Everyone remembers the rock in the blanket. Nobody asks about the five children before it.Rhea, mother of the Olympians, answers for the years her husband swallowed their children one by one, the plan that finally saved her youngest, and the stone she wrapped for Kronos. She claims she saved Poseidon too. Then her eldest daughter Hestia, the first child swallowed and the last one out, calls in to testify.Did Rhea save her son, or hand him the same knife her mother handed Kronos?ChaptersCold openRhea takes the chairBorn in the darkFive swallowed, and the stonePoseidon and the foalHestia calls inHer mother's patternRhea in the modern worldRapid-fireThe verdictWhat the myths actually say- "The stone was my idea." The plan came from her parents, Earth and Sky; read one way, Hesiod has Gaia hand Kronos the stone. Apollodorus gives it to Rhea (Theogony 468–491; Apollodorus 1.1.7).- "I saved Poseidon too." Hesiod and Apollodorus say Poseidon was swallowed; the foal swapped for him is a local Arcadian story (Theogony 453–458; Pausanias 8.8.2).- "I only wanted my baby safe." She also asked that retribution overtake Kronos (Theogony 468–473).- "My parents only helped me." They first warned Kronos of the prophecy (Theogony 463–465).- "I raised him." Nymphs, the goat Amalthea and the Kouretes raised Zeus on Crete (Theogony 479–484; Apollodorus 1.1.6–7).- Who is the eldest? Hesiod makes Hestia the first-born; Homer gives Hera the claim (Theogony 453–454; Iliad 4.59–61).Sources: Hesiod (Theogony), Homer (Iliad), Homeric Hymns (to Aphrodite, 24 and 29), Callimachus (Hymn to Zeus), Apollodorus (Library), Pausanias, Livy.Cast: Julian H. Cross · Rhea · Call-in: HestiaContent note: children swallowed by their father, and the mutilation of Ouranos (named once), never graphic.Olympus Unfiltered is a dramatized work of fiction based on ancient Greek myths. All voices are AI-generated. Powered by Athena's Archive.athenasarchive.com

The god nobody wants to meet came to correct the record: he never lied to you.

Hades, king of the dead, answers for the day his brothers divided the world, the rules of his house, the visitors who tried to cheat it, and the girl he took from a meadow. Julian keeps score of his lies. Then Persephone calls in, and tells her own story.

Did Hades get the worst kingdom, or the only honest one?

Chapters
The only god who never lied
The one downstairs
Inside a king
The helmet
The lots
The rules of the house
Minthe, Leuce and the arrow
Persephone
Persephone calls in
Hades in the modern world
Rapid-fire
The verdict

What the myths actually say

• "I never lied." He seated Theseus and Pirithous on the Chair of Forgetfulness "on the pretence" of a feast, and gave Persephone the pomegranate seed "secretly" (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.24; Homeric Hymn to Demeter 371–374).
• "I chose the underworld." It was a draw of lots (Iliad 15.187–193).
• "Her father agreed." True: Zeus gave her, without asking her or her mother (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 1–21; Hesiod, Theogony 913–914).
• "I never bend the rules." He let Orpheus take Eurydice, on one condition (Virgil, Georgics 4; Ovid, Metamorphoses 10).
• "Nobody wounds the king of the dead." Heracles shot him at Pylos (Iliad 5.395–402).
• "The seed was my own choice." Two versions: the Hymn says Hades gave it secretly; Ovid says she ate seven seeds herself (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 371–372; Ovid, Metamorphoses 5).

Sources: Homer (Iliad, Odyssey), Hesiod (Theogony), Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Theognis, Plato (Cratylus), Virgil (Georgics), Ovid (Metamorphoses), Apollodorus (Library), Strabo, Oppian, Pausanias, Servius.

Cast: Julian H. Cross · Hades · Call-in: Persephone

Content note: abduction, death and famine, named honestly and never graphically.

Olympus Unfiltered is a dramatized work of fiction based on ancient Greek myths. All voices are AI-generated. Powered by Athena's Archive.
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Zeus swallowed his first wife. Tonight, the three women who knew her testify.

Metis, the wisest mind among gods and mortals, freed the Olympians without a drop of blood, and was swallowed by the god she helped crown. Her mother Tethys, her aunt Rhea and her daughter Athena tell her story, and each of them has something to hide. Then Zeus calls in.

Who was Metis before she was swallowed, and is she still in there?

Chapters
No mother gave me birth
Three witnesses, one woman missing
Tethys: the cleverest of three thousand
Rhea: the drug that freed the gods
The prophecy and the swallowing
Athena: born from her father's head
Zeus calls in
Rapid-fire
(The verdict

What the myths actually say

• "Ocean's house took no side." Styx went to Zeus first, "through the wit of her dear father," and Metis made the drug (Hesiod, Theogony 383–403; Apollodorus 1.2.1).
• "She came to him willingly." She turned into many shapes to escape him (Apollodorus 1.3.6).
• "She is with me, one counsel." He deceived her with words and swallowed her so no other god would be king (Theogony 888–900).
• "No mother gave me birth." Hesiod calls Metis "Athena's mother" (Hesiod, fragment 343).
• "She never moved against her father." Athena joined Hera and Poseidon in the plot to bind Zeus (Iliad 1.396–406).
• "The drug was Metis's." Apollodorus says so; Hesiod credits Gaia (Apollodorus 1.2.1; Theogony 492–497).

Sources: Hesiod (Theogony, fragments), Homer (Iliad, Odyssey), Homeric Hymn 28, Pindar (Olympian 7), Aeschylus (Eumenides), Apollodorus (Library), Ovid (Metamorphoses), Hyginus (Astronomica).

Cast: Julian H. Cross · Tethys · Rhea · Athena · Call-in: Zeus

Content note: coerced marriage, the swallowing of a wife and children, a matricide trial and assault, named honestly and never graphically.

Olympus Unfiltered is a dramatized work of fiction based on ancient Greek myths. All voices are AI-generated. Powered by Athena's Archive.
athenasarchive.com

He called in to Zeus's episode and the line went dead. This time he came in person.

Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire for humanity, answers for the side he chose in the war on the Titans, the trick at Mekone, the fire in a fennel stalk, and the secret that could have brought Zeus down. Then Pandora calls in to collect on the price of fire.

Was Prometheus humanity's friend, or Zeus's rival using humanity as the weapon?

Chapters
I didn't lose
The caller takes the chair
Forethought and Afterthought
Switching sides
Mekone
Fire
Pandora calls in
The rock, Io and the secret
Prometheus in the modern world
Rapid-fire
The verdict

What the myths actually say

• "I never betrayed my kin." He went over to Zeus, and by his counsel Kronos was sent to Tartarus (Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 199–223).
• "Zeus fell for the trick at Mekone." Hesiod says Zeus saw through it and chose the bones anyway (Theogony 550–552).
• "Pandora had nothing to do with me." She was made "as the price of fire" (Theogony 570; Works and Days 57–58).
• "I never traded the secret." In Hyginus, he warns Zeus about Thetis in exchange for his release (Fabulae 54).
• "Heracles freed me, nothing more." Chiron gave up his immortality in his place (Apollodorus 2.5.4, 2.5.11).
• "A curious woman opened a box." It was a jar, and Hesiod gives no motive (Works and Days 90–105).

Sources: Hesiod (Theogony, Works and Days), Aeschylus (Prometheus Bound), Pindar (Isthmian 8), Apollodorus (Library), Hyginus (Fabulae), Ovid (Metamorphoses), Pausanias.

Cast: Julian H. Cross · Prometheus · Call-in: Pandora

Content note: torture and war, named honestly and never graphically.

Olympus Unfiltered is a dramatized work of fiction based on ancient Greek myths. All voices are AI-generated. Powered by Athena's Archive.
athenasarchive.com

Zeus told us not to believe a word she says about the cuckoo. Hera came anyway.

The most famous "jealous wife" in mythology answers for her side of the story: how the marriage really began, the morning the gods tried to chain Zeus, the son she threw from Olympus, and why her punishments always fell on the women and children and never on her husband.

Is Hera Zeus's victim, or his enforcer?

Chapters
The cuckoo
Hera takes the chair
The girl sent to the edge of the world
How the marriage began
The revolt and the chains
Hephaestus
The others
Sarpedon
Hera in the modern world
Rapid-fire
The verdict

What the myths actually say

• "I chose him freely." Zeus came to her disguised as a cuckoo (Pausanias 2.17.4).
• "The chains were pure tyranny." Homer says it was for the storm she raised against Heracles (Iliad 15.18–30).
• "Hephaestus fell." Hephaestus says his mother threw him out because he was lame (Iliad 18.395–405).
• "I never touched Semele." Disguised as her nurse, she led Semele to ask for Zeus in full glory (Apollodorus 3.4.3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 3).
• "The madness was his own." Hera drove Heracles mad (Apollodorus 2.4.12; Euripides, Heracles).

Sources: Homer (Iliad), Hesiod (Theogony), Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Euripides (Heracles), Apollodorus (Library), Ovid (Metamorphoses), Pausanias, Apollonius (Argonautica), Diodorus Siculus.

Cast: Julian H. Cross · Hera

Content note: domestic violence, child abandonment and the killing of children, named honestly and never graphically.

Olympus Unfiltered is a dramatized work of fiction based on ancient Greek myths. All voices are AI-generated. Powered by Athena's Archive.
athenasarchive.com

The king of the gods sat down for an interview. He did not expect the questions.

Zeus answers for the father who ate his children, the war on the Titans, Prometheus and the fire, the wife he swallowed, the women in his stories, and the son he could not save. He boasts, he dodges, he threatens, and at one point he gets up to leave. Then Prometheus calls in.

Did the boy who escaped a devouring father become one?

Chapters
Zeus walks into the studio
The boy hidden from his father
The war on Kronos
Prometheus and the fire
Prometheus calls in
The wife he swallowed
The women
Sarpedon, the son he couldn't save
(Rapid-fire
The verdict

What the myths actually say

• "I saved my siblings alone." Rhea hid him and tricked Kronos with a stone; Gaia's plan (Hesiod) or a drug from Metis (Apollodorus) made Kronos bring them back.
• "Prometheus was just a thief." The quarrel began when Zeus withheld fire; Prometheus stole it back for humans (Hesiod, Theogony).
• "Metis and I merged." He swallowed her while she was pregnant to prevent the birth of a son (Hesiod, Theogony).
• "They were honored." Many ancient accounts describe deception, abduction or force (Moschus, Ovid, Apollodorus).

Sources: Hesiod (Theogony), Homer (Iliad), the Homeric Hymns, Aeschylus (Prometheus Bound), Pindar (Isthmian 8), Apollodorus (Library), Ovid (Metamorphoses), Moschus (Europa).

Cast: Julian H. Cross · Zeus · Call-in: Prometheus

Content note: violence and abduction, named honestly and never graphically.

Olympus Unfiltered is a dramatized work of fiction based on ancient Greek myths. All voices are AI-generated. Powered by Athena's Archive.
athenasarchive.com