happening behind the scenes. You see, Zeus has taken an interest and the woman that was so famously beautiful, famously loyal, famously tall, Zeus has been watching Alcmeni, and he has decided to be very zeus about how he feels. He's also pretty excited to take advantage of the rules that Alcmeni has set for her husband and the benefit of it all. Zeus really does prefer his women untouched, like how does one properly convey a gaining sound gross? The most dangerous existence for a woman in Greek mythology is to be not only unfathomably beautiful, but also pure. Add to that a woman known for honoring her husband and being hot and tall, and you've got a recipe fit only for Zeus. This is from Hesiod's Shield of Heracles, telling the story of exactly how Zeus came to be the father of greece most illustrious and enviable hero. Quote. But the father of men and gods was forming another scheme in his heart, to beget one to defend against destruction gods and men who eat bread. So he arose from Olympus by night, pondering guile in the deep of his heart, and yearned for the love of the well girded woman. Quickly he came to the Typheonium, and from there again wise Zeus went on and trod the highest peak of Phyicium. There he sat and planned marvelous things in his heart. So in one night Zeus shared the bed and love of the neat ankled daughter of Electrion and fulfilled his desire. And in the same night Amphytrion, gatherer of the people, the glorious hero, came to his house. When he had ended did his great task, he hastened not to go to his bondsmen and shepherds afield, but first went unto his wife. Such desire took hold on the shepherd of the people, and as a man who had escaped joyfully from misery, whether of sore disease or cruel bondage, So then did Mfittrion, when he had wound up all his heavy task, come glad and welcome to his home. And all night long he lay with his modest wife, delighting in the gifts of golden Aphrodite. What Zeus wants, Zeus gets, or rather takes. While Inmfittrion is on his way home to Alcmeni, having done everything she asked of him, having avenged the tragic deaths of her brothers. That is when Zeus strikes against Alchemeni. Some versions of the story say that Zeus came to Alchemenie disguised as Mfittrion, leading her to believe that she was having sex with her husband for the very first time. After you know, he's returned to her a hero in her eyes. Other versions of the story just say that Zeus like schemed, that he misled her in some way, that he deceived her. However, he did it though it was nefarious, and Alchemeni did not know who it was that she was sleeping with or what it might mean. And then Mfititrion returned and the couple had sex on the very same night. And that part is key because after spending the night with Zeus and Infittrion, however it might have happened, Helchameni becomes pregnant with twins. Greek myth does love a twin story where only one of them is the child of gods. It certainly adds drama. Most accounts of the story suggest that it isn't until the babies are born that Alchemenian Mfittrion learn that she's pregnant by Zeus, But the late of Pseudopolodorus adds another level of intrigue. According to that version quote, when Mfiitrion arrived and saw that he was not welcomed by his wife, he inquired the cause, and when she told him that he had come the night before and slept with her, he learned from Tyresius how Zeus had enjoyed her. That version is explicit too. You know that when Zeus had sex with Alcmeni, he did so like while deceiving her into thinking that he was her husband. It's it's clear, and it's and it's just gross. Quote Zeus came by night and prolonging the night threefold, he assumed the likeness of Emfittrion and bedded with Alchemeni. He even adds that Zeus made his false Mfittrion even more convincing by telling Alcmeni like all about how he defeated the men and killed her brothers. So this take where everyone finds out Zeus's lie and where his deception is like so explicit. It isn't just fun because it's like a ninety soap opera level drama, but also because despite the fact that Infittrion is told explicitly that his wife had sex with Zeus and that like one of the children she's gonna bear is Zeus's child, their marriage seems unaffected. In fact, Alcmeni, aside from the obviously disturbing idea that Zeus coerced her into having sex with him, she remains pretty untouched by the usual divine retribution that comes with things like this. Instead, it's her son who faces Harrah's wrath and isn't that like a little like if disturbingly refreshing. Also, yeah, like you heard that right. According to a few different versions, Zeus was so like taken with Elkmini that he couldn't stand to have her for just one night. So insteady convinced Helios the literal son not to rise for three days, so that he could basically have three days worth of sex with Alcmeni in one night. No one could say Zeus isn't inventive in his fuckery. So Alcmeni is pregnant with these twins, and about two months into her pregnancy give or take, another woman becomes pregnant. Her name is Nickippi, but of course she's better known as Sthenalus's wife. And another five months after that, Zeus makes a little announcement to the rest of the gods. He sits everyone down on Mount Olympus and he tells them that, in what can only be assumed to be pointless bragging, that a child is about to be born who is not only a descendant of the famed Perseus, but who will reign over the kingdom of Mycenee. And what do you know, Harah takes note of this news. Careful, careful note. Once Zeus has given up the game to his wife, who is always looking for a reason and a way to punish him via punishing others, you know, he presumably flits off to fuck around with another mortal or nymph, leaving Harah to her planning. Or alternatively, Harah's scheming begins before Zeus even has the chance to boast about his soon to be child. Instead, in the Iliad, Egamemnon tells the story of Heracles' birth, and in his version, Harah immediately knows what Zeus has done, and it's actually she who tricks Zeus into swearing that the next child born in the Persian line will rule over the region. However it happens, though it is officially determined that the next baby born who is also a descendant of Perseus, will reign in some important way. And with this decided one way or the other, Harah jumps right into the action, moving her plan along to its next steps. This isn't her first husband fucking around, rodeo, and she calls for her daughter Ayilethia, the goddess of childbirth. Yes, I know you're probably thinking of another goddess of childbirth like Leda or Artemis, and you know, questioning me and you're not wrong. Ai Lithia, though, is the like official goddess of childbirth, as in, she doesn't just help out, you know, like the other two do, but she quite literally controls labor. Without her, nothing happens. Harrah calls upon Eilethia, and she orders her daughter to do her a favor, though is it a favor if it's also an order? Harrah tells Alethia to lengthen Alcmene's pregnancy, or to keep her in labor forever, whatever, It takes, anything to ensure that the next child born, who is a descendant of Perseus, is not also the child that her naughty husband has fathered behind her back. And so, alongside this delay of Alcmene's giving birth, Ailethia also grants Sthenalus's wife, Nickippi, a shortened pregnancy. Hers only needs to last seven months, which mathematically would put us pretty even between the two. Harah wins this one with the help by the Lithia. Harah has Alcmene's labor withheld long enough to ensure that it is Sthenalus's wife who gives birth first. He and his wife named their son Eurystheus. If that isn't already a familiar name, it's going to become pretty important. Eurystheus goes on to become the King of Myceni, or better known as the King of Tyrans. He's just as much a descendant of Perseus as the children that Alchimene is about to give birth to, but he isn't also the son of Zeus. And yet it's best not to think about what it means to be a descendant of Perseus, you know, given Perseus is also the son of Zeus. Shortly after Eurystheus is born, Alchemeni is finally visited by the goddess Ailethia and allowed to give birth to her too children. These twins, though only one of them, gets to be the child of a god. Alchemedie's twins are born, and importantly, both are seen legitimate sons of m Fittrion. It isn't clear, you know, in all the varied versions of conception, but this legitimacy is tied to the idea that Zeus deceived Alcmeni, like that he presented himself as being her husband, and that for all she knew, she was only having sex with her husband. Like it's gross over everything else. But it also means that while one of the two children born to Alchemeni, if it cles, is entirely mortal and the biological child of Mfittrion, the other, Heracles, is both the biological son of Zeus and explicitly the son of m Fittrion in all the ways that it matters. Like I said earlier, though, it also just makes me kind of fond of m Fitrion. Like in comparison to most men in these sorts of stories, he handles the whole thing pretty well. He doesn't take any issue with what happened when it comes to Alchemeni, and he raises both children as if they're his own. As far as the mortal realm is concerned, the children are just that they are the children of Alchemeni and Empytrion. But as far as Harah is concerned, one of them is a menace on whom that she is willing to devote a lifetime's worth of fe fury. Any guess which of the two children that would be. No, Okay, I will tell you it's Heracles and not just because the name Heracles just means very ironically, the glory of hara A late source Dietor Siculus explains Heracles's name by noting that actually, when he was first born, his parents just named him like Alcius or Alcaides, which is connected with his strength even as a baby. But that isn't actually something found earlier. Heracles appears to just be his name, and it's just poetic as hell that the entirety of his life will be dedicated to defeating whatever Harah throws at him, and you know, perpetually trying to escape per wrath is the core of his very existence. I never enjoy having to tell the stories where Haraah is a jealous wife, like punishing everyone except Zeus for the shit that he puts her through. But when it comes to Heracles specifically, like she's so wildly dramatic and violent and has such incredibly creative ideas for how she'll try to kill him that like, I can't even be mad at the misogyny inherent, you know, in so much of her character. She gives me Medea vibes when it comes to Heracles, the one like Jason, you know, he really didn't actually do anything to anger Harah beyond just like being born.

But she is.

She's just so creative it is hard to be bothered. And that creativity starts early while Heracles is still just a baby in his crib, you know, nestled up with his twin brother, Ificles. Even then, he gets the opportunity to defeat the first of what will become many, many, many attempts on his life by the Queen of the Gods. While Heracles is in that crib with his brother, you know, both full on newborns, Hara sends two monstrous snakes slithering up and into the crib.

Ugh.

Baby, Heracles is ready, though, He's like his half brother Hermes that way, you know, ready to rock. As a tiny baby, he manages to pull himself up well enough that he can grasp his two little newborn hands around each snake and basically strangle them to death while his mother and nurse look on. And what I can only imagine is a kind of fascinating horror. One of the sources that I'm using for this a chapter in the Oxford Handbook to Heracles, the one I mentioned at the top notes that in the sources that discuss this moment, they use the word macki, essentially making it clear that like this moment, while still a newborn, is heracles first taste of battle. Like when it comes to that word, think titanomichi amazonamichie, like it's it's the same. Here, it's just a battle between a newborn and snakes. There isn't much about Heracles's childhood or much at all about the time that he might have spent with his mother. So as much as I want, you know, to keep talking about Alchemeni, explicitly, her story kind of drops off. Like so many women in mythology, it's tied entirely to the men around her, and once they're no longer with her, she's no longer a plot point. So instead of you know more about Alchemeni, We're gonna finish the episode off with one of the more bizarre and entirely inexplicable moments from Heracles's childhood, or rather, you know, other than the whole killing snakes as a baby in a crib moment, the only other anecdote that we have about him while he is a baby, and that is the time that Harah breastfed him. Why would she do that? You might be asking, or you certainly should be, But the answer is like, there is no answer, But what I can tell you is that it is definitely always weird. One source says that Hermes brought the baby Heracles to Hara while she was sleeping and just like had him latch on to her, which again weird and like why. Another says that ALCMENI actually like exposed Heracles out of fear of Hara, and that Athena and Hara found him. Athena, you know, who of course is like guardian of heroes in so many cases, then asks Harah to nurse him, you know, to make him big and strong. But while like, he's already too big and strong, and he hurts her with how hard he tries to nurse from her. In both of these cases, the moment itself results in Harah like pulling away from the baby with such force that her milk's spatters across the sky to make the milky way. So that's a vaguely nice result, maybe I suppose these authors though they also like to say that, you know, drinking Hara's milk is what made Heracles immortal, you know, different from those other heroes. Now all the sources that explicitly relate Heracles is nursing from Hara come from like quite late in the mythological sources. There isn't any explicit example of this from earlier than like say, first century BCE maybe, but there is a moment in the Iliad which some argue could be referencing that moment. It says that there was a time that Heracles attacked Hara, and since these moments of him nursing at her breast like violently are you know, about the only other references we have to anything like an attack, It's sometimes argued that maybe it's referencing an instance of this. Regardless, Heracles, you know, grows up with two strong women in his life, his mother Elchemenie, who stood up for herself and was generally interesting, and Harah, who hates him so much but is ridiculously creative about it and maybe nursed him in a weird and painful way that gave us a galaxy Nerds ares Nerds, thank you for listening. I'm actually really excited that I got to devote this whole episode to alchemedi you know, even if we had to talk an awful lot about the men around her. And it's funny because like researching it, I found like it was a really good that I thought that I found a lot basically, and then reading it out again, I'm like, it's so piecemeal because even when it revolves around a hero like Heracles, if I try to focus not on Heracles but on a woman, you know, it it just it's not the same as much as I wanted to be. We're gonna do it anyway, because these Alchimenie deserves the best, you know. It's obviously like a big concern of mind focusing on the stories of women, but specifically, like I really trying to eventually put out something a little more like official when it comes to these women. And this was great inspiration, even if it was also frustrating. But Alchemenie deserves the world Heracles. Eh. But this will be the start of a couple of episodes on Heracles before we shift to a new topic. I'm gonna return to him, you know, every once in a while over the next few months, while revisiting his famous labors, because I want to, and also, you know, it's been like six years. Those were really really poorly researched back in the day and instead, I'm gonna make that one hundred and fifty dollars book worth the money I paid for it. But also, you know, when it comes to lengthy sources that I've yet to cover in excessive detail, we are really getting down to just what's left is like mostly plays, and I fucking love covering plays on the show, but I also don't want to inundate you guys with only plays all the time. So before we get to Spooky season and Seneca's tragedy about the man who fed his son to the gods while a fury looked on, We're gonna just go into the nitty gritty of the absolute, hands down most impressive and most famous hero of ancient Greece, Hairrah. Fucking please, but I'm so thrilled you know that I got to start with this episode about his mother, ALCHEMENI it just she deserves the best treatment I could give her. And before I leave all of you magnificent listeners with one of your own beautiful five star reviews of my show, I want to let you know that if you're listening on Spotify, I'm trying out a new thing. I'm gonna be giving you all questions or polls at the end of episodes as often as I can remember to do them, or like have a good question to ask, It'll pop up on Spotify and I would love to hear your answers or get your votes. Your answers, if they're appropriate and not ask Holary will be published on Spotify under the episode. So it's a pretty cool new function and I'm kind of excited to see how I can use it to connect with you all a bit more, but also have your comments listed on the episodes. It's kind of fun, so you know, interact with it please all right. As always, here is one of your fucking wonderful reviews, the things that make my days so much better, particularly when I'm feeling like an anxious mass who can't stop leaving that one day I'll be forced to stop doing this podcast and my life will blow up in my face, and like, those days happen more than I'd like, but your reviews save me, so thank you. This lovely and so kind review comes from a user called abby g five in my own Canada. Incredibly informative and comedic. This is my favorite podcast and I recommend it so much that all my friends are sick of hearing me talk about it. I've been listening for three years and I love seeing how lives narrative and research style has progressed, and how she continues to incorporate present day issues into the myths. I adore. Her feminist perspective and her incredible style of storytelling. Increased my love for Greek mythology tenfold and even led to me including it as a minor in my university studies. Congratulations on six years Live, and I can't wait to continue listening for many more years to come. Thank you when I get people like doing classics degrees. This is fucking cool. Seriously, thank you all for your kind reviews. They lay honestly me in the world to me. Let's Talk about MIT's Baby is written and produced by me Live. Albert MICHAELA. Smith is the Hermes to my Olympians, my assistant producer. The podcast is hosted and monetized by iHeartMedia. Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Help me continue bringing you the world of Greek mythology and the Ancient Mediterranean. By becoming a patron, we get bonus episodes and more. Visit patreon dot com slash mits Baby, or click the link in this episode's description. I am live and I love this shit.